[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: REF001C weird linking issue
Could you send me a copy of this script ? On our repeaters here in Dist 1 in Michigan we are using a script that allows us to link and or unlink any time we want. After there is no traffic for 10 min. the script will re-link the repeater to your default reflector link. ds-unlinkd and monlink both do this: http://download.prgm.org/dl5di-soft/dstar-tools/dstar-unlinkd/index-g.html http://k4dso.com/util/MonLink.pdf 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: linked reflector + traditional callsign routing
--- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Jeff Pyle jpyle...@... wrote: Driving around town yesterday day I happened to hear a JA7 station calling CQ Cleveland, CQ Cleveland... I thought this was in response to my KG8IU listening, Cleveland Ohio call about a minute before. Perhaps he heard the He did not hear you until you activated one-touch reply. This was simply coincidence. I didn't think to check the RPT1 and RPT2 fields. I imagine RPT1 was still my normal WB8THD C, but what of RPT2? In all the domestic examples I've On-touch reply sets that for you too - to WB8THD G in this case, but you probably already had it set that way. him? I do know he was on a dongle. He was not on a dongle. http://dstarusers.org/viewrepeater.php?system=WB8THD shows no JA7 dongle users in the past 14 days. Plus he would have heard you right away (assuming you had RPT2 set to WB8THD G). reflector. If that's the case, did the JA7 station's CQ Cleveland calls make it into the reflector? Did my transmissions after I hit the RXCS key? See Fran's reply. (yes and yes) Any thoughts? * Congratulations on using DStar the way it was designed!! --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Adrian vk4...@... wrote: Sure sounds like he was using a transceiver here, did you see JA7xxx/dngl on your screen?That should confirm he was on a dv dongle, otherwise no-one would use that type on message on a DV Dongle that had a reasonable idea how it worked, you cannot one touch a DV Dongle, its pure dplus link udp connection or direct connection to your repeater gateway dplus udp port. Hard to catch Adrian napping... -:) --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Carl W8KRF w8...@... wrote: As has been said, he was coming through the reflector No. because other stations were hearing him. I had the DVR running on my hotspot and I was able to listen to your entire exchange with him. I believe any problems were on his end since he was using a Dongle. I keep these recording for 30 days, so if you are interested, I can play them back for you on WB8THD C local sometime. It's normal for you to hear both ends of a call-sign routed QSO if one of the gateways participating is linked to a reflector you are also linked with. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: linked reflector + traditional callsign routing
Driving around town yesterday day I happened to hear a JA7 station calling CQ Cleveland, CQ Cleveland... I thought this was in response to my KG8IU listening, Cleveland Ohio call about a minute before. Perhaps he heard the He did not hear you until you activated one-touch reply. This was simply coincidence. Actually, it may not have been pure coincidence - he may have been watching dstarusers.org last heard, saw you key up, then called. Some of the JA's do that. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Please help me support D-Star ...
Just waiting for the Open vs Closed debate to start (again!) For callsign routing there wouldn't have to be a debate if folks would utilize ircddb: http://db0fhn.efi.fh-nuernberg.de/doku.php?id=projects:dstar:ircddb Only a handful of gateways on all systems have installed it, however: http://ircddb.net/ Maybe it's a start. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Why not more sources ?
Surely you've heard this before, and more confirmation it happens. This (unmoderated) message was finally posted by Yahoo 35 hours and 42 minutes after I submitted it. --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, john_ke5c k...@... wrote: p.s. Wonder how long this one will take... 73--John, Moderator
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Why not more sources ?
We radio amateurs tend to let altruistic goals cloud reality. Ham Radio is NOT a hobby for equipment manufacturers. They do this (build equipment) to make MONEY. As with any business decision the proponent builds a case and projects profitability. If the $$$ aren't there we I think we would need to see some corporation balance sheets to know that for sure for the big players. Yaecomwood and all the historical amateur equipement companies (Collins, Drake, Hallicrafters, Ten-Tec, etc.) all have/had diversified product lines, and the amateur line was just one of those. Without the commercial lines, I wonder how much sooner our old friends would have given up on the amateur sector? Currently, its hard for me to imagine ICOM would have incurred the development and startup costs to take a chance on D-Star unless Mr.Tokuzo Inoue (JA3FA), the President of ICOM Inc., didn't have some love for amateur radio. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: CONNECTING TO RELECTORorREPEATERS
I heard someone say that only the one that set up a link can unlink it .. There might be an administrator configuration option for this, I don't know. However, on the gateways here, anyone can unlink, regardless of who initiated the link. Available dplus options: # restrict linking/unlinking to admins allowadminlinkingonly=0 allowadminunlinkingonly=0 # restrict linking/unlinking to registered users only allowreguserlinkingonly=1 allowreguserunlinkingonly=0 The majority of, but not all, sysops use the defaults shown - registered users can link, anyone can unlink. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: CONNECTING TO RELECTORorREPEATERS
Here in Tucson, our repeaters are configured so that when linked to a reflector, they will auto unlink after one hour without use except those that are perma-linked. You can also configure perma-linking such that, if unlinked, the particular band module will remain unlinked until a specified time of quiet (no transmissions received) has passed. Thus, a perma-linked band module can be unlinked for a local chat, then a specified time after the local chat has ended, it will re-link to it's default link. For details: http://download.prgm.org/dl5di-soft/dstar-tools/dstar-unlinkd/index-g.html 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] The ircDDB overlay network
FYI, some ustrust gateways are joining the very new ircddb overlay network for call-sign routing. Callsign routing is the original way DStar was designed. (Reflectors, dongles, and DVAP's belong to another add-on system powered by dplus that does not use callsign routing). The idea, I think, is to let users on one network callsign route to users on other networks and/or to stand-alone gateways. More details are here: http://www.ircddb.net/ More comments from the designers: ircDDB is an overlay network which can cover all existing networks but also gateways without any trust server connectivity. Our client system is open source, so technical issues can be overcome, but you all know that in some cases it is not a technical issue. - The biggest DStar network worldwide: During our development we worked very close together with the K5TIT US trust admin team around Jim/N5MIJ and Brian/NJ6N and supplied them with all details like database dumps, network traces, data flow diagrams, test results and other stuff. Everyone from our developer group is running one or more gateways on the US trust network and we do not want to harm it in any way. We want to get users together and not to kill the system. It is our main interest to make everything transparent. The US trust admin team approved the ircDDB system to be used on gateways at the US-trust network. More than 10 test systems are on air since april and never caused any issues gr. It was a pleasure to work with the group and we are planning some other stuff that we would like to get approved. - The last group that we want to point out is the group of homebrew systems. This can run in the ircDDB network and work with all other ircDDB participants without being connected to any trust server system. Like in Packet-Radio, Echolink and other systems we do a callsign check for RF users and no registration. All users in the ircDDB overlay network need to be registered in all trust systems FROM where they want to work and TO where they want to work. This is a given thing by the trust systems, not by ircDDB. The ircDDB network is no new trust network, we do not register any users, we just add a online routing mechanism to the functionality of the existing systems. vy 73, Hans, DL5DI 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Reflector 1 C
is it me or is Ref001C not updating on dstarusers.org I've redone a couple gateways in the past few weeks, and Ref 1 is invariably the last to catch up, the following day in both cases. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Converting the Kenwood TKR-820 to use with D-STAR
http://k7ve.org/blog/2010/06/converting-the-kenwood-tkr-820-to-use-with-d-star/ Nice work and nice web page description. I'm slowly doing the same with the NQSMHS homebuilt version and old GE commercial radios. It took me several days to get that working, well, as it turned out, it took several days until NU5D pointed out I could no longer read a schematic and had connected both receive and transmit taps to the wrong places... That repeater would be nice solution, and I know a fellow who may have a few... The G4ULF gateway will really open DStar infrastructure to amateur homebrewing. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: In hindsight... [daydream]
PA3YBR has already run DD over the 4800 signal on D-STAR. To tell D-STAR you are using DD format (Ethernet Frames) rather than DV (Voice) format is only 1 flag bit in the header. Fred says this does not harm DV communications on the same frequency (though you can only have 1 signal at a time). The problem is the RP2C repeater controller has expectations on whether an attached module is DV or DD and likely Icom G2 software has the issue as well. With the advancement of alternative repeater/controller/gateway chains using node adapters http://enicomms.com/, this mode is well within reach (though out of spec). Build up a G4ULF repeater http://g4ulf.blogspot.com/2010/02/release-plans.html or DVAR Hot Spot http://w9arp.com/hotspot/ (I have done this - it was relatively simple http://k7ve.org/blog/2010/06/nw7dr-the-d-star-repeater/), work with G4ULF and KB9KHM to support both repeating of these data streams and to break them out to the /dev/tap /et voilà/! Then for user radios, until there is an integrated solution from a manufacturer, one would just need to use node adapters with an appropriate driver that looks like an Ethernet device (very slowly). If G4ULF and KB9HKM supported this mode; if AA4RC modified his reflectors to create a data mode reflector; and if the node-adapter folks would add such a data mode (serial in/out at 4800 bps), you could do this with non-DStar radios over much of the existing network infrastructure. AMBE is not needed for this mode. Interesting to speculate. 73!
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] A new add-on-tool for DStar gateways announced at Hamradio event
http://db0fhn.efi.fh-nuernberg.de/doku.php?id=projects:dstar:ircddb There's chatter about this on the gateway group, and it seems to be public knowledge. Apparantly they are working with ustrust, so maybe we will see it in life. xtrust does not seem to be participating at this point. I don't know a thing about it otherwise. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] In hindsight... [daydream]
a.k.a. wish list; I suppose this would reduce the attractivene$$ of the ID-1, but what if Icom had created a 9600 baud data mode with a dd (two lower case D's) mode as well as the DV and DD modes for the vhf/uhf rigs? We would call this the not as slow data mode, and the radio display would work as a simple display screen for a really dumb terminal. Either one module in a stack would be dedicated to this mode, or the dd packet would be identifiable so that radios in the DV mode would not try to decode the audio. Error correction would have been included, so the actual rate would be less than 9600, but still 3 or 4X the current low speed rate, and the radios would be useful for more than they are now. Probably just another Friday PM daydream. CQ FD! 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: D-Star air interface authentication
--- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, ra3apw ra3...@... wrote: Whether exist the authentication mechanism in D-Star's air interface to prevent access of not authorised users (without HAM radio license) and doubles (two or more operators under one call sign)? Thanks and 73 de Karen, RA3APW No. D-Star has no air interface authentication. D-Star is just like any other repeater. Any (D-Star) radio signal is repeated. Authentication is required only to use the gateway attached to the repeater. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: D Star Contest
Forget reflectors and repeaters, Watch last heard and place a target callsign in your urcall to callsign route, with a 20 character message like Contest pls 1 touch¨ This is how NU5D won the non-JA category last year, well, that and making thousands of calls. He's not competing this year, at least not vigorously. Probably 1 out of 20 receiving your call will know how to callsign route back to you (one touch your call). Sad, but seemingly true. In my opinion those using dplus links to contact a station, then give them a lesson on callsign routing to log a contact are cheating, and are putting the *Japanese contestants at a disadvantage. They * will be following the rules. He-he! I'm sure the JA's last year were the only ones I heard doing this. If they have a registered call, they can use a dongle to connect to G2 gateways. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: G2 32 bits vs 64 bits
The error starting dsipsvd on a 64-bit Centos: [r...@ke5rcs dsipsvd]# ./dsipsvd ./dsipsvd: error while loading shared libraries: libpq.so.5: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64 is resolved by installing the 32-bit library: [r...@ke5rcs ~]# yum install postgresql84-libs.i386 ... Installed: postgresql84-libs.i386 0:8.4.4-1.el5_5.1 Complete! G2, dstarmon, dprs, and dplus all seem to be running just fine. Maybe something will show downstream, but for now it seems that 64-bit Centos will with the fix above. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] bind challenge - any ideas?
Gateway W5KA resolves every domain we've tried EXCEPT www.google.com. This is more of a curiosity since everything important seems to work. Any bind users have an idea? [r...@w5ka ~]# dig +trace www.google.com ; DiG 9.3.6-P1-RedHat-9.3.6-4.P1.el5_4.2 +trace www.google.com ;; global options: printcmd . 517301 IN NS g.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS h.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS i.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS j.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS k.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS l.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS m.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS a.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS b.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS c.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS d.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS e.root-servers.net. . 517301 IN NS f.root-servers.net. ;; Received 500 bytes from 127.0.0.1#53(127.0.0.1) in 0 ms com.172800 IN NS k.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS j.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS l.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS m.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS g.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS d.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS f.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS b.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS a.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS c.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS h.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS e.gtld-servers.net. com.172800 IN NS i.gtld-servers.net. ;; Received 492 bytes from 192.112.36.4#53(g.root-servers.net) in 170 ms google.com. 172800 IN NS ns1.google.com. google.com. 172800 IN NS ns2.google.com. google.com. 172800 IN NS ns3.google.com. google.com. 172800 IN NS ns4.google.com. ;; Received 168 bytes from 192.52.178.30#53(k.gtld-servers.net) in 239 ms dig: couldn't get address for 'ns1.google.com': failure Thanks and 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Codec2 development - open source vocoder
If Codec2 comes to fruition then I for one will probably support it in my D-Star repeater software, it'd be fun. Maybe no one will use it, but so what? It's a hobby. You could support any codec, especially if you do not decode/re-encode and just pass a bit stream, but seriously, who is going to build the radios? Perhaps this could just be a dv dongleless VOIP system akin to dv dongle to dv dongle communications now (but without an RF presence). The D-Star system of DVAR exists today solely because ICOM chose, for whatever reason, to build digital amateur radios. Their choice of codec is really pretty secondary to the fact they chose to mass produce digital RF terminals. Folks were experimenting with codecs long before ICOM moved, and folks, in very small numbers, will continue to experiment long into the future, but until someone produces RF terminals with a different codec (and an internet backbone), this will continue to be solely chit-chat, like this interesting discussion thread. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: What Antenna Do You Use?
I just ordered an IC-92AD. I've read (like with all HT's) that the antenna that comes with it is sub par. I wondered what what members of the group was using. I currently have a SRH999 and a SRH320 that I interchange with my VX-7R/VX-8R. I'm sure these will work, but wondered if anyone knows one that would be better? I really like the SRH77CA Dualband, and it's 15 inch length is about the maximum I can tolerate with an HT. http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/srh77ca.html If I were to do it again, I'd try the SRH519 at half the gain but also half the length: http://www.rfparts.com/diamond/srh519.html 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Multiple 2820s / one callsign question
Is the 8th position ID character included in call sign routing to individuals? If I have KN4AQ and KN4AQ^^A both registered (which I do, with ^ meaning the space character), are they treated totally separately? yes - that's the main reason to do it, to identify distinct terminals KN4AQ used Repeater A, then sat there monitoring. An hour later KN4AQ^^A used Repeater B, then continued to monitor. Another hour later, someone on a distant repeater attempts call sign routing to KN4AQ. Would that call be routed to Repeater A or Repeater B? A Sorry for appearing pedantic about it, but I'm looking for crystal clarity! I think you mean anal, not pedantic, but no sweat, it's an important point. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Dstar
I just KNEW there'd be a skeptic in the crowd! Oh, I'm not a skeptic, but you are comparing apples to oranges completely sujectively. You are not even weighing them or measuring their volume, but even if you did, the key variable is taste, and that is pretty subjective. Your report of 10 per-cent better could just as easily have been 50 per-cent better because there is no objectivity, nothing you - or anyone else - can actually physically measure. My sujective assessment from experience is that comparable analog and digital systems perform about the same. I can objectively compare analog systems using SINAD, and I can objectively compare digital systems using BER. There is just no standard for objectively comparing analog and digital systems against each other. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Radios needed
The Staten Island Digital Group is looking to purchase a few spare/replacement radios for its WG2MSK D-Star (G4ULF) repeater system. One of the radios in use seems to be a bit flakey, and the SM-50's I purchased at Dayton turn out to NOT be narrow band. I've been thinking about this for an upcoming project. Unless you have a nearby adjacent channel repeater, in this application - one fixed channel operation, why do the radios need to be narrow band? You can throttle your transmitted bandwidth by adjusting your modulator drive, and your S/N may be very minimally degraded by adjacent spectral noise, but that may well be imperceptible. The only issue might be synthesizer steps falling off your frequency, but that can be remedied by a VCO adjustment. Thoughts? 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: ID800 High power DV transmit issue- More info
So I took the radio our of the truck and plugged in into the control head and power supply for my other 800 in the house and it worked fine. Therefore the radio itself must be fine, meaning that the SWR of the system in the truck is high and/or the power supply in the truck is problematic. No, you can't say that until you also take the radio from the house and run it in the truck for a while and experience the same problem. The conditions are not the same as you point out in your next paragraph... I did notice that when the truck is running, the power to the rig is a bit high (14.5V). When keyed on high power and when the truck is off, voltage drops from 12V to 11.6V. I think I might need to invest in a voltage regulator. Any suggestions? Any over-power, over-voltage, over-reflected power, etc., fault that might be occuring will be worsening (or caused by) a higher supply voltage. Your truck radio could be just enough more sensitive to not tolerate as much of a fault as your house radio. I think 14.5 v is pretty common, but you could have spikes, especially in a truck, depending on your voltage regulator. You could try a power line filter, or just a good choke. Anyone who thinks mobile amateur radio is simple has not tried it! 73-John http://www.ke5c.net/mobile/
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: DSTAR newcomer FINISH
The HotSpot approach means you don't have to wait for a big deal repeater to come online to enjoy D-STAR. I use a 91AD HT around the house, and an ID-800H I bought used for mobile work. It doesn't have to cost a lot of money to enjoy D-STAR. I am involved with four or five (depending on how you define involved) DStar gateways, and the next major development will be AFFORDABLE homebrew repeater/gateways. We are just starting to look into this (hotspot in the mail) for our next installation. Plus it feels more like hamming - get a pair of old commercial FM radios, retune some used duplexers, etc., and hook it all up. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Would someone please...
...send me (or post) the webpage where a D-Star user's registered gateway can be determined? (I know how to get it from SQL, but I don't want to share that level of detail, and someone managing a gateway needs this info.) Thanks in advance, 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] For sale: NOT
Personal digital voice amateur radio (DVAR) items for sale may be posted here if the buyer is to contact you directly. Advertisements to your listings elsewhere (QRZ, QTH, ebay, etc.) may NOT be posted here. Thank you for your cooperation. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: [ga_dstar] D-STAR Reflector 1C Internet Feed
On Wed, 2010-05-19 at 21:40 -0700, Mark Thompson wrote: http://forums.qrz.com/showthread.php?t=249029 You go to that page you're going to find some haters. They are not haters, they are just really unhappy folks trying to bring a little joy into their miserable lives by deriding a mode others really enjoy. Just enjoy your hobby. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Honest questions .....
I don't think Nate dislikes D-Star. I certainly don't, but I do wish that the folks who have produced compatible stuff for it, while promising that it would be open source, would follow through on their promises - or at least release documentation so other amateurs can do so. Agree with Nate and Jay; please just call a spade a spade (a bloody shovel). Proprietary D-Star add-ons, to sell to fellow hams to make a few bucks, are welcome, just don't describe them open projects and claim your motivation is to advance the hobby unless you provide the URL to the source (or give the products away for free). And Ed, that such exist do not make D-Star per se an open environment. A more correct descriptor might be a multi-source environment. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Dayton?
Anything interesting on DStar (or any other digital mode) at Dayton? 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: I have a Dvap question
except the D-Star registration process is one of the worst registration processes that I have seen to date. I agree with you completely, but from ICOM's point of view, it's a pretty effective way of side-stepping any political issues that a centralized, systematic process would create - I wonder if they did it this way by accident or deliberately. The current process creates opportunities for problems, but it also creates a degree of freedom that may not be all bad. Just look at how fractured the D-Star community is already over just about any issue. The reasons are both complex and petty, but that's just the way it is. What we have now works most of the time for most folks. Yeah, NJ6N has to babysit the database, but even that has been worked out for the most part. Wonder what, if anything, will come out of Dayton. Best rumor I heard was Yaesu was introducing an amateur radio that would do P25. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: I have a Dvap question
This is why we register users Add whatever terminals they want. IMHO one of the most important purposes of amateur radio is to teach others new stuff. If you do it for them, they learn nothing. Just like folks who know the technology and won't teach it to others so they can be in control and/or make money on the hobby. IMHO, John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: I Want To Know???
I am a member of a lot of lists and I have to say that this is the most unhelpful topic I have ever read (not to mention that personal attacks have no place here or on any other list). Isn't it time to end this and move on to more constructive issues that those of us who use and enjoy D-Star want to read? Apologies to the group. Often it's hard to know how long to let things stew, but action has now been taken. 73--moderator/co-owner
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Dstar Repeater receive is bad . .
It is not the loss, it's the isolation we are all after. Some typical RG58 cables have less than 80 dB, while the solid shield cables can exceed 120 dB. Even with the 80 dB stuff, that's 160 dB total (cable-to-cable) so it should be fine, unless the transmitter has a problem. These short jumpers are inside a metal box, a Faraday cage so external sources EMF sources should be minimal and only due to the imperfect nature of the metal box. Does anyone think the transmitter jumper is coupling to the receiver jumper? Does anyone have some data, some reference on the mutual inductance between two one foot lengths of RG58 separated by what, 8 inches or so? In the meantime, don't waste time and money on the internal jumpers. Get a GOOD bandpass filter. Recheck your duplexer/triplexer. Maybe get a preamp. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Dstar Repeater receive is bad . .
A few months ago, the same digital repeater was setup in Mt. Lukens in Los Angeles and in the same setup where an analog repeater used to be. Right away we noticed the difference in receive sensitivity. We made some test at a low level location and that is where we realized that even in less than 2 miles we can't access the repeater. You have a desense/overload problem. The receive bandpass filter will really help you. If you add a preamp, add it after the all important receive bandpass filter of course. We will change the internal cables and make measurements in test points and will look for a better duplexer and see if things will get better. RG-213 saves 0.1 db over RG-58. Wow! We wouldn't waste our time. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: ARRL Field Day Rules
http://www.arrl.org/files/file/2010%2520FD%2520Packet%2520February%25203.pdf Nothing that would prevent you from making and scoring points using DV Simplex. If anyone seriously plans on using VHF simplex DStar during Field Day, a simplex frequency other than 146.520 might be agree upon? Perhaps 146.580? Another interesting project, if there were enough GMSK and satoshi boards or equivalents around would be to use DV on 6 meters during field day - probably with a contest voice keyer to save the vocal cords. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: ARRL Field Day Rules
Another interesting project, if there were enough GMSK and satoshi boards or equivalents around would be to use DV on 6 meters during field day - probably with a contest voice keyer to save the vocal cords. Or perhaps more so on 10 meters. I think that is FCC/IARU legal but don't know for sure. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Linking vs. Source Routing
D-PLUS was created before the DVDongle. D-PLUS is NOT REQUIRED for a D-STAR repeater, or one that is connected to the Trust Server. Chronologically dplus appeared before the dongle, but conceptually? The dongle market certainly appears to drive dplus development since. Again, DPLUS IS NOT REQUIRED! Of course not installing it would probably be foolhardy as linking is pretty much a way of life for may repeaters. Foolhardy? - foolishly adventurous and bold not to install dplus? That may be an inappropriate characterization. People refusing to learn callsign routing IS NOT THE ONLY REASON. I know how to do it (after all, I kinda wrote the book). But I don't like its implementation. I don't use it. I think that it is a relatively ill-conceived function that was only half-heatedly though through. I believe that you also may be making a mistake to believe that Icom's gateway implementation is the way that it was intended to be utilized. Yes, it is hard for old timers to give up old ways of operating and learn new concepts. I can with good conscious, state that without DPLUS, DSTAR would probably have died. Or at least be at significantly lower levels of penetration than today. A LOT of people enjoy listening to REF001C and the nets. A lot of grant money has been spent with the capability to link repeaters pretty much a requirement. Now that truly is a foolhardy assertion! 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Emergency comms poll.
I agree. Each situation is so vastly different that no one can say with any certainty a mode will out preform another. We need all of the ammunition that we can have at our disposal. Emergency communications is NOT a contest or competition between modes. Its what we do, not with what we do it that counts. After considerable experience on D-Star nets, both via dplus links and Icom's multiplex facility, and in callsign routed QSO's, I am of the distinct opinion that D-Star communciations are fairly unreliable. Dropped streams are frequent. Folks double on each other and knock each other out. For strickly local nets with five or more folks, analog outperforms D-Star hands down. Icom's multiplex facility is as bad or worse, and cumbersome to set up. Comparison to wider area nets is difficult since I have little experience with echolink and IRLP, but I'd sure like to hear from folks who do. Ammunition is good so long as it is not a dud... 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Poll closing in two days, please vote
Three folks with amateur radio callsigns chat over the internet, each using a dv dongle... http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dstar_digital/surveys?id=2600657
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Accuracy
Has anyone linked to either experimental reflector XRF010 Germany or XRF267 New York? What is the proper data stream sequence since there is no port assignment? EXAMPLE XRF267 L with or without a space. Unfortunatley due to the nasty policitics which continues to constipate DVAR/D-Star progess, those reflectors are accessed with an alternate software that gateways affiliated with US Trust, INC. are forbidden to associate. Or if they do, they can't run dplus and access the chosen reflectors and I believe they can't be on usroot, but don't quote me on that. 73, John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Alternative D-STAR Equipment (Was: Looking for DSTAR MAP)
Chris Fowler wrote: Has ICOM extended the spec so that Yaesu can not make a compliant radio? Yes, the codec is locked down but I don't see what would prevent Alinco from making a HT that can talk to an ICOM repeater. John D. Hays wrote: Anyone can make a D-STAR air protocol compliant radio. If it does the air protocol correctly it should work just fine with both Icom repeaters and the other hardware and software approaches mentioned up thread. True, but perhaps those who could manufacture D-STAR compliant (or perhaps just DVAR) radios aren't motivated to do so if they can't compete in and affect characteristics of the infrasturcture market - repeaters, controllers, etc.? It's still not an open mode like the others - AM, CW, SSB, FM, PSK, etc. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Alternative D-STAR Equipment (Was: Looking for DSTAR MAP)
It is a question of the G2 network at this point, there is a lot of politics going on about who and what can connect, but the technology exists. Maybe that's what I was trying to say. :) Well, next up is a node adapter of some type. 73--John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Looking for DSTAR MAP
Either way, Todd, looks like you could be the first to set up a D-Star repeater-gateway in MT! :) 73--John Scott's idea of the findu.net is more current. Check out the repeater lists and maps at www.DSTARInfo.com. It includes those that are gateway connected or not. I am doing some research on DSTAR possibilities here in Montana.
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Please vote!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dstar_digital/surveys?id=2597804
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: New guy
There are lots of nets on other networks (like WiRES, EchoLink and IRLP), but not on D-STAR, you know why. In this sense, it does not necessarily fit the way we operate. -- JI1BQW - Kay Ishikawa Thanks for the information, Kay. Many of us still remain baffled at why JARL would have left the D-Star specification without a way to hold nets over the gateway (non-local nets). The multicast group added to G2 was a gateway patch rather than a protocol specification to try to make this happen, but wasn't very useful. There must have been some decision making process, but what? Why doesn't Japan use G2? Does it violate some regulations over there? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: New guy
And yes, Packet radio died because it worked. As packet became popular and people used it, the traffic went up and eventually people left because now the network was too congested to do anything. AX25 reminds me quite a bit of D-Star. AX25 has two modes: connected (linked) and unconnected (UI or broadcast). D-Star has two similar modes: directed (UR set to a registered callsign) and CQ (UR set to CQCQCQ). When AX25 began there was some experimentation and evolution about when each mode should be used. Unconnected was useful for calling CQ but connected was useful for linking to bulletin boards and for QSO's although you could QSO in unconnected mode too. Similar experimentation and evolution seems ongoing within D-Star, especially with the dplus extension (not a part of the D-Star specification at all). I think people left packet before the network congestion began. Bulletin boards became internet rather than RF connected, and there were competing digital modes that worked more reliably, especially on HF. Although of experimental interest, attended data modes on VHF have just never been hugely popular. APRS caused the inherent inadequacies of the original AX25 specification for congested channels to become a real problem, but that didn't kill packet, rather, packet evolved with UI flood/trace and NSR (no source) routing and with more intelligent digipeaters (read gateways). One can only wonder how D-Star will next adapt and evolve. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Has anyone tried using the node adapter in the simplex mode as a link on ...
analog connected to DSTAR!! NO THANK YOU! I've used a system with a very functional analog interconnect. There's always some passionate rhetoric when this topic comes up, a lot like node adapters. Everyone is certainly entitled to an opinion. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Trim your replies PLEASE
What will it take to get folks here NOT to append hundreds of lines of previous messages to their replies? I try to keep up with the Yahoo D-Star groups on my Blackberry but it's impossible because that device limits the size of an incoming email to something like 45-50KB. PLEASE, PLEASE try not to send huge, ever-growing snowballs back and forth on the discussion groups. Remember when people just put [snip!] and truncated the rest? This is important, especially for folks reading messages on mobile devices. The group header clearly asks folks to trim replies - it's that line in red font! I wish Yahoo had an option to reply without quoting the message, but they don't. 73 -- Moderator
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: GPS on 880
Yes, the RMC type sentence will work if you have set your ID880 to expect it. Carefully go through your owners manual starting on page 73 to be sure you have all settings correct. The other issue I have seen is crossed RXD/TXD pins on one of the connectors... Stay with it and you will be successful. 73 -- John --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, linxdev cfow...@... wrote: I'm trying to get a GPS receiver I built working on my IC-880. So far I see nothing in My POS. Is the data that is output correct?
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: State of the DSTAR Union
In terms of an amateur grade product, the DSTAR radios are OK. Not great but not all that bad. (Not comparing ham radio to commercial stuff costing 5X more $). I was talking about the repeater modules, not the user radios. Sorry if that was not clear. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: GPS on 880
GPS message programming Is this really required to just see coordinates? I don't think so, you just won't have anything in the comment field. If I TX to KI4SBA G then my GPS goes out to anyone on reflector 30. Is there any DPRS - APRS gateways where my XYL or family can look on a web site and see where I may be located? Yes, dstarmon/javaprssrvr on many gateways, including yours, form a DPRS to APRS gateway. Set GPS TX mode to DVA, not DVG. Kerchunk, and in a few minutes look at findu or jfindu: http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?k3dc 73 -- john
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: GPS on 880
Yes, dstarmon/javaprssrvr on many gateways, including yours, form a DPRS to APRS gateway. Set GPS TX mode to DVA, not DVG. Kerchunk, and in a few minutes look at findu or jfindu: Oh, and leave the unproto address set to the default of: API880,DSTAR* And, of course, do not enable autotransmit if you are on a gateway or folks will scream at you. Just kerchunk a couple times. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: GPS on 880
The idea was that one memory could be set to RPT1=KI4SBA C, RPT2=KI4SBA C and that would be the beacon. If I wanted to talk I would simply turn the knob to the next memory that would be RPT1=KI4SBA C, RPT2=KI4SBA G. The idea to keep the beacon off the gateway. Read my last post again. You MUST go through the gateway to have D-PRS transfer your GPS information into the APRS IS. RPT2 must be set to KI4SBA G. The way you keep the beacon off the gateway is by NOT auto beaconing, or not very often. This is not as flexible as 144.93 MHz APRS. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Zone creation and around...
What I can't believe is that as long as digital protocol have been around, only one of the major Amateur Radio manufacturers support it. But again, we have what we have. And we currently have Yaesu, Kenwood, and Alinco who are just not willing to move into this century! At least not with Icom leading the way proprietarily. I'd like to see some sales numbers; I'd bet D-Star field radio sales represent a very small VHF/UHF market share compared to analog radios. The hype may be running out of steam. Once we have a real emergency and D-Star performs no better than analog, that bubble may burst as well. The D-Star market saturation may be close to stabilizing. I don't see how we will ever have serious digital VHF/UHF until the manufacturers agree on some common standard. Of course, better gateway and RF design and construction would not hurt either. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: callsign routing
When a user call sign routes into a repeater does that repeater update the users table with their current information? YES (G2). We tested this with zone (slash) routing when G2 first came out, and it does update the destination gateway with the transmitting user's current information if he is on a different gateway. AFAIK, the ONLY updating that occurs is to the Trust Server and then replicated out. So one repeater will not update another repeater system. Yes, but with G2 a called gateway immediately updates itself with the caller's gateway information so folks on the called gateway can callsign route back to the caller immediately. The only exception, with the latest gateway software, is that if you move between modules on the same system, the local system will redirect the call to the module that you are on.(*) This is a critical part, btw, to make it work. NU5D and I tested this in August 2008. I should draw a picture, but let me try to explain. The setup was: 1) I had pgadmin3 running on a Fedora box. I was logged into the dstar_global databases on K5CTX and W5HAT, and I watched the sync_mng table entry for NU5D on both machines, each in it's own x-window. I refreshed one view, then the other, back and forth every few seconds, so I could see changes within a second or two on each gateway. 2) NU5D was within range of both K5CTX and W5HAT. He always transmited on the B band, and he zone routed to the other machine. Thus, when transmitting on W5HAT^^B, he routed to /K5CTX^B. 3) Before we started, both sync_mng tables showed him homed on K5CTX^^B. 4) With both gateways showing him homed to K5CTX as above, he transmited on W5HAT^^B with UR=/K5CTX^B. As fast as I could click refresh on the pgadmin3 window, sync_mng on W5HAT now showed him homed to W5HAT^^B (immediate update). My next click updated the x-window showing sync_mng on K5CTX (destination gateway) which now shows him homed to W5HAT^^A (partial immediate update) -- note, this is the correct gateway, but he is actually on the B module, not A. But this doesn't matter!! 5) This is where Ed's point above - if you move between modules on the same system, the local system will redirect the call to the module that you are on comes to the rescue. Put another way, if you route to the correct gateway but wrong module, the recipient gateway will still send the stream to the correct module for a user known to be on that gateway. K5CTX show him homed to W5HAT^^A when he is really on W5HAT^^B because the header K5CTX received does not tell K5CTX which module he is on, but K5CTX only has to route to W5HAT and W5HAT will correct the band module before transmitting the stream to RF! 6) Later we did the same test with callsign routing, and everything worked the same. So if you are a mobile user, the folks you call on other gateways will be able to immediately route back to you. Folks on other gateways won't be able to route to you until their gateway has been updated by the trust server, however. Or put yet another way, you as a mobile user can update any gateway as to your current homed gateway by zone (slash) routing a header to the gateway you wish to immediately update. Then any user on that gateway can callsign route back to you. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: New poll for dstar_digital
Maybe research the questions and answers more first, I ended up running 3 extra polls for the first one I created on one group. How/where whould you research the questions and answers more FIRST? Your views are one of many in a large world, not everyone see's them the same way. Of course not everyone sees things the same why - that's why we have polls. Duhhh! 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Explain this to me (Was News on IC-9100) US Audience
Well, one of the things we lack here is blanket coverage of repeaters. It only takes a few hours drive from here in the big smoke to find places devoid of repeater coverage. Traditionally, HF fills this gap, but then you're isolated from the international networks and have to rely on the vagaries of HF propagation. Even domestically, this can prove a challenge, with the Travellers Net requiring several relays to achieve national coverage, and even then, results can sometimes be marginal. short range (i.e. up to 500 miles) HF links that can manage acceptable audio, consistent signalling and a control channel could be interesting in this environment (Anyone want a gateway with a 300 or 500 mile radius to mobiles? ;) ). I have some experience with mobile HF - http://www.ke5c.net/mobile/ If you want reliable HF communications from say 50 to 500 miles, you will need a frequency agile gateway because you are going to have to use 160 to 20 meters depending on the time of day, and some days you will not have a path on any HF band depending on your range. You will also need a KW in your car as well, particularly if you need to pay the 10 db s/n digital penalty. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Explain this to me (Was News on IC-9100) US Audience
Digital voice on HF will NEVER catch on because it is a strong signal mode, and HF is the home of weak signals, well except for 80 Never is a long time, and vocoder technology marches on. Already, the biggest limitation is not technology, but patents and what we hams can get hold of for an affordable price. Free AMBE wouldn't eliminate the 10 db s/n technologic gap between usable hf digital and hf ssb, or resolve the bandwidth issues here in the USA. The other hf digital obstacle is no wow factor. Hf digital, so what? Even VHF digital by itself lacks a wow factor. Talking to NU5D across town digitally versus fm is no big thrill. On the other hand, talking to JI1BQW half-way around the world using my mobile VHF/UHF rig is, so it's not digital voice per se that brings the wow factor, it's the gateway interconnect and other features of DStar such as reflectors that do. On hf none of that is a big deal. Sure there's a handful of folks who would/will use it, but it will never catch on. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: DV Dongle
If one dongle user communicates with another dongle via a reflector to which no gateway is linked (no RF), is that a QSO, a VOIP telephone call, or some type of chat room? The more I think about it, this may be VAR - virtual amateur radio. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Callsign (and band module slash) routing works
I formatted NU5D's log from the recent seven day DStar contest into Cabrillo format for submission, and I also did some analyses. One of the more interesting reports is the number of folks worked in each country (again, none by reflector): CNTRY QSOs JAPAN 50 USA.. 26 GERMA 15 ITALY 11 CANAD 10 AUSTR 9 ENGLA 7 PORTU 3 SWITZ 3 ARGEN 2 AUSTR 2 DENMA 2 GREEC 2 NETHE 2 ALASK 1 BELGI 1 BRAZI 1 FRANC 1 HAWAI 1 NORWA 1 SCOTL 1 SLOVE 1 SPAIN 1 23 countries in seven days. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Congratulations to NU5D and WW6USA!
http://www.icom.co.jp/world/d-contest/results_eng.pdf Numbers 1 and 2 in the World Repeater category! 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: (NOT) blocked German callsigns?
--- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, dh2ybe dh2...@... wrote: Most of blocked Geman Callsigngs are active OM´s Why they are blocked ? NOT blocked. del_flg = '1' and target_cs like 'D%' order by target_cs; del_flg NOT for blocking (READ prior postings). Talk to YOUR gateway admin (or ICOM)! 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Wouldn't It Be Nice ?
Interesting. Those folks there were registered on XTRUST below (yesterday) are now registered on DB0WZB. DTERM, whatever that is, is still registered on XTRUST1. Someone in D-land seems to be manipulating the database... 73 -- John --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, john_ke5c k...@... wrote: Here's hoping some rogue Gateway Admin doesn't go nuts with the blacklist checkboxes someday... or that there's a hidden way us regular level Admins can't see to override such silliness... There already is some xcreative xgateway admin no doubt ... select ... from sync_mng where regist_rp_cs like 'XTRUST%'; target_cs | zonerp_cs | arearp_cs | pc_hostname | regist_rp_cs ---+---+---+-+-- DG1HT | DM0HMB| DM0HMB C | dg1ht | XTRUST DK7XD | DM0HMB| DM0HMB A | dk7xd | XTRUST DM5LW | DM0HMB| DM0HMB C | dm5lw | XTRUST DTERM | DM0HMB| DM0HMB C | dterm | XTRUST1 DM5LW is Peter from Burlington's Buddy, btw. (4 rows) 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Wouldn't It Be Nice ?
Here is the procedure for the SQL query blocked Germans call sign in the Gateway database. su postgres psql \c dstar_global select target_cs, del_flg, mod_date from sync_mng where del_flg = '1' and target_cs like 'D%' order by target_cs; No, setting the del_flg means ignore that record in sync_mng. This could be done for a number of reasons. If you change your callsign, if you change your registered repeater, or if you just delete a terminal the sync_mng record for that callsign/terminal combination will be del_flg'ed. This information is sync'ed to all other gateways. Blacklising is on a gateway basis and is done by setting the blacklist_flg in unsync_mng. This applies only to the local gateway. There is no way to determine from one gateway who is blacklisted on any other gateway. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Wouldn't It Be Nice ?
*I,m AI4UE Peter from Burlington.* *yes my Buddy from Germany DM5LW is blacklisted.* *So far I know,hw did nothing wrong!* *He is a 70+ year old Ham,with very good maneers.* *But there is 160 more hams from Germany blacklisted also.* *Some of them,never was on Dstar!* *All off them ask Why?* Blacklisting is a by gateway setting, not a system wide setting. He would have to ask the gateway sysop where he has been blacklisted why that was set. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Wouldn't It Be Nice ?
There are basically three options There are other options but the one I like the most is that Robin could add local gateway dplus configuration options to determine how slash routed and callsign routed streams, both incoming and outgoing from RF and from links, are handled, i.e., forwarded or ignored. This would allow the gateway owners - those who provide the backbone that makes DStar viable, interesting, and marketable - the freedom to resolve the inherent conflicts between the base DStar protocol and the dplus extension as they best see fit for their local DStar user milieu. For all of those who don't want the DPLUS software to route call sign routed packets into the network, there's just as many of us who think that it is working they way it should. So no matter what Robin does, a number of people are going to think that it is wrong, he can't win. Sure Robin can win - by providing local gateway control over dplus callsign and slash routing behavior. Then you can be happy with your gateway and many of us can be happy with ours, instead of just you being happy. We got what we got, instead of complaining about how bad it works, why don't we think of ways, using the existing system, that we can do things to make it better? That's exactly what we are doing. Dplus currently only works well for the linkers, not those who appreciate and use callsign and/or slash routing. We want to make it better for those amateurs too. This thread/discussion has popped up probably a dozen times now, it's getting quite boring and wasting people's time. Yes, problems have a way of popping up until they are properly fixed. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Wouldn't It Be Nice ?
Just to be clear, routed calls are not Icom routed calls, they are native to the D-STAR protocol. The Icom gateway implements them. DPLUS linking is a non-standard add-on, widely deployed and accepted by the users, but not native to the protocol. DE K7VE More later, but just to be really clear, dplus is a DStar extension, not an add-on. Nothing in the DStar protocol prohibits extensions, so to say dplus is non-standard is a non sequitur. Dplus adds features to the DStar environment which overall are accepted, but I think it is time to seriously rethink the way some of those features behave, specifically what NU5D has mentioned. Callsign routing and gateway linking are not inherently compatible for at least the reasons NU5D has mentioned. Whether (local or G2 delivered) RF callsign and slash routed streams are forwarded to dplus links needs to be a local dplus configuration option, not a global setting. Whether dplus (linked) callsign and slash routed streams are delivered to the local gateway also needs to be a local configuration option. Another local configuration option needs to offer a (silent) dplus unlinking when callsign and slash routed streams arrive by RF, G2 or dplus. This matters hugely to gateways where operators often use callsign and slash routing. For gateways that merely function like linked FM repeaters, it doesn't matter. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Submit your contest logs
Icom DStar contest logs must be submitted by 24:00 August 10, 2009 (Timestamp). http://www.icom.co.jp/world/d-contest/ 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: ID1 Software Under Linux with Wine
I am hoping someone else has been down this or a similar road. I have already checked out the Wine forums. I have an ID1 and I am trying to get the ICOM ID1 control software under Linux. The gui looks great but I can not communicate via the Ubuntu 9.04 X64 system. When I briefly tried to get the band module programming software to work under wine, I found that USB support really does not exist in wine. The wine Wiki basically says that - http://wiki.jswindle.com/index.php/Drivers and scroll about half-way down the page. Please let us know if you find a way to get it working. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: ID1 Software Under Linux with Wine
I stand educated; I didn't know the ID-1 software talked via com port interfaces rather than via usb port interfaces. What I said is true, wine does not support usb interfaces, but linux sure does. Thus Pierre, Antonio, Ed, and maybe others have pointed a way to the solution - the ID-1 software talks to wine via com port interfaces which are mapped to linux USB serial com ports where linux handles the interface. Let me add that you need to define any com port you intend to use under wine in the ~/.wine/dosdevices directory. If you have physical com ports on your computer, you will find existing entries in this directory for those. To complete Pierre's example, you also need to create an entry for com4 in the ~/.wine/dosdevices directory: ln -s /dev/ttyS4 com4 This tells wine where to look for com4, /dev/ttyS4 in this case which Pierre redefined to be the first USB port, /dev/ttyUSB0. *** I'm pretty sure I've done this in one step before, all in the dosdevices directory. Try ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 com4 (some distros use /dev/usb/ttUSB0...) Then tell the ID-1 software to use com4. Don't forget to attend the permissions issue also described by Pierre. I think if you run wine as root, you don't have to worry about this, but regular users do not have permission to use tty ports in linux for security reasons. 73 -- John The ID-1 control software, only knows about COM: devices which under linux are the /dev/ttyS On the other hand, the FTDI chips seen by linux as a /dev/ttyUSB... Assuming that you only have one such device connected on your system, it will be /dev/ttyUSB0. What you have to do is to link to some ttyS device. Say you ln -s /dev/ttyUSB0 /dev/ttyS4 The ID-1 control software will be able to connect to COM5. You also need to make sure that you have read/write access to the device. Under most recent distributions, those device will grant R/W access to members of the group uucp. If needed, you edit /etc/group to be included in that group. Here's how it shows on my system where I have the ID-1 control software running on COM5: [...@localhost]$ ls -la /dev/ttyUSB0 crw-rw 1 root uucp 188, 0 aoû 1 16:12 /dev/ttyUSB0 [...@localhost]$ ls -la /dev/ttyS4 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 jui 27 20:45 /dev/ttyS4 - /dev/ttyUSB0 [...@localhost]$ grep uucp /etc/group uucp:x:14:uucp,prt (Note that under Windows it's exactly the same: USB serial devices are turned into COM ports and it is the COM port number that you actually configure in the ID-1 control software. The only difference is that Windows automatically assign a COM port number for the USB serial interfaces.) '73 - Pierre __ Pierre Thibaudeau VA2RKA/VA2RKB/VE2RIO/VE2RVR/VE2RQF/VE2RTO/VE2LKL/VE2TXD sysadmin
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] ICOM next year clarify your contest rules
Rule: The use of the following technologies cannot be used for contest QSO. D-PLUS DV Dongle HotSpot Digital/Analog Gateways DV Adapters A station jumped me on a reflector asking me to one-touch him back for a contest QSO. Was the reflector (i.e., dplus) used to make the QSO? I would argue yes because there is no way otherwise that a contest QSO could have occured at that time on that frequency (it did not, btw). An operator making QSO's this way rather than by random calling has a significant advantage. ICOM, next year please clarify if this rule means no use of those technologies in any way, or if it's okay to solicit a QSO just so long as callsign routing (one-touch reply) is then used to actually complete the QSO. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: D-STAR Contest Announcement
Below is the latest announcement. I am excited as WriteLog is the only contesting software package that will support the D-STAR Contest as outlined on the ICOM Japan website. I don't know if I'll do anything in this contest - I am a contester but this is not what most of us would consider as a contest. Anyway, you don't need to purchase WriteLog. You can use any logging program with a generic QSO type of contest, generate a Cabrillo file from your log, edit the contest name in the Cabrillo log, then submit it. That is the whole idea of Cabrillo - you just submit your log in that format and the contest manager dupes and verifies your log (log checking against other logs submitted), then calculates your score. I'm starting to use http://www.n1mm.com/ more, and the VHFDX contest under General Contest Logging will work, just leave the GRID field blank in your log. N1MM is FREE. After the contest, generate a Cabrillo log, edit the header, and you are done. The rules say nothing about (not) using spotting nets, so looking for possible QSO's on www.dstarusers.org should be fine. I haven't been there in a while - are the JA's running dstarmon yet? That would really help in this event, to see which JA is on which gateway. I think you will want to have the JA (and as many other) gateways as possible programmed in your radio so you can make slash routed calls quickly rather than having to constantly program gateways on the fly. Again, what a shame that each DStar radio has a different computer interface so that you can't control them and program them on the fly with one program. More later perhaps, 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: more questions
You can talk to another station via the -gateway- as that system fully buffers each Ethernet packet before determining routing. While this can make it appear that the RP2D is repeating, it is actually the gateway that is routing the Ethernet packets back to the same RF channel. Remember that this is a very slow, half-duplex operation that becomes very susceptable to collisions when used this way. Ahhh, used this way to move data via the local RP2D/RP2C/G2, essentially a DD digipeater with the problems of 144.390 MHz, but probably without any collision reduction algorithm a la p-persistence? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: RP2D
One more question then I will stop! Does anyone know if the RP2D can operate on its own without the need for a controller? :( Manual, page 1: The ID-RP2D never functions as a repeater without IDRP2C, due to no relay function is built-in. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Technical Repeater Question
Hello from the WU5PIG DStar repeater system where we have a strange issue. When attempting to link our system to a reflector using a radio we get an error message, DStar system currently busy. You will get that message if: 1) RF linking is not allowed 2) Admin only linking and your call is not in the admin list 3) Reflector is down 4) You have a (router) port forwarding problem 5) Dplus has gotten lost 6) Linux has gotten lost (the network/port manager) 7) and probably some other reasons We have had this happen where only rebooting Centos fixes it, that is, where restarting dplus is not enough. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: new to the group
repeater would, PLUS. The PLUS is the ability to send slow speed data and voice over the same links, even at the same time. So it actually combines both the low speed data services (for text, imaging, small file Other than occasional unidirectional (please don't beacon) GPS reports, DStar DV slow speed data at what, 900 baud or so, is about as useful as smoke and mirrors for any practical data transfer purpose, Emcomm or otherwise (DRats is interesting, not useful). Moreover, you cannot transmit slow speed data and voice simultaneously (except for GPS and your 20 character pre-programmed text message). DD data might be useful (are there any existing Emcomm software apps?), but how many of you have ID-1's? Let's be objective here... 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: new to the group
I can't find any data or verification of that claim; am I searching incorrectly? For all of New Orleans and surrounding parishes? In New Orleans, two major tech firms have managed to keep up and running from the upper floors of a skyscraper though supplies of diesel fuel for their generator are limited. Again as reported by Wired, New Orleans ISP and web hosting firm Zipa and a related firm, DirectNIC remained online throughout the hurricane and still continue to provide hosting services. Their Internet connection, a fiber line buried ten stories below the city, survived the disaster intact. Thanks, but I thought you meant DStar gateways kept working. While a report of two (of how many?) ISP's that kept working until the diesel ran out is interesting, useful data would be statistics on how many internet end customers, such as DStar gateways, maintained a working route to a working ISP. From the looks of the water and known power failures, I think that percentage very low. However, if you were lucky enough to have your DStar repeater on top of the building where those two ISP's were housed, had power to any intermediate switches along your route, and had your own generator (since it's unlikely you would have been on their power), you would have been okay at least for a while. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: new to the group
Only you can really answer your question, but let me pose a question for you to think about. What if you deployed to a major incident (like Katrina) in an area where D-STAR has been deployed heavily for Emergency Communications, would you want your options for support limited by not having D-STAR in your bag of tricks? What's the DStar network backup plan for major incidents like Katrina when the internet (fiber, cable, microwave) lose power, get flooded, etc.? What keeps the backbone going for your bag of tricks to keep working? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: new to the group
D-STAR works with or without Internet. The Internet enables gateways. So does FM. During Katrina there was Internet connectivity available through a couple of ISP NOCs (even though the building was flooded). If I can't find any data or verification of that claim; am I searching incorrectly? For all of New Orleans and surrounding parishes? I did find a report on the general disruption of internet infrastructure by Renesys: Recovery efforts continue, but obviously, with a significant portion of the city of New Orleans under water and without reliable power or transportation, many Louisiana-based outages will not be fixed for the foreseeable future. ... Many networks in the affected region, especially those in Louisiana, have been unreachable for a prolonged period of time. These networks may not see service restored for some time to come, unless they can be brought back online at disaster recovery sites outside of the region. Shoot, with that thinking I shouldn't bother having a car because bridges will probably go out during a major earthquake in my area. Yes, I think it would be pretty dumb to expect your car to be of any use during a major earthquake in your area. If your goal is to have some form of transportation in that emergency, get a bicycle. I think it would be equally dumb to build an emergency communciation system that depended on the internet. If your goal is to have emergency communications in that emergency, get an FM (or better yet, HF) radio and a generator - I'm pretty sure that's what they used during Katrina... Hams can improvise under conditions that would bring public safety radio folks to their knees. You put a hotspot somewhere that has Internet connectivity (these events rarely take out every possible avenue to the Internet) et voila you are back on the D-STAR network. There are a lot of claims and promises for DStar as an Emcomm solution but no real world success stories. Time will tell, but I'd take an a mutli-mode HF/VHF rig like the FT-857D if I could have only one rig for an emergency... 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: new to the group
scheme? If not, how hard would it be to change? It would seem that Satoshi's D-Star adapter could be fairly easily modified to work with these radios, with the control interface using the RS-232 connection. There's a real mess over in that group with Satoshi having basically abandoning his prior project (and customers) and now apparantly planning to offer a new board where he will supply a proprietary software. Upgrades will have a cost, etc. Hopefully others will come up with a similar solution. Some say they are, so we can hope. Check it out - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gmsk_dv_node/ 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] The Future of USA Emcomm?
http://www.thalesliberty.com/media/briefs/Thales_Multiband_Portable_SDR.pdf http://www.networkworld.com/community/node/43196 Get your loaner: http://www.thalesliberty.com/demo_request.asp Goodbye DStar Emcomm? Goodbye hams? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Using the DD
The best place to start is with your repeater owner/gateway administrator. The gateway may not be configured for general Internet access. We didn't have to do anything specific to allow general internet browsing via DD when we set up the gateway. If named is broken on the gateway you might have a problem, and lately some folks have registered with terminal pcname's ending with a hyphen which breaks named. I think those have been cleaned up though. DV continues to work without named working properly, btw. I have configured the PC to talk to the ID-1 and the ID-1 is talking to the repeater BUT I don't get to the Internet. If I switch to the DV repeater all is well. Where do I start? Did you follow the instructions on pages 65-66 of your ID-1 manual EXACTLY? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Using the DD
Some administrators may block Internet access. Talking to the administrator of the local system will provide the local system knowledge. As an admin, I'm just curious how that could be done, block general internet browsing via DD but not block DD QSO gateway routing? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: more DV / FM questions
As far as I can see or know, Andy's repeater doesn't buffer or 'hold' any data, it is purely passed directly and almost instantaneously into the TX from the RX, after the comparator circuit that helps smooth off the 0's and 1's. Andy then is almost certainly transmitting plain FM, not GMSK-FM. This will work RF-wise moderatly well and is what NU5D did before he had an ICOM stack. The bandwidth will be somewhat greater, and the S/N performance worse, but the FEC will overcome some of this. Practically, I think the communciation range is nearly the same and the main difference will be bandwidth. NU5D should have done a side-by-side spectral comparison of his FM DStar repeater and the ICOM stack, but I don't think he ever had both going at the same time since he used the same duplexer and antennas. The ICOM stack may also not have the best designed GMSK modulation possible, so it may not be representative of GMSK performance per se. I think NU5D's main problem was transmitter key-up delay - enough of the sync data had already gone by that the receiving DStar radio had trouble locking up. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: programming
--- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, woody roadma...@... wrote: I'm new at this programming of this radio..Kinda need some help. Will i got the local repeaters working just great. but when it comes to getting thought the gateway and talking to other people seem to be a problem. Not sure what i might be going wrong. Very much need some helpthanks Woody, you are not regisered on the gateway system so far as I can tell. In order to use callsign routing to talk to folks on other gateways, you need to be registered. The easiest way is to go through your local users group for your local machine. Sometimes gateways are linked with a piece of software which is an extension or add on to the ICOM gateway software, and you can talk to/on a second gateway or reflector if your local gateway is operating in that mode. There are some guides on all this, and I'm sure someone will post one or two of those, but I've got to run for bit. Welcome and 73, John
Native D-STAR vs. DPLUS linking (was: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Signal Distance)
But to those of us who truly do wish to communicate with an individual (as with those of us who are trained on AEDs), it is nice to have the capability when wanted/needed. Oh I generally agree. I was just emphasizing how non sequltur the attempted analogy with debfibrillators on airplanes was. 73 -- John
Native D-STAR vs. DPLUS linking (was: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Signal Distance)
Source routing to an individual callsign (native D-STAR) has its purpose as well. If the station (callsign) that I want to talk to is attached to a traveler, say a long haul truck driver or a road warrior, then simply calling the station using callsign routing makes more sense. Callsign routing to a long haul truck driver who is in range of a DStar repeater say 5% of the time, and whose whereabouts even then would be known only if he remembered to key up? Without dplus and reflectors, DStar would be on its way to join HF digital. I agree 100% with Ed. 73 -- John
880 vs 800 (was: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Signal Distance)
I don't like the idea of filtering bogus callsigns. What might be bogus to you, might be my special event's tactical callsigns. (There's nothing stopping anyone from registering SAG1, SAG1, NET, EVENT, etc.) I don't care if this is politically incorrect or insensitive, but if you want tactical this, that and the other, just join your local police force or the marines. You can probably even get tactical underwear there. If you want to operate on the amateur bands and modes, use an amateur callsign. 10-4? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: UPDATE on Group Order buyings
All my stuff is sold as complete kits, indeed. No more wild shopping. Fred, have you published any ordering information? 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: DPlus Dashboard Question
The javAPRSSrvr part of dstarmon is not running. If it were, you would see process numbers for APRS. See two messages in the Gateway group that just covered this: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DStar-Gateway/message/2785 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DStar-Gateway/message/2783 73 -- John --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Jeff Thomas k7...@... wrote: I installed a new D-Star Controller and UHF Module with Gateway. I am having the following problems: Users are not showing up in the DPlus Dashboard. Gateway does not show up in DVTool for DVDongle users. I followed the Joining the Network guide on dstarusers.org for installation. Gateway is reporting the following status: dsipsvd (root:23730) dsgwd (root:23699) postgres (postgres:23613) httpd (root:23639) java (root:2622) dplus (root:23433) named (named:2269) DSM ok (DSM= 2622 APRS=none running) Mem: 915MB Free, 2019MB Total GW_VER=2.1 Any help is appreciated. Jeff, K7WIN D-Star Repeater: KF7BTZ
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Icom ID-1 Control Issue
--- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, David mbx-sp...@... wrote: The ID-1 software will not presently run on Vista 64 (to my knowledge)due to the 64 bit driver not being signed. Does anyone know if it is possible to control the ID-1 via the Ethernet port. If so, how is that accomplished? See http://www.laptopvideo2go.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t18585.html for a work-around to unsigned drivers. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Dplus One Way Linking ?
remote gateway 189.20.214.220:20001 call PY2KCA C status Linked to C Works for me to link KE5RCS to his gateway (non-existant band module but still demonstrates all is well). It's either how he has his radio set or his dplus.conf. Ask him for both of those. 73 -- John -- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Steve Bosshard bossh...@... wrote: I have been talking with Joao, PY2JF in Americana Brazil concerning PY2KCA port C. I am able to link to UR=PY2KCACL without any trouble. Joao gets System is Currently Busy when he tries to Dplus Link from Brazil to the rest of the world. Any ideas or suggestions ? 73, Steve NU5D
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: the I command
--- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Nate Duehr n...@... wrote: The gateway admin records it with a DVDongle and can make it audio or not, and can also set a text message. We don't have one here locally because without a Dongle, I can't record one for W0CDS. I assume many systems have a similar problem and the I command does nothing. Record it off the air with the echo command and rename it. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Dplus One Way Linking ?
If operator error, what UR= , RPT1, RPT2, MY combination would or could cause System is currently busy voice message ? I think that is a generic error message, and MYCALL not in database would if dplus.conf set the default way to allowreguserlinkingonly. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Easy way to reply to CQ from Japanese station.
-The One-Touch reply works only for those JA stations who are populated in one of G2 gateways (this is his/her default gateway). Most likely those JA stations got registered to use DVDongles. Kay shares a key point - this only works for 20 or so of the J-Landers: target_cs | arearp_cs | zonerp_cs | user_cs | regist_rp_cs ---+---+---+--+-- JA1ALE| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA1ALE | WB4HRO JA1DDF| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA1DDF | WB4HRO JA1QML| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA1QML | WB4HRO JA1YEM| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA1YEM | WB4HRO JA3PTR| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA3PTR | WB4HRO JA4NYY| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA4NYY | WB4HRO JA7NJN| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JA7NJN | WB4HRO JF1CXH| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JF1CXH | WB4HRO JF1TEU| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JF1TEU | WB4HRO JH0MRP| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JH0MRP | WB4HRO JI1BQW| W4AES A | W4AES | JI1BQW | W4AES JI1OBJ| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JI1OBJ | WB4HRO JK1PBD| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JK1PBD | WB4HRO JK1UVL| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JK1UVL | WB4HRO JL1EEE| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JL1EEE | WB4HRO JL7HHS| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JL7HHS | WB4HRO JM3GWE| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JM3GWE | WB4HRO JO3QJH| DB0WZ C | DB0WZ | JO3QJH | DB0WZB JO3QJI| DB0NG B | DB0NG | JO3QJI | DB0WZB JR1BFJ| WB4HRO A | WB4HRO| JR1BFJ | WB4HRO (20 rows) 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Easy way to reply to CQ from Japanese station.
Today, 13:12 -, Steve Bosshard wrote: Toshi is registered in the GW system showing JP1YIQA as his area repeater. Possibly in Japan, but not here: [...@dstar_gw ~]$ /dstar/tools/dstarripls | grep JF1CXH [JF1CXH ] [WB4HRO ] [10.220.193.144] [...@dstar_gw ~]$ /dstar/tools/dstarmngls | grep JF1CXH [JF1CXH ] [WB4HRO A] [10.220.193.144] You are both correct - it depends on when you look at the database. I deleted the earlier file because I changed my query to look at more J-land stations, but I've been taking a snapshot of their registration every five minutes trying to figure this out. Here's a later glimpse of another J-lander showing this phenomena: JA7NJN| 2009-01-20 18:08:45 | 2009-04-09 14:13:46.691649 | 2009-04-09 14:13:46.691649 | ja7njn | JP1YJR A | JP1YJR| JA7NJN | WB4HRO | 10.64.208.200 | f For about 35 minutes (7 snapshots five minutes apart) he was registered this morning on JP1YJR A in our database. Before and after (and now) he was registered to WB4HRO A. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Server Req for ID-RP2C and ID-RP4000V?
I have a WRT52GS (Firmware Version: v4.71.1, I don't believe Linksys made a WRT52GS. You probably have a WRT54GS. As for the WRT52GS device: will it allow you to set the net mask on the trusted side to /8? That is: 255.0.0.0 A lot of the inexpensive home/consumer firewall routers don't (properly) support the 10.0.0.0/8 network you need on the trusted ports. I doubt Hyperwrt supports this, but it's possible. However, the dd-wrt firmware does and that is what almost all of us using Linksys routers on our gateways have loaded. Since you were familiar with Hyperwrt, you may already be familiar with dd-wrt. How you load dd-wrt on a WRT54GS depends on the HARDWARE version (check the bottom label). Click on WRT54GS in the list at the top of the http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices page. You only need the mini version to run the ICOM gateway, not the full or any other variants. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Server Req for ID-RP2C and ID-RP4000V?
Several options including the MikroTik routers (http://www.roc-noc.com/home.php?cat=4) MikroTip is huge overcapacity and overcomplexity for your needs. See http://www.k5tit.org/forums/index.php?topic=47.15 and there some other threads I'll get to you later. Ebay is good source for older Linksys routers that will work with dd-wrt firmware. There are lots of posts in these forums if you just search for routers. 73 -- John
[DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: Easy way to reply to CQ from Japanese station.
There's been some chatter about this, and many of us old-timers have posted that it shouldn't work but enough folks have posted it does that it makes me wonder. I don't remember for sure, but when the JA gateways first appeared in the database, I'm pretty sure individual JA users did not, but now they do, many with JA area and zone callsigns. Thus one possibility is that this info has somehow been dumped into the international gateway db and thus provides one-touch callsign routing information to get dv streams from us to them. At least two of the j-landers claimed to have been worked with one-touch replying are currently homed to wb4hro. A second possibility then is that the wb4hro gateway (custom?) software (or dplus on that machine) is somehow providing a worm-hole to j-land. I can't think of why else they would be homed there. 73 -- John --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, n0so n...@... wrote: I had a nice QSO with JA7NJN (Yoh) while mobile one day last week. The One-Touch Reply (RCS) on my 2820 worked OK for me. Yoh has instructions on his QRZ web page for replying to Japan stations. They include the One-Touch method. Give it a try! 73, Mike, N0SO --- In dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com, Y.Kawabe tiaradxer@ wrote: We found out gBest and Easy Wayh to reply from U.S. and EU, when you received CQ Call from Japan via D-Star Gateway. Just push One-Touch Reply button of your transceiver and capture the call sign Ex. 2820 push [RCS] 91AD push [RX-CS] However, this is an effective method only to the answer of the station in the U.S. and EU to Japan. Please try once. 73 de JF1TEU
