[aprssig] OT: Yaesu to release digital amateur radio gear

[mwbesemer at cox.net]

DSTAR down here (South of Macon, GA) is pretty dismal.  Bought and sold 
a DSTAR mobile, HT and Hot Spot within a few months.  GA-DSTAR is 
supposed to be putting up repeaters on all the GA Public Television 
sites, but they're way behind for a variety of reasons AND the sites are 
generally located in the middle of nowhere.

2 meter FM is hopping here.  We're still putting up new machines and 
getting paper repeaters recoordinated so we can use them; I've been 
involved with 4 2-meter repeater recoordinations, 1 440 MHz 
recoordination and 1 new 440 pair.

BUT, we're not putting them up at somebody's house - they're going into 
EOCs and hospitals where they stand a chance of surviving a disaster so 
they will be available when we need them - AND will have power.  Some 
are pretty quiet, but we try to use all of them for nets, etc. so they 
stay active and we know if there are problems.  On many of them, you 
can't get a word in edgeways - which is why it's nice to have some other 
machines to retreat to.

I could be wrong, but I don't see DSTAR ever taking over.  Maybe 
something will replace FM eventually, but it's gonna be a while and I 
think it'll be something else.  In the meantime, I can gin up a 2-meter 
FM machine and have it on the air in an afternoon, using only the spare 
parts I have on hand - should the need ever arise.  DSTAR ain't as easy.

Now, back to our regularly scheduled APRS discussion... I hope.

73,

Mike
WM4B


On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Amateur Radio WB8NUT wrote:

> From my travels around the midwest and the southeast, most of the 
> voice activity is on D-Star. Almost impossible to get a conversation 
> on FM repeaters in many cities. Not sure why people at Dayton are 
> buying so many FM handhelds. What do they do with them if they are not 
> going to talk? Why have a ham license if they are not going to talk? 
> Frankly I don't understand it.
>
> Then again, with D-Star and the repeater interconnects, I can get a 
> conversation with someone from just about anywhere in the world about 
> any time of day.
>
> Duffy
> www.wb8nut.com
>
> On 1/9/12 2:50 PM, Jason KG4WSV wrote:
>> On Mon, Jan 9, 2012 at 1:39 PM, 
>> joe at dellabarba.com<joe at dellabarba.com>  wrote:
>>> AFAIK voice repeaters are more likely to die of loneliness than 
>>> overuse.
>> What if it was a voice repeater that only worked with 20% of the
>> radios on the air?  More or less likely to die of loneliness?
>>
>> -Jason
>> kg4wsv
>>
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