Recently, someone forwarded an e-mail from Rick, K1RJZ, to an amateur radio mailing list that I subscribe to. I found Rick’s comments to be so right on, I asked him if I could publish them here as a guest post, and he agreed. Thanks, Rick!
At Dayton this year, it was no surprise that digital technologies got a lot of attention, including HF software-defined radios (SDRs), like the ICOM IC-7300 and the FlexRadio 6000 series, and VHF/UHF digital radios, such as the Tytera DMR radio that sells for about $130. Hams are excited about digital radio because it is something new to explore. As you can see below, it was standing room only at the DMR Forum at Dayton this year.
One of the reasons for this excitement is that they are software-based, and unlike hardware radios, SDRs (some are really HF radio servers) are easily upgraded, and manufacturers can add compelling new features as technology changes. That means that you get a new radio every year without needing XYL approvals!
If you follow technology (smartphones, laptops, the internet, whatever), you know that there are certain common phases that all technologies must pass through. These include the pioneer stage, the early adopter stage, and then “the chasm.” Once a technology adoption has survived these three stages, it then reaches the mass adoption phase, and it begins to grow very quickly. Competing technologies then need to adopt. If they don’t, they will eventually fall by the wayside.
There is no question that DMR technology (Digital voice Mobile Radio) for hams has jumped the chasm and is now into the mass adoption phase, and may soon enter the low-priced commoditization phase. Inexpensive, mass-produced Chinese DMR digital voice + FM portable radios were being sold inside the Hara arena for as low as $109 with a color display and free programming software. Remember that these are Part-90 type accepted, commercial-quality radios, not low end junk with dirty transmitters and low quality RX audio.
In addition, there were many used, first generation Motorola DMR radios for sale in the flea area. These radios perform just as well as the current models, but have less memory. From what I saw at Dayton, I have no doubt that DMR is on a run and is now well into the low-priced mass adoption phase.
D-STAR, Fusion and to a lesser extent NXDN are all established and are not going away, but in many areas they are not experiencing any meaningful growth when compared to DMR. D-STAR repeaters in New England, for example, have been converting to DMR because DMR radios are far cheaper than D-STAR radios, have more features, and have far superior networking. ICOM D-STAR repeaters have not been highly successful in high-RF areas, such as you typically find on top of skyscrapers and busy mountaintop sites. The D-Star technology is way cool, the ICOM repeater hardware… much less so. Some repeater clubs have figured out ways to use non-ICOM RF guts for their repeaters, and those have been successful, but it also takes some smart techie-hams to pull that off. A tip of my hat to them!
Many clubs are wisely taking advantage of the subsidized Yaesu Fusion repeater offers but most in New England seem to be using them in either dual mode or FM-only Mode. Fusion in digital mode has been very slow to get traction in these parts of the world. It is not a bad format, but Yaesu got in the game very late, Fusion is proprietary and has far fewer working features than other technologies. As a big plus, Fusion in high-bandwidth mode can send pictures such as “ground truth” weather status pictures. Most other digital voice modes cannot do hat.
NXDN, another commercial digital voice format used by the railroad industry, has some pockets of ham activity such as in southeastern Massachusetts but nationwide adoption is very slow. I don’t want to sound biased, I’m just reporting what I am hearing from multiple face-face sources and Dayton presentations.
None of these digital voice technologies or FM will go away and all of the digital modes are generating a lot of interest in the hobby. They are all fun and if you are a ham, you will have a ball trying them out. I have used D-STAR and P25 digital voice for years, and though I have yet to try Yaesu Fusion, I am very much looking forward to it. But, from what I saw at Dayton, DMR now seems to be a serious leader the digital voice technology adoption curve.
For more information, check out a recent DMR podcast on the HamRadio360 podcast.
Jeff, KE9V says
I’m intrigued by DMR and its rapid growth has been impressive. But as an early adopter of EchoLink, IRLP, D-STAR, and Fusion I can’t help but wonder how many more iterations of DV we will invest in before addressing the elephant in the room? These are mostly empty echo chambers. We have thousands of analog FM repeaters in the US getting no attention whatsoever. And now we have thousands of digital repeaters in the US — getting little to no attention. DMR could break that cycle given that the equipment is so inexpensive, but despite the land rush of early adopters, this network seems similarly under-utilized to me.
Is it possible that radio amateurs are simply no longer interested in repeater activity, no matter what transmission mode carries our voices?
Rick Zach says
>We have thousands of analog FM repeaters in the US getting no attention whatsoever. And now we have thousands of digital repeaters in the US — getting little to no attention.
==================================
I can only speak for the New England area but yes many of the analog repeaters have been pretty dead for the past few years. That is why so many of them have been converting to DMR on the same coordinated frequencies. What were unused frequencies are how hopping with lots of activity at least in New Hampshire which is a rural, mountainous state. Wide area, one to many linking is at the core of the ham DMR platform. In a rural state like ours, isolated hams are now brought back into the ham community. Heck we now have 82 DMR repeaters in our tiny New England region. More repeaters seem to be joining monthly. I’ve been licensed since 1966 and have never seen any aspect of ham radio go from nothing to mass adoption in just a few years.
When I started we were building repeaters with GE Progress Lines. And 45 years later, the FM analog platform has not changed at all. It was a huge success at the time.
But above all, I don’t like or even want to use the term digital horse race as that suggests one winner like VHS vs Betamax. This is not the case. D-Star, Fusion and DMR are all giving ham radio a much needed time of sustained excitement. Please do try them all! Borrow a friends radio or do whatever, just give them a try. See what you like the best and you’ll likely have blast!
Jason - KC5HWB says
That’s me in the front row! LOL
Dave New, N8SBE says
DMR on 70cm is popular in SE Mich (Detroit metro area), with some P25 activity on 900 MHz and 2M. There are still coverage gaps for those that want to use inexpensive handhelds, and I’m investigating using a dongle/raspberry pi combination to set up a hot spot at my house, so I can reliably get coverage with a handheld. This combination can also run D-Star and Fusion, as well.
I think that analog FM has suffered from among other things, in influx of new Technicians that were told that they could get on the air with nothing but a Baofeng. Then they find that a handheld doesn’t give them the coverage they expected, and the new generation doesn’t even own cars, so they aren’t commuting the long routes that us older folks do, which provided the time for prime time yakking on the local repeaters.
The advent of low-cost dongles with multiple digital voice protocol capabilities provides the means to unlock this ‘silent majority’ and let them get on the air conveniently from their house, using a low power handheld running simplex local via their dongle. The raspberry pi only needs an internet connection and a dongle to function.
Rick Zach says
Well, we aren’t silent keys yet! But I agree that the new generation of humans have a different value set then those of us who started with tubes. My son, K1DRZ age 21, is only interested in being a ham because of Dad. But I’ll take it!
That being said, it took a long time to evolve into low-cost, viable, new technologies but this is again and finally an exciting tie to be a ham.
Todd KD0TLS says
“I think that analog FM has suffered from among other things, in influx of new Technicians that were told that they could get on the air with nothing but a Baofeng. Then they find that a handheld doesn’t give them the coverage they expected”…
Nope. Not even. It’s more like, “then they find out that they only get ridicule, and the only conversation that is possible involves their replacement for the Baofeng”.
Analogue repeaters are dying because of the stale social environment found on them. Hams always focus on the *technical* aspect, and seem to deny that there’s any social aspect involved whatsoever. In the current technological context, local ham radio is only relevant as a social phenomenon. Boring geezers enforcing an irrelevant pecking order, throwing out metric tons of condescension, and limiting conversations to your next rig or the one you had 30 years ago all add up to a social wasteland.
DMR has taken off in our local area (MSP/STP) because it allows operators to get away from the boring, surly, status-obsessed, and elitist people that make the (many) analogue repeaters uncomfortable places to hang out. Added to that, is that any DMR repeater gives you access to operators all over the country, even into Canada and Europe.
I’ve seen so many new hams get on the local analogue repeaters, only to drift away over three months or so. *Nobody* talks about being disappointment over coverage. It’s *always* about being talked down to like a child by ‘helpful’ and ‘encouraging’ senior hams, or just frustration with the same scripted conversation over and over and over again. A few of these new lapsed hams (who are not particularly young, btw) are now spending the money to get into DMR so that they can finally get the social atmosphere that they wanted out of the hobby in the first place. Strangely, anyone who has trouble getting in to the DMR repeaters gets a lot of help from the local community, and nobody seems disappointed in the coverage from their HT. Nobody talks down to anyone like they’re an idiot, because this is new to all of us. Everybody seems to get along without some artificial pecking order keeping them “in their place”. So weird…
But, yeah, blame the BaoFeng. That must be it.
Shirley Dulcey KE1L says
The Baofeng isn’t the problem. (The radios aren’t perfect, but they work and they are incredible in terms of value for money.) It’s the attitude of some hams toward the Baofeng user that’s the problem. New hams (and also visiting hams and hams that are new to an area) are likely to get the same treatment no matter what kind of radio they use; that’s the real problem.
I have also seen plenty of long time hams with Baofeng radios. They’re popular in the QRP community, because QRPers are all about doing more with less. But they get away with it because they’re already accepted members of the community.
Bob Olen says
There was standing room only at the toilets too. I guess that means urinal mode has jumped “the chasm” too. And what about the standing room only at the concession stand? Has Hot Dog mode jump[ed “the Chasm” too?
Bill Beckman says
As of Thanksgiving 2016 I see that linking repeaters using any flavor of digital voice technology is getting very popular. In many cases Raspberry Pi based controllers are able to combine a number of local amateur repeaters onto a node to mix and match multiple modes on co-located repeaters. I have even heard of one repeater able to use multiple modes. Linking via the internet eliminates the RF path across the world but the amateur community needs to attract the younger generation that expects no path loss and concentrates on content.
hipo HB9IBG/WB3LSB says
In Europe DMR is developing very rapidly, particularly after the arrival of the BrandMeister network.
The DMR-MARC is very rigid and it is difficult, if not impossible, to contact stations in other TGs than those available on the repeater. With the BM network, we have discovered that it is very easy to program your radio to your correspondent’s TG, and the QSO is really easy.
For instance. while I was in HB I just programmed a Fort Collins TG and I broke into a local QSO!