>>581879Negative, rocky mountains. Couple fires in the area, but nothing like what's in the MT/ID area. Smoke's just getting carried around.
>>582139My issue with various digital modes is the lack of compatibility... want C4FM, you get Yaesu gear. Dstar, Icom gear. DMR is more of an open standard, so Motorola makes the MotoTRBO line that's all DMR Tier2 capable, Vertex/Yaesu's got a couple, believe Tait has a few DMR-capable rigs, Hytera's got a bunch, and Connect Systems is the chinese-brand of DMR gear; sort of what Baofeng is to analog. The CS700's have pretty good reviews, the few people I've talked to that have them sound pretty good. Some firmware/software issues with them, but the radios retail at under $300...
Each digital system has its pros/cons, but IMO the DMR stuff is a lot more open and more manufacturers are jumping on board with it.
Not perfect, can tell it's not really designed for amateur use, but the audio's fantastic, system's pretty easy to configure. Audio starts to "twist" when you get on the edge of the repeater, but if you're in a decent coverage spot you'll sound real good.
