Update Me on D-STAR

[SmoothLC]

A question that I'm hoping someone might answer or get some feedback on. A friend of mine recently purchased an Icom ID-52A and is getting pretty excited about D-STAR. He's also got a couple Icom mobile units - one for his truck and another for his office - all within the last year or so. A few years back I got a Kenwood TM-D710G for my rig, primarily b/c it was analog (screen doesn't freeze over at 20 below) and the D-STAR infrastructure around the state (UT) and nearby states wasn't very predominate. My friend does a lot of trail riding on two wheels. Can anyone update me on how prevalent D-STAR is and your experience with it? TIA

 

[wirenut]

I have no experience with it. I do keep up with "local" repeaters and VHF/UHF around VA and WV. There is very little DSTAR infrastructure here. I can only think of maybe 2 repeaters in about 100 mile radius of my house which is my regular area of travel. This includes western VA and eastern WV. By far the more prevalent digital mode around here is Yaesu Fusion but I think that's mostly because they were practically giving the repeaters away. There are lots of repeaters that are capable of Fusion traffic and had some when first installed. Now, most of them only get used in analog.
There was a guy who had DSTAR rigs for he and his wife who is also a ham. They had the bluetooth board in them so they could connect with their phones. They could send text messages between their phones thru the DSTAR radios that were on simplex.

 

[DaveInDenver]

There's 29 D-STAR repeaters in Utah out of 352 total listed in the repeaterbook database.

Compare that to Yaesu Fusion (19) and DMR (12). So there's some infrastructure you could use.

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I have a DMR radio personally since that's more prevalent in Colorado (51 of 404 total listed) compared to D-STAR (17). Fusion has 22 repeaters listed in CO.

The problem with all the digital modes is the splintering. Each digital type can't talk to the other directly or through a regular repeater. The RPi hot spots can translate most of the digital modes to IP, which you can then link via the Internet so Brandmeister repeaters could in theory cross you over.

But needing to have cell coverage or set up a local node digital repeater to do that isn't convenient in the backcountry or if you don't have a Brandmeister-connected repeater available for your chosen digital type. IOW you have a D-STAR radio the local repeater has to be D-STAR for you even though all the other people on the talkground can connect to their local repeater or hot spot however they want.

So it comes down to still needing analog FM (which is all your TM-D710 can do anyway) as a fall-back. DMR has some following here in Colorado because the EMCOMM groups tinker with it and so there's really good regional linked coverage with their repeaters.

if you want to stick a toe in the waters of digital going D-STAR is fine if you have someone you want to talk to. Kenwood did put D-STAR in the TH-D74 handheld but that's the only non-Icom I think to do it.

At this point it seems System Fusion is the fastest growing option in ham although DMR and NXDN (Kenwood commercial) and P25 are out there, too, because of surplus gear mostly and that the Chinese brands are making DMR radios, e.g. priced attractively for we cheap hams.

 

[SmoothLC]

Thanks @wirenut and @DaveInDenver! Thus my predicament. My friend is the only person I know that is totally in on D-Star, but it's hard to consider moving to it only for that reason. Although the TH-74a did have that capability, I'm wondering if Kenwood will come out with new h/t's and mobile rigs with it this year. Both the 74a and the D710G are discontinued right now.

 

[DaveInDenver]

Thanks @wirenut and @DaveInDenver! Thus my predicament. My friend is the only person I know that is totally in on D-Star, but it's hard to consider moving to it only for that reason. Although the TH-74a did have that capability, I'm wondering if Kenwood will come out with new h/t's and mobile rigs with it this year. Both the 74a and the D710G are discontinued right now.

There's the ever present rumor Kenwood is exiting the amateur radio market. There's no definite reason to believe it since they still advertise monthly in QRZ so it's possible they're just focused on fulfilling other contracts with the supplies they can actually get.

Yaesu is in the ham market for the long haul since that's all they do post Motorola/Vertex spin-off. Icom seems dedicated to ham radio as well. So if you were going to make a jump to an Icom for D-STAR to experiment you wouldn't be orphaned any time soon. And of course the radio can always fall back to analog FM.

I personally wouldn't sell any Kenwood radios I owned though. Replacing them is hit-or-miss and Kenwood is good about supporting them at least.

 

[SmoothLC]

Ya, I read an article or two over on QRZ about Kenwood today. My bet though is that they are planning on launching at least a new H/T and a new mobile this year. The question I have is though, will they contain D-D-STAR like the discontinued 74a.

 

[kidphc]

Ya, I read an article or two over on QRZ about Kenwood today. My bet though is that they are planning on launching at least a new H/T and a new mobile this year. The question I have is though, will they contain D-D-STAR like the discontinued 74a.

I would imagine they would. They put it in the ICOM 705a. I wish there was a mobile version of the 74a. I think I would throw my FTM400 in the classifieds if they had something like that.

Imagine a 50w dual band mobile radio with APRS (fully accessible TNC), repeater database that was DSTAR capable and a modern UI that would allow SMSGate or Winlink through the detachable head that didn't have you doing t9. My dream mobile rig.

 

[DaveInDenver]

I've said for a long time I'd be first in line for a TM-D710 that could do DMR.