My observations on NXDN on the amateur bands in northern New Jersey:There is no activity other then myself.I have posted the frequency 145.550 Ran 0. I listen to it all the time and have never had anyone call me at anytime. Great that it may sounds better than D-Star or P-25.Never had a QSO on P-25 in the Tri-State area either.The only P-25 QSO'S that I have ever had were with N3ITA on his really nice P-25 system in Frederic Maryland. The thing is that when you consider how many hams are active on P-25,DMR/TRBO -Vs D-Star is hundreds vs thousands,I would willingly put up half the cost of anIDAS/NXDN repeater in my area ,but there is no interest in it. D-Star is the way to go as far as amateur digital communications goes as of now.I hope that in the future things will change.IDAS/NXDN is really a great digital system.As for now,I will continue to promote D-Star as the way to go for amateur digital. Please prove me wrong.
Bill
Walmart is the most crowded store around and has the most shoppers and most sales but it's not the shopping experience for everyone.
Likewise D-star has the most users in the ham band but it's not the mode for everyone either.
DMR and NXDN and P25 are used in commercial LMR and have yet to gain popularity in the ham band in part because, well, you can't run into every ham store and buy one of those radios. There's not all that many of them on the used market yet because they're so new. (except p25) and up until very recently, if you went to a dealer to buy a new radio, it would cost an arm and a leg. The prices have come down.
Plus, they're still in the embryo stages of adaptation to the ham bands in most places. You'll have to make the investment to put up a repeater and wait and wait and wait some more.
In my city of 6 million people, there's about 10-12 or so of us combined that use NXDN, p25 and DMR for about 2 or 3 repeater systems. They definitely have their merits, they are definitely better than analog. But it's not as easy of a sell to people who just aren't into the technology and have no desire, like some of us, to have a commercial LMR radio.
To someone who wants to reliably make a quick "hi & bye" contact, exchange weather conditions and so on during drive time, D-star is definitely the mode however. I had a d-star radio and didn't feel like the performance was up to par with the others and it was very complicated to use in my opinion.
