Updated on 12/14/2015 at the bottom.
Original post 9/2/2014:
In my area D-STAR/D-RATS is used for emergency communications traffic handling. Since I first discovered this I have been baffled by it. Because of widespread and highly reliable land-line and cellular telecommunications systems and broadband internet amateur radio is looked upon as being increasingly unessential as a communications tool. Amateur radio correctly responds to this by stating that while these systems are highly reliable they are subject to failure via natural disasters, computer failures, or direct terrorist attacks on theses systems. While an individual amateur station may be rendered inoperable because of any of these same events it is virtually impossible that all amateur stations even in a small region surrounding an event would be unable to operate. Thus amateur radio is a reliable, proven, and necessary emergency communications fallback that will continue to be needed for the foreseeable future.
Why then would Emergency Communications organizations such as ARES choose a tool such as D-STAR that is 100% dependent on the internet? If the internet goes down, D-STAR goes down, period. It is possible that it could still be used for message traffic between stations in direct communication with each other, I'm not sure. But to link directly to the county or state EOC and send traffic, forget it. If I don't have a D-STAR radio and I rely on D-RATS then I completely lose the system if I lose the internet. Another downfall to D-STAR that is too obvious to need addressing is that D-STAR is only available to owners of expensive Icom D-STAR compatible radios.
I'll grant that D-STAR isn't a completely horrible option and having not used it I'm sure it has merits that make it highly desirable. I'll also grant that it is fairly unlikely that an entire region will lose the D-STAR network. My guess is this is why its faults (internet reliance and being restricted to one radio brand) are overlooked. As mentioned above I still find that its inherent reliability on the internet precludes its use an an ECOM tool. For the individual station it is an even worse choice. While it may be unlikely for the D-STAR system to go down over a large area for any particular event I find it quite likely that the internet will go down at an individual station or repeater located in an event area. If my station relies on either D-STAR via local repeater or D-RATS via the internet and my area loses the internet then I have lost my ability to communicate as trained. The whole ECOM system, or at least the part handling traffic out of the event area, must now change its message handling method wasting valuable time in the process.
Why would ECOM managers choose a tool that is going to fail?
Why also when there are other options out there? The Hybrid WL2K system uses the internet when the internet is available but automatically switches to an HF only system on loss of the internet. This system provides nationwide coverage and can be accessed by HF via Winmor, Pactor, or Packet and by VHF/UHF via Packet. For most stations already using digital HF modes all it takes is another piece of software and a very short learning curve. WL2K is only one example and I'm sure there are other options.
My goal in posting this is to influence those that may agree to speak to your local and state ECOM managers in hopes that a more reliable system is adopted before we have a system failure when the system is needed the most.
Update 12/14/2015: Recently I learned that D-RATS can be used over the air with a TNC connected to an analog (non-D-STAR) radio. In this configuration I think D-STAR/D-RATS would be an excellent tool since it does not rely on the internet, assuming all critical users are using this configuration and are not relying on the internet.
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