I am seeing all these different ways to communicate via computer or digitally. What is the big deal? You can do that already with FaceTime or VOIP or even text messaging. I’ve got a dstar radio myself but to me the fun of of doing this is being able to communicate with someone over the air. And of course when the SHTF more than likely all these digital ways will be down. So is the reason to use these digital forms just to have a cleaner signal? Just the other night I talked to a guy in Canada from Texas on 20m. Had a nice conversation and thought it was much cooler communicating over the air than logging into a computer. In some ways the old ways are better. What is your opinion?
Two elements at work here - digital voice communications and digital data communications. Formats like D-Star, DMR and whatever the Yaesu flavor is called seem to be nothing more than another way to do the same thing you could do with analog FM. Of course, you can hook up dongles and communicate over the internet and connect through distant repeaters. I guess that is popular amongst some folks. I've got a D-Star radio and after going through the rigors, I used it a few times. I may be dense but I'm just not getting the attraction of it. That's just me though.
Now digital data is a bigger deal. The groundswell on HF I think reflects more than just crappy propagation. The popularity of keyboard-to-keyboard comms versus a voice contact signals what I think (yes, my opinion) is a fundamental shift. Two different market studies - one in 2016 and one in 2017 - brought to light that the group known as Millennials prefer texting over voice contact. The ratio of text to voice usage (with cellphones) was 5 to 1. So it follows ( may be shaky logic here) that the younger hams entering the hobby don't really want to talk to strange people on the radio.
Looking at repeater usage in my area seems to bear this out. Some 15 - 20 years ago, 4 or 5 of the wider coverage repeaters generally hosted what I would call a "drive-time party" twice a day. There would be 5 to 10 folks on each repeater in a round robin talking about anything and everything on a daily basis. Now, for the most part, they sit silent. Unfortunately, many of those participants have passed or become infirmed. No younger people have filled in those vacancies. It seems to be a generational thing.
Oh, and Glenn, don't hold back - tell us what you really think

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