Yawn
Yaesu bucking the enormous trend of DStar is a mistake. Twice the bandwidth and yet another digital format. The difference is that DStar was designed by hams for hams. Yaesu is something they designed for the commercial market that is being adapted for hams. The two do not mix.
Remember when we developed IRLP and Echolink? Well that was not good enough for Yaesu. They went off and had to create THEIR own application called Wires. Those stupid Wires buttons are on every Yaesu radio and yet after 10+ years, almost no one uses Wires. Looking at the ARRL recent repeater directly and it shows 19 Wires enabled repeaters in the U.S. Another Yaesu flop.
DStar has over 1000 repeaters and thousands of users all across the world. So if you are a ham and want to actually talk to someone using digital, then buy DStar. If you want to have an expensive radio with digital that you get to use on FM all the time, then waste your money on Yaesu.
DStar, by hams for hams. Yaesu's digital, by commercial interests for commercial interest, but for hams as an afterthought.
When Kenwood comes out with something, will it be yet another digital method? That way they can claim their technology is the latest and therefore better. Frankly this is all nuts.
The one good thing I think this will do, is drive down the pricing of digital radios. Yaesu will price them high. Icom could respond by defending the market and dropping price. Hams have decision, a lower cost Icom with DStar and people to communicate with, or; a more expensive Yaesu radio with no one to talk to.
So I am looking forward to Yaesu's intro into the market. The DStar users should benefit.
JMHO
