[aprssig] APRS and dstar (why)

[Amateur Radio WB8NUT]

People really consider around $350 bucks for a DStar radio to be such a 
wall to impede their adoption of digital? I am amazed. Icom ID-31s sold 
out by early Saturday at Dayton this year. It has GPS built-in, no 
programming required and every time I transmit, my position goes to the 
APRS network. No more, radio, GPS and tracker module with wires everywhere.

I guess when compared to the Chinese radios it is a lot of money. But 
compared to my D710 at $500, it's a great value.

 From personal observation of the Yaesu booth at Dayton. No crowd around 
their new digital radio. No excitement. If anything, it was such a flop, 
a number of people on the fence with digital started snapping up DStar 
radios. Some models were sold out and others in tight supply there.

Not that I have abandoned APRS, but the ID-31 sure made it easy to have 
FM, Digital, world-wide programming, and APRS (DPRS) all in one package.

I like DStar and like the way it is integrated with APRS. It's been a 
lot of fun with both technologies.

Duffy
www.wb8nut.com

On 5/27/12 11:26 AM, Bob Bruninga wrote:
>>> Therefore the short cut for AVRS is to simply JOIN DSTAR.
>>>   The concept is simple.  Take one of those Dstar kits,
>>> add it to a PC with full APRS connectivity on one side
>>> and Dstar on the other, and what we get is an ASTAR node.
>> Not being a naysayer, but what value does APRS add
>> to this equation?  Sounds like we all need to switch
>> to DSTAR, and build "DVRS" instead of "AVRS"?
> The value is to about 40,000 existing owners of APRS radios.  The ASTAR REPEATER gives them a gateway into the local and global VOICE connectivity of the DSTAR system.   The APRS radio is necessary on the analog repeater side to ID and DISPLAY all connection and link maintenance data.
>
>> My personal hangup with DSTAR is the price of the
>> hardware (especially when I consider the price of
>> the APRS gear I already have).
> Bingo  You just made the point perfectly.  Thanks
>
> Bob, WB4aPR
>
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