On 11 Nov 2013 at 0:14, George Henry wrote:
Actually, after more than 10 years on the market, D-STAR has only about 28,000 registered users worldwide. There are fewer than 2000 active users, worldwide, daily. Many people are wondering why Icom keeps pouring money into something which is clearly unsustainable in the long run.
There are very good reasons why no other amateur radio manufacturer will touch it.
George, KA3HSW
Hi Georges
I don't remember how long it takes to see AM disappear replaced by SSB but last week an old ham just telling me how easy it was to tune a station in AM he just get back on the air with a 21st century radio after a 20 years leave. He's right but the earth still continue to rotate.
10 years is quite a long run as per our today standards where your PC is no more up to date after 2 years.
Length of a run appears shorter but not automatically harder when you get old. Einstein call that "relativity" ;)
I already know 2 hams here up north who just get the new IC-7100 HF/VHF/UHF Transceiver. Between you and me they surely make some sort of market survey before as you said "pouring money into something which is clearly unsustainable in the long run."
My short two cents.
Luc Leblanc VE2DWE WAC BASIC CW PHONE SATELLITE
Life is a sexually transmitted deadly disease.