WRTI377

I have several DStar radios and have focused on that. A couple big reasons...locally, there is considerable infrastructure supporting DStar (and all of it links, which is probably what everyone wants to do with digital repeaters). Two, the low speed serial function can be fully used (unlike Fusion) and can fully function as a sort of more sophisticated packet channel along with voice. We use it for Emcomm with D-Rats software. It even does internet email like WinLink. As far as voice, I had a Fusion radio and I didn't think the audio was any better. The re-sync WAS better on Fusion, no question. The other stuff like GPS was the same. D-Star pumps DPRS into the APRS-IS system (as about all repeaters are connected to that). You cannot message each other, but you can do position (which, honestly, is 99 percent of APRS om actual use). Yeah, DStar is long in the tooth as far as digital modes go. Still works, though. And we have a real Icom repeater here connected to a cross-mode gateway so we talk to DMR (mainly), Fusion, P25 and NXDN all on the same repeater. Requires a couple higher-end AMBE chips but it really works well. The other modes come in via a hotspot or a linked repeater native to that mode.

I have been a member for a several years, thinking as others have said here ARRL is a lobby group for ham radio. Well, that used to be the case. May become that again someday. Their lobbying has gone nowhere lately. They spent a TON of money on an antenna law that failed, and in fact they reversed themselves on it. They have not been successful at ANY frequency defense lately. Their new bandplan almost went through with huge allocations to almost-commercial WinLink hogging much of HF. The revised plan only came about after a firestorm of member complaints. FCC is still ignoring it. I am not a member now. I think their primary interest is in ARRL itself. Nearly everything constructive they do is taken for free from their membership. They re-brand it and sell it. The top guy gets paid 240,000 a year. The magazine is half ads, half articles written by members (who get no money for it).

I've had a 7100 for a few years. I like it. Had a Kenwood TS480 that was nice, but didn't do anywhere near what the 7100 can do. I have tried SSB on 2M. It's OK. I do use DStar a lot (sometimes on HF which is freaky good when you connect). I like the setup of Icom radios, the filters, etc. 7100 does everything well, but not as well in any of them as some other Icom radios. I am not a Yaesu fan (just sold my second last Yaesu...down to an FT60 left). In my experience everything Yaesu makes is proprietary, changes with every model, menus have many buried levels. Biggest downside of 7100 is you need a tuner. However, you probably need a tuner with the 991 on some bands anyway. For emcomm it's hard to beat the 7100. The EOCs around here, our State Red Cross have standardized on that radio. You can probably run it OK even if you've never seen one before by just playing with the touch screen. Digital modes are very easy with the way it is set up, although the "DATA" mode is confusing to some (and, as usual, Icom doesn't help explain it well, either).

Well, plenty of stuff is still made here. The problem tends to be some of the components may not be. This was even the case in military stuff recently. I have quite a history at this, including Customs labelling rules (a whole other department) and total lack of enforcement. FTC has some companies just flagrantly ignore the rule (NuBalance Shoes for one). Nothing happens. Much is misunderstood about "Made in USA" and what it actually means. If you're curious Made in USA | Federal Trade Commission (ftc.gov)