[Dstar] D-Star and emergencies

[Lionel]

Hello All
            Without going into the technical side of digital radio I 
would like to make some comments of D-Star usefulness in an emergency.
1 = As you all have observed digital signals goes all garbled  under a 
certain threshold where weak and noisy analogue transmissions can still 
get thru 100 percent reliable messages under crucial times same for    
very weak SSB signals on HF, Lives could be lost when sending a message 
and if all goes all garbled while the person sending would have no idea 
if the receiving operater has received the message this could mean waste 
of valueable time lost if the mesage need to be sent again via another 
mode such as straight FM,Same problem if a D-Star portable repeater go 
off air and field stations having to go simplex.
2 = As you can seen from that article from Utah when operating in noisy 
conditions EG other people operating in the same room, voices of people 
running around under emergency poeple could very vocal,
cracking of fires in the background, noisy generators ETC ETC could make 
hearing the operator non understandble during exchange of messages.This 
problem is worse on digital than Analogue.
3 = Having to program your digital radio on the fly and having to wait 4 
seconds to break in on repeater would be a pain in the backside and 4 
seconds is a long time under extreme conditions.
To finish I am not trying to bash D-Star I enjoyed working USA last 
night but I would  never use D-Star for real WICEN emergencies it is 
just not suitable when there are people lives at risk.
73 Lionel VK3NM/VK6DC






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