Wow! Thanks to the answers in this thread I am finally starting to understand D-Star!
So, if I have this straight, with this callsign routed network I can call my buddy wherever he is. Let's say he's on a trip and happens to be driving through Atlanta. Now, IF he talks on the Atlanta repeater so it knows he's there, then IF I master all the callsign programming in my radio, I can call him and the network might find him, assuming he hasn't driven out of the coverage area of the Atlanta repeater by the time the network propogates his whereabouts back to the gateway on my local repeater which could be some unspecified number of minutes or hours. Cool. And two D-Star repeaters can be linked with Icom software except when they can't. Or maybe they can be linked with D-Plus, except when they can't. And maybe end users can control the linking or maybe only the admins can, and maybe a D-Star repeater can be connected to some unspecified number of other D-Star repeaters through a reflector - or maybe not. So I get it. It's all about the adventure! Sort of like calling CQ. You're never quite sure if you'll talk to anybody. With this marvelous new addition to the range of amateur radio modes we're sure to attract hoards of new young operators. After all, they have to be getting bored with their computers and cellphones. All of that technology is too easy. You text your buddy and he gets the message instantly no matter where he is. Same for a phone call. Where's the fun in that? No uncertainty. No adventure! ;)
