Hi Darren: I have been following your D-Star efforts on Hebo. We have a condo in LC and travel down there fairly often (I live near Seattle). When I was down there over 4th of July I tried out your 2 meter repeater and brought it up Ok with my 91AD but didn't raise anybody. I grew up in Oregon City, went to OSU, and have operated some VHF contests from Hebo (long time ago). Ken Swaggart was my first 6 meter contact back in our high school days in the 60s (when I was K7GWE).
I recently put on a wide-area D-Star repeater up here, WD7STR (Details at www.WD7STR.org ). My site does not have internet access so if I want a gateway I will have to do as John (K7VE) suggested and use some 900 MHz stuff to link it up to the hill. Then set up the gateway, etc. I have had some unix experience but it has been many years ago so I don't know if I am ready for all that goes along with maintaining a gateway or not. Right now I just have the controller and the 450 RF deck but was thinking about a 1.2 DD unit also. But until if/when I get internet and a gateway going up there I guess there is not much point. I am planning on adding a 1.2 antenna next time I do tower work but 1.2 equipment and functionality may be a ways off in the future. There are a couple of gateway D-Star repeaters in the Seattle area but they are both at low elevations and have limited coverage. When I read that you guys were working on D-Star I was hoping that one of these days I would be able to connect via your gateway from LC to one of the gateways up here and reach some of my friends here. We will be down in LC for a couple of weeks again starting next Tuesday. Maybe I will hear you on. I will put out a call once in a while. Randy, W7HR Port Orchard, WA *************************************************
