[Scan-DC] Good Programmable HT

[kd4emq at yahoo.com]

So which is the best way to go in the DC area, specifically, Arlington? Dstar, DMR, or analog? Excuse me for my ignorance, but it’s been years since I’ve been involved with amateur radio. Please respond off list. Thanks for your help!
ChrisKD4EMQ





On Thursday, August 14, 2025, 12:51, kd4emq at yahoo.com wrote:

Hi Joe,
I guess I need advice which way to go. Whatever systems are most active and programmable using software. Respond when you can. Thanks!





On Thursday, August 14, 2025, 12:37, ae8k at proton.me wrote:

Not sure how old you are, but think about the difference between Beta and VHS, or Blue Ray and HDDVD.  They do very similar things but are incompatible (although there are some that create systems to transcode between the two).  D*Star was developed by the Japan Amateur Radio League to serve ham radio purposes.  Only Icom & Kenwood adopted the mode for their radios (and Kenwood was very late to the game).  The radios are easier to program and to use on the fly.  DMR is a commercial standard that hams have adopted.  Since it is a large commercial market, you can get fairly cheap HTs out of China to do the basics.  It generally is more difficult to program, since it was never designed for the end user to do, and almost always has to be done with the manufacturer's programming software.  Most of the low cost radio manufacturers offer their software for free, but big name commercial radios like Motorola can do DMR too, and their software can be hard to get.  

I'm running late for a schedule, let me know if you need more detail.  
73 de Joe AE8K On Thursday, August 14th, 2025 at 12:28 PM, kd4emq at yahoo.com <kd4emq at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
 Excuse my ignorance but what’s the difference between the Dstar and DMR?






On Thursday, August 14, 2025, 12:19, ae8k at proton.me wrote:

Oh, I wanted to add, my Anytone 878UV HT is my go to for the local repeaters.  It is a DMR HT, but I use it on analog FM more than I do DMR.

J




On Thursday, August 14th, 2025 at 12:18 PM, ae8k at proton.me <ae8k at proton.me> wrote:

> 
> 
> Just about every digital HT also does FM & analog 5khz+/- FM is still widely used. That being said, hams have split up into several different incompatible digital modes. I always say start with the digital mode that your nearest digital repeater uses. The national capital region has good DStar infrastructure, but I've moved to a state with one DStar repeater that is nowhere near me, so I'm more on DMR.
> 
> I'm probably going to have a Yaesu FT-65 for sale soon, I'm pretty sure it is supported by Chirp. I bought it for my son but we are both too soft spoken for its internal microphone and we'd rather not eat the radio while having a QSO.
> 
> 73 de Joe AE8K.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On Thursday, August 14th, 2025 at 12:05 PM, Chris via Scan-DC scan-dc at mailman.qth.net wrote:
> 
> > Having been out of the HAM community for a while, is analog used anymore or is it mostly DMR now? If so, what’s a good DMR radio and software?
> > 
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