At 03:59 AM 7/12/2010, you wrote:
>Personally I think on the hand of VOIP and Dstar I think the add >more capabilities to ham radio do I think analog will be replaced by >digital no now it might take away some of the experimental band set >by arrl which is where it should be at this early stage of dstar >because it is still experimental at this point in time and please >correct me if I am wrong because I am still kinda new to dstar. >Aaron SillerN5AMS I don't quite see it like that. Just as SSB, or even AM never replaced CW, digital will never replace analog. In true ham radio tradition, the old and the new will continue to operate alongside each other. The proportionate use of each will change over time, but we will still see FM for a _very_ long time, especially where it's perceived to have advantages over digital. Even AM, which was well and truly beaten by SSB in performance has not disappeared totally from our bands. There are still many people who like to turn their radios to the AM position, or fire up old surplus HF AM gear. The beauty of ham radio is we never(1) have to throw out a mode, we can keep old modes alive. (1) with the exception of spark gap Morse, which can't be made legal in the modern environment, due to its extreme interference potential. I see FM sticking around indefinitely. How much FM will remain into the future will simply depend on the relative benefits hams see between FM and D-STAR or whatever else comes along. 73 de VK3JED / VK3IRL http://vkradio.com
