Why He Decided on DMR

Today I read a post he wrote "After a year of using digital radio, I have decided to go with DMR as my preferred mode.Digital radio has caused a resurgence in HAM radio interest globally, and I feel will be the dominant and preferred mode in the future."  

Why he decided on DMR?  

Firstly he said " YSF/C4FM is by far the easiest to use and has the best quality audio of all the digital modes. However, the relatively higher cost, firmware update hassles,WIRES-X bugs, it’s proprietary nature, and limited traffic in the chatrooms, make unsuitable for my tastes." 

the second reason he thinks " D-Star is even more expensive if you want a HT or mobile unit, hosting is a hassle, and it lacks from broad based networking support, especially hosting. It's not as complicated as DMR, and the audio is vitually indistinguishable from DMR. 

Other reasons I think why he decieds on DMR. 

1. DMR is an open standard and is not proprietary to a single manufactuer.  DMR is by far the most robust platform, it is inexpensive (a good used radio can be purchased NEW for around $100), with a DMR Hotspot, it is a breeze hosting on Brandmeister. There have many talkgourps you can communicate with world-wide hams.  

2. There have many DMR clubs in your country, find you a good DMR club, it will make your entry into DMR much eaiser and less frustrating. 

3. For us ender user, one of the key benefits of DMR radio is the improvement audio quality.  This keeps the transmission clear and increases the effective range of the digital radios over analog radios where the signal clarity and strength drops off dramatically at the end of the coverage zone.

4. On DMR radios, it is not only transmitting the voice, but also text message, GPS. Import external DMR database, then you can see the caller information on your radio screen.  For example, on Ailunce HD1 DMR radio, it can support 200,000 DMR contact database. 

5. DMR has longer battery life than regular analog portables. The reason for this is greater power efficiency. 

6. DMR is a TDMA technology which offers the principle benefit of two simultaneous and independent talk paths in one single 12.5Khz channel.  Two-slot TDMA offers a way forward. Since a call uses only one of the two time slots, it requires only half of the transmitter’s capacity as the transmitter is idle half of the time.  

A Final Word On DMR

Does this mean the end of HF and FM analog? Absolutely not.  DMR technology offers Professional Two-Way Radio users the possibility to upgrade their analog equipment to digital at their own pace and improve the coverage, system capacity and audio clarity of the transmissions. For any hobby to grow, there must be evolution and choice. Digital radio is just a natural evolution of radio combined with computer technology, which a lot of purists refuse to accept.