All I can say is good work Ed Tom
---- "Woodrick wrote: > You might want to get your numbers straight. > > There are over 12,000 users registered worldwide. The system hears over 1800 > users transmit every day. > > There are over 500 repeaters worldwide and I believe that slightly over half > of that is in the US. > > The northeastern corridor has been one of the slowest to adopt D-STAR, but > has increased dramatically since Dayton last year. > > I have to take ask when you say that none of the 4 D-STAR repeaters near you > work, do you mean that you can't reach them? From what I can see W3AGB is > nearest to you at 37 miles, so that's pretty far away. > > And of the 663,000 US Amateurs that you refer to, don't think that they all > are active, don't think that they are all on VHF/UHF, the number is much, > much less. > > Amateur Radio has many facets, voice, CW, digital, satellite, EME, and many > more. D-STAR is probably one of the cheapest, except for FM, modes of > operation in Amateur Radio. Want to talk about money pits? Try looking at the > cost of a decent satellite station. Want to make D-STAR look free, look at > the cost of some of the big EME stations. We're talking 6 to 7 digits worth > of radios and antennas. > > Dependent on your viewpoint, Amateur Radio in general is a money pit. > > But if you are an individual that likes to stay abreast of new technologies. > If you like to try new things. If you like to talk to people around the > world, then D-STAR is actually a quite respectable part of Amateur Radio and > since all D-STAR radios ALSO do FM, it's actually one of the cheapest new, > advanced modes that exist. > > (FYI, under no stretch of anyone's imagination should packet and APRS be > considered new technology. There are college graduates that were born after > packet was created!) > > And finally "And anything that seems to divide the Hams can't be good. Can > it?" ROTFLMAO! > Put 5 hams in a room, ask a question, you'll usually get 7 different answers! > Hams make the Republicans and Democrats seem united! > > Ed WA4YIH > > From: dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com [mailto:dstar_digi...@yahoogroups.com] On > Behalf Of milkman > Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2010 7:49 PM > To: dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com > Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] I Want To Know??? > > > > I'm new to this group and would like to start off first saying Hello to > everyone here. Now what I don't understand is this. It seems to me that > D-Star could just be a huge money pit at this time. As I look around my state > we have 4 D-Star repeaters total. Out of over 230 repeaters. And none of the > D-Star work. What I'd like to know is. If there are 660,000 Ham in the US. > And less than 3000 on D-Star. How long is it before the other 663,000 catch > on to D-Star. And is it worth the effort? And wait for this format get up and > running? And if D-Star is so great. why hasn't Kenwood & Yaesu joined in? > Because just reading post in this group. And looking at our D-Star repeaters > in MD. Just makes me wonder if I could be throwing good money after bad? And > anything that seems to divide the Hams can't be good. Can it? >
