[ADXA] Additional comments on DMR

[John Evans]

All,

I guess I am on a roll tonight.   I do have a couple of comments about DMR.


First off, I do not believe that a QSO on DMR should count for anything
other than a nice QSO.   No DX, WAS or any award.   And yes there are many
folks that think working Europe from TX on DMR deserves to counted as DX.
But as we all know this is no different than using your Cell Phone, Skype
or any other VoIP Service.

The observation that I do want to make about DMR is this.   If you listen
to Talk Group 3100, Talk Group TAC 310 or Talk Group 913 you will hear
radio traffic for the most part.   But just sit and listen for a few hours
on Talk Group 310.   During that time period you will hear AT LEAST ONE NEW
Amateur Radio Operator, but sometimes Two or Three new Amateur Radio
Operators.

They are making their very first QSO on DMR.   You too can enjoy their
excitement with them as they work their first DX Contact.   Give one of
these new guys a call, ask them about DMR and how they got started.
Almost every one of them have the exact same story.... just the times and
locations are different.   But the typical conversation starts with they
saw this DMR Mode demonstrate.   They found out more information about
Amateur Radio, they studied or went to a class, got their ticket and now
they are on the air.

How many folks do you work on 20M CW that are brand spanking new Amateur
Radio Operators.   They saw CW demonstrated at a club meeting and thought
that was something they wanted to try.   So they learned the code, studied
the theory and got their license.   Not that many I suspect.

DMR is bringing new blood into our hobby.   Folks are getting their Amateur
Radio Operator's License because of DMR.   Our job as Experience Operators
is to help these guys and get them started into the hobby.   We need to
welcome them into the Fraternity of Amateur Radio and not talk down to them
because they are not really using a real radio to make contacts.   They
have already done the hard part, they studied, they got a license and they
got a radio all on their own.... lets try and get them pointed into the
right direction.

At least DMR is slowly pulling in new Amateur Radio Operators, very few if
any, other aspects of Amateur Radio bringing in new folks every day.

-John
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