My take on adding amateur radio modes of digital comms is that it detracts from what a scanner’s basic intent is all about. Amateur repeaters (of any mode) are all about conversations, not message handling (except in times of emergencies). Conversations (commonly known as rag chewing) will lock up a scanner on a frequency or system for longer periods of time than the short transmissions of commercial or professional businesses or agencies causing missed comms along the lines most expect to hear on scanners. I too am a ham. I’ve got DStar, Fusion and DMR capabile radio’s that I listen to with my scanner playing in the background. I miss hardly anything I have programmed into the scanner because of this. My delay times are NOT zeroed as I wish to hear the replies to transmissions on the public safety channels. (In the case of DMR being offered where DStar and Fusion are not... I offer this... DMR is a digital mode not solely amateur radio. So the inclusion of DMR was probably due to it being used on the commercial business and professional agency bands. (Police, Fire, municipalities.)
