A lot of hams tend to discount the newer digital modes, mainly for the reasoning that they depend on the Internet to link to reflectors, or master servers in the case of DMR, somehow making them not ham radio. That argument usually extends to the contingency scenario of a loss of infrastructure, such as telephone, Internet, cell phones, etc. Those same hams seem to think that a DMR repeater becomes a paper weight; nothing can be further from the truth. DMR (as we use it) is a Time Domain Multiple-Access (TDMA) protocol that provides two voice/data channels in the same spectrum space as a narrowband analog voice channel. A DMR repeater will continue to function as a conventional (non-Internet linked) repeater when the Internet is not available, repeating both timeslots the same way it would with the network up. DMR provides emergency communicators with twice the number of channels in the same bandwidth (actually less) as an analog repeater. It also allows emergency coordinators and communicators to segment their traffic by talkgroups, providing even more capability. — Greg Horine, N9PBD, Trustee, KD9JNB Multi-Mode Digital Repeater Southwestern Illinois Digital Group