I had the opportunity to attend the BayCon 2019 conference in San Jose, CA recently with my work colleague Ben, N6XPD -- who is just starting out in Amateur Radio. It was a really fun experience and motivating to be among a group of Silicon Valley hams that are on the leading edge of a number of innovations within the hobby. Ben was so motivated by one of the talks on SOTA, he's now learning code and made some new Elmer friends while there... Love to see that...
One of the conference forums was a primer on DMR by Reilly, K6YAP. (Great job Reilly!) (more on that here: https://www.ke6mt.us/2019/02/baycon-2019-presentation-successful-sota-strategies/) He was able to answer so many of the questions around digital trunked radio, its roots, its applications, and how to get started -- that it motivated me to take the plunge and get started. So very glad I did!
2m FM was a real novelty to me back in my Novice days in the 70's (a motivator to upgrade to General) -- the clarity, the "local" nature of the coverage, the squelch tails, the autopatch -- it was really cool. The first few days of using DMR has rekindled that same kind of reaction -- just
amazed at the quality of the audio, the flexibility of using Talkgroups and the ability to meld RF and the Internet in a truly useful and fun way -- pretty much regardless of where you are. My 3rd contact was with Fawaz, 9A2AA in Bahrain -- sunspots not required. No repeater? No problem -- just link your HT to the internet via a DMR modem. What a hoot.
Today -- I'm trying the new Alinco dual band DJ-MD5 coupled with the OpenSpot2 "hotspot" connected via WiFi to my home network or my iPhone WiFi connection. Both methods are working great... The learning curve is a bit steep, coming out of almost a pure analog experience, but it is a healthy and stimulating process....
If you haven't tried DMR -- do it.... you'll be surprised at how little you have to invest vs. the capabilities and fun you'll have!
73,
Rush, W4QA
