2015-12-27

RoIP and Digital Modes

I recently helped a couple of the local repeater elders set up a DMR repeater.  DMR, Digital Mobile Radio, is Yet Another Digital Mode That Has A Network Component.  Yes, just like D-STAR.  And System Fusion (YSF).  In fact, the one thing that I missed early on is that the network parts of D-STAR, DMR, and YSF are no different than IRLP, EchoLink or Allstar Link.  Once I realized that, it became obvious that they were all basically the same, with the only real differentiation being that D-STAR, DMR, and YSF are all digital modes over the air, while the others connect analog radios.  Other than that, the two groups are very similar.  You an connect to another station, another repeater station, or another virtual repeater ("reflector").

Anyway, I've been doing a lot of research on this primarily because the fact that, as the man says, "these systems are 95% the same and 100% incompatible."  I think that's silly in amateur radio, so I need to educate myself on each of these.