We finished reprogramming our FT-8800R dual band mobile radio tonight. After installing it we turned it on, hit scan, and immediately found a local net to join in. Programming software makes the job so much easier than manual entry via the radio controls and menus. What a bother it would be to upload several hundred frequencies manually.
In this day and age of cheap and plentiful memory and internet enabled devices, it is fairly easy to image radios in the near future coming pre-programmed with software that automatically keeps them synched with all repeater information - anywhere in the world. Why not? Since we are dreaming a little. How about unlimited text labelling for each memory. 6 characters simply doesn't cut it. Why only 6? Why not 66, or 266, or even unlimited? The memory certainly wouldn't add much cost.