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icom 1d-31a

KC9MSG

W9WDX Amateur Radio Club Member
Feb 8, 2013
20
0
11
54
I went to superfest at AES in Milwaukee Wi yesterday, bought a Icom ID-31A ht. so far I really enjoy d-star, it will be a little bit of a learning curve but the id-31a has most of the dstar repeaters pre programmed and uses its built in gps to locate the nearest repeaters. figured out how to link to a reflector tonight and was able to check into the international dstar net on reflector 1c
havent had it that long but so far i am very happy with it.
 

Yep. If Icom had reworked the user interface of DStar radios like this years ago, it would have helped speed up the adoption. These new HTs are light years better for working with the DStar network than the old radios. I would like to see something like this in a mobile radio.
 
I am also finding out that digital seems to have more range to it as well, i was able to talk on a dstar repeater 25 miles away on the id-31a today, i have changed the stock antenna to a comet sma24 but highly doubt that that would ever be possible with a non digital radio. also digital signal quality rocks.... something tells me that dstar will end up becoming my main mode of operation
 
i should have bought a few things for it but didnt think about them until i was home, should have bought a carrying case, speaker mike and a car cord and maybe a decent mag mount antenna for my van. always can order them online or there is always time to get them later. this radio is awesome
 
A speaker/mic is almost a "must have" for FM use. The waterproof membrane on that radio muffles the audio quite a bit on FM. For whatever reason it doesn't when you're in digital mode.
 
A speaker/mic is almost a "must have" for FM use. The waterproof membrane on that radio muffles the audio quite a bit on FM. For whatever reason it doesn't when you're in digital mode.


You could always remove the waterproof membrane if being waterproof isn't a concern you have.
 
actually i think waterproof is a good thing especially with the weather we have been having lately. pretty much think that my main usage is going to be in the digital mode, getting spoiled already from not listening to bacon frying and picket fencing anymore. I may use analog at times but probably going to be on dstar 99.9% of the time!
 
Since i have had this radio for a couple weeks now, i have to say that the Icom ID-31A is an awesome radio. easy to use and dstar is totally awesome. very happy I purchased this radio and am really enjoying it totally.
 

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