Change is very difficult for many individuals in all aspects of their life, including amateur radio. The resistance to change in our hobby is no different than when AM replaced spark, SSB replaced AM on the HF bands, FM replaced AM on the 2-meter band, repeaters replaced simples on VHF/UHF, new digital modes such as packet replacing RTTY, and now D-Star and P25 are replacing analog repeaters.
The analog FMers have also had change issues with CTCSS and Digital Squelch. Many of the analog repeater systems have have seen their activity peek in years gone by as cellular technology and the internet have gained. While most of the old technology survives (except for spark) the introduction of the new technology, over time the new has the tendency to replace the old and sometime in the future the new will also become the old. D-Star activity is still on the upward curve, and I would guess it will continue that way for a decade or two before something new comes along. --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, "davidscott_345" <dscott...@...> wrote: > > I have listened to a couple of conversations on analog 2 meter repeaters here > in Columbus, Ohio. The gist of the conversations seem to be we don't want > d-star because they will lose their analog systems. > > After hearing this I checked the the 2007-2008 repeater directory. Taking > into account machines I knew were no longer on the air I counted 16 2 meter > machines and 22 440 Mhz machines in operation. > > There are two d-star systems in Columbus one went up on a new frequency pairs > on 2m and 440. The other went up on existing 2m and 440 repeater pairs. I > see that as a net loss to the analog folks as 1 2m and 1 440 pair. > > When I scan the local analog repeaters only a couple are used a lot. There > are many that don't have any traffic on them for hours at a time. So what do > they feel they are losing? > > I understand if it is not their cup of tea. I don't feel any hostility to CW > ops or packet because I don't use those modes so why should they feel > threatened by dstar. > > David Scott N8XYF >
