- That sounds like big-brother to me that I dislike right there and then, because it's nothing else but yet another digital tracking system.
- Gee, seriously? Wow! What a fantastic idea to stop sending out DVDs for software update! I guess they got the memo after a couple of decades! Now the price is only $200 due to this fantastic revelation! Truly impressed! LOL!!!
- Is that how overpriced, under-developed is described and promoted lately? Pay an unjustified amount for an un-developed system, so the developers will have the necessary funds on the back of the hobby community to actually work on something that will be useful in a few years? What "forefront of technology" are you talking about? Digital is nothing extraordinary, it's been around for decades, only the developers didn't bother to implement it into ham, perhaps because the market was/is still too small for it and the old analog system did a pretty decent job (still does as I can tell). Your opinion reminds me more of a corporate PR talk or some lobbyists trying to justify something for all the wrong reasons. DVD? LOL! That was the funniest part! Truly made me laugh!
If things go THIS way, then ham is going to be just another subscription type cellphone service in a few years, because once greedy shareholders get into the hobby with their personal ID based junk-services and their fees, then it will be business for profit only, nothing else. Hope the day never comes because that would be the end of ham as a "hobby", and no, I won't pay for their primitive junk-software or overrated radios and overpriced subscriptions or any other "excuses for a price" deals either.
Digital ham should be just a modern transition into a processor/software based solution for ham radios to replace the analog systems and not what this whole thing seems to be turning into. For all that "other" side, we already have smart devices with tons of free software, superior data transfer speeds that digital hams will never match, and all that with ton's of services and options for a lot less.
You are absolutely right; as things are right now as I see it, digital ham is definitely NOT for me.
It's blatantly obvious now that you are one of the hams who don't want change and can't stand it. No one is forcing you to come play. Plenty of analog systems out there still.
TDMA technology is state of the art right now for two-way communications. That's the bleeding edge. DMR/TRBO is not over priced. It's actually cost wise about the same as an analog system... W5PKY picked up a Motorola XPR 6550 for $200... A repeater can be picked up for about $1500.
Your big brother notion is no more than having a call sign and IDing every 10 minutes. That gives out a lot more info than one of my DMR-MARC ID numbers...
Software costs money because the firmware, features, options all took time for someone to develop. (Do yourself a favor and read the $8000 radio thread in the Motorola subforum)
Please, inform me what is underdeveloped and overpriced about digital technology? Motorola, Harris, and the other commercial radio manufactures don't do anything for the ham hobby. It's not their market. We just happen to adopt some of it for our use.
You know what I get from digital that I don't get with analog? Better linking, no noise, more usable range, better equipment, and that list can go one from there. I like to play with digital because the people who use things like p25 and DMR/TRBO tend to be people who work in the LMR world and are more technical and the technical side of radio is what I enjoy.
