Integrated Asterisk VoIP & Amateur Radio

[Mikerowaved]

If you are talking about more integration than that, I doubt the church would invest the money. I am not aware of the church funding or sponsoring repeaters of any kind.

And you probably wont. Amateur radios and/or repeaters used for ERC are to be owned and maintained by the individual operators, not the church.

I do not know if there are plans to get d-star capable radios at bishop storehouses, or roll d-star equipment out to ERC groups.

The state of Utah has purchased 10 full D-Star repeater "stacks" and are currently making plans to install them in strategic locations throughout the state. Of course, these will have to be coordinated with existing repeaters and possibly over time a new local band-plan may need to be hammered out in order to take advantage of D-Star's slightly narrower bandwidth requirements. Many of the ARES Emergency Communication Centers in the state are starting to look at installing at least one D-Star capable radio, as funds permit. D-Star comes at a premium cost over an equivalent radio without it, so I believe that will be a big factor in determining how well it will be received by the ham community in general.

None of this has direct involvement with ERC, especially outside of Utah. I mention it just to illustrate how difficult it is to jump-start a new technology in the world of amateur radio. Especially one that carries a pretty hefty price tag with it. At least for this area, it makes little sense to equip Bishop Storehouses with D-Star radios without the infrastructure in place first and that may take quite a few years.

[russellhltn]

At least for this area, it makes little sense to equip Bishop Storehouses with D-Star radios without the infrastructure in place first and that may take quite a few years.

I have to wonder long-term how this will play out. It's been out a few years now and only Icom is doing D-Star. When I talked to the Kenwood rep at Dayton, he said he had no plans to bring in D-Star into the US. He indicated that it was a interoperability issue with other services.

The public service sector is going with APCO 25. At some point that equipment will become surplus. That could drive hams into adopting that standard instead.

[Mikerowaved]

With products like www.dvdongle.com and other similar projects brewing, D-Star might have a future outside of the Icom brand. Especially if/when more infrastructure gets put into place. Like many things of this nature, only time will tell.