I have an Icom ID-5100 that I've been using in my truck for analog use.  I like the radio but I've been getting into DMR pretty heavily.  Today I decided I'd get DSTAR going and was disappointed to find next to nothing in my area for repeaters.  Denver and the Front Range have a large ham community with a ton of DMR repeaters so this surprised me a bit.  I'm half tempted to ditch the ID-5100 and find a DMR radio to replace it.  Only problem is my mobile install requires a radio with removable face plate.  Anyone know of a nice DMR radio with removable faceplate?

The only one I can find readily is this one:

https://www.csi-radios.com/cs800d-fcc-part-90/

Most do not. I thought the TYT 9600 did but the head is removed via screws and doesn't contain any mounting spots.

ETA: Another option is the Anytone 578 with the BT01 remote control. Connects to the radio via bluetooth and provides a display + acts like a mic.

Also before you dive into the world of DMR check out the repeaters near you and see what networks they're on. They may be on a proprietary network, or may just have a link to Brandmeister or similar.

XPR5550e?  NX5000?
Both have options for handheld control head (XPR with HCH in my pickup) or remote mount (XPR with RCH on my motorcycle).  

Buy a hotspot and not rely repeaters. But to answer your question, yeah I believe Dstar is dying off, albeit it very slowly.

Part of the issue with a hotspot is you can end up cutting yourself out of a lot of networks by doing that. Yes, you can gain access to networks like TGIF that are only available via hotspots, or networks that aren't in your area like FreeDMR or IPSC+, but there's loads of private networks where you may get more activity.


I think part of the problem D-STAR has is it's developed by the Japan Amateur Radio League, under license to ICOM and Kenwood. And because of that, they have to operate under restrictions and that makes integration not as tight or easy compared to what Yaesu's done with YSF and WIRES-X. That loose integration usually leads to poor user experience, either due to difficult menus or process flow, or a low quality response at runtime. Most hams aren't the most technical types, they tend to just want it to work. YSF does that in spades, their integration and UI is very tight for it.

D-STAR is dead.

Opened the thread to post "has D-Star ever had steam?".

Amateur repeaters have always had technological overlap with land mobile with a lot of land mobile gear being used, certainly for the infrastructure. Trying to institute an amateur-only digital protocol didn't have a good chance of success, especially with the equipment cost and "perception" of proprietary-ness. I say perception, because it was widely believed that D-Star was an Icom proprietary product, when in fact it was a standardized system available to any manufacturer, just that Icom was the only company that tried to run with it.

With low-cost equipment options along with higher-end commercial gear, and the two-repeaters-in-one nature of a two-slot TDMA system it's not a surprise that DMR found more rapid and widespread use than D-Star.

Get both.

Ordinarily, yes. But he doesn't have both.

Thank you.

DMR is hugely popular around here, tons of repeaters configured in various ways. I also have a couple mmdvm hotspots for anything that might be missing.

I’ll have a look at these. I’ve been avoiding Motorola because of the limited number of contacts using the free CPS.

It's really regionally dependant. Here in central FL there are 4 or 5 DSTAR repeaters and not too many DMR or system fusion repeaters. One or more of them connects to 30C which is always busy. It's not dead just has more adoption in other areas than where you are.

Definitely not dead - just look at the map:

https://www.repeaterbook.com/repeaters/map/feature_map.php?maptype=feature&state_id=%&type=D-Star&system=&network_id=

Being listed on repeater book and being on the air are two different things. Yaesu had the smart idea of selling repeaters cheap so folks would buy lots of their fusion radios.

A lot of those repeaters are just in analog FM service, bought because they were so inexpensive.

True.

Sad to say, the thing I've used most on my DSTAR handhelds is the GPS driven repeater lookup - to find analog repeaters.

They are a dime a dozen.
S
Motorola's XPR4500 and XPR5500 series could be optioned in either remote head or hand held control head. All of Tait's DMR mobiles can be optioned in remote head. All of Simoco's DMR mobiles can be optioned in remote head. Kenwood's NX 5000 series can be optioned in remote head (and multiple bricks with a single control head). There's lots of non-Motorola options for remote head DMR radios. I'm sure there are a few amateur dual band DMR mobiles out there but EF Johnson's VM8000 will also have DMR, multi-band and remote head capabilities.

Until fairly recently, only Icom offered DStar so it has been very difficult to grow DStar when only a single vendor offers it. Yaesu is also experiencing the same issue...they are the only one offering Fusion capability.

I ended up buying an OpenSpot Pro 4. So I use my Dstar stuff and go wherever I want. Dstar is still the defacto VOIP here locally. But other than that? I haven't heard much. Even 30C is slow compared to World Wide on DMR.