If DSTAR fails to thrive, it is totally because of
packaging. Who wouldn't want these capabilities which have all
kinds of amateur radio uses?

	Well, if the rigs are inaccessible it's because they are
limited by design, maybe for business reasons, but more likely
due to short-sightedness. If the radios were designed properly,
they would be so darned accessible, you could use them with a
1986-model P.C. running DOS, a screen reader and Kermit. I'm not
kidding.

	Instead, the pointy-clicky Goof ball Unusable Interface
or GUI, as it is known, rules here. 

	As one who uses Linux, I know what is possible when you
have a good serial or similar communications channel. If
something doesn't work for you, write a shell script or something similar
to access it.

	I have a couple of scanners that have serial interfaces
and the programming can be a bit difficult at times, but
patience pays off and you can usually get it to do what you need
it to do.

	If the designers of the DSTAR gear had been thinking
even a little bit, they would have known that the rigs should be
accessible via serial links since they are so much more
versatile in what they can do, but here we have a box that only
does what somebody else thought you need it to do and that's all.

	Linux or Unix, to be more general, has been around since
1968 and the one thing you quickly learn is that the concept is
one of lots of rather simple bricks being put together in ways
that the original designers never dreamed of but the point was
to try to make it as flexible as possible.

	The DSTAR gear should all have RS-232, bluetooth or USB
emulators on board that give you total access to the controls
and the data stream so it works like a modem which, in fact, it
is.

	Anyway, enough of the rant, but I think this was an
opportunity lost big time.

Martin

Dave Marthouse writes:
> To my knowledge none of the Icom D-Star radios have speech.  The other
> manufacturers don't have D-Star in their product lines.