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. 

Huge Packet Loss: WB4APR goes SK

Bob Bruninga WB4APR has left a huge impact on the amateur radio community and will be missed greatly.  His legacy as the inventor of "Automatic Packet Reporting System" or APRS for short created entirely new product categories and use cases for low speed packet data dating back to the late 1980's. 

Almost 40 years later, the use of APRS continued to evolve and Bob was still very active in giving presentations and sharing ideas on how else to use this aspect of amateur radio even after he was diagnosed with cancer in 2020. His passing in February of 2022 was not a surprise, but something many hoped would not happen.

K2GOG's Kenwood TH-D74 receiving Bob WB4APR 
while traveling in Connecticut in 2017.

Remembering WB4APR: K2GOG Memories

Before I became a licensed radio amateur, a friend of mine, Scott WA2INP but was KB2UZQ back then, had an uncle James KB2RSB who was interested in connecting computers to radio.  

In the late 1990's, the internet was not what we know it as today and amateur radio "bulletin board systems" or BBS's were popular ways to share information across a network of VHF packet gateways on Long Island where I grew up. 

While most people at the time were using packet BBS from home, James was doing this from his car with a laptop, mobile radio and modem.

This was super interesting to me and I was motivated to make the jump from CB to amateur radio because of this moment in time.

Just a few years later, Kenwood released the TH-D7a handheld radio which had built in APRS and packet communications. I saved up money from my job at Radio Shack and traveled into Manhattan to Barry Electronics to purchase this new radio.

The owner, Barry, was surprised someone of my age (19?) has the cash to afford this expensive radio and wanted to make sure I could pay for it before he got it from his inventory. I forked over my obscene amount of cash for the radio, spare battery and speaker mic. My parents were not happy on how much money I just spent on my new hobby.

Playing with this radio on the Long Island Rail Road ride home was my entry to the future and something that even inspired my career which included LBS engineering at Sprint after leaving Radio Shack and before diving into the market research/advisory world I have been in ever since, focusing on commercial telematics and location aware technology among other things.

Soon after getting the battery charged up after the long train ride home, I connected the TH-D7ag to a Sharp OZ-770 pocket organizer which had serial terminal features.

Quickly I was then using the tiny organizer connected to my radio to connect to the local packet BBS. I think the first thing I downloaded over that 1200 baud connection was a basic overview of APRS.

A few pay checks later, I went to West Marine and purchased a Garmin GPSIII.  This was an early portable GPS unit which was as big as the Kenwood radio itself.  Connecting the GPS with a mess of bulky cables to the radio gave me the ability to share my location with other radio amateurs and share text messages back and forth. Demonstrating this at the LIMARC ARRL Field Day in 2003 amazed many people who could watch my location in real time as I rode my bike around the Field Day site and the signal was received by Rich N2STU, SK back under the shaded operating tents with computers.

Considering by 2004,  its crazy to imagine how far things have come since then about APRS. I have done so much with APRS over the past 17 years which is best saved for another day.

I have two parallel paths in the early 2000's which meant I could take my Motorola StarTac phone and connect it to my organizer to access the internet at a blazing 19.2kbps or use my ham radio gear for other communication needs.

Ever since that time, it has been fascinating to watch how mobile broadband and location aware communications has evolved in the commercial world as well as for the normal every day consumer with our smartphones today.

Over the years I would have occasional communication with Bob on a range of topics hobby and non hobby related, but still focused around situational awareness.

I owe a lot to Bob WB4APR for his contributions and he will be missed!

Lasting Impact of WB4APR

The amateur radio hobby has lost a huge asset and Bob will truly be missed.   While HVDN was only formed in 2017, APRS has been a very popular topic on our blog as the third most popular tag behind "DMR" and "SDR".  Here is a short list of some of the APRS focused articles to show how wide an impact Bob has made just in the last few years.

• Doing "data stuff" over VHF/UHF FM?

• APRS with your Alinco DJ-MD5XTG or Anytone AT-D878UVII

• What the heck is APRStt?

• UPCOMING 5/17/2021 HVDN:LIVE - Putting balloons into the sky with USMA

• The Farmacy Seeds Network Presents: Learning about APRS + more with Peter KC2ASA

• Sure to OK: Fixing the HG-UV98

• RDF in the HV with OMARC and HVDN

• APRS, LP-WAN and more with SDRangel

• HVDN:GO - APRS Bridge Contest 2020

• Building a Sound card Interface

• How To Guide: Satellite Based APRS iGate

• Review Update: New PicoAPRS Model(s) & Firmware Update

• Look Up! 2 Different Amateur Location Technolologies

• A National DMR Location Services Proposal

• Review: Xiaomi Mijia Dual Band Location Enabled HT

• Amateur Satellite Basics: Where, When & What to listen for

• Easy DMR GPS: MD-380G Tutorial

• PicoAPRS v2 Review & Test

• Mobilinkd TNC2: Bluetooth APRS on the cheap!

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

Great, another DMR radio? But, with real 220 MHz?

Alinco was the first main stream amateur radio vendor to offer a DMR radio way back in 2016 with its  DJ-MD40 UHF only radio.  Less than two years later, they came to market with the dual band DJ-MD5TGP which included a GPS and was roughly based on the same reference design as the popular Anytone D878UV. Main stream being defined as Alinco often being included alongside Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu.

With many other radios such as the TYT MD-UV380, Radioddity GD-77, Baofeng DM-1801 and Ailunce HD1 offering dual band spectrum coverage at various price and feature differences, it looks like Alinco is about to offer its second generation version of its 2018 released "MD5" radio for short and it will offer a few things not found elsewhere, including a third band for some markets! 

This now further cements that Alinco is only going to focus on DMR for the amateur market, Kenwood and Icom on D-Star and Yaesu on Fusion for the time being until hopefully the HVDN backed M17 project and its TR-9 open source radio finds a manufacturing partner in China or maybe with one of the main stream vendors to stop fragmentation with so many competing digital modes.

How many MD5 are there?

There has always been some confusion while looking at discussion boards on Facebook as to how many different MD5 radios are there and the answer has always been two.

The DJ-MD5TGP has been the more expensive version and included a GPS.  The slightly lower cost DJ-MD5T is identical, but does not have the GPS and typically sells for $20 less.  Both versions are covered under the FCC ID of PH3DJ-MD5. The earlier DJ-MD40 can be found under FCC ID PH3DJ-MD5. 

The new, but not yet FCC certified Alinco DJ-MD5XT is going to likely require its own FCC ID as early documentation shows that this will be the first true tri-band DMR radio which will cover the 2m, 70cm and 1.25m amateur radio bands, plus extended receive above and below the VHF and UHF bands as usual. 

Looking in the just released computer programming software available on the Remtronix website, it clearly shows an option under MHF for 220 to 225 MHz.

Hackers are already salivating....

When it was discovered that certain band combinations would allow reception and transmission above 480 MHz just like in the Anytone D878UV and BTECH 6X2, Alinco was quick to issue new firmware to prevent this, but was easily bypassed with a 3rd party software tool to enable 480 to 520 MHz coverage. 

These extra frequencies are sought after in countries like Australia where there are UHF CB channels and in the United States where first responders such as New York City Police and Fire user channels above 480 MHz. 

Without spending time attempting to get an Alinco MD-5TGP with or without the patched 1.13c or 1.10 firmware to work with the CPS 1.09a meant for the new Alinco DJ-MD5XT, it would likely appear that the new Alinco DJ-MDXT due to having a band option meant for 1.25m should suggest there is different hardware inside that will offer safe operation of the 220 MHz band.

While many radios mentioned in this article can be "hacked" to give the impression they will work on the 1.25 band, it is not suggested to transmit as it will ruin the RF power amplifier and filtering in the radio since it is not designed for that spectrum.  Hopefully the Alinco DJ-MD5XT will support this great and underutilized band available only in the United States and few other countries globally. 

Related Reading

• FLASH NEWS!: Alinco MD-5 Series Cleared by FCC (Published Sept 20th 2018)

• The Official "NOT" Review of the Alinco MD-5 Series (Published Oct 4th 2018)

• Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio (Published Nov 7th 2018)

• Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review (Published Nov 18th 2018)

• Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP (Published March 7th 2019)

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.

Yaesu FT-3 Instruction Manual Review

Perhaps HVDN will start a new trend where we do a review of instruction manuals and everyone else follows along. Lets start this amazing idea off with the FCC approved Yaesu FT-3 radio manual now available.

FCC ID:  K6620725X20 Manual Review

So many products today in amateur radio land almost seem to ship with little documented information on how to use them.  As digital voice radios continue to get more complex, there are "certain vendors" that do not put any effort into a decent instruction manual.

Yaesu is one vendor that actually does put forth good effort in trying to document almost every function, quirk and specification possible, so we thank you very much for that.

This article will hit on a few interesting nuggets found in the new Yaesu FT-3 C4FM capable dual band hand held radio.  We will not discuss the "how to install the battery or hand-strap" unfortunately.

As predicted with absolute precision all the way back on May 28th 2019 in our "FCC Update:  FT-3 cleared for launch" article, the instruction manual would be made public for our eyes to gawk at on July 10th.  A much better version will soon appear on the Yaesu website though, so please be aware of that.

This basic manual is not even available on Yaesu's website yet.  For anyone ever complaining about government dysfunction, the person responsible for pressing buttons at the FCC is doing a great job.

 Lets Review Page....

The really fantastic thing about page 11 is that Yaesu is pretty much telling us specifically that battery life will be near horrible with this radio just like the brochure pointed out so we all knew what we were in for after the $500 investment involved in acquiring a Yaesu FT-3.

For those interested in UHF operation, perhaps changing over to VHF would be a better experience for anything requiring slightly better battery life.  The Yaesu FT-3 out of the gate sounds like a great radio to mostly listen versus talk for any length of time, which is OK because most repeaters have very little traffic on them these days or do they?

This is the Yaesu FT-3 radio that this
article is focused on, of course.

Who ever is selling VHF capable hot spot devices should increase prices now to reap the benefits of Yaesu publishing this specification.  Quite a bit of activity can be discovered globally by using a Fusion radio with a device like one of many Pi-Star based MMDVM devices or the Open Spot 2.

The older Yaesu FT-2 battery will also fit the FT-3 which is nice, so stock up on those now before those get scarce in case third party vendors stop selling them or stocking aftermarket versions.

This is the Yaesu FT-2 which lacked C4FM
and a color screen found on the new FT-3

Vendors who sell the Anytone, TYT and Radioddity gear have for a few years now been running great deals on packages that include a spare battery, but we will likely never see Yaesu, Kenwood or Icom ever do something like that even if you purchase a $500 USD radio.

The last note on battery life is,  do not go anywhere with your new radio. The manufacturer is clear that any disturbance such as a warm fart or brief trip to the outhouse while playing ham radio may reduce the life of your battery.

The ability to receive in AM mode is actually a major benefit so that you can listen to aircraft communications in the VHF 118-136.995 MHz portion.  There is no voice communication in the 108  to 118 MHz segment as that is reserved for navigational aids.

The "hidden feature" is the ability to swap to AM in the 138 to 144,  148 to 150 MHz for military "air to air" or "air to ground" communications.   The same holds true within the 225 to 400 MHz band which is considered the domain of military operations around the world, including these big guys flying out of Stewart Air Force Base right here in the Hudson Valley of New York and tracked using the HVDN ADS-B monitor.  The FT-3 can only monitor voice transmissions in the above mentioned frequency range and not the 1090 MHz or 978 MHz transponder signals which is what ADS-B is for.

Not everything in this band segment is AM though, so having a look at the UHF Satcom website for other ideas might not be a bad idea when there is no activity on the 2m and 70cm ham bands.

Compared to the Kenwood TH-F6 and TH-D74, there is no SSB mode on the Yaesu FT-3, so HF monitoring will be limited to only AM broadcasters or the rare AM enthusiast on the 80m or 10m bands.

Lets skip ahead a bunch of pages to talk about a feature involving the use of Yaesu Fusion which is the digital voice mode they have adopted.  The above graphic shows some interesting use cases for the advanced calling function which may help use one frequency for many users at the same time.

In the 1990's there were many radios by different vendors that offered selective calling features not too different than this. Yaesu is touting this as a major feature of the FT-3, but your use will be limited to only people with a Yaesu radio with the same feature.

Back in the day for example, the Yaesu FT-530 was top of the line and funny enough, commands a price used on par with that of the FT-3 smaller sibling known as the FT-70. Neither new radio supports the cool external display speaker microphone though, but the FT-3 does have an option for a microphone that can take and send pictures, with images view-able on the color screen on this latest Yaesu radio.

The FT-530 was a great radio.
Does it not look like fun to use?

Right now the only other handheld Fusion radio is the FT-70, which retails for less than $160 USD and offers all the same C4FM functionality as the $500 FT-3 radio.  It is not clear if these extra selective calling features or picture sending option will help sell these radios except if there are groups buying in bulk and require these functions for some reason along with the appropriate accessories.

Here is more detail on calling functions in the menu system along with a really nice abbreviation for "Weather Alert"  which is a US market only feature that will certainly see more use compared to the different squelch, DTMF and Bell features. For analog FM ham radio use,  tone and to a lesser extent, DCS will also see a lot of use for FM analog repeater use.

There is plenty of detail on one of the stand out features of the FT-3 which sets it apart from the FT-70 which is APRS. Using 1200 baud data packets, the user can exchange location details with other users along with sending text messages. The APRS feature set can be used to communicate to any APRS radio including those produced by Kenwood, Alinco, Icom and the new Lanch HG-98 radio at a very affordable price.

Its worth noting that the FT-3 can store multiple paths for APRS which is helpful for those interested in satellite communications and may use "ARISS" to bounce off the International Space Station digipeater when it is powered up or any of the APRS capable LEO satellites such as NO-84, NO-44 and PSAT2. 

The FT-3 is also capable of high speed 9600 baud APRS  which is what Falconsat3 uses and requires a path setting of PFS3-1 rather than the normal WIDE1-1, WIDE2-1 settings for ground based use.

Have you ever wondered what the "Mode of Emission" is and why a vendor can not simply decode it for us to understand what they are for?  Here is what modes the Yaesu FT-3 can decode for your listening pleasure:

• F2D means (F) Frequency modulation + (2) One channel containing digital information, using a subcarrier + (D) Data transmission, telemetry or telecommand (remote control).  This all works out to the so called C4FM Fusion mode but could also apply to APRS signals too.

• F3E would work out to (F) Frequency modulation + (3) One channel containing analog information + (E)  Telephony (voice or music intended to be listened to by a human).  This is also known as "analog FM"

• F7W to close out means (F) Frequency modulation + (7) More than one channel containing digital information + (W) Combination of any of the above. This means the FT-3 could while using C4FM based Fusion could handle some sort of data and voice at the same time but split across multiple channels. 

While that helps understand what can be received, on transmit the FT-3 has even more to offer as we will soon see.

Beyond the already explained F2D, F3E, F7W modes the Yaesu FT-3 can also transmit F1D which is frequency modulation with (1) One channel containing digital information, no sub-carrier and (D) Data transmission, telemetry or telecommand (remote control).  This is what APRS is technically defined as.  The F7W mode is also defined as 4 FSK (C4FM) which is the fancy way to name Fusion.

What did we miss?

What I was really hoping to learn was possible to do some level of programming remotely via bluetooth of this new radio.  Right now, that looks like a big fat no and a reason that the Kenwood TH-D74 is a good purchase even though it supports D-Star, also known as F7W but totally different.  The Kenwood can however receive J3E, A3E and A1E modes.  You can look those up right over here thanks to Wikipedia.

The advanced FT-3 user manual

Lets just stop right there. The advanced manual is not yet out, but why not go out grab a copy of the existing basic manual from the FCC, Yaesu website or better yet, right here for convenience since we know you will not really read it anyway.

Yaesu FT-3 Radio Basic Manual Download

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.

October 2018 Global Digital Repeater Round Up

It is truly amazing to see such tremendous growth in digital voice modes the last two years.

What started for Steve K2GOG in 2016 as a theory can now further be validated by fact. DMR was the right technology to invest in as it relates to amateur radio digital voice technology.

In October 2016, he presented an overview of competing digital voice standards at one of the local Hudson Valley of New York amateur radio clubs located in Ulster County. 

Since that point in time, he has taken 4 probes of the total number of repeater counts globally as well as for those just across New York State.

The current global state of just what will be now further defined as "wide area digital repeaters" has seen DMR grow an amazing 78.03% in a two year span. 

Wide area repeaters are one of the best ways to measure growth of digital voice mode adoption because the equipment needed is expensive.  Repeaters usually are only worth the investment if users have appropriate equipment that can access them.

So, a little of "what comes first, the chicken or the egg" scenario usually happens when it comes to repeater deployments.

The N2MCI DMR repeater in Kingston, NY has a core coverage
area in red and extended coverage area in green.

Since repeaters can be expensive and are designed to reach a wide audience of users typically located in a 30 to 60 mile radius, the operators of repeaters typically list these infrastructure resources on the repeaterbook.com website to make it easy for amateur radio users to find out what repeaters may be worth programming into hand held or mobile radios.

The repeaterbook.com website is not 100% perfect as a data source, but comes pretty close to chart growth patterns of amateur radio repeater deployments

The below chart shows the other major digital voice mode repeaters globally at various points in time over the last 2 years.

DMR:  Reasons Why It Grew The Most

Before we get to DMR, lets explore the second highest globally adopted digital voice mode known as Yaesu Fusion.

After a few years of being on the market alongside the Icom D-Star system, both vendors offered comparably priced digital voice equipment and few options to choose from.

The average cost of a digital voice capable hand held radio was just above $300 back in 2016.  This inhibited adoption of Fusion and has certainly had a negative impact on Icom D-Star.

The Yaesu FT-2DR when released in 2015/2016 was priced at $379. The 2018 FT-70DR which
also offers Fusion and less robust enhanced features found on the FT-2DR is only $169.99. Currently there are 3 Fusion dual band handheld radios for sale compared to 2 Icom D-Star models

In 2018, Yaesu released the FT-70 dual band FM and Fusion radio which is currently priced at well under $200. This is one reason that made it easier to adopt Fusion thanks to more aligned features and pricing to help it catch up to DMR which has mostly had lower priced equipment from the start.

Prior to Yaesu releasing this moderately priced FT-70 hand held radio, they also released some nicely priced mobile radios as well to help build out the overall ecosystem of Fusion capable radios available for purchase.  Icom in comparison has not done this.

This should partially explain the flat growth of Icom D-Star compared to Yaesu Fusion.

Getting Back To DMR

DMR is an open ETSI standard which made it easier for vendors to offer a product at a good price without having to pay to license technology such as D-Star which is majority owned by the Japanese Amateur Radio League. 

In October 2016, Fusion and DMR had just about the same number of repeaters globally and almost grew at the same pace until mid to late 2017. In 2018, things are clearly different with DMR.

With more dual band DMR options available both in hand held and mobile radio design, users have certainly taken notice and likely helped influence DMR repeater deployments.

As of October 2018, there are now 5 different manufacturers of dual band hand held radios and a few more models spread among them. Examples include:

• TYT MD-UV380

• Anytone D868

• TYT MD-2017

• Retevis RT-82 

• TYT  MD-UV390  

• Radioddity GD-77 

• Ailunce HD1

• BTECH 6X2 

• Connect Systems CS580 

• Alinco MD-5

What about NXDN and P25?

NXDN and P25 are aimed at commercial users, but the amateur radio community has started to use surplus or retired equipment within the VHF and UHF amateur spectrum.

Adoption is low, but its still too early to tell if either of these options in the next 3-5 years will replace DMR as it relates to amateur radio.


Predictions for 2019 Digital Voice Ham Radio

Hopefully this is not going too far out on a limb, but here are the predictions for the coming year.

Alinco was the first main stream vendor to offer a DMR radio with its MD-40, but saw little adoption due to price compared to similar radios like the MD-380.

Alinco's new MD-5 looks like it will be a winner based on features and price and may get the later adopters interested in DMR in case they do not trust some of these newer vendors listed above.

It has been rumored that Alinco, Connect Systems and possibly one other vendor will offer new dual band mobile radios in 2019 as well which will likely go over well globally.

Excluding hotspot devices, network radios and cross connect systems which will all be covered in future articles, it seems that DMR is as close to an FM analog replacement technology within amateur radio.

Perhaps Icom, Yaesu or Kenwood will release a DMR radio in 2019 based on market demand and lost opportunity.

What do you think are some likely predictions for digital voice repeaters or radios in 2019?