I listened all day to TAC310 and all I heard were mic clicks and almost no talking. Two new-to-DMR hams started talking, but their radios were so over-driven and had so much packet loss, they were hardly intelligible. Lower the mic gain, fellas. The couple of others I heard were "Testing 1, 2, 3...". I really am trying to give DMR a fair shake, but I need some air-time experience before I can develop any sort of opinion about the mode itself, not just the programming. That's just not happening.
"Stop listening and start talking!", you say? Yeah, no DMR repeaters near here, so it's all by hotspot. I tried talking the other day, but HughesNet satellite internet has so much latency (seconds, not milliseconds) and speed fluctuation (from 3Mb/s to 4,000 bits/s - really, no joke), that I can't do anything requiring a live, continuous connection, like a VPN or, say... radio transmissions on WIRES-X or hotspots. I'm serious! The other day it took 55 minutes to download a 73 MB file, and that's not uncommon! What's up with that? Sure makes me very thankful for real RF! Star Link! Where are you?!
Round 2.5: This evening, Lon and Tom, both 2-land stations, were on TAC310 just t-t-t-t-t-t-talking away! Boy, it was g-g-g-grea-t-t-t-t-t-t-t to hear hams on DMR like I hear on America-a-a-aLink. Finally, there is hope. Maybe I can see some li-i-i-i-i-i-i-ght in this dark tunnel... ...rescued me from the thought of b-b-b-b-b-b-eing single-mode'd-d-d-d-d-d-d. Diversity, I say. Div-v-v-v-v-versity of digital modes l-l-l-l-l-leads to new front-t-t-t-tiers in the world of amateur radio. And that, m-m-m-m-m-my friends is....
...just havin' fun!
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