Modifying the Yaesu DR1 Repeater for use on Allstar
The Yaesu Fusion DR1 repeater was released in the spring of 2014 and was offered to amateur radio clubs and organizations for free. Since then an updated DR1X repeater has been released and Yaesu offered DR1 owners an upgrade to it for a nominal fee. The DR1 was considered a beta product and many mostly minor deficiencies were corrected in the newer product. I have no idea how many of these are out there but Yaesu was practically giving them away like candy so it is likely that you might already have one or have an opportunity to acquire one in the future.
Without getting into a long diatribe on VHF/UHF digital modes let me just say that in my opinion none of them are acceptable. Dstar is old technology and has about the worst audio, Fusion has a lot of features and somewhat better audio, and DMR has about the same audio with the ability to put two channels in the space that the other repeaters put one. But the bottom line is the audio sucks worse then using GSM on Allstar and who would do that! I am somewhat of an audio aficionado and digital audio even the audio on some of the SiriusXM channels drives me nuts. It is kind of a dumbing down of what we strive for, good clean quality audio. Also Weak signals don't have a clean cutoff but rather a conglomerate of loud and obnoxious noises coming from the speaker that no one can understand that drives me and my dog crazy. Makes you yearn for some good old "picket fencing"! I am certainly biased but I would say good analog FM repeaters linked or controlled by Allstar make a perfect match and will continue to do so into the future. Why we need all these rooms and groups contrived by some manufacturer is beyond me. The same thing can be achieved very nicely with Allstar and the way YOU want it.
The Yaesu Fusion DR1 repeater was released in the spring of 2014 and was offered to amateur radio clubs and organizations for free. Since then an updated DR1X repeater has been released and Yaesu offered DR1 owners an upgrade to it for a nominal fee. The DR1 was considered a beta product and many mostly minor deficiencies were corrected in the newer product. I have no idea how many of these are out there but Yaesu was practically giving them away like candy so it is likely that you might already have one or have an opportunity to acquire one in the future.
Without getting into a long diatribe on VHF/UHF digital modes let me just say that in my opinion none of them are acceptable. Dstar is old technology and has about the worst audio, Fusion has a lot of features and somewhat better audio, and DMR has about the same audio with the ability to put two channels in the space that the other repeaters put one. But the bottom line is the audio sucks worse then using GSM on Allstar and who would do that! I am somewhat of an audio aficionado and digital audio even the audio on some of the SiriusXM channels drives me nuts. It is kind of a dumbing down of what we strive for, good clean quality audio. Also Weak signals don't have a clean cutoff but rather a conglomerate of loud and obnoxious noises coming from the speaker that no one can understand that drives me and my dog crazy. Makes you yearn for some good old "picket fencing"! I am certainly biased but I would say good analog FM repeaters linked or controlled by Allstar make a perfect match and will continue to do so into the future. Why we need all these rooms and groups contrived by some manufacturer is beyond me. The same thing can be achieved very nicely with Allstar and the way YOU want it.
