First Hamvention

I recently experienced my first ham convention AKA hamvention as the kids on the block say (im uddlerly making that up).

It wasn't too terrible, i met a few people, saw some local club members.
And of course i HAD to get just a few things. HAR HAR HAR, I got a kenwood ts-271, although still trying to figure out how to use it properly.

The thing that amazed me was the amount of electrical components i saw there, it was like radio shack on steoroids. A bunch of radios (i know utterly shocking), and antennas.

I also got a ft1dr, for a while ive been eyeing a more waterproof radio. Is it submersible?
No, but it is more water resistant! and it does digital c4fm, which kinda sold me on it.
From what ive gathered from club meetings and the internet is. If you want a digital HT, buy what your local area uses!

I personally like DMR more because its an open standard compared to C4FM and Dstar that usually has quite the price tag and closed ecosystem behind it.

But well around me its mostly yaesu and system fusion, then dmr and then dstar with 2 local repeaters within 200 miles. So dstar was not gonna win in my mind, now the biggest thing that i think makes digital so difficult with digital.

Is if you had a room full of well educated hams, and you said the statement "is digital better than analog". It would be fair to say majority of the group would agree with the statement.

Now the moment you say now which one is better dstar,c4fm or c4fm?
and now you have a verbal fighting match.

And its kinda sad really, digital modes opens the door for some crazy stuff!
but the community is so devided!
I really wish yaesu, and icom sat down when DMR came out and said yeah, lets prepossess a modified version of DMR for amateurs that can interoperate with standard DMR. But sadly this did not happen.

But i feel like im starting to go down too deep in the rabbit hole. So at first when i was looking for a waterproof Handy Talkie. I saw the vx6 and liked it quite a bit but it was missing digital modes and APRS, and that leaves the ft5d. Now this may be kinda a hot take, but i dont want a color touchscreen on my HT. They are just so much more difficult to read in broad daylight and add complexity that i don't feel i will ever use.

Now there was a model called the vx8 that was a QUAD bander doing 144, 220, 70cm and 6meter and is waterproof. SUPER COOL RADIO, however very pricey and they dont make it anymore!
and the added insult to injury for me is no digital modes.

So with the ft1dr, ive been really happy with it, the battery life is kinda bad but ive been looking at a 5,000mah battery for it. And then i will have the magic bullet!