As has been expressed many times, Phoenix, AirWire, and several other small companies are not very communicative.
Now phoenix has an explanation on their home page.
So does CVP Products (AirWire)
If they answer the phone, not only do they not have better news, but honestly all people will be doing is screaming at them. Also these are more than one-man shows, so they have probably had to lay off office staff.
So, I would probably do the same, not answer the phone. You just have to wait. If you cannot wait, do something else. Give these guys a break, they are clearly much worse off than us, who clearly have money to spend.
Back to the original question: Would I go RailPro?
No, because I don't like:
- touchscreen interfaces (they make me look at the screen, not the train)
- controller that needs 2 hands
- too many menus vs dedicated buttons
- anything less than the best sound, the top companies record their own sounds
- paying extra to buy their DCC interface AND a DCC decoder (higher cost)
- "direct" radio to loco.... one of the key benefits of a "command station" is that it knows what ALL locos are doing and WHO is running them, this has many benefits when handing off trains to other users, the benefit of an all stop, avoids duplicate loco names/numbers, etc.
RailPro on the other hand has several other clever ideas, and the graphics interface and menus may help people. Since I already understand the basics of DCC and basic CVs, this buys me nothing, but could be very advantageous to people who don't want to learn the basics.
So, for me, a definite no. If you don't need super fancy features, then the basic DCC works fine and the rest is fluff. I used an NCE system for years and was very happy.
Greg
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