I am glad to see and hear your opinion on the subject but a lot of your comments are comparing apples to oranges.
Not really... Yaesu has marketed a digital mod to amateur radio, that is different. While it is different, it is amateur radio.
I look at amateur radio from an auxcom view, in what we do to support our provincial served agency.
So first a few cold hard facts:
Ok
1.) Yes, Yaesu is late to the digital game and the roll out has been a little slow. However, Yaesu has been listening to what amateurs have been telling them and reporting issues to them to correct based on functionality and feature set.
Sure, I can't argue with that.
2.) Do they have RF linking up and running right now? No
That is a big issue. So really, if you can not bring
INTERNET to a site you have a standalone digital repeater. Fine, but your footprint radius is going to be, realistically, less than 150Km on VHF and less on UHF.
Do they have linking in place utilizing another method? Yes Wires X.
See this is what I am getting at. Fusion repeaters can link digitally,
BUT each site needs a separate Internet connection. That is where I lose interest in Fusion. With both DMR, DStar, NXDN I can create a private,
NON Internet connected network and have a functional wide area all digital network. While linking via the Internet may be fine for some folks, it is
NOT reliable method to link. Sure it works good when it's there, but when disaster strikes will it still be there? That's a crap shoot.
Are there other methods of linking? Yes, but they are homebrew. (Also remember if you want to connect into the DMR-MARC you need a Motorola repeater and C-Bridge).
Ahh see that's where things get interesting.
I can take, 16, I believe, TRBO repeaters, plunk them all onto a private IP network. A private network that does not have any outside Internet connection, and have a functional wide area network. Only if I want to be a part of DMR a-MARC do I need a C-Bridge, and only if I want more than 16 repeaters do I need a C-Bridge.
However, with repeaters that have these features and system design a large network of digital RF linking for a system is being planned like a hub and spoke design.
With the spokes being the public Internet?
3.) The migration path Yaesu has made makes it so no single group has to make a decision to be strictly digital or analog. This is why they make the repeaters mixed mode which is also what DMR, NXDN/IDAs, and P25 do also.
There are so many unused analogue repeater where I live, I see little point in adding a mixed mode repeater. That is just me. My local DMR a machine is digital only. There was no migration plan, we wanted a DMR a repeater and saw little point in making it mixed mode, mostly because the repeater is co located with 3 other analogue repeaters, all with the same footprint.
Yes, when using digital it prohibits analog...oh wait it does not. Fusion does allow for mixed (AMS) in and fixed out.
So for those with digital radios that want to talk to folks with analogue radios, it allows them to transmit to the repeater digital, but comes out analogue... K... Not seeing the benefit of that.
For some, especially in my club and ARES/RACES group this help eliminates the segregation that going digital creates.
I guess. Locally we found that most of the folks that were doing the Auxcom thing adopted DMR. We did not replace an analogue repeater with a DMR repeater, we added a new repeater.
But what is the purpose to do digital then? Well the purpose can be to play with it, get people comfortable, and transition on the terms they want instead of "today at noon..."
See we said "at noon we are turning on our DMR a repeater.. Nobody needed to panic, we did not take an analogue repeater off the air to put a DMR repeater on the air.
4.) Finally, no one has hit the nail on the head for digital right out of the box in any format. If they did only one digital format would exist. It is nice to have another sigital format for the amateur radio world that is made by an amateur radio company.
See that is were I think you are wrong. I think there is room for more than one digital format.
By local club and ARES/RACES had been against digital largely due to the fact that it was all commercial gear. It was there opinion and I respect that with them.
ahh we went DMR a to take advantage of a few things, and now are making use of 2 tone feature on LMR radios with a different analogue repeater to alert our Auxcom members.
As for D-Star when buying Icom infrastructure it is only D-Star capable with no analog compunded with the fact that equipment pricing was higher with a pretty good learning curve. Thus, when Fusion came along it was a good fit for us.
Glad it is the right fit for you.
Let me explain the reality of our provincial served agency of my auxcom group.
In our major flooding in 2012, we were talking to stations , in effected areas, that were 282, 301, 359, 434, and 438Km away from our Provincial EOC. Our net controller was 146km away. While one effected area we were able to use DStar, due to a repeater that provided coverage from outside the affected zone, we had another that started out on DStar, but lost their Internet connection part way through and we had to install a final mile analogue link. Majority of our communications were done using a provincial analogue repeater network.
We, locally, see the value in digital modes, but we also see the absolute
requirement that any linked digital repeaters NOT need a public Internet connection to maintain that linked system
with in our province.
I am glad that local clubs and organizations have had the chance to take advantage of the Yaesu promotion. Yes Yaesu does make you sign paperwork (do not sell for a year, blah blah blah). However, I challenge anyone to show me where it says that the repeater MUST run in digital or digital capable. It does not it just says that it must better amateur radio. Therefore, I encourage groups and clubs to gather funds for purchase of a repeater for that price. Then if you want to run Fusion great, but I know it is not everyones cup of tea.
I never said that Yaesu was making clubs run it in digital, all I said was that I know of clubs that have no intent to use them for Fusion, but to replace aging repeaters.
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