D-STAR on x36

[Glockorola]

D-STAR has been rapidly growing in popularity in the past few years, especially with the simple to use and program fourth generation Icom models, such as the ID-51 hand held, and now the IC-7100 HF/VHF/UHF mobile with its huge touch screen. Icom recently temporarily cut the price of its D-STAR infrastructure in half, to stimulate new D-STAR repeaters going into service.

UPMan, I'm wondering if there is any hope that the x36 will eventually incorporate firmware upgrades and/or model variants to accommodate D-STAR? D-STAR uses DVSI's venerable AMBE++ vocoder, and GMSK.

 

[N8IAA]

That will happen when Yaesu, Kenwwod, and Icom incorporate digital trunk systems in their ham radios.
Larry

 

[n9mxq]

Considering the size of the market share Dstar targets, it's most likely not cost effective to add it to the scanners, so I doubt it ever will be.

 

[jaspence]

D-Star

For as many years as D-Star has been around, it has not made that great of an impact due to only one manufacturer supporting it. Mototrbo (DMR) seems to be the faster rising digital, and while there are no amateur radios for it, there are affordable commercial radios from Hytera, Motorola, and Vertex, as well as a couple of Chinese makers. I have used DMR, D-Star and P25, and I see more information on DMR than the other formats. The ability of DMR to handle both analog and digital on the same repeater and to have two conversations on the same frequency are what separate it from the others.