I'm an old fashioned lifelong CW ragchewer with growing interests in other facets of amateur radio. I can count on one hand the number of times I've used a 2-meter repeater for a QSO. I'm considering the purchase of a Icom ID-51a, which is a D-Star enabled handheld, but I don't know much about modern 2-meter FM and I know absolutely nothing about D-Star. Can I use this unit on a normal, non-digital repeater? What about D-Star? Is this popular on 2-meters or 440MHz? One of the reasons I want the Icom ID-51a is that it receives on aircraft bands (AM) which most 2-meter handhelds so not. I'm not sure I care about D-Star, but then again, who knows? I might get interested in digital 2-meter FM.
Thanks,
K1AY |
