[d-star] Radio question, any systems, some thoughts?

[tom]

hi Eric,
   am in the outback about 100 miles north of the cities.  the distance from 
a tower to the next point using 2ghz is line of sight and maybe 10 miles. 
if you up the power to 10 or more watts then maybe 20 miles.  there are a 
lot of pine trees in the way so that distance goes down to maybe 1 mile with 
10 watts.  there aint no way i would spend $1k for a 1 mile link with no one 
else to talk to.   a d-star repeater is $3k for a good start and looks like 
$6k including a 5ghz link each.  maybe for the cities or a rich uncle but 
probably not out here.
   the vhf and uhf rigs are a lot less money and work longer ranges and have 
people on the other end mostly.   might try hf as there are a lot of talkers 
down there.

tom
w0kgw at citlink.net