Global Digital Repeater Round Up: Our 1st Post COVID Analysis?

Each May and October going back to 2016, HVDN has analyzed repeaterbook.com data for digital amateur radio repeater deployments. 

Today being the 1st of June and now officially in the "End of COVID" era according to United States Center for Disease Control, lets have a look at the latest data to kick off summer time in many parts of the world. Lets celebrate with some pie of all digital flavors!

Yaesu Fusion - Still the 2nd most popular (by volume) digital repeater with an impressive 9.97% growth over the reporting period.  New radios like the FTM-300 and FTM-500 by the single manufacturer of Fusion equipment help drive reasons for more fusion repeaters around the world, with a total of 6 current production radios on the market. The least expensive Fusion capable radio is the FT-70 handheld for around $180 USD. 

Icom D-Star - The good news is that Kenwood has the TH-D75 handheld radio ready to go to market later this year and will support D-Stat much like its earlier relative, the TH-D74. However, Icom is still the only main supplier of D-Star handheld, mobile or base radios.  While the new Icom ID-50 handheld will also support D-Star, there are eight current or near production radios that support this digital mode and none of them cost under $200 USD.  Icom D-Star has remained flat for repeater deployments at 1.79% growth but its worth noting like all digital modes, the internet or a repeater is not needed for digital mode communications. 

DMR - How do we explain 12.46% period growth for DMR?  More radios offered by more vendors and full tier 2 compliant handheld radios sold for as low as $30 USD such as the COTRE series of radios found on Amazon.  While you do not need a repeater to use DMR or even the internet, the multi vendor ecosystem certainly is working for the adoption of DMR as the leading (by volume) driver of digital amateur repeaters.

P25 - Still a commercial standard and no inexpensive new radio equipment available, but digital repeater deployments are growing at 15.67% over the reporting period which shows promise.  As commercial users retire phase one P25 equipment, expect to see more digital repeaters be put on the air globally. If the license for the P25 was as loosely enforced like DMR, we could expect to see P25 really grow fast over the next few years unless the new open standard M17 finally gets into production grade equipment.

NXDN - Another commercial standard generally deployed for non-critical users, there continues to be some decent growth by CAGR and not by volume of this digital mode offered by companies like Icom, Kenwood and others.  There are still no very low cost radios available using NXDN, so expect this mode to just be a novelty in use across some pockets of amateur radio enthusiasts. 

Get a slice of : What did you say about M17?

The good news is that repeaterbook.com now shows a total of five total digital repeaters using this open source mode. Currently there are the following:

• N1KGN - Located at Bridgeport Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut (United States)
• WX5RC - Located at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma (United States)
• KC1AWV - Located in NHL Bruin's territory in Rockingham, New Hampshire (United States)

Its worth noting that two of these three repeaters are listed as multi-mode  and are not M17 full time. The only one likely as a dedicated M17 repeater is Steve KC1AWV's since he is part of the official M17 development team.

There are two international repeaters with the secret one in Poland in Nowy Dwor Mazoweicki operated by the inventor of M17, the infamous Woj SP5WWP and the multimode capable VK3RCQ repeater located in Junortoun Australia.

By October,  HVDN hopes to see a few more M17 repeaters on the air, but there are still no off the shelf M17 capable radios available for purchase which will continue to hold things back for M17.  

However, there are some exciting things happening in the M17 community which will be more clear in the next few months to come.  So, for now keep an eye on M17 but it will take a long time for this one to reach mainstream which is ok given there are no "current" commercial companies making available equipment to use M17. 

7 Year Itch: Global Digital Repeater Growth

With cooler weather here to stay for a while, its time for another global digital repeater roundup brought to you by Steve K2GOG of Hudson Valley Digital Network.

This has been a 7 year in the making project tracking the different digital voice modes currently leading VHF/UHF repeater deployments, according to data from repeaterbook.com

Every May and October, data has been collected from the leading source of the most accurate source for repeater details globally.  While some local options might exist that may be more up to date, ideally that information should be shared with repeaterbook.com to help out lazy travelers or those visiting an area for the first time who would more easily find this website compared to local club or individual websites.

Leaders:  Most Popular Options

By now, its defacto information that both the proprietary Yaesu Fusion and the quasi open standard multivendor DMR options are by far the most popular.   Low cost equipment helps drive the reasons which justify having more repeaters for these modes.

In the last year, there have been no major developments for new mobile or handheld equipment aside from some small refreshes on existing models like the popular Anytone or Alinco DMR radios. Yaesu has only given us the FT-5DR and FTM-200DR which is pretty good considering they are the only company that makes fusion capable radios which can be used on its 3200+ strong network of repeaters.

P25 is a commercial standard and is not marketed directly to amateur radio operators in any off the shelf non-professional grade equipment, but its growth rate is very strong. Based on how long it took for D-Star by Icom to become popular before flattening out, could we see P25 or NXDN become the dominant force in digital modes?   The answer is likely not, but that is where a new mode called M17 will come into play.

More then digital voice:  M17

All the digital modes mentioned all can do some other tricks beyond just voice communications.  Icom D-Star probably has the most advanced options from sharing location, photo, text and more with other users who have Icom equipment or the no longer made Kenwood TH-D74.

Yaesu Fusion really misses the mark to some degree, but most Fusion radios support analog APRS which increases interoperability for certain use cases.  There are a few DMR radios with very basic analog and digital APRS functions.

M17 which is absent for now on the digital repeater list promises us a true open digital standard for voice with some additional tricks up its sleave such as location sharing or text messaging.

The what's next

This would be a complex opinion based discussion, so lets use the airwaves or social media to discuss this fun stuff instead. Doink! 

SPECIAL EDITION: 10,000+ Digital Repeaters - October 2021 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Major Digital Milestone Reached!

In May 2021, HVDN reported that we were creeping ever closer to that 10,000 digital repeater mark and as of our October survey of repeaterbook.com data this important date in amateur radio history is here with 10,035 digital amateur radio repeaters now tracked.  

Here is the latest data based on our semi annual collection efforts since 2016, but no data was collected in 2017.

Our first near casualty of  the digital evolution

Someone will really need to look hard at repeaterbook.com data to ensure accuracy of these D-Star tabulations since it appears that 21 less D-Star repeaters exist in October 2021 compared to May 2021.

It is pretty well documented by now thanks to HVDN and pretty much any radio amateur today that DMR is by far the most popular digital voice mode today with an impressive 155.35% increase over the last 5 years.  

Still don't believe you, my local 2m FM repeater is just fine! 

For those into more fancy math if we are talking about growth or declines, compound annual growth rates (CAGR) are often used in different industries to track growth over a certain period. Over the past five years, DMR is still leading the pack at 20.62% CAGR.

However,  beyond the two dedicated non-commercial amateur modes known as Yaesu Fusion and Icom D-Star, it certainly seems interesting that the commercial P25 standard is growing faster than DMR.  

Using repeaters to track the healthy growth of amateur radio is smart.  Repeaters are expensive and local people with radios are needed to create a need for them to exist or to influence what to purchase. This is why counting repeaters is a great proxy to measure growth and adoption trends.

However, some areas do not have many digital voice repeaters but users are purchasing certain digital radios to use with hotspots. Many of these additional digital adopters are likely learning towards DMR or Fusion as a "my first digital radio" rather than D-Star or the two commercial modes known as P25 and NXDN.

Our secret digital future is already here

We have seen new products brought to market by smaller commercial companies and entrepreneurs, such as the RFinder series of DMR smartphone radios thanks to Bob W2CYK.   

New networks run entirely by the radio amateur community like Brandmeister Network and its amazing development team have opened new doors to expand all digital voice modes, including an entirely new up-and-coming amateur created mode such as M17 thanks to Wojciech SP5WWP.

The community also even has other entirely open source network tools such as DV Switch,  HBlink plus the amazing MMDVM and Pi-Star projects that Andy MW0MWZ, Jonathan G4KLX, Andy CA6JAU and others created to let us use repeaters or hotspots and fanned the flames of the digital evolution fire probably the most.

And, how could I not mention the work that folks like Roger VK3KYY are doing with OpenGD77 plus the equally fine development around OpenRTX which both help create new ways to use existing radios for digital communications, such as the case with modifying the cult favorite TYT MD-380 DMR radio to be used as M17.

We should expect some exciting times ahead for amateur radio as we also cross the boundaries of generational differences for people born after 1980 who will be entering later career stages and will have even more time for amateur radio experimentation.

Maybe its popular somewhere else?

Different parts of the world are at a crossroads today when it comes to adopting or retiring certain types of equipment. 

This is something which HVDN will further track publicly going forward since as the below chart indicates the current split between North America and Rest of World digital voice repeater data.

With M17 Project starting to get more attention, especially with a large investment enabled by non-profit entities Amateur Radio Digital Communications and Open Research Institute it is just a matter of time before something groundbreaking grabs mass attention.

What is next?

Many people do not have the attention span to read articles like this, but they need to pay attention to what is being discussed here very closely if you care about your amateur radio hobby.

Here is my prediction for the next two years (2022 and 2023) for digital repeater counts

While spending time within the HF spectrum chasing rare stations or park activators is good fun and will only get easier as the 11 year sunspot cycle matures over the next few years, do not forget about next generation technology.  

Spending more time on SSB during a 20m contest or CW on 40m will not propel the hobby forward for the next generation. Same also with using local 2m analog only repeaters for casual morning gatherings.

Please, spend some time experimenting with different technologies, modes and new ways of thinking and challenge yourself to try and keep track of how much time you spend in different aspects of the hobby month by month or year by year.   

The more time spent on the future will secure our past and ensure amateur radio exists for the next 100 years. 

Feel free to share some comments below on this and check out our past articles to learn what we are doing which may inspire you to get involved with something new in the future of digital amateur radio.

 Awaiting your rotten tomatoes,

Steve K2GOG

Co-Founder HVDN

May 2021 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Our May 2021 summary of the HVDN Global Digital Repeater Roundup marks our 9th edition in this series which tracks the evolution of digital voice mode popularity within the amateur radio community.

Starting back in October 2016, a fellow local club in the Hudson Valley was firm in not wanting to invest in a digital mode repeater until they knew based on fact, which was going to be the most popular mode to promote to its membership and find ways to fund. This is what spawned HVDN.

Hudson Valley Digital Network compiles data on repeaters based on freely available information found on the repeaterbook.com website.  While repeater deployments only tell a fraction of the story relating to the overall use of digital voice, they also are a great way to measure the health of amateur radio communities in certain locations around the world.

Repeaters are expensive to build, manage and operate  

The Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club in New York operates two analog FM VHF repeaters, with one of those being considered a wide area repeater. 

This sole wide area repeater has proven to be a major resource in creating a social and positive atmosphere which attracts new membership to this club and offers an alternative for those not happy with overall "repeater culture" found in other area organizations. 

This repeater is also credited with providing a valuable mental health benefit during the early and dark days of the COVID situation. 

Without examples like the OMARC 146.805 MHz repeater, many other clubs around the world would find it hard to show value to its membership unless they are involved in other public awareness aspects beyond repeaters of any type.

Adding digital repeaters to the right club, enhances its  membership reach and community value but adding a digital repeater to the wrong club does nothing other than to deplete the club treasury.  

Careful decisions need to be made when considering how a repeater will be funded, managed and operated.

Not a New York or a Hudson Valley thing, but a global thing!

If clubs fail to innovate or provide services to its membership, they fail to grow.  When a club fails to grow,  its area competitors stand to take advantage in attracting new members or create reasons for  alternative organizations that can help educate or attract new amateur radio enthusiasts. 

Repeaters are often the lifeblood of many amateur radio clubs and need to be carefully considered. 

The above chart and table shows that DMR is by far the most popular digital mode with a staggering 148.42% growth over the last 5+ years globally.

The next closest contender is Yaesu's single vendor ecosystem Fusion System at a still impressive 106.91%.  

The oldest digital voice mode offered by the limited dual vendor ecosystem behind Icom D-Star comes it at a slow and steady 20.72%, even though it had a huge head start over its competitors for more than 10 years prior to 2016.

Since our last update in October 2020, DMR repeaters globally grew 7.97% compared to Fusion's 7.32% increase.  In contrast, Icom's D-Star only added 1.43% growth in the same time period.

With these three amateur designed and amateur only digital voice systems representing at least 9,146 global digital voice repeaters, its clear that the total number of next generation repeater systems is catching up fast to the approximate 17,000 total of analog repeaters world wide which has had about a total of 40 years to get to that point.

Should you still invest in DMR?

Every digital radio today supports legacy analog FM mode along with its newer digital friend be it DMR, as found in the popular Anytone D878 series of radio or any of the Yaesu, Icom or Kenwood counterparts capable of Fusion or D-Star.

Commercial standards like P25 are technically fastest growing mode at 157.27% over the last 5 years whereas NXDN is growing at 91.46%, but both lack consumer grade equipment and prices to really capture the hearts, minds and wallets of many amateur enthusiasts.

Since October 2020,  P25 global repeaters increased another 6.82%. NXDN grew at 13.76% but this is still mostly only happening in parts of the south eastern United States and is not considered true global growth.

All five of these modes do require licensing of the underlying technology to bring a new radio to market which impacts pricing and vendor ecosystem support.

There is a totally new open standard based on FDMA technology called M17 being developed by the amateur radio community which has a goal to circumvent some of these issues.

While most repeaters capable of supporting 9600bd data rate communications with 2.5PPM or better stability can be converted to work on any digital mode,  hand held or mobile radio equipment is not as ready to modify. 

Not having  ready made M17 capable radios are needed and not yet available. M17 wont be impacting new buying decisions of the amateur community in the near future.

Exit M17: Is the future here?

The M17 project which is supported by HVDN  as well as by a massive investment by Open Research Institute and a grant from Amateur Radio Digital Communications is unique since its developer community has found ways to modify DMR radio equipment such as the popular TYT MD-380 to transmit and receive M17 signals. 

The OpenTRX alternate firmware along with some hardware modifications are needed but is not a fully mature approach yet.

This is interesting since TDMA based DMR is very different than M17's FDMA architecture. More details on this can be found on the M17 Integrations summary page.

It is not likely that any of the Yaesu Fusion, Icom or Kenwood D-Star equipment will permit this type of modification, so purchasing any one of the many DMR products available today not only gives you the most popular digital voice mode along with legacy analog access, but could in the future be useful for M17 as it gains prominence.

To date, there are believed to be two M17 capable repeaters in development, but there is already a digital backbone being developed to support the future of digital repeaters and the many more hot spots that will likely result. 

Summary

So summarize all the above is easy:

• DMR is still the most popular digital mode

• DMR is not likely to be passed by anything in the near future

• There are more DMR capable radios to choose from and not as impacted by supply chain issues like Yaesu or Icom.

• If you travel, DMR is likely where to find more activity excluding the use of a hotspot.

• The latest Anytone D878 which has AX.25 packet (APRS) is by far the best $299 USD utility radio to invest in for now and the near future.

• Upgrading from an older TYT MD-380 or Radioddity GD77 to an Anytone or Alinco may give a good reason to modify your old radio to be used on M17 in the near future.

• Supporting the future of the hobby via the M17 project will ensure relevance for the future to show alternatives to HF or analog VHF for terrestrial communications.

October 2020 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Since 2016, there has been a tremendous increase of repeaters that support DMR, P25, NXDN, Fusion and D-Star digital voice amateur communication. Twice a year, HVDN tracks the total growth of digital voice repeaters in articles like this one.

Much has happened in the world since May 2020 and it does not seem like repeater growth trends have been drastically affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic after looking at the last four years of data. This shows that no matter what, digital growth will continue because radio amateurs love the hobby they are part of anywhere in the world.

All digital voice repeater information pulled for this update was done October 20th 2020 at 3:00 PM Eastern US time.

October 2020 Global Digital Voice Repeater Roundup

The data source used to compile this information is repeaterbook.com which is often very reliable and accurate.  

Looking at the one year period from October 20th 2019 to October 20th 2020, we see that both DMR and P25 have the two highest growth percentages at 13.93% and 15.54% respectively.

Over the last four years from October 20th 2016 to October 20th 2020, DMR based amateur radio repeaters globally grew at a rate of 130.07% while P25 is at 140.85%.

This is not a fair comparison since volumes are drastically different, but it does show that there is huge interest in digital voice experimentation with either easy to get and affordable DMR equipment designed for the amateur enthusiast or via surplus only commercial P25 equipment that has come out of service from phase one deployments while commercial users either migrate towards phase two or systems that are LTE based cellular private networks or national programs such as the US based FirstNet.

Three Points: Why is DMR so popular globally?

There are three major reasons why DMR is the most popular global digital voice mode compared to Yaesu Fusion and Icom D-Star. NXDN and P25 are not compared further as they still are considered commercial only digital voice modes with no directly marketed amateur equipment.

Over the last year, Icom D-Star repeaters grew by 1.16% globally while Yaesu Fusion grew at 6.85%. Looking at the four years of data that HVDN has, Icom D-Star has a 19.01% growth but Fusion digital voice repeaters grew at 92.80%.

Even the commercial mode known as NXDN grew at 76.2% over the last four years and 10.4% in the last year alone. This is surprising given only surplus commercial equipment is available, such as what has been retired from certain railroads like the MTA MNRR in New York. 

Based on global repeater growth data, DMR is the most popular digital voice mode as no one invests in deploying a repeater unless there are a number of local users who will actively spend time using it. 

Point #1:  Ecosystem

Icom has done a lot to modernize amateur radio and started the modern digital voice revolution back in 2002 via its D-Star digital voice products. Yaesu came to market in 2013 with its Fusion system which used FDMA (C4FM) based technology which has superior audio characteristics over the older GFSK based Icom D-Star.  

Both vendors have a loyal following, but lack the ability to really to grow a multi-vendor ecosystem based on how the underlying digital voice technology they use could be licensed externally. 

Kenwood came to market with the first over $500 digital voice based handheld radio that supports D-Star and could only do that by adding every other possible feature into a handheld radio to help offset the high D-Star licensing costs.

Many amateur radio operators like to have choices and DMR offers that since it is based on a commercial standard that is now open source with much lower per device licensing costs.  

In 2016, there were 6 D-Star capable radios and 4 years later, there are only 7 with most of them falling in a premium price or greater category due to other non-DV features such as those found in the Icom IC-9700, IC-7100 and IC-705.  

Yaesu has 6 Fusion capable radios, which is one less than in had in 2016 and also offers higher end equipment but has a broader portfolio that appeals to entry level and advanced fans of either Fusion, Yaesu or both.

The new Icom IC-52 D-Star radio will compete
with lower cost or feature rich options such as the
 Kenwood TH-D74, Anytone D878 and Yaesu FT-3DR

The 2020 crop of DMR equipment has at least 31 products spread across 11 vendors and a few even share compatible batteries and external microphones.  Programming DMR radios via computer software is generally the same across vendors to make it easy when upgrading to another radio.  

The Radioddity GD-77 and a few other DMR radios even support community driven alternative firmware to help make an even better non vendor specific ecosystem.

For any digital voice mode to succeed, as many vendors as possible need to have cross compatibility just like we have with the 30+ year old analog FM based equipment.

Point #2:  Price

Because of how the D-Star technology is licensed, this contributes to higher costs of D-Star hardware and is why Icom is the only major supplier of D-Star equipment. 

Even after its introduction in 2002, it has only seen Kenwood support D-Star through its very high end TH-D74 handheld radio which boasts a very wide feature set that appeals to radio enthusiasts not only looking for a dependable digital voice capable radio. 

DMR has become popular in introducing digital voice to many radio amateurs because they are less expensive compared to the flag ship products offered by Yaesu with its FT-3DR handheld or the new but not yet released Icom IC-52. 

While both radios are full touch screen and lack a full keypad, the DMR Anytone 878 handheld retails for more than 50% less than its Fusion or D-Star counterparts and is just as dependable in terms of quality, usability and construction. 

Icom will sell many of the new IC-705 radios, but likely
not just because it is D-Star capable

Yaesu only started to see a large increase in repeater deployments after it released lower cost entry level equipment such as the FT-70 handheld or the FTM-7250 mobile radio.  Icom still does not have a handheld or mobile radio close in price to a Fusion or DMR radio.  

For Icom to succeed long term in digital voice, the IC-52 and any other products need to be priced closer to where DMR is succeeding.

Point #3: Resilience

DMR offers the only ability for a repeater owner to deploy a system that is not in any way dependent on the internet.  Icom's D-Star requires users to have a registered ID and to be associated with a specific home repeater. The Yaesu Fusion system does not require a separate ID and relies just an an amateur radio callsign, but repeaters need to be internet connected to function.

When looking at DMR, a repeater owner can support two separate discussions at the same time on the same frequency without the internet. This becomes powerful when properly implemented especially when there is internet accessibility to share the repeater with other non local users.  

An ID is required for DMR but the entire database of global users can be stored in your own radio.

When thinking about multiple networked repeaters, DMR offers much more flexibility to those looking to cover wide areas without true internet compared to Fusion or D-Star.

The next four years

Since 2016,  HVDN has tracked digital voice technology to help educate radio amateurs globally, across the United States, in just New York and even just in the local area known as the Hudson Valley.

Based on our data, its clear that DMR is the current technology that is likely still going to be dominant over the next four years and possibly another twelve.  While a new CODEC2 based open source digital voice mode is in development called M17, this is nothing that will impact the market until they have reliable equipment and supporting infrastructure. 

In early October 2020, Steve K2GOG of HVDN gave a presentation about digital voice to the Orange County Amateur Radio Club (OCARC) in the Hudson Valley looking for guidance on what to invest in plus how to factor in hotspot impacts on how amateurs are using digital voice today.

No matter what, the next few years will be important as the amateur radio hobby continues to evolve and digital voice must be considered as part of that change in order to remain relevant for another 100 years.

Past Related Articles

• May 2020 Global Digital Repeater Roundup
• October 2019 Global Digital Repeater Round Up
• NXDN: What is it and where is it?
• May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Round Up
• May 2018 Global Digital Repeater Round Up
• Basic Digital Voice Infrastructure Round Up (Q1 2018 Edition)

May 2020 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Two times each year, HVDN tracks the total growth of digital voice repeaters.  Since 2016, there has been a tremendous increase of repeaters that support DMR, P25, NXDN, Fusion and D-Star digital voice amateur communication. 

Much has happened in the world since October 2019 and it does not seem like repeater growth trends have been drastically affected by the global COVID-19 pandemic after looking at the May 2020 data.  

All data pulled for this update was done on May 29th 2020 at 3:00 PM Eastern US time.

May 2020 Global Digital Voice Repeater Roundup

The data source used to compile this information is repeaterbook.com which is often very reliable and accurate.  

There are no major surprises across the top 3 adopted digital voice modes other than that D-Star continues to trend towards stagnation with a measly 0.74% growth in new repeater deployments globally in the last 9 months.  

For comparison, Fusion has grown 2.7% in the same period and DMR has an impressive 7.7% increase since our last update.

The only networks seeing more traffic on them are those that are driven by DMR.  Spending time in different virtual rooms in Fusion and D-Star have not seen much change, but DMR is a different story with Brandmeister, TGIF and DMR+ being just three networks enabled by DMR with many more users.

While Yaesu Fusion (C4FM) and Icom D-Star (GFSK) are the only "amateur only" digital modes, DMR (TDMA) thanks to its open standard is more unique and is why its the most popular with equipment vendors. Different products on the market drive more interest and purchases, which also drives reason behind repeaters for being around in the first place.

A blend of both commercial and amateur grade hand held and mobile radio DMR products create a wider multi-vendor ecosystem for users to select equipment from which helps the demand for additional repeaters.

Comparing Modes (Commercial & Amateur)

In comparison,  NXDN and P25 only have commercial products to chose from since they are directed at professional users. These are often only adopted by the amateur radio community as second hand or used products mainly due to original high costs.  

While limited ranges of attainable equipment for NXDN and P25 inhibits wide scale adoption by radio amateurs, it is interesting to see that P25 has a 6.7% growth of digital repeaters in the last 9 months which may be due to commercial equipment coming out of service and finding an immediate second life in the amateur radio community. 

In regards to NXDN, there is a much smaller set of data is available with more than 70% less NXDN repeaters compared to P25. 

The growth of NXDN repeaters has been a crazy 52.4% growth since HVDN started tracking the data four years ago, but at 126 repeaters globally, you have limited options compared to other modes.

Why does DMR keep growing?

If there is one thing that has been made clear in past articles, the main reason why DMR continues to see wide adoption is cheap equipment.   

First, lets look at Icom and the D-Star ecosystem.  Late 2016 is when the first non-Icom branded D-Star radio came to market since 2004.  

The Kenwood TH-D74 marked a momentous occasion for D-Star enthusiasts, but at over $500 USD, only very picky amateurs have purchased this radio and many of them buying it for the total sum of all other features and not just D-Star.

In comparison to the pricey Kenwood TH-D74 which has been reviewed here on HVDN as well as used to demonstrate satellite communications at public events, the Icom ID-51A Plus 2 model up until recently retailed for $349.95 USD as the only other dual band D-Star capable hand held radio. 

The Anytone D878 is considered the current "flagship" DMR dual band handheld at only $209 USD for comparison.

Icom: Cause and effect

Icom has decided to discontinue this radio and blames the inability to source components for it thanks to supply chain disruptions in China during the Corona Virus situation.  

This honestly sounds like an excuse to either let D-Star finally die off or for them to reboot Icom around a lower cost range of equipment like what Yaesu has done to propel its Fusion ecosystem to new heights.

The real curious thing right now about Icom without a dual band digital voice D-Star handheld radio is that its upcoming but also delayed portable HF/VHF/UHF IC-705 radio was to use the same battery pack as the ID-51 series.  

If Icom will turn the corner and be relevant in a post COVID world, they need to release the IC-705 and also put out battery compatible hand held radios to drive an Icom lifestyle ecosystem.  

The strategy they hinted at in building an ecosystem around a common accessory such as a battery would have been genius, but now it looks like many are confused as to what is going on with that company.

Feeling the Fusion with Yaesu

Its not worth spending much time talking about Yaesu as they launched a number of mono and dual band fusion capable radios at affordable prices and this seems to have worked well for them if we go on the growth of repeaters when most mobile users depend on reliable communication infrastructure to communicate through.  

The FT-3200DR 2m only Fusion mobile though was just discontinued after a short life on the market, but the identical FTM-3207DR for 70cm use is still an active product at less than $180 for a 55 W UHF only radio. 

Right now it appears the new FTM-300DR (pictured below) dual band mobile for under $500 will be a popular new radio as a slightly less expensive option compared to the $100+ more expensive FTM-400XDR.  

But, for those looking for a dual band fusion mobile on a budget, the FTM-7250DR at less than $220 is a tough deal to beat and for even Icom to compete with in the mobile category.

Yaesu even seems to have worked out the strategy for hand held radios by offering its FT-70 dual band Fusion radio for around $170 USD and as low as $130 USD on sale.  They also have the higher end and feature packed FT-3DR for $389.99 USD.  

Essentially with Yaesu Fusion, for under $400 in total, you could buy at FT-70 handheld plus an FTM-7250 mobile and that is hard to beat even compared to any DMR or D-Star combination of both categories.

The change of Yaesu's portfolio and pricing tiers started in 2018, for technology that rolled out in 2013.  Prior to 2018, Fusion seemed to be on life support much like D-Star has been for at least the last ten years. It is good to see Yaesu leveraging the supply chain and listening to customers to drive its business.

If anyone caught reference to using a bonsai tree as the banner image for this article, its pretty clear that one of the two Japanese vendors has intentionally stunted growth for its digital voice strategy for the foreseeable future. 

HVDN does hope this near term three step backward approach from Icom may take them five steps forward via the IC-705 and possibly some new D-Star equipment offered by Icom or maybe another vendor like Kenwood, which has also dwarfed its product portfolio in recent years. Both vendors may surprise the community if they have been watching Yaesu, Anytone and others with competing digital voice offerings. 

China:  Land of the DMR radio vendor

In our October 2019 update, we mentioned the Anytone D578 pictured below which is the first true dual band, dual receive DMR radio available on the market. 

This, plus the popular CSI, TYT and a few other products give the community more choice for use in a car or fixed location where higher transmit power is sought after as compared to the vendor lock in strategy employed by Yaesu and Icom.

With the current economic and political situations influenced by COVID-19,  there could be a huge opportunity for Icom to ditch D-Star or introduce a dual D-Star/DMR product that would be a total game changer, especially if it incorporates AX.25 based APRS plus D-APRS along with the D-RATS capability. 

This is just wishful thinking now and it should be interesting to see what is new on the market in October 2020 and how repeater deployments trend through the rest of this and into next year.

October 2019 Global Digital Repeater Round Up

Twice a year, HVDN tracks the total growth of digital voice repeaters.  Since 2016, there has been a tremendous increase of repeaters that support DMR, P25, NXDN, Fusion and D-Star digital voice amateur communication.  All but one of these modes are showing fantastic growth. Lets find out which...


October 2019 Global Digital Voice Repeater Roundup


According to repeaterbook.com data, DMR is the first digital voice mode to surpass the 3,000 repeater mark globally.

Just as long as those updating this website do so with accurate details, if you were traveling somewhere today and could only take one radio with you, a DMR radio along with its legacy analog FM capability would be the best choice followed by Yaesu Fusion and Icom D-Star. 

The chances are also higher that an area with more of one type of digital voice repeater may also have more simplex activity or non-internet connected digital voice repeaters, so it could not hurt to program appropriate digital voice channels or scan around for even more repeaters than what repeaterbook.com may list.

The P25 and NXDN commercial mode amateur radio repeaters are too limited on a global scale, but may have pockets of high activity in certain geographies. Any example of this from a NXDN perspective was covered in an HVDN article entitled "NXDN: What is it and where is it?" which may be be updated in the coming year.

Considering that both of these modes do not have any amateur market only equipment available, its still interesting to see higher percentage growth over the same time period compared to Icom D-Star, which is the oldest digital amateur voice mode currently available as detailed in a presentation on Digital Modes and Hot Spots given by Joe, N1JTA at the Trenton Computer Festival.

In a three year span from October 2016 to October 2019, here are the growth percentages of digital voice repeaters:

• Yaesu Fusion = 80.43%
• Icom D-Star =  17.64%
• DMR = 101.94%
• P25 = 108.45%
• NXDN = 52.43%

Even though DMR is the most popular, Yaesu Fusion is close behind.  The best "audio" according to many is found on Fusion and also translates the best to other modes via Pi-Star, including P25.

It would also be wise to travel with one of the MMDVM Pi-Star "hot spot" devices which can fill in gaps where there is no repeater coverage, but where there is internet access.

The DMR and Fusion modes also offer the most flexibility for mode translation, which means that you can use a DMR or Fusion radio with a hot spot to "talk through" other mode networks such as all those listed here with little exception. Further detail on this can be found on the Pi-Star website.  Thanks to these two modes, we may see a growth of P25 and NXDN as a result. 

What drives digital voice repeater growth?


To access a repeater, you need a hand held or mobile digital voice radio.  Since a repeater is expensive, those who decide to install one often know that there are users with radios that may access the repeater.

Another driving reason for digital voice repeater growth is a wide array of equipment and cost points.  DMR has seen success because of lower cost "entry level" radios selling for as little as $60 USD such as the Baofeng DM-1801 or Radioddity GD-77, but also higher end equipment thanks to better quality radios marketed to both the amateur and commercial user too numerous to list here. 

Many vendors are also selling DMR equipment which creates more choice for buyers and this competition is a good thing should someone have had a personal bad experience with one vendor for one reason or another. 

Yaesu Fusion is the only mode that has only one vendor behind it, but offers equipment at various prices and incentives to entice buyers. This strategy has certainly helped Yaesu since prior to 2018, it followed the same "hold the price high" strategy that Icom has adopted.

Both Yaesu Fusion and DMR also offer different accessory options such as microphones, chargers and batteries to ensure a buyer stays within a particular brand of equipment. Yaesu generally has great fan's of its equipment and this was a smart move to ensure brand loyalty. A recent example of this was the same battery pack can be used with the FT-2DR and its latest FT-3DR model.

Icom is the majority equipment vendor for D-Star with only Kenwood having a single radio capable of this GFSK based digital voice mode.  The cost to license the underlying technology from the JARL is very high and has prevented other vendors from embracing this technology.

Impact 2020: The latest digital voice radios

There are two very exciting new digital voice radios just about to come to market directed at the amateur radio community. Both offer features not just for digital voice mode users, so these create two great ways for people to expand interest in different parts of the hobby.

The Icom IC-705 is the first highly portable D-Star radio that combines 2m and 70cm capability along with HF for long range communication.  This new radio also allows the Icom ID-51 handheld radio battery to be used with the IC-705, so for those that have this other radio and its accessories on hand, buying this radio for portable use could be a good long term decision.

The main market Icom is looking to gain market share in with this radio clearly is the market category that the Yaesu FT-817 expanded back in 2001 .  Both radios and the 2018 refresh version of the original FT-817 named the FT-818 have competition from Xiegu, Elecraft and a few others that sell portable QRP power HF equipment. Icom could make the IC-705 a real winner, but for every reason not related to D-Star.

There are many other reasons that make the IC-705 interesting, but are outside the scope of this article.  However, it was worth mentioning that Icom does appear to be trying to maintain ecosystem users since the Icom ID-51 has proven popular and could be a good way to sell many IC-705.

Looking at the DMR ecosystem, the long awaited Anytone AT-D578UVIII is going to offer a 2m/70cm model for outside of North America and a version with the 220 MHz 1.25m band in the United States and Canada.  Expected availability for purchase is now late October due to manufacturing issues given the current economical climate or other factors.

This mobile radio will also be the first DMR radio to offer true dual band. dual receive capability. While this radio lacks a remote head for more flexible installations in a vehicle, this radio will certainly become popular for many reasons, including use from a home location.

With the only other mobile DMR radios being somewhat limited, if Anytone has learned from past education, this radio is going to become very popular, very quickly.  Since a mobile radio offers extended range while mobile, this single radio may influence even more DMR repeaters to come online in 2020.

Digital Voice Repeater Outlook

Based on a global estimate of 19,500 analog repeaters, in time this number will shrink as equipment becomes not worth repairing or being able to be re-purposed for digital modes.  Digital repeaters may reach the total number of global analog repeaters one day, but will never truly replace nearly 40 years of analog advancements.  The official estimate of HVDN is that by the end of 2021, there should be over 11,000 digital voice amateur repeaters globally. 

Past Global Digital Repeater Round Up Articles

• May 2019 Global Digital Repeater Round Up
• October 2018 Global Digital Repeater Round Up
• May 2018 Global Digital Repeater Round Up
• Basic Digital Voice Infrastructure Round Up (Q1 2018)

Firmware Is Fun: 2019 Kenwood Updates

As June 2019 comes to an end, there are many exciting things taking place within amateur radio and included in the list is a firmware update to three APRS capable Kenwood radios including the TH--D74.

Yaesu is getting ready to ship its new FT-3DR  in July 2019 which includes APRS and Fusion capability. The new firmware that Kenwood has rolled out to the TH-D72, TH-D74, TM-D710 and TM-V71 will allow some of the more Yaesu specific APRS telemetry to be easily decoded on the Kenwood radios.

Most exciting in the release notes include the Kenwood radio ability to decode telemetry from the new PSAT2 satellite launched via the historic SpaceX Falcon Heavy during the early morning hours of Tuesday June 26th 2019. The PSAT2 satellite carries some interesting payloads for amateur communication and it is nice to see a vendor such as Kenwood being ready to support it.

The Kenwood TH-D74 is the only non Icom branded radio to support the D-Star digital voice mode. The firmware update also provides new functionality to allow enhanced reflector access using XLX as well as REF, DCS and XRF connection methods.   

While this is not ground breaking on the oldest digital voice mode in use today in amateur radio, it does provide some renewed interest and capability to better use the Kenwood TH-D74 in certain "cross mode" situations to enable limited communications into other digital voice networks that use Yaesu Fusion, DMR, NXDN and P25.

The firmware updates can be found on the Kenwood website for amateur radio downloads

Instructions to upgrade the firmware for the TH-D74 are very clear and easy to follow. 

One thing to note is that the file name appears to be for the TH-D74E version which denotes European specific functionality, but is indeed for the TH-D74A in use across countries that have 220 MHz band licensing as well as different repeater offsets.  

After upgrading my TH-D74A with the 1.09 firmware, there was no loss of functionality. 

This is perhaps the first firmware issued by a vendor in a while that adds functionality and did not need to improve any features that were not functioning to best of ability.