Hi Tony, You recommendation (using the reflectors as a calling 'channel' and moving to a working connection) makes a lot of sense. The shortcoming will be skilled DSTAR operators being able to link, set up a contact, unlink, and enter the UR of the contact station, make the contact, and then relink for another setup. The link and unlink UR's can easily be saved in memory but it will take a little coordination to go through the steps. These folks most likely will not have dstarusers.org available via internet. It may be more functional to spread contacts out over several different reflectors ? or put together a quick list of participating URs that can be pre-programmed into the field radios ?
Thanks, Steve NU5D Tony Langdon wrote: > At 01:24 PM 10/13/2008, you wrote: > >> Hi Stan, >> >> There will be a few Scout Groups using VK3RWN B and VK4RGC B or C for JOTA. >> >> From discussions on this list we will link VK3RWN port B to REF004 A for >> part of the JOTA weekend. >> > > Just a thought, based from previous experience with JOTA and > IRLP. Back in 2001 and 2002, I was involved in JOTA on IRLP. Back > then, we used a similar idea, encouraging JOTA stations to connect to > a particular reflector. What we found was that while the reflector > was an excellent meeting place to make initial contact, where > problems occurred is when stations stared holding QSOs on the > reflector. When this happened, two JOTA stations would effectively > tie up the reflector, and everyone else would be sitting on the side, > waiting their turn. > > On the last JOTA I was involved with, we tried an experiment, and > used the reflector as a "calling frequency", and when JOTA stations > made contact, we'd pair them off and get them to make direct > contact. This worked to a point. Where there was a skilled operator > on one end, the JOTA stations would go away, connect directly and put > the kids on to talk. When they'd finished, they'd come back to find > someone else. As a service, I'd keep a list of waiting stations, so > they could be paired up as quickly as possible. > > Where this fell down was that a lot of JOTA operators were > inexperienced (in some cases, this was their first contact) with > IRLP, and were relatively inactive on air, except for JOTA. In the > worst cases, the JOTA operators were given no information or training > in how to use IRLP. I fear, this could be a big issue for D-STAR. > > Anyway, just throwing in a few thoughts. Good luck, and I hope > D-STAR is a success for this year's JOTA. I'm interested to know how it goes. > > 73 de VK3JED > http://vkradio.com > > > - [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
