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D-STAR for Dummies (V4)

1. How MyCall RPT1 RPT2 YrCall Ham1 W8CMH C W8CMH G W8CMH Set up your rpt1 and rpt2 as per normal In the YrCall spot the callsign of the repeater only and enough spaces to fill out the 8 positions What good does it do or what could I use it for Ah good question Lot of better ways to do that and why you would want to try that Other than possible emergancy s think this was more of a hey its cool we can do this option lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 48 4 16 EMERGENCY BROADCAST This is particularly useful especially with ICOMS How many of us sit and listen then when distracted turn the volume down The EMR function when pressed turns every D Star radio listening up to get their attention Even if there Call Sign Squelched it opens it up On my IC 800H just push and hold the EMR button lt February 27 2011 Old D Star Vs New D Star the Confusion 49 5 OLD D STAR VS NEW D STAR THE CONFUSION When you read other books there is a lot of confusion You have the raw basic Gateway software from Icom and then you have Dplus enabled repeaters Most of the repeaters you re going to encounter will have DPlus and will be connected up to the internet Because of this the document is structured the way it is Yes know you can put another node of the same repeater stack into your repeater 2 field and cross band your QSO The problem there is that you re not reporting to the gateway sinc
2. Check and make sure you know which com port it put it on See the 800H section if you re not sure A second window will also pop up This is called the Terminal Window For the most part you can ignore that when trouble shooting The software is pretty Self Explanatory Choose your com port and then open The box should then flash Under Setup you can tell it where to send the audio to and take audio from The connection Screen is also pretty simple Connect to Gateway window will populate IF it doesn t then you have internet connection problems Choose your repeater reflector and its module means you listen to streams coming from all three modules but not talk on them As others use it you will see information pop up on this screen The rest is strait forward February 27 2011 DV Dongle 87 If you re having trouble configuring your microphone and have Windows Live Messenger then Messenger has an Audio Tuning Wizard which walks you through calibrating and auto adjusts your microphone level Also of note the data screen you can type something in however to people on the reflector or repeater it looks like your kerdunking a lot Also it doesn t send your call sign on the screen so you re going to see lines from others who if they forget as well you can get lost with who said what so prefix your message with your call sign You can also send a file please bear in mind C node is 2400
3. KD8BIG B Use KT7APR G __ON Use EO KT7APRC i 141 KT7APR B Use i BA wsice G ON Use WSICE C _Use EES WSICE B F GEN wsl G ON Use WA Wel B gt zy WeBL C _Use EG i WB8THD G ON Use EO l WB8THD C Use WB8THD B Use l KD8DRG G ON Use f KD8DRG C _Use KD8DAG B A Use First let us set up the repeater bank This Quick sheet or bank is what my software pulls from to put in to RPT 1 and RPT2 You can see after a certain amount of time got a system worked out list the gateway first and then the nodes you can do whatever order you want but the Gateway needs to be in there What did is go to Dstaruser org got a list for the Ohio Repeaters who had what nodes and what frequencies then just put them in My 800h programming software has a quark to it see the gate way on column it drops a G into the gin position Too bad they couldn t have made it G A B C and solved my space dilemma Just by looking at it it is hard to tell how many spaces you put in there or how many characters a line makes up so you have to count them Too little and it won t work two much and it will clip off This is one of those areas you bay extremely close attention to and watch those spaces You will also note the Use Colum If you have your memory slots fill out it s simply a flag that tells you which ones you have used Hence if you see a blank which
4. REFO1CL Links to reflector 01C Key down for a second and then switch your Call back to CQ to talk if the repeater allows linking it will link you to the reflector Notice the L in the 8 position which tells the repeater that it s a link command Remember to switch this back to CQCQCQ in order to talk When done UNLINK IT W8BAP CL Links to W8BAP Node C Self explanatory It works similar to the REFO1CL command but instead of linking to the reflector links to a specific node To activate just key up for a few seconds then shift to your CQCQCQ have your rag chew then UNLINK IT W8BAP C Node Routes to W8BAP Node C This is different than a link command this is ROUTING When you key down with this in your Your call field it sends just your speech to the destination node in this case W8BAP node lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 29 C Remember the 8 position See routing section for more info You don t have to unlink this one W8JNE Call sign routes to W8JNE Got all of that No well don t worry we will break it down subject by subject lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 30 4 5 BASIC REPEATER OPERATIONS For every repeater node you work with you should have at least 4 lines with following commands CacacQ This is your general usage the one you use the most By now you should know this one by heart CQ 3 times W8CMH I The format is Call sign and I as in info in the
5. Code Callsign CalSign CalSign Rpt 1 Rpt 2 145 49000 023 BothN e off e 5kz e elof w 0 w cQcgcQ W8cMH C l E 145 39000 023 Both N off SkHz Off o CQCQCQ W8DIG C W8DIG G a 146 52000 023 Both N off SkHz Off o A Local a 146 67000 023 BothN Off 5kHz OF Jo i Aes l Repea bs D E 6 BE B a We also added our optional Comments Rott Ret Bank Comment I8CMH C W8CMH G A Local 0 Columbus D Star IBDIG C W8DIG G A Local 1 Columbus D Star B Simpx 0 National calling 2 meter frequency C Repeat 0 CRES Radio Club in Columbus K February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 75 10 6 SAVING THE WORK SO FAR Much work and data entry has been input so far and now would be an excellent time to save it all The name of your file is your decision Here we will use the file name Jan 24a to indicate the work was saved on January 24 with the alpha character a to indicate the first save of today since we will be doing later entries to the radio From File select Save As since this is the first save for today using the program A recommendation is to save a new file name after any major changes lt February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 76 10 7 SEND DATA TO THE IC 880H Now we have the basic programing done to begin using the 880H Under the Communications menu Select Send Data to Radio NOTICE All internal 880H data is replaced with data
6. lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 43 More often or not doubling happens not at the exact same time most of the time This is an extra layer of protection In Nets when they call for stations it also helps smooth out call ins it also helps you out On CODSN Central Ohio D Star Net we ask you use it lt February 27 2011 DN z DN om o cs amp a D i DN Core Concepts 44 How To on 800H Unless the 800 is older than 2005 you should aready have it updated get it A kind of litmus test First step is to get into Initial setup mode Press and hold SET will be on the screen Second Step is Press Set lock to scroll through the menu should be the first one if not press the same button and scroll through the menu intentionally trying to double If it beeps at you and February 27 2011 Core Concepts 45 4 13 AUTO TEXT INSERT You have roughly 3 fields in full operation My Call This your call sign only you know about this one Or The slash field field this is a 4 character text field independent Convention what others do normally is to use those 4 characters to state what rig your running I m on an ID 800H so my Slash field is normally 800H If you run an ID 880H then its 880H if someone s on a Dongle then the dongle automatically puts DNGL if you re on a DVAP which DVAP automatically puts in DVAP
7. t have any spaces but you see the pattern 4 8 1 1 SAMPLE WALKTHROUGH 1 CQCQCQ 2 W8CMH 3 U 4 REFO38A The above is the Memory slots with the corresponding Your Call fields set up 4 8 1 1 1 To CREATE A LINK We want to set up a link to the Ohio Wide Area Reflector 38A We just powered up the rig 1 Turn to the 1 position and listen make sure there isn t a QSO going on or ask 2 Turn to the 2 position key down Wait if you hear nothing then its not linked and free 3 Turn to the 4 position key down and say W8KWA Linking to Reflector 38A and release Wait for conformation It should say Link Established 4 Turn to the 1 position and go ahead with your QSO 4 8 1 1 2 To TAKE IT DOWN 1 Turn to the 3 position key down it s nice to say you re doing it but sometimes it s not practical lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 37 2 Turn back to the 1 position and carry on Remember to ask first locally if any one minds if you link first Then switch to the memory slot with this in the Your Call Field Key up and say Call sign Linking to target the command goes with it You will get told wither it succeeded or failed by either Audio or screen REMEMBER TO USE THE UNLINK COMMAND WHEN YOU ARE DONE 4 8 2 TROUBLE SHOOT LINKING WHY CAN T THE OTHER GUYS ON THE LINK HEAR ME Remember a few things first If you recall how listed the magic 4 fields and techni
8. DV Dongle couldn t do those anyways it didn t matter But for your rig yes it does as this is the repeater that you re going to spend the most amount of time on It s a difficult concept to explain without really going out into technical jargon Think of it as a If all else fails deliver here An Example Let s say we have Homer Simpson W1SIM Scary thought know Homer here buys the DV Dongle and finds a repeater in Maine that has an automated form to add him to the gateway Homer s worked out all of his technical issues and he s dongling away not going for the pun Now Homer buys an 880H there in Springfield from Universal Radio He thinks I m already registered so let s rock and he s technically able to all of the things that you can do with D Star Now Larry he s at the Hamvention in Dayton Ohio he says Why don t call up homer and Call sign routes him Well homer hasn t been chatting on the local repeater for 3 4 days but his rig is listening His call sign has fallen off the last heard lists Now Homer hangs on the 6 66 N3UK repeater in Springfield Remember he is registered in Maine So Larry s call back to him to tell him about the free beer goes out to the gateway system it says Nope aint seen homer but here is his home repeater W1AW in Maine I ll stick it there and that call to homer about the free beer just went to Maine cause that s the repeater he is re
9. So let s say got on W8CMH s B node My memory slot would have the 440 frequency any PL tones or other access information but what would my fields look like lt February 27 2011 RPT 1 RPT 2 W8CMHeeB W8CMHeeG Core Concepts 25 That s right the first field RPT 1 put B in the 8 position Rpt 2 stayed the same because am reporting to the same gateway on the stack This form is the basic layout to talk to the node or talk to the repeater so for every D Star repeater you put into your rig you need entries in the 3 fields RPT1 will be the Node you re calling in from with the letter A for 1 2G B 440 C 2 Meters in the 8 position Rpt 2 will be the gateway of that repeater with call sign and a G in the g position The Your Call field is CQCQCQ This is a minim you will have for every D Star repeater in your Memory Slots Also note that this RPT2 field has nothing to do with the repeater stack you registered on This is Per REPEATER NODE This also means that you have to have an entry for RPT1 amp RPT2 in your Repeater Bank and CQCQCQ in your Your Call Bank know it s a bit confusing but bear with me this pathway is the basis for everything D Star Related Just remember Rpt 1 is the Node your calling in from Rpt 2 is the Gateway of the repeater you re calling in from and the Your Call tells the gateway what to do Oh and remember that pesky 8 position
10. amp RT Systems Software sssnesnsssseseeeneessrssserrreeserssseserereesssssseee 65 10 1 Buying The RT Systems Software ssessssssssssssssssrrrrserereseesrensssrsesssre 66 10 2 Installing Progranski e a e a a aaa 68 10 3 Initial SOC coer ras srexostene so a a RE E A D aii 69 10 3 1 Setting MY CALL einean erica aaea aaeeeiai oaa ea aa Kanat 69 10 3 2 Home D Star GatewayS cee cece cece cece ects ee eeeeeeeeeeteeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeees 71 10 4 Manually Add Frequencies ccssccccesssecececseceececsesueeecesseeeeeeeseaeeeeeees 72 10 54 B nk NAMES teianiasucconrasitcnsarincetunutiam cana a ee wen tad a eia 73 10 6 Saving The Work So Fafr ssseessesssssseeesersssssseereesrssssesrrernesssseserereesessno 75 10 7 Send Data To The IC B80H ws siseceissdvsinvesontansrsnacduuasniasiassoaadeeisoccanaaseraniennes 76 11 ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software ccceeeenees 78 11 1 Example Hamvention Trip ccccccccccccesssssssceseceescsesssseaeeeeeeseesssssaees 79 11 1 1 Merge Route And Repeater Information Into RT System Program 81 12 DV DOnN gle sieran a a ETN Seneca be cde ee Ss 84 12 1 TroubleShooting ccccccccccecessessssececeeeeeesessaeseceeeesceeseaeseeeeeesenssessaaees 87 13 DPS 2A EEEE EAEE E TE Se Aaild uid Sen seed loas 89 14 Additional RECOUPSES aano a a a Ta a e E AER 90 14 1 The Central Ohio D Star Net essesssessssesssssseseseseessrersresseresere
11. 26 444 10000 Plus WBSMMR Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN oel WBSMMR 27 444 17500 Plus WASPYR 82 5 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 825e WASPYR 28 444 20000 Plus WBA 151 4 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN CORC 29 444 27500 Plus WEBSINY 94 8 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 94 8ae COARES 30 444 30000 Plus WB8YOJ Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN oal WBSYOJ 444 40000 Plus W8RW Columbus OHIO _ FRANKLIN o WwBRW Name Callsign v Comment Sponsor x Select Ail Selected Bands X UnSelect All Ready At the lower left of this tab is Modules Click the drop down and ID 880 Radio Data File will appear Next the tab below will have Create Files for ID800 Select this entry February 27 2011 ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software 82 Communications Settings DStar Window Help Ose sBES EE HH 2 z gt 1D 880 Unt 147 81000 600 kHz 147 84000 600 kHz 147 93000 600 kHz 447 60000 5 00 MHz 447 80000 5 00 MHz 448 42500 5 00 MHz 448 52500 5 00 MHz 448 57500 5 00 MHz 448 72500 5 00 MHz 448 81250 5 00 MHz 449 10000 5 00 MHz 449 17500 5 00 MHz 449 20000 5 00 MHz 449 27500 5 00 MHz 449 30000 5 00 MHz 449 40000 5 00 MHz 449 52500 5 00 MHz 449 55000 5 00 MHz 449 80000 5 00 MHz 449 85000 5 00 MHz 449 90000 5 00 MHz 449 97500 5 00 MHz 144 79000 600 kHz 447 65000 5 00 MHz 146 31000 600 kHz 447 55000 5 00 MHz 448 21250 5 00 MHz 147 88500 600 kHz 144 71000 600 kHz 144 85000 600 kHz 146 13000 600 kHz 147 82500 600 kHz 448
12. Frequency cccccsessssececeeecessessnseceeeeeesseesesteaeees 27 4 4 Common Your Call Entries cscs scisciccsveisssicdivnsvecsnays taseslsoasnisoadadenesuagenseee 28 4 5 Basic Repeater Operations ccssscscscccececesnssesescccececeseeaeseseeeeeessanenees 30 4 6 lt CAalliSign ROUNE inaani teaiin ieia i NE dee a ENa i 32 4 7 Node Ro tiNg aan er aT ER N AEE A E R E TEE A anaa 33 AB NKD Enesa o a a E N E ae ayes 34 4 8 1 HOW NO aiea EET EE ETE A eee 36 4 8 2 Trouble shoot Linking Why can t the other guys on the link hear me 37 4 8 3 Why can t I link this repeater t0 oe eeccccsessssececeeeessssssaeeeeeeeens 38 4 93 WIUNICAST Geaics stents iasvearactagesdac seastuvsngeqiaes ctstanssgeadonsuteticpadeadeiseeacnagerdats 39 ALO ONES a freciea cet otecres Seating a e a eaa 40 4 11 One Touch R p Vian na A O A aaa 41 4 12 Busy Lock OUt F UNCtiOMnen onene a Ea E E TEE S 42 AIZE NNR SAE eian ne i a Miata a a Matera 42 4 12 27 Whatdoes it AO roroi aotainn aatsdeadalessanasaeaseke 42 4 12 3 How Do I know if it is turned on or NOt 0 cece eeeeeeeteeeesteeeeeees 42 4 12 4 What happens if two people who have busy lockout turned on key down exactly at the same time cccccccccccsssessnsecececeeeseesenteseeeeeessessessaees 42 4 12 5 So why should I turn it ON then cc eeeesscecssssececessseeeeessteeeeeees 42 4 13 Auto Text INS enaa a a a tiidiebiesveadeeniened 45 4 14 Cross Node Band operation isi
13. NSIHU Ki 145 19000 Minus W8SPRH Worthington OHIO FRANKLIN oaelrs OtbnColRC 4 443 61250 Plus KI4I P 103 5 Powell OHIO DELAWARE o 103 5elpr KI4I P 5 145 11000 Minus wC80H Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN ofCAjelx WCOARA 6 145 23000 Minus WBSMMR Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN oel WB8MMR aA 145 43000 Minus NSPYC 123 0 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 123 0aelz CCRA 8 145 49000 Minus K8NIO 179 9 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 179 9awxz K8NIO 3 146 67000 Minus WEZPF 131 8 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN 0131 8 CAje LUCENT TC 10 146 76000 Minus WBF 123 0 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 123 0awx lt CORC 11 146 80500 Minus WBSLAP Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN ot MARK 12 146 97000 Minus WBRRJ 123 0 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 123 0al CORC 13 147 06000 Plus K8DDG 94 8 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN 094 8 COHARES 14 147 09000 Plus AASEY 94 8 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 94 81 COH ARES 15 147 15000 Plus WwSCOK Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o Battel RC 16 147 21000 Plus N80IF Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o CCRA 17 147 24000 Plus K8DRE 179 9 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN o 179 9aelz CCRA 18 147 33000 Plus WENBA Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN oar CORC 19 442 60000 Plus WELT 114 8 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN OSUARC 20 442 80000 Plus W8CMH 151 4 Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN 0151 4aewx KSNIO 21 443 42500 Plus NSROQJ Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN NSRQJ 22 443 52500 Plus WBBYOJ Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN ol WBSYOI 23 443 57500 Plus WBB8YOJ Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN ol WEBSYOJ 24 443 72500 Plus KOSPA Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN COPA 25 443 81250 Plus K8MK Columbus OHIO FRANKLIN t K8MK
14. SETTING MY CALL The first step is opening the program to a new screen and setting MY CALL This is the call sign of the operator using the radio MY CALL is transmitted every time the radio transmitter is keyed Double click the ID 880 Programmer icon to begin the program The screen should be as shown below There are two reprogrammed assignments in memory zero and one Above the window tab are File Edit Communications Settings DStar Window and Help Click and open DStar then select Digital D Star Settings lt February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 70 Enter the radio operator s call sign Here we used N4DLR Then press OK at the bottom of the display This call sign will be transmitted each time the radio is keyed CECI ZS weno w n Also see the Note that is the slash field put in 880H Then turn on the Check mark for TX Message On There the TX Messages is the Auto Text Insert Field Fill it out like so NAME LOCATION Country abbreviation February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 71 10 3 2 Home D STAR GATEWAYS The program is used to configure the radio to the local D Star gateways and save them into memory From the main screen select tab D Star again and press DSt
15. Simplex with imn raean coove sinuses AG joy Even with a 5 8 wave ground plane 30 feet in the air for him 12 feet in the air from me using same antenna and feed lines Yes both Vertical antennas Here are the results of one evening of testing so the band conditions are the same for each one Mod Rig Sp PWR Result FM Simplex 50W No Contact FM Simplex 746Pro 100W No Contact FM SSB 2M 100W S1 S2 At best DV Simplex 5W SS That s right It isn t a typo 5 watts clear signal same antenna no noise On really bad propagation nights it s up to 15 watts know what you re thinking too good to be true it has to be a fluke right Well we went on to further test it and others who had gotten D Star rigs and found out that your range could go on average 30 or farther than before To a lot of us Hams this was the biggest selling point of DV mode of operation Give you another example the old 5 49 when got out west on I 70 right as hit the 25 mile marker could no longer be heard on the 5 49 When it went digital could make it to roughly the 35 mile marker and still be crystal clean before fell off the cliff This is the drawback to this mode of operation FM analog the farther you go out the more into the static and picked fencing you go With DV Mode operation you simply fall off a cliff one moment your signal is there the next poof you re gone This phenomenon is the difference between the two DV
16. The 880H seems to be the most popular D Star mobile rig these days So people had to work out the difference to The folks around central Ohio are really good for ideas Someone and don t recall who had asked Why not expand it to the other radios and other things like DV Dongle etc Notice didn t mention any volunteers to help with those sections Writing books takes time a lot of it Then the first volunteer stepped forward George N4DLR he had the 880H and the RT Systems as well as the Travel plus So he added two sections to it As edited it some questions began to arise Won t this confuse them While we were working on it a few more people volunteered to write about their rigs programing software too The question then became how do set this up so it s simple and Easy for the new user So we will basically break it down into sections or core concepts then how to stuff said concepts into rigs also noticed a lot of hams liked to print this document out and refer to it quite a bit like a big reference manual So that s how this document is going to be set up The first section covers the basic concepts etc then into specific radios with specific Software First and foremost this book in electronic format will always be free That s the first helpful way could think to help out the hams Rigs aren t cheap Another ham brought up the possibility of say ARRL or another publishing house wan
17. Your Call e Repeater 54 300 54 54 3 O be e Repeater NA 300 NA fs lini a Dual VFO ee ae a The above chart is a quick and dirty guide right now as far as the different D Star rigs go Right at the moment as am writing this the ID 880H seems to be the most popular out there as far as rigs go as it is also the latest With the points laid bare you can see a kind of system Yes the 2820 as twin VFO s but notice its Programing slots are rather small The two Kenwood s on the end are Japanese made and single band versions of the 800H You can also notice that ICOM tried selling the programing software but after the 80D 800H both discontinued and the 2820 all of the newer rigs after that offer free programing software They learned one lesson alright lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 14 3 5 THE PROGRAMMING CABLE Haven t bought the programing cable yet Stop and read this There are issues with the USB OPC 478UC For one there is no 64 bit driver for it at this time This means if you have a 64bit operating system you can t use it Not without a lot of hoop hopping Now with that out of the way some issues need to be brought up I m going to tell you by experience and by others experience Don t try to program the rig by the face plate for D Star use unless you are EXTREAMLY familiar with the rig It isn t something you can whip out on an afternoon and program There are more trips tricks and
18. a voice Envelope to another user by sending it to the gateway system to find out where that last call sign was heard and spiting it out there or if not found where that call sign is registered at D STAR Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio is a digital voice and data protocol specification developed as the result of research by the Japan Amateur Radio League to investigate digital technologies for amateur radio While there are other digital on air technologies being used by amateurs that have come from other services D Star is one of the first on air and packet based standards to be widely deployed and sold by a major radio manufacturer that is designed specifically for amateur service use DD Digital Data mode currently used on the 1 2G side It means its data only no voice DV Digital Voice mode basically your transmitting voice and Data at the same time DVADAPTOR A Device plugged into the Antenna line of an HF rig to add D Star capabilities to another rig Typically HF on 6 10 meters DVAP A device plugged into a USB port on a computer to allow another D Star rig typically an HT to use the computer to connect to the D Star Gateway network DV Dongle A device plugged into a USB port allowing an operator to talk to other DPlus enabled gateway repeaters though a computer with a broadband connection Falling off the cliff A term used to describe when someone has moved out far enough that no
19. about to be sent Next the window displays instructions to send to the radio 1 Turn the radio off 2 Insert the cloning cable into the Ear Speaker jack 3 Turn the 2 5 on 3 ea f 4 Click OK to send data to the radio canca Connect the cloning cable to the USB port on you computer Then follow the above directions K February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 77 The speaker jack is at the far right under the power cable The rig screen will display the message Clon In After data is loaded power off the 880H wait a few seconds then power it up The 880H now has all the data created above Now the program can be closed exit lt February 27 2011 ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software 78 11 ARRL TRAVEL PLUS SOFTWARE WITH THE RT SYSTEMS SOFTWARE Prepared by George Foy N4DLR In this section we will use the ARRL Travel Plus repeater directory to plan our route for example between Columbus and the Dayton Hamvention Next we ll import the repeaters into the RT Systems software and into our 880H radio There are many places to get the Travel plus software such as arrl org and Hamvention etc If you re reading this section then you either have it already or going to buy it The install is pretty strait forward If you need help read the manual there Here we will show you an A Typical use for it and how it works together In this section we will take a few t
20. along those same lines It is something that repeater owners set up on their end Think of it as Node routing to a set list Let s give a hypothetical example Let s say repeaters W8CMH KD8BIG W8BAP decide to create a multicast group called BOB To use it change your Your Call field to BOB When you key up that packet of your voice goes to the gate way and says I m destined for COLS and the gate way says ok you go out on W8CMH C W8BAP B KD8BIG B So your voice goes out those three Repeaters People on those nodes repeaters hear your voice packet If they know about the multicast group they use their memory settings to turn it to BOB and they reply back thus everyone who has the BOB and on those nodes can talk to each other That s all there is to it To my knowledge none of the Columbus repeaters have a multiclass group set up nor any in the state at this time lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 40 4 10 ZONES Zones sounds like a great buzzword and Icom usually spends about a page or two trying to explain it Personally think they go overkill in that part One of the big questions people ask is What s a Zone and How do use it Simply put a Zone is a set of Linked repeaters confused Remember the old 5 19 You had repeaters in Toledo Cleveland Columbus Cincinnati and other locations They were all linked up like a big party line Congrats
21. and may step on your transmission know you just got your rig you want to show it off and test on your local repeater Believe me can understand that However like stated if you re not registered on a gateway or in the system DV Dongle and DVAP users or any one linked on the system cannot hear you and will more than likely key down when you re trying to speak thus doubling and trashing both your transmission and you will trash there s They can t hear you and thus don t know when you re talking but you can hear them If you re not registered on the gateway system you cannot participate in linked conversations meaning you can listen but if you key up chances are you re going to be stomping on someone else and running it for the local hams Also you can t call sign rout node route or even use a hot spot You also can t use one even if you bought a DV Dongle or a DVAP without registering lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 18 3 6 2 SO HOW DOES IT WORK There are two methods both work the same Some repeaters have a website you can go to found on Dstarusers org or an email address The website link basically takes you to a form you fill out then click submit It basically sends a message to the repeater admin who double checks it The second method is sending them an email both of these methods put it in the repeater admin s hands From there he adds it in on his end What he does with that informa
22. filling out a form lt February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 65 10 ID 880H amp RT SYSTEMS SOFTWARE Prepared by George Foy N4DLR Before reading further this section is using software packages that only are supported in Windows Vista or XP for the IC 880H and ARRL Travel Plus Windows 7 is used here The 880H memories can be set using only the user s manual and front panel however the process is long and can be confusing So rather spending time setting up the radio without a method to back up the memories easily see all the memories or change settings one can use a commercial software program This section is using RT Systems ID 880 version 4 software for radio programming of the ICOM 880H An advantages of this software is it can have two or more radio memory tabs open allowing the creation of a new tab of memory by using cut and paste methodology The free ICOM software cannot Another is copying FM and D Star repeater information from the ARRL Travel Plus package into the program and exports the data into the radio saving much manual data entry time The free ICOM software cannot Further the software does not use a COMM port as the ICOM free software e g no drivers to worry about This is meant to be a basic set up section That is hundreds of stations and D Star gateways can be added using the basic steps given here lt February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 66 10 1 BUYI
23. it s where things get stamped onto the packet Payload lige EAn i L Aa i This is where that AMBE s stuff gets wrapped up that s our goodies the DATA and Voice missed together Then when you re done that last 24 has a code in it that basically says packet over February 27 2011 D Star What is it 10 3 3 QUALITY VERSES DISTANCE 6 5 Miles 10 Miles 15Miles 20Miles 25 Miles 30 Miles 35 Miles 40 Miles Analog FM DV D Star Now do have your attention To the Left is our S values 5 is perfect 1 is below the static you know something is there but can t really hear it 2 is you can make out the words if you strain your hear for them lots of picket fencing etc The Data you re seeing above is representational of the comparative difference between a D Star DV voice and FM Analog Voice with the same watts same antenna Don t believe me yet let me give you a real life example February 27 2011 D Star What is it 11 Example erorm S Powel tite Satette Hrona teia Eara Westerville i A e Station 1 W8KWA Upper Right E ary e Station 2 KD8GES Lower Left DETT sn had have known Jason since right after first eae We got on the air His QTH is about 16 miles from a e po me through Downtown Columbus We met on o PEx L yE a the 5 49 repeater S f e e We had tried over the years to be able to l LA o T wet reach out and hit each other FM
24. says hears your call on repeater node on a one line entry in the black window and you have double checked your registry that you are registered and then you KNOW it is either your RPT1 or RPT2 entries that are screwed up If your fields are set up see if everything is working 4 8 3 WHY CAN T I LINK THIS REPEATER TO Things to double check 1 Are you registered Check out http query ki4swy org index php to be 100 sure Are your 4 fields correct Double check your spacing in rptl rpt2 Remember rpt1 the node letter HAS to be in the ha position and rpt2 has to have the G in the 8 position or it will not work th position L is 8 position there are no marks Now if you checked those three things then the reason it s not connecting can be 1 Too many users on the target system that are eating up the bandwidth DV dongle Dvap and repeaters take up roughly the same amount of bandwidth to connect up with Internet Congestion between the repeaters Does the remote system have DPlus installed if not then you won t hit it double check with a DV Dongle Does the system allow linking Some repeaters don t allow incoming or outgoing or both Some repeater stacks even shut down at certain times of day as well lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 39 4 9 MULTICAST This is one of those rarely used type of things By now you got an idea what node routing is and call sign routing Multicast runs
25. speak when done with the QSO back to 1 want to make that link to the reflector turn it to 2 to check it if ok then 8 key and say was trying to connect to ref 01 c then back to 1 to talk when done over to 4 key up to unlink At this point you should see where all that came before was leading to The name section is one of the hang up s on the 800h 6 Character max so had to figure out a system to remember where was and what was doing Also note number 30 that s the National Calling Frequency 2 meters for Digital voice With D Star you re going to get to know that programming software very well and it s not standardized each one has their own quarks Now you got a basic idea how to get the stuff stuffed into your rig Follow the above and you should be well on your way If you re like me you probably are going to stuff this in the rig then get on the air but advise you to read the DV D Star Proper Operating Practices section It covers the new way of saying February 27 2011 iy gt ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 63 things over D Star and then read the final check list and make sure you have done that lt February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 64 9 5 FINAL NOTES ABOUT THE SOFTWARE Working with this software for so long you get a feel for how it s designed The people who did write it where in love with drop down menus You will find the RPT1 amp RPT2 amp YrCall fie
26. talking about which adult dance club has the hottest stripers and which ones put out or let s just say their topic of conversation falls over the legal definition of Offensive Then that conversation comes right out W8CMH and if an OO Official Observer hears it W8CMH Or rather K8NIO is the one who s going to get the ticket on it as well as the offenders It s one thing if it s just you who loses your license but imagine dumping over ten grand in a repeater as well and then getting your license yanked because Joe left the link up Well you might take that risk but there are a few repeater owners who don t want to take that risk It also can be said it s a lot of fun connecting up to reflector 001 C and talking to people from Great Britain Scotland Japan Germany Australia and other places lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 35 you never heard of all from your local repeater So remember linking is not a right it s a privilege and clean up after yourself lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 36 4 8 1 HowTo REFOO1CL Format Target spaces to fill X x being the target node and L in the gi position L for link pretty simple Examples YourCall W8CMH CL This is the link command to link to W8CMH Node C Cis in the 7 space L is in the 8 space If you have a shorter one say w1ix then its W1IX CL Notice 2 spaces YourCall REFO38AL Links to the Reflector 38A This link command doesn
27. your 90 there in working out a zone Yes linked repeaters Icom went overboard trying to explain it So let s make up a hypothetical situation 5 repeaters strung from Cleveland to Cincinnati on I 71 All of the B nodes are linked to each other Now in your repeater you would have 5 memory slots one for each repeater set up just like you would talk locally Start on repeater 1 in Cleveland drive south when you fell off the cliff from repeater 1 you changed to repeater two and hopefully it s in range when you passed out of that then repeater 3 here in Columbus Since all of the Linked repeaters are close Icom likes to refer to them as Zones They also call the area a single repeater stack can reach a Zone which even makes it more confusing But essentially that s all there referring to Simply put a few repeaters that link to each other close together in order to have a party line and to drive from one end of it to another Why they just couldn t call them Linked Repeaters is beyond me lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 41 4 11 ONE TOUCH REPLY This one even had me stumped for a while as to exactly what it did Most Icom rigs have them What they do varies rig to rig So l Il give you the basics Say you have a call from KC8VWO who is node routing from W8BAP Node B into W8CMH node C You can guess the 4 fields he is transmitting My Call Your Call KC8VWO W8BAP B W8BAP G W8CMH C On most rigs it sto
28. 30000 5 00 MHz 449 41250 5 00 MHz as e CQCQCQ W8DIG C W8DIG G CQCQCQ WEDIGB W8DIG G SBVEGRALY RE SBRURKRR OS SSECCC SER SESE S SRE SES CECE See eee ERE PRPPPPPPPPPIORVRPIPRRPRPRURPBIRBIIB ARBWIISIIIIIAILIISIISIIIISIISIIIAIIIIs A new tab is opened in the program named ID 880 Untitled This is a listing in the program format of the repeaters between Columbus and Dayton Hamvention Note D Star station on line 37 and 38 Using the mouse we can highlight some or all the stations we want for our trip File Edit Communications Settings DStar Window Help Ose tee Sere mt a 443 47500 448 47500 5 00 MHz 145 19000 144 59000 600 kHz 443 61250 448 61250 5 00 MHz 145 11000 144 51000 600 kHz 145 23000 144 63000 600 kHz 145 43000 144 83000 600 kHz 145 49000 144 89000 600 kHz 146 67000 146 07000 600 kHz 146 76000 146 16000 600 kHz 10 146 80500 146 20500 600 kHz 11 146 97000 146 37000 600 kHz 12 147 06000 147 66000 600 kHz 13 147 09000 147 69000 600 kHz 14 147 15000 147 75000 600 kHz 15 147 21000 147 81000 600 kHz 16 147 24000 147 84000 600 kHz 17 147 33000 147 93000 600 kHz 82 5Hz 88 5Hz 023 38 5Hz 838 SHz 023 88 5Hz 88 5Hz 103 5Hz 83 5Hz 88 5Hz 83 5Hz 88 5Hz 38 5H2 88 5 Hz 33 5 Hz 38 5 Hz 88 5Hz 83 5 Hz 88 5Hz 88 5Hz 2eeeGeesssessecese gugggi_e2a2222233223 BRRPPPRPRRPAL FIVIIIIISIIISIIIIIS 148 57500 5 00 MHz 148 72500 5 00 MHz 44
29. 7 ANALOG VS D STAR Keep in mind when dealing with just about any issue they tend to form into two groups Old school It is good enough and New School Keep up with the times old man When it comes to implementing new technology this is where worlds collide Freq 144 00 144 05 144 05 144 10 144 10 144 20 144 200 144 200 144 275 144 275 144 300 144 30 144 50 144 50 144 60 144 60 144 90 144 90 145 10 145 10 145 20 145 20 145 50 145 50 145 80 145 80 146 00 146 01 146 37 146 40 146 58 146 52 146 61 146 97 147 00 147 39 147 42 147 57 147 60 147 99 Description EME CW General CW and weak signals EME and weak signal SSB National calling frequency General SSB operation Propagation beacons New OSCAR subband Linear translator inputs FM repeater inputs Weak signal and FM simplex 145 01 03 05 07 09 are widely used for packet Linear translator outputs FM repeater outputs Miscellaneous and experimental modes OSCAR subband Repeater inputs Simplex National Simplex Calling Frequency Repeater outputs Repeater outputs Simplex Repeater inputs There has been quite the heated debate on where DV or D Star fits in Technically it is Packet Technically it is a repeater and technically it is also FM Most fall into the it goes where FM goes since at its very basic it is a Frequency Modulated Signal I m not going to debate it here but simply stating the majority of what seen
30. 8 81250 5 00 MHz 149 10000 5 00 MHz 249 27500 5 00 MHz 49 50000 5 00 MHz 549 30000 5 00 MHz 249 52500 5 00 MHz 849 55000 5 00 MHz 49 80000 5700 MHz 849 85000 5 00 MHz cap NUM scL lt Ready After the some or all the repeaters are highlighted Move the mouse to Edit and click Copy Now those Cells are loaded into memory Click the Jan 24a tab or your current file to open our previous frequencies and repeaters that are in the rig Move the mouse pointer to the left side of the window to select which memory slot will be the starting of the repeater list from tab ID 880 Untitled February 27 2011 lt ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software 83 Now move the mouse to Edit and then press Paste The Jan 24a tab now has the repeaters we selected At this point of completing major changes to the program you should save your work Next load the new data into the 880H See the Section Icom 880H amp RT systems if you are unsure how to do this That s all there is to it pretty simple eh lt February 27 2011 DV Dongle 84 12 DV DONGLE GET ON THE D STAR NETWORK FROM YOUR COMPUTER ORDER YOURS TODAY FROM HRO The DV Dongle costs about 299 It is essentially an AMBE chip plugged on a card that allows a user to connect to any DPlus enabled gateway In short if the repeater has a gateway with DPlus on it you can connect to it The basic premise i
31. 90000 DUP 0 600000 5Sk Low DV USS WBINE 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON WINE Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV U92 NECXI 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON NBOX Skip EEI a i i s EEN 442800000 DUP 5 000000 125k High DV 5 i u cacaca 132 W8CMH B 130 W8CMH G ON 4cMHCQ PYM 442800000 DUP 5 000000 12 5k High DV i U09 W8CMH E 132 W8CMH B 130 W8CMH G ON 4ECH Skip PPA 442800000 DUP 5 000000 125k High OV 5 g k of Woe WADIG 1 132 W8CMH B 130 W8CMH G ON 4INFO Skip 442 800000 DUP 5 000000 12 5k High DV uo uU 132 W8CMH B 130 W8CMH G ON 4CMHUL Skip 442 800000 DUP 5 000000 12 5k High DV U78 REFOOICL 132 W8CMH B 30 W8CMH G ON 4ECH Skip 442 800000 DUP 5 000000 12 5k High DV 131 AWECMH C 132 W8CMH B 130 W8CMH G ON CMHB Skip 146 580000 5k High DV a ___u u cocaca i i ON NF2MDV EIM 145 550000 5k High DV i u cocgco A on wie EA 441 050000 125k High oV o u cacaca i ON wikxe 33 n 1 Look at that the first 17 slots are used for one repeater alone You can see the pattern forming here Also notice the skip function This prevents the rig in scanning mode from scanning the same frequency 17 times it only needs to scan it once So rag chew on 1 This is where listen If need to echo test shift to 3 key up speak and when done back to one If I want to call sign route to Garrett N8CXI just turn it to 17 key up and
32. CPIP live and breathe the stuff In your PC there s the TCIP wrapper when you got to any website like Google it passes the information down the OSI line to the Networking layer through the program In the networking layer the data s wrapped up and address information and other information are stamped on the packet and then shoved out the door It doesn t matter if it is email web irc usenet a game independently the Networking layer of the OSI model handles all of it The AMBE chip is like your web browser when it gets a Instruction it passes it to the GSMK who wraps the packet up and then shoves it out the door Same concept lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 8 3 2 2 DV THE PACKET D Star radio packet structure for the Digital Voice DV mode by Dick Rucker KM4ML source JARL protocol for D Star downloaded from here date 07 Sep 06 version 1 http www arrl org FandE S field requlations techchar D STAR pdf Structure of a D Star voice packet sync 64 bit Bit sync 1010 for GMSK 1 00 1 for QPSK pulses 14 bit Frame sync flags 1 octet Flag 1 same as DD mode toctet Flag2 same as DD mode toctet_ Flag 3 same as DD mode octets RPT2 Destination repeater lt 8 ASCII chars fill blanks with space characters octets RPT1 Departure repeater 8 ASCII chars fill blanks with space characters Boctets UR Companion s call sign 8 ASCII chars fill blanks with space characters g octet
33. D STAR FOR DUMMIES VERSION 4 0 The Reference Manual Digital Smart technology for Amateur Radio Charles Johnston Ill W8KWA Columbus Ohio USA charles johnston gmail com To the Readers The evolution of this document is quite interesting originally started D Star for Dummies as simply put so didn t have to play Tech Support every time went on air In the beginning there was the odd D Star person and one repeater Hardly anyone truly understood what D Star was about and how to make it all work My father W8JNE Chuck to most bought an ID 800H and the one repeater we had in town wasn t the greatest There was quite a drama with that tale and this isn t the place for it The ID 800H was the first single VFO D Star rig When you understand how D Star works and understand how things evolved then 800H shows its problems Looking at the 880H its replacement you can see where things where learned So after banging his head he bought the 880H and passed the 800H to me and the confusing D Star books to me Now I have been a System Administrator since the days of Windows 95 and a power user of computers since the days of the 286 before multi tasking came out Computers knew Ham Radio was still learning So came at it from the PC world side as opposed to the Ham side To make a long story short read the Nifty EZ Guide to D Star and thought it was anything but Even was c
34. F Tone TSQL Dics fen mame or os we ne ove EE ou eae vor EE TE 190000 DU uot Cacaca 131 WECMH C 130 W8CMH G EEA 45 490000 SUE EA U08 W8CMH 1 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ee Skip BEH 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 Low a U03 WECMH E 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G T CMHE Skip MEW 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 Sk Low DV uo U 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON CMHUL Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV U78 REFOOICL 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G on emc Skip FM 145 490000 DUP osooo00 5k Low DV i 3 U79 W8BAPBL 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON LBAPB Skip Mra 145490000 DUP 0 600000 Sk Low DV j j uso WaDIGCL 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G on cree Skip FM 145 490000 DUP 0600000 5k Low DV 4 7 uU81 WEDIGBL 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G oN Loge Skip EIN 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV 5 A U78 REFOOTCL 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON REF0C Skip HBT 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 Sk Low Dv 35 885 023 BothN uss waa 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON was Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV U94 KD8BZF 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON D8BZF Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV U95 KCEZYB 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON CEZYB Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV U96 KDSGES 131 W8CMH C 130 W8CMH G ON D8GES Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 5k Low DV U97 WEKHW 131 W8CMH C 30 W8CMH G ON WeKHW Skip 145 490000 DUP 0 600000 Sk Low DV U98 W80LO 131 W8CMH C 30 W8CMH G ON wW80L0 Skip 145 4
35. FRANKLIN Columbus 147 3300 WNBA oar 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 442 6000 WELT 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 442 8000 WecMH o 151 4aeWX 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 443 4250 INBRQT 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 443 5250 WB8YOJ ol 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 443 5750 wB8YOd ol gy i 1 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 146 8050 WBBLAP lot j JA e 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 146 9700 WERRI o 123 0a1 VAr EPN a Eo KED Without doing any further action in the Travel Plus program open the RT Systems program as discussed earlier K February 27 2011 ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software 81 11 1 1 MERGE ROUTE AND REPEATER INFORMATION INTO RT SYSTEM PROGRAM After the program opens under File click Open Travel Plus List n The program will automatically ions Settings DSta import the ARRL route and New Ctri N SL gh repeater lists then create a new Open Ctri 0 Open Travel Plus List tab named Travel Plus list as Close shown below EJ cave Ctris File Edit Communications Settings DStar Window Help taele Lms MARC 147 28500 KESRY London MADISON o 82 5es 2 443 47500 NSIHU Galloway OHIO FRANKLIN tRB
36. Help Rane i Route N37 959 W85 266 EM77X Call a Paste wu Reaa cps Chose j Sign i 4 50 a TS File Edit View Window E Repeaters Listed 123 dq Band Country State Region Location output Input Call Repeater Notes A S 144 148 MHz 2m USA OHIO MADISON London 147 2850 KEERV o 82 5es i 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO FRANKLIN Galloway 443 4750 INSIHU tRB 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Worthington 145 1900 WEPRH oaelrx 420 450 MHz 70 cm USA OHIO DELAWARE Powell 443 6125 KI4IVP jo 103 5elpr 144 148 MHz 2m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 145 1100 WC80H o CA elx 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 145 2300 WBSMMR joel 144 148 MHz 2m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 145 4300 INspvc o 123 0aelz J 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 145 4900 K NIO o 179 9aWXz TENY 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 146 6700 W8ZPF jo 131 8 CA e 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 146 7600 WERXX o 123 0aWx i 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 147 0600 KaDDG o 94 8 G 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 147 0900 JAASEY o 94 81 B e 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 147 1500 wecoK o D Gs i 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 147 2100 INsOIF o 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO FRANKLIN Columbus 147 2400 K DRE o 179 9aelz 144 148 MHz 2 m USA OHIO
37. It is understood by each volunteer hold the exclusive rights to this document promise to credit the ham s work in whatever section so that credit is given to the right person for the right sections That there will always be a free version available for download If you spot a section and software combination you have that isn t covered here contact me and if no one is doing it you re welcome to do so as well and get credit for it This manual focuses mainly on the Gear and getting up to speed quickly Hence we show you core concepts and how to put them into your rig via different software methods From then on you are on your own As new hams get new gear more sections will be added to the document As goofs are found they get fixed in the next version Basically it s up to other hams and me to keep this manual growing Here we specialize specifically on D Star not the other modes so all the information you get here is d star specific If you want analog information then read your manual lt February 27 2011 Definitions amp Expressions 2 2 DEFINITIONS amp EXPRESSIONS AMBE This is the chip that encodes it 3600 bits per second data stream made by Digital Voice Systems Incorporated Its proprietary and about 20 Busy Lockout It is a function that has the rig check to see if a frequency is busy If it is then helps prevent you from doubling with another ham Call Sign Routing A method to send
38. NG THE RT SYSTEMS SOFTWARE From the internet enter The company home page should be displayed Looking further down the home page one can view five short videos titled What s new in Version 4 explaining some basics of its operation At the top of the home page select the ICOM button at the upper right under Sales to purchase software for the IC 880H Programming RS Software Radio Programming Made Sooooo Easy gt Windows Programming Software by RT Systems for Amateur Radios and Receivers Easy to use spreadsheet format Setup EVERYTHING for the radio not just memory channels New USB cables No Comport setup Copy and Paste between files Column editing _ Direct Link to list from ARRL Travel Plus maa ea A MP me vema beiee sae lt S T After pressing the ICOM button the screen will show available ICOM radio software packages available K February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 67 Highlighted is the software available for the IC 880H Clicking on or open the WCS D880 will result in opening the ordering page From this point follow through to the ordering pages and shipping ae 2 TA x Product Selection Select from the products listed for more details and purchasing D Star Radios D Star Settings and the New D Star Repeater Locator with repeater details an right in the Programmers Programming Softwa
39. Nothing like having to re edit 50 some memory slots because you didn t put enough spaces in one field Yes speaking from personal experience Now can you imagine having to do that from the front face plate Yes the programming cable is your friend The Magic 3 position rule is there because of simple hardware programming convention 8 bits 8 slots is a good way to remember It does what it does by looking at that field before and that 8 position So when we see W8CMHeeC where the is a space the computer sees W8CMH and then checks what s in the 8 position C The 8 position is the location or instruction Computers as you know are extremely command sensitive and spaces and characters count big time K February 27 2011 Core Concepts 26 4 2 SIMPLEX AND THE MAGIC FIELDS By now you got the very basics of how to get into a repeater once registered so why am talking about Simplex here Simple it uses fields too Collective Groan Nah it s the exception that annoys the rule For every simplex frequency you enter in your fields will be this RPT 1 RPT 2 lt Unused gt lt Unused gt That s right it s not a typo this is the only time when you re RPT1 and RPT2 fields are blank This is your Generic Simplex field layout Since you re not coming in on a Node RPT1 not reporting to a gateway RPT2 there is nothing to put in there so you leave those two fields bl
40. This performs two functions one it tells others what rig model you re on The second if you need help then tada the person who is helping thus knows what rig you are on and will be easier for them to help you with specifics Auto Insert Text This is a 20 character field many rigs actually have a bank of them you can select on the fly See your manual for how to You need to first check to make sure the function is turned ON then which field in the bank you have selected The Standard convention the way everyone does it is Name Location Country Please Note The Slash field and Auto insert text field doesn t change the functionality and is independent of the rest of the settings This insures that for me when key down everyone else sees on the screen W8KWA 800H CHARLES COLS OH USA Thus a person sees my call sign knows I m on an 800H my handle or name is Charles and I m in Columbus Ohio USA all without me having to utter it over the air For most rigs it is a set it once and forget it but if you are feeling creative for special events you can put other information in it like Happy solstice happy Samhain happy New Year etc have seen people put things in there like Jesus Loves You and other things some find offensive personally found it offensive as I m not Christian Also bear in mind that not all Rig s understand lower case It has to do with the Generation of radio I
41. and connect with a DV dongle or Dvap and join in the fun Also note we have a mailing list for D Star news Rag chewing and assistance http groups google com group codsn all are welcome to join Also the Net linked to Reflector 38A the Ohio Wide Area Reflector So come join us and meet new friends lt February 27 2011 Additional Recourses 92 14 2 D STAR CLUB There has been Discussions About setting up a D Star club Setting up a Radio club is a lot of dedicated work There has been a lot of interest locally here to join one but no one has stepped forward to take up that mantle of responsibility and get the ball rolling lt February 27 2011
42. and what have grasped as their reasoning for it Some have even attempted to argue Mostly uninformed D Star hating Trolls that it goes into the Experimental modes But the definition of what the plan list is for those that haven t been published yet and DV D Star has been a standard since 2001 So DV has to duke it out with FM Analog in the same plan That s where the repeaters are getting put in just like regular FM Analog gets put in where we hit the second big issue Repeater Pairs There is two parts to this issue remember DV mode takes up one half of the That is space that FM analog takes so as a rule of thumb you can take out one FM Analog and put in two D Star repeaters Right now there are a lot of them going up We in Columbus know we got a few ourselves and several are Paper Repeaters That means they exist only on paper The 5 11 and 5 19 are prime examples of Paper repeaters Because they exist on paper their pairs aren t free to put up a repeater on Simply put on paper we are full Every time someone wants to put in a D Star repeater they run into that Either some frequency coordinators don t care or they have a hand shake deal etc with the paper repeater owners even though there has been no equipment running there in years lt February 27 2011 Analog Vs D Star 53 A while back W8BAP in Stoutsvill was running into that problem he has a 2 meter module but because o
43. ank You do have to put in CQCQCQ into your Call Field Yep we also have the exception to the Exception All of the D Star rigs come equipped with a Call Sign Squelch Function This means what you expect it to It feeds back on your My Call Field So when activated completely independent of memory settings your squelch won t open unless someone puts your call sign in their Your Call field If someone keys up with CQCQCQ on the same frequency you won t hear it You will continue not hearing it until you either de activate that function or they put in your call sign into their Your Call field This isn t much use for this unless you and your group club family have a rig that you constantly monitor for such things and agree ahead of time to do so Kind of like FM analog digital squelch but call sign based K February 27 2011 Core Concepts 27 4 3 NATIONAL DV CALLING FREQUENCY FM has it by the ARRL Band Plan but yet there is no Official calling frequency for DV It has been pretty much narrowed down to three frequencies by the other hams The majority or the one that looks like it is most likely to become the official one is 146 580 the same holds true around central Ohio and the East coast The 440 one is all over the place and there s no real clear majority at this time DV has been around since roughly 2001 it s only been with in the past 3 4 years where it s really begun to bloom nation
44. ar Calc Tab through the shaded area to select state city etc Selected is the Gateway in Columbus Ohio W8CMH y a ker a e een i aan User Local Repeater with Gateway x Ccaceaca Source Destination t Country United States Ohio City Columbus Callsign WBCMHH 45 4900 0 145 4900 0 6000 442 8000 5 0000 442 8000 5 0000 Frequency RPT1 Source RPT2 Destination Your Call 145 4900 0 6000 WSCMH C WS8CMH G CQceca Channel Name WS8SCMH G Channel Number 0 E Autolncrement Notice on this page is all the information needed by the radio Shown above Channel Name is the Frequency setting RPT1 RPT2 and User a k a UR CALL Also W8CMH will be stored in Memory Channel Number 0 Press OK We repeated this step and added W8DIG in Columbus into Memory Channel 1 The results are shown in our Memory Table February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 72 10 4 MANUALLY ADD FREQUENCIES Next we want to add a 2 Meter FM repeater and the 2 Meter FM National Calling frequency Pull downs in the rows will suggest plus minus or simplex operation etc Normal repeater frequencies will usually auto populate the correct operation On the memory page we simply fill in the columns lt February 27 2011 10 5 Bank Names ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 73 Banks are a way to group the memories for usage For example a group of stations in Columbus or a group of 2 meter FM station
45. ata side of it the black the chip to get our devices to work Right now it s the real difference screen with the 2 0 Beta you will notice for the D Star equipped radios a lot of Ignoring double when only one and the prices on the DV Dongle person is on the air This is the error and DVAP s correction process lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 7 Yes once out of the antenna it is not only Narrow FM but also a type of packet If you listen to a QSO it sounds very similar to an old style dial up modem after the handshake is established 3 2 1 More DETAILS It is important to keep an idea of what it is exactly when you operate Some people tend to get confused about certain aspects of just What it is specifically Remember every time you key up what s happening Voice AMBE Chip GSMK Narrow Data FM Ji Raw Electronic Info Wrapper Voice and Data are combined in the AMBE chip voice coder chip it then takes that raw data and passes it to the GSMK which puts it into an envelope or wraps the packet and when you listen that sound of static is the GSMK your hearing It is the same chip technology used in that cell phone The other end basically takes it in reverse the other GSMK unwraps the packets takes the data in there passes it to the AMBE which spits the two the voice to voice circuits the data to the data circuits As a Systems Administrator know networks know T
46. baud and B is 9600 baud and you do have a 3 minute limit You can do it but it isn t much use 12 1 TROUBLESHOOTING 1 Is it plugged in 2 Is the green light slowly flashing a If it isn t then you have a driver issue its not installed correctly 3 Does the program open a If it is Java do you have Java installed are you clicking the correct jar file b If so do you have your microphone plugged in c If you re running the net beta do you have net installed if not go and get it d If it s not running after that check your microphone see if your computer sees it and knows what to do with it 4 Is the Comport set right to the correct com port If not it won t open check your usb section in the system tray to double check 5 Look in the set up tag prefer the sound mapper and tell the computer what to do instead of per program Just make sure there set where you want them 6 Can you connect to a reflector or anywhere If yes move on if not you may have net problems 7 You can t connect and know your net is ok a Check to see if you are registered in the system don t get fancy with your call sign just your call sign nothing else b Check by connecting to a known good reflector like 01C c Can you hear them Yes then it may be that the other target repeater is having network problems 8 You can hear them they can t hear you lt February 27 2011 DV Dongle 88 Check your Speak
47. bizarre things going on under the hood than you can see You will get frustrated angry and that sledge hammer on a 600 rig will look very tempting do not advise at all anyone new to D Star to attempt to program D Star functions from the front face plate Yes know am repeating myself but this is one of the VERY common complaints Are you ready to avoid a massive headache Good The next decision is how you are going to program your rig Since front face plate programing is out there are two options e Option 1 Manufacture Programing Cable and Software e Option 2 RT Systems software and programing cable There are pro s and con s to both of these options We will go down each Option 1 ICOM or Manufactures cable Software Icom s Cable is 32 bit only for the moment So if you only have access to a 64 bit machine then you re going to have to either A run a Virtual PC Emulator that allows direct hardware access to the USB Then install a 32 bit version of windows on that trouble shoot it and run your programing software on the virtual machine Yes it can be done but do not advice it unless you have some experience with virtual machines Or there s B take it to a friend s house that is running 32 bit or borrow your kids Or Option C formats your hard drive and install the 32 bit version of the OS or set up Dual Booting or D Prey for Icom to see sense in producing a 64 bit driver Quite a few people have trippe
48. cally you can get away with leaving rpt2 blank See old vs New D Star Well here is where those folks get frustrated In order to use and participate in the discussion of a linked repeater all users must have these fields filled correctly and you have to have your call sign registered somewhere 1 Rpt1 is filled with the repeater call sign and the node in the gn position with spaces filling it up like so 2 Rpt2 is filled with the current repeaters call sign and the G in the 8 position THIS IS A MUST 3 Your field is filled with CQCQCQ If you aren t being heard check the following 1 Are you registered Double check http query ki4swy org index ph and do a search on your call sign If it comes up then you know you re registered 2 Rpt1 field is correctly set It s the repeaters call sign and spaces till the g position In the g position is the Letter of the Node your trying to access C B or A Double check remember C is 2 meters B is 440 and A is 1 2G If there is an error in the spacing you won t be heard on the other side 3 Rpt2 field is set correctly The format is the repeaters call sign and a G in the 8 position Double check those spaces 4 Your call field must be CQCQCQ lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 38 be the first ham to miss a space in the field An extra step if you have the DV Dongle use the 2 0 beta 4 windows Connect to the node your testing See the second window If it
49. cnieccnccuiennimananinrtcnunuain 46 4 15 LOCASSUIMUICASE aieiaa ea aae toraa aaea aata aaa aa daaa ee aeangetaets 47 4 16 Emergency Broadcast u ccecssssssscccecececsesenseaececeeececsesesaseeeeesesseesessnaeeas 48 Old D Star Vs New D Star the Confusion esssesssssssserrerereesessrrrrerreessrreee 49 D Star Operating Practices essssesssssesessssssssreressssssssrereoeesssssererersssssseeeeeee 50 UE OTA DEEI E AIEEE E EE TE E T EE 52 Final Check Hist isunare a a a A N a aban 54 8 1 1 ITO KEE AE AA E E 54 8 12 a MY Calit coche ead s2 eta ai ETE A OLEA A E 54 8 1 3 BUSY Lockout in a aa fess A A eaaa AA REAA ANLITA eiS 54 8 1 4 DV National Calling Frequency es eesssssssseseseessssssesrrensesssseserereese 54 8 1 5 Auto Text lnsert cccnaiianine dain deiidieatiied annie ss 54 8 1 6 SlasMifield renmen a a aaea ee aa aae 54 ID 800H amp ICOM SORT WARES ssiccucvcewapevnies duc tanycaies sueatuvecoasnavaniaaan tuyvarsenneetuds 55 As AMES Cae a A E A danas ante T E A E A 55 9 2 install Softwar esiaren rei EA ATAA EAN EON 56 D3 YCS DE0O ei vesties ater tana theds dietetic a thie aatir eatin atts 58 93 1 MyCall ees a ere aE ti om cme AEEA EAEE EAA ee ER Ea EAR RERET 59 9 3 2 Repeater Call Sigh nnns aana a a e a a 60 Desi NOU CAMS yera e E EEA E O E E A e 61 94 Memory Slotsins aa aae aa A EA N a a SSA 62 9 5 Final notes about the software ssssssssssssessssssssrsssrsssrrssressresseressrrssee 64 10 ID 880H
50. d you can get both at HRO Ham Radio Outlet neither of these is made by Icom There are other projects out there for D star like D Rats etc so you re on your own with that but you will hear these two items talked about a lot so thought I should give a short explanation about them lt February 27 2011 Additional Recourses 90 14 ADDITIONAL RECOURSES http www dstarusers org current directory of D Star repeaters Nifty E Z Guide to D STAR Operation A book about D version out of March 2010 I used the previous version to learn about all of this stuff http query ki4swy org index php The place to do gateway system http sites google com site codsnet The Place where the current version of this document is lt February 27 2011 Additional Recourses 91 14 1 THE CENTRAL OHIO D STAR NET http sites google com site codsnet Thursdays 8pm W8CMH C amp Reflector 38A A few years back there was a small D Star net it had about 3 4 people who regularly checked in and it went silent about 1 2 years ago Since the reassurance of D Star users here in Columbus the idea has re surfaced Also since then seemed to be tagged with the Dubious Nickname of the D star Expert Well am far from an expert and there are a few others more knowledgeable about the subject than am But seem to be the most active of them locally The net his held is on Thursday nights at 8PM on the W8CMH Node C repeat
51. d over this gotcha yours truly included ended up running 32 bit OS SPECIFICALLY because of that The re install was painful Now the other cons the 800H and the 2820H you have to BUY the software too 40 40 80 True can say am using the ICOM supplied equipment Icom supported software etc If something goes wrong got one culprit on the list lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 15 The pro s of using this method for one its simple no frills easy to use once after you get it in there and you got only one person to complain to about any glitches Option 2 RT Systems The cons are simple This is what we in the computer field call a party The problem with this is if there is a glitch you end up with an Its lcom s fault or its RT systems fault if you used our software you wouldn t have this problem Or It s all Microsoft s fault I ve been there and done that more times than care to count The pros of these are you buy your cable from them and your software from them Their cable doesn t have the 64 bit issues but then again any problems you have with them there more than likely going to make someone else s fault Blame Icom or Microsoft etc Their software and cable after all is said and done is cheaper for the 800H and the 2820 but more expensive for the 880H So basically you want RT Systems you buy their cable and their software in one chunk The Icom 880h sof
52. e you re not people on DVAP DV dongles and linked repeaters won t be able to hear you So prescribed if you wanted to cross band you put the gateway call sign in Rpt2 and node route with putting the W8CMH Cin the Your call field your transmission goes to the same place and the others can hear it This method works on both DPlus systems and Non DPlus Systems But if you start with the put the call sign in rpt2 you stomp on people linking dangling and Dvaping into the repeater It s one of those technically it will work but its bad operating practice So since you re mostly going to run into DPlus enabled systems have shown you the procedures to do things that won t stomp on someone else and the best way have found to go about doing things that allows others to participate If you want to learn about how to do the other methods feel free to pick up other books on D Star and read up on them Basically the method s prescribed in this document is the current method that doesn t stomp on as many toes lt February 27 2011 D Star Operating Practices 50 6 D STAR OPERATING PRACTICES With a new mode comes a new way of doing things not just on the technical side but on the speaking side as well Since WNR D Star refers to repeaters by Call signs and Nodes so do we In the FM Analog world it was the 549 In the D Star world it s W8CMH Node C The why should be bluntly obvious you co
53. er Recording properties Is the microphone muted When you speak can you see the microphone level move If not adjust the level or use Microsoft Live Messenger s Tune Audio and Video or the microphone configuration wizard in windows 7 or crank it up by hand with another ham i Please note don t advise having another ham HELP with the volume levels have seen this happen to many times that the microphone gets set up way too high and the cheap microphone now sounds worse because with pc s you over modulate the volume with a microphone it sounds really bad really fast The other ham can t see what s on your system and he has his own listening levels He doesn t know what kind of microphone or how your computer sees it Very few hams have a grasp of PC microphones for audio quality When have seen others do this it always ends up sounding worse with over modulation making your voice sound a lot worse than it needs to be 9 If other repeaters are not populating your repeater drop down window that s a network connection issue not d star your internet connection 10 Some transmissions go through some don t a Bear in mind DV Dongle and Dvap have latency issues especially the DV Dongle When you PTT then there s a bit of lag added on and the time to get to the site Hams tend to quickly key down and if they key down at the right point they block you Nothing you can do about it just bare it in
54. er This net has a threefold purpose 1 To discuss News topics related to D Star and Topics covering Amateur Radio in the Central Ohio Area 2 A Place for New D Star Users to ask questions and get answers if not pointed in the right direction 3 For us in Central Ohio to Socialize Thursday night was chosen because there were no active nets at the time We had thought about a weekend evening but a lot of D Star users check into Connie s Net on reflector 1C on Sundays Saturdays has always been a bad night for nets and Friday nights don t work out as well due to people getting home to their families and family things on Friday night So Thursday was set in Also 8pm gives 45 minutes for those who are part of the COTN to do their evening message handling and then come over to our net at 8pm Each evening will have a topic or a news item including status of the local repeaters Then it s a round table discussing the topic questions or whatever then a second round of discussion of any topic Another idea was to also do an ARRL News line or the ARnews line thus we get it in digital sound Right now we have a volunteer to test the Viability of this Don KB8RUN but at the moment there s a 3 minute time out window built in to D Star that can t be turned off and it means chopping them down to size Stay tuned to the net for further info Right now W8CMH is connected to the gateway so feel free to link your repeater up to it
55. eur radio manufacturers to use it they made it an Open Standard Icom did help fund the design with equipment but that s as far as they were involved in its creation When it was ready Icom simply used it and began adding it to their line of radios and repeaters It isn t an Icom only thing which is a very common misconception Right now in Japan Kenwood has two rigs that they asked Icom to make for them and then they re branded them as Kenwood Kenwood is also rumored to be gearing up to offer D Star on their rigs as well Right now Kenwood has TMW 706S 50 Watts and TMW 706 20 watts which are the ID 800H but with frequency and power differences for the Japanese region In fact Kenwood is already producing D Star commercial repeaters http kb9mwr blogspot com 2008 06 second roll of d star html Also on the market is the DV Adaptor found at http dstarradioclub international com which works with any radio with a 9600 data port So yes not just Icom but also other companies as well Just Icom is the one that sells the rig as Everything included D Star also stands for Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 6 3 2 WHAT IS IT EXACTLY It sounds complex but in reality it isn t The simplest way to say it is D Star is the new FM and that s technically true here is an overview on how it works simplex AMBE AMBE Chip Voice out of Chip speakers I
56. f so many paper repeaters in the area he can t put it up for fear that one of these paper repeater owners may use that as an excuse to file litigation as we know from our exams the coordinated repeater wins out It s also expensive to get a repeater set up with the antenna price the trimming and the coils that have to be made out for a repeater W8BAP isn t the only one discovering this It is happening all over the place You see a repeater with only a B node chances are there in the same predicament Too many paper repeaters no open pairs Note that of this edit BAP has a frequency for the node C and it will be up and announced Soon Because of a lot of misinformation and guess work there are a lot of opponents to D Star DV out there Some base this on the fact they see others moving to D Star and can t afford to buy a new rig or they bought one couldn t figure it out thus it must be crap some just flat out hate change Others are the end result of the old grapevine game that by the time information got to them it was extremely distorted that they pass on the Icom secretly controls the death star and will be signing up tickets for ham radio By the time it gets to the guy who was curious about it he ends up getting told the strangest things My personal favorite was D Star allows everyone to track where you are at all times He went on about Icom being in league with the Bush administration
57. f someone puts a lt gt on my 800H see what looks like a 7 that s been flipped upside down lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 46 4 14 Cross NODE BAND OPERATION There is a couple of ways to get this effect Create a link Think of the other node as another repeater and treat it as such Node Route to the other node Think of it as another repeater node same limitations have to one touch reply to talk back Use Simulcast see that section The way NOT to do it The old way with D Star was for two hams to do the following MyCall RPT1 RPT2 YrCall HAM1 W8CMH C W8CMH B Not Used HAM2 W8CMH B W8CMH C Not Used See anyone reporting to a gateway Using this configuration avoids talking to the Gateway PC This means people Linking Node Routing Call Sign linking on DV Dongles DV Adaptors DV whatever plugged in cannot hear or see you and you will stomp on them and they will stomp on you This system was the way to do it before Gateway 2 0 and Dplus If your hearing two guys talking and someone coming in off of the gateway reflector etc and they can t hear you then they may be doing this This while technically works is bad operating practices lt February 27 2011 4 15 LOCAL SIMULCAST What does it do Put simply it takes your voice and stuffs it out all of the nodes of that repeater stack This doesn t mean you can hear it just sends it Core Concepts 47
58. gi position This when keyed down asked the gateway Hey are you linked to anything And if the gateway is operational it will return to you either via audio or on the screen of your rig if it is linked up to anything You use this command to basically see if a link is active and in use More on this in the linking section W8CMH E The format is Call sign and E as in echo in the 8 Position When key down you speak into the microphone and your voice should come back to you Again this is if the gate way is operational If you don t hear anything back then perhaps the gateway server is down Or the repeater does not have DPlus installed Or you just can t get in Remember the and E commands only work on the repeater you re on so make sure you have the entries set up right and not trying to run an Echo test on a different repeater U The Format is 7 blank spaces and in the git you put a U This is the Unlink Command it takes down all links to the repeater If you linked a repeater unlink it don t leave it up because it won t come down unless the net connection stops or someone else unlinks it because of others leaving links up and walking away a few repeater owners have disabled linking just for that reason It is an OS thing with the Gateway Software there is no timer So if you re unsure if anyone locally is using the link that seems to be there ask If no one speaks up take it down In my rig
59. ginning and at the end Guess what we get to toss that 10 minute rule out the window But we still have to give it audibly at the beginning and at the end The next item is one you already know about Leave a space after each transmission you know the drill for one big important reason that you probably didn t think about If you key up too quickly the repeater will screw up the packets and all of your speech will come out R2D2 Noise so leave a 2 3 second space at least or at the very least use the busy lockout function Finally one you tend to notice the new folks doing Just because when you key down it automatically sends out your call sign that doesn t mean you will get recognized to join in a QSO or calling CQ It is still considered Kerdunking the repeater People in the QSO or listening will assume you sat on your microphone So you want to join in a QSO Audibly state your FULL call sign not just your suffix or Dear gods in heaven forbid you ever say break but use your full call sign If you don t know how to properly and legally use the term break hand in your license you re done lt February 27 2011 D Star Operating Practices 51 Also of note when someone is using the Data side like DV Dongle can send text to other DV Dongle users there is no audio that goes with it Still even when they do that we can see their call signs on the screen lt February 27 2011 Analog Vs D Star 52
60. gistered to Doh Ok couldn t resist So what should Homer do Homer needs to go to the Maine repeater and figure out how to get himself unregistered Once the repeaters Admin takes him off it has to propagate in the system Takes about a day then he needs to register to N3UK repeater there in Springfield and then that propagates The system doesn t have a voice mail option and homer has to be actively listening to his home repeater and catch it and at the same time it is transmitted there can t be someone keying down at the same moment or it gets sent to the lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 20 rubbish bin and ignored by the local repeater But well if someone offered you free beer need say more So at this point you got your rig and sent out your registration to your home repeater know we still haven t gotten to the 4 magic fields but we will one topic builds on another here So let s go into Memory Banks vs Memory Slots lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 21 3 8 BANKS VS SLOTS To grasp the concept let s get some terms strait Memory Slot is old school term Remember your old rig you laid out your memory information in a chart Name Frequency PL tone Offset power etc That is called a memory slot Banks are list of mini slots to put information in That memory location can sometimes be put on a different memory chip all together So Slot is old style repeater mem
61. go Change happens lt February 27 2011 Final Check List 54 8 FINAL CHECK LIST 8 1 1 REGISTERED Are you registered 8 1 2 My CALL Is it filled out properly only using your Call sign you didn t add to it lt Slash field doesn t count gt 8 1 3 Busy LOCKOUT Check to see if you turned this function on it s a set it once and forget it as it helps prevent doubling 8 1 4 DV NATIONAL CALLING FREQUENCY Check to make sure you have this listed in there 146 580 2M at the very least it can make it easier to quickly switch to simplex or to monitor simplex frequency 8 1 5 AUTO TEXT INSERT Is it turned on Is the right field selected 8 1 6 SLASH FIELD Is it filled out properly Did you put in your 4 digit model in there If you didn t we will all know lt February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 55 9 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE Welcome to the new section This was where cut my teeth Yes do know that the ID 800H is discontinued but there are many still out there It is also the rig known for the most set up problems So let s go down our check list 1 ID 800H With the firmware update 2 USB programing Cable 40 3 CS D800 Software 40 9 1 THE CABLE Your first steps depend on a few things your O S for starters The USB programing cable only has a 32 bit driver This section assumes your running 32bit OS You have also bought the Cable and it came with the driver and yo
62. hem follow aaa asm ID RP2V 1 2GHz Digital voice module e Call sign A 1 2 DV Ea a5 Digital Voice Jaa 7 all e Call sign A 1 2 DD ID RP2D 1 2GHz Data module Digital Data i n Oem e Call sign B 440 pv tr enn ID RP2000V 2m Digital voice module 70cm e Callsign C 2 Meters Soa f D 55 qr vo Each repeater is ID RP4000V 70cm Digital voice module called a Stack and one call sign rules over it Each box plugged into the controller is referred to as a Module or Node and then you have the Controller which controls the whole stack and that reports to the Gateway for orders Hence you see why the term Stack is used Up to 4 modules can be connected to 1 ID RP2C lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 24 Now the best way have found to explain the Magic Four Fields is like a Path You re marking each step along the way Here are the 4 fields set up to talk local typically Your Call W8KWA A D D 0010010 0 LA First thing is the operator me W8KWA I m talking to the 145 49 otherwise known as W8CMH Node C it then is going to the gateway of the repeater W8CMH G and CQCQCQ says I want to talk to everyone on Node C or whoever is connected to it The Gateway says Ok l Il mark you down as being here in case anyone routed from the internet wants to talk to you to then spits it out on Node C and whatever else is linked up to Node C Rig
63. hings for granted One that you already know how to use the software meaning setting up QTH choose the bands create the trip and generate a repeater list Tips for the software 1 Have a good idea of the range of your mobile setup and the route you re going to take The Travel Plus does an OK job of putting the common repeaters that you re in range for on the trip However it is a list and it is as only as good as the data that it builds the lists from So if there is a paper repeater that s still in the directory it is going to pull it up and stick it in your list If your Range setting is too large it will pull all the repeaters from there as well 2 Choose the band s wisely If your rig is 2 meter only then only have the 2 meter and D Star Travel plus has a lot of bands in it and stuffing all that extra stuff may cause more hassle than its worth So make sure the list you generate is the list you want lt February 27 2011 ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software 11 1 EXAMPLE HAMVENTION TRIP Generate your route data 79 lt February 27 2011 ARRL Travel Plus software with the RT Systems Software 80 After the route is highlighted as above click Create list on the left side of the window Immediately afterward the window will be showing repeaters along the route and shortly afterward show a table format of the repeaters File Map Navigate Route Labels Options GPS Extras
64. ht now you re asking What s with the Dots Charles Along with the Magic 4 fields you have the magic a position Programming a rig this can be your pain especially for some reason these programming applications don t use fixed Fonts For RPT1 you need the node letter A B or C in that 3 character position If not it won t work RPT2 is where you put that repeater your coming in on the gateway which will always be call sign with G in the gin position This is where you have to count letters and adjust spaces Get it wrong and it won t work screw it up in the bank and you got to correct every memory slot it referenced So remember that magic 8 position As far as the Your Call field goes some have to have that git position some don t Yes l Il remind you of the instances But let s move on For the most part My Call doesn t change unless you hand your rig to another person It happens every so often but not that often So when it comes to working the rig the program and the rig keep that separate So when you look at the memory slots on the software you will notice it is missing You obviously can t have more than one call sign nor use a different call sign on a different repeater So they simply reference it differently meaning put it in a different part of the program 4 1 1 REVIEW So for the next step we will do a review however for the review we too will leave out the my call field
65. iopnairoaua eaa e E ETa R cams Ea aaia 1 2 Definitions amp Expressions ccccccccsssssssccecececessesssececeesessseseneaeeeesesenesssssaees 2 3 D Star WHatis it ennenen A 5 3 4 HISO eene a E E iat hee eee et ben orate e 5 32 Whatisitexactl y erore a n aa aa a a aa a tases 6 3 2 1 More Details areis arae ara a Ea a E a A R E eats 7 3 2 2 DV The PA Ck eb cae sn irsinin eaaa apaia aaie aiats 8 3 33 Q ality Verses Distance eccccceesssececeeeceesesseaeceeeesesssessaeaeeeeeeseeesees 10 3 4 The Rig and things you need to know first before powering it up 13 3 3 The Programming Cable scjcccecretcatadanwsnclanaddocuiretatnaganuaronindpese 14 3 0 Gateway Registration sinisisid iiia 16 3 6 1 What if I am not registered What can I do and what effects can I expect 17 3 6 2 So how does it work vias ncinaniaisieraqanieecctnsianeadanaecourneeeanseey eke 18 3 6 3 Check to see if you actually are registered cccccccccessssesseeeeeeees 18 3 7 A special note about gateway registration Please read ccceceeees 19 3 8 Banks Vs Slotsins aak e e eee aiaa e NTa 21 A eCOrSCOnNCEptS mereerin a fa des E a a a dn Baas E aa 22 4 amp 1 Mbe Magic Freldssissicsese cctseeidisloed tes Mastek aula il oaetes eae 23 WT REVIEW ce Oates pate taeda senate ated tes te PU Nate am ah atte tateea aa at aa aes 24 4 2 Simplex and the Magic Fields ccccccssssssececeeecsssessneeeeeeeeseessesseaeees 26 4 3 National DV Calling
66. is a form of Packet radio so as long as the other side knows there s a packet and can pull the data out of the packet the whole thing is golden When the packet is damaged lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 12 enough to where it s unreadable it simply is unreadable Because a machines ability to detect signal in some ways is better than a human s ear in this case it works Now you add on to that it uses Narrow FM on top of that All of you at least have your Tech License you know that the wider the signal the more power it takes to push it Narrow FM is HALF the size of regular Wide FM we use for standard 2 meter and 440 operation so all of that power gets sent along a smaller size and adds even more distance to the signal so those two qualities is what gives you that approximately 30 distance gain The fact that it s encoded to packets then transmitted then reconverted gives you the better sound quality That in essence is why Ham s all over the world are adding DV mode D star to their ham shacks and cars lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 13 3 4 THE RIG AND THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW FIRST BEFORE POWERING IT UP In this section we are going to talk some basic hardware stuff and things to do before we go full tilt into the nitty gritty of D Star 80D 800H 880H Kenwood Kenwood TMW 706S TMW 706 Ee Wi ea ae HT Mobile Programming oT 77 a a Software Programming Slots a ee e
67. lds get screwy when you try to put them in manually without putting them in the banks first This they fixed with the 880 software where you could do that There is also the fact the nitwits didn t make the font s Fixed Width so we could see at a glance if the spaces are out of sorts It doesn t sound like much but if spacing is crucial to me it s a no brainer Also it takes a while to find out where they stowed all the settings and yes all the common ones for text insert busy lockout changing the color of the screen including the microphone on low or high one of the first things you do need to change Low is way to quiet But they really are all in there just takes some rooting around in it to find it You also can t really import anything To me a Professional who has been in the computer field for years my professional opinion is that it s stable however a lot of work needs to be done on it to make it more user friendly It seems to me they simply went Is it stable yes Does it fill in the field s right yes then ship it and charge for it It really does have the feel for beta software and if this software had to stand on its own merits against competition it would fall on its face Basically someone said Good enough and tossed it out the door Other than all that it gets the job done takes a little planning ahead to set up the banks etc but once you understand that then it s as simple as
68. lso happens when doubling and if enough power to trip the repeater but not enough to get a full signal into it RPT Shown on a rig when the gateway confirms transmission Different models tend to show different things RPT1 Normally the repeater node your calling in from W8CMH C for example It s what repeater node you re talking into RPT2 Normally that repeaters Gateway usually the call sign with a G in the 8th position Slash Field The field following the call sign field that contains 4 spaces to put letters or numbers after my call Ex W8KWA 800H normally this is where you lt February 27 2011 Definitions amp Expressions 4 put your rig s model number Dongles use DNGL and Dvap use DVAP automatically Text Insert A 20 character field that you turn on and when you key down your my call then Slash field then what ever is in the Text Insert that you have selected Normally it is Name Location Country ie Charles Cols Oh US This way all who look at the screen when you key down have that information Sometimes it is used for stating who net control is or for special events Your Call the most volatile field used to direct what you want to do lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 5 3 D STAR WHAT IS IT 3 1 HISTORY D Star was created by the JARL Japanese Amateur Radio League in 2001 after three years of research To try and get the commercial Amat
69. mind when you operate 11 I m at a Hotel a Been there done that Wi Fi can be tricky with the dongle yes it can be done with a strong connection and if there is not to many people on it have done this myself with a hotel s wireless network Sometimes the repeater list wont fill up or the signal goes to garbage and your bumped off the repeater It s not advised but it is doable lt February 27 2011 DVAP 249 89 13 DVAP 249 This is pretty new to the market It works as a hotspot Basically it works similar to a DV Dongle except you don t use a head set and mic you use a D Star radio It has a 10mW that s milli watt radio inside that works on a simplex frequency So if you want to use your D Star radio but no repeaters around you can use this to get you out similar to a DV Dongle So all of the limitations with DV Dongle just you can use a D Star radio to go in and out The DV AP is 2M transceiver with a 10 mW maximum output an integrated GMSK modem and a USB 2 0 interface Using a PC connected to the internet a licensed amateur radio operator can use a D STAR equipped radio to access the global D STAR network and connect to voice gateways and reflectors around the world The DV AP gives a Local Access Point to use a D STAR equipped handheld radio to access the D STAR network even in places where there is no local D STAR repeater If you want more information on these Google is your frien
70. n DV Digital Voice mode your voice goes through the Advanced Multi Band Excitation AMBE chip where it is encoded digitally plus text and any other data into GSM the same process happens in cell phones then stuffs it out the Antenna as Narrow FM Then the other radio pulls in the Narrow FM runs it through the GSM stuffs it to the AMBE chip that splits the Voice Data part sending it where it needs to go Why GSM The GSM takes the Data from the AMBE that has taken voice and data and put it together digitally the GSM is the chip that gets it ready for the air Just like in your modern GSM Cell phone that chip takes you voice encoded by other chips with the cell data and the GSM puts it out to the cell tower So think of the AMBE chip as the AMBE is a Proprietary part that takes your voice and your D Codec Chip made by Digital Voice star Data and combines it together The Systems Inc There are a few GSM then packages it to shove out the groups who are trying to make an antenna Now the AMBE does have some open source compatible error correction called forward alternative This is why the chip correction meaning if the first packet itself runs from 20 Until they do aint right then it sends or waits for the manufactures Icom DV Dongle second copy of the packet if none are DVAP and hobbyist have to buy found it uses the original This is very high speed Those with a DV Dongle and can see the d
71. n traveling and you want to get back home to your other repeaters and you re in an area that doesn t have D Star You can do so with the box without lugging around your HT and charger To install it in windows 7 just plug it in Microsoft already has the drivers for it Then go to http www opendstar org tools Grab the latest beta At the time of this writing it was DV Too l 2 0beta4 exe Put the file somewhere where you can t miss it There is no install one file one program Double click The publisher could not be verified Are you sure you want to run this software im Name C Users Trinity Documents DVTool 2 0beta4 exe Publisher Unknown Publisher Type Application From C Users Trinity Documents DVTool 2 0beta4 exe V Always ask before opening this file P This file does not have a valid digital signature that verifies its x publisher You should only run software from publishers you trust How can decide what software to run Remember this is a beta so Microsoft wants to make sure you are aware it hasn t cleared it click run February 27 2011 DV Dongle 86 File Help DVTool My Callsign WS8kKWA My Message DV Dongle Name DV Device coms Open Serial Connection Info History Data Utilities Setup Connect to Gateway Module Favorites MyCall UrCall User Message Bit Errors DVTool version 2 0beta4 E mute PTT
72. om scratch Each concept had its section and took people through it all Concept by concept Now to me it was simply a way to hand it to a new D Star person to save me 400 questions so could rag chew was more concerned with answering the common questions so it didn t eat into the rag chew This had some strange effects Before people where trying D Star hitting that hurdle and instead of sticking with it they were getting rid of it without learning anything and anyone trying it they were trying to warn off Not to mention someone asking 400 questions having trouble with the new mode is not the greatest thing for advertising said new mode So if could get all the concepts down get them quickly in the new guys hands answer their questions before they ask them their happy and get up to speed very quickly I m happy because now didn t have to play tech support so much and more people are using the mode every day There are also some strange side effects had not planned on This document didn t just stay local It s gone all over the place as far as New York and heard last week that the ARRL know about the document even had a repeater owner track me down to say thanks One repeater owner noticed me at Hamvention all from that simple D Star for dummies e book Now the book is evolving yet again When wrote it it was from the ID 800H probably the trickiest rig to do it on and the one with the most quarks
73. onfused and had to re read it multiple times to try to understand what that author was trying to tell us So worked over and tested each concept until got the idea of what he was trying to convey My neighbors no doubt heard me gripe loudly why didn t he just say then it was followed by a few curse words Then Jason KD8GES bought an 880H and we began to rack some things together and discovered some of the things they didn t tell you but should have Then D Star in Columbus took off One after another people where seeing what D Star could do Enough that on April 10 2010 W8CMH went D Star and this was the analog system that we all hung out on Only this time it was set up right It quickly got to the point that would go on the air and be deluged with D Star questions and when listening be referred to as the local D Star Expert There were many nights just wanted to Rag Chew but got hit with 40 questions Then the idea came up should write all this down and just send it to them It quickly became apparent that most hams rarely read the manual Not only that it didn t help that the manual s where more confusing than the subject matter Even of those hams that did read the manual they left even more confused than was needed So thus created the D Star for dummies only had the ID 800H and the software to work with So took what was broken in the Nifty guide and the Manual and re wrote it fr
74. ory banks are quick short lists Confused still Let me break it down farther You re filling out a list where one of the fields all has the same data So you want to make a drop down list so all you have to do is click scroll find it and click to drop it into place Now that short list is a Memory Bank for our explanation This is where makes and models tend to vary You normally have the following banks My Call This is where you put your call sign and other call signs of people you physically let use the rig Repeaters This is where you stuff repeater nodes and the gateway call sign of the repeaters you will be accessing Node and gateways of repeaters you listen to Your Call This is where you put the information of the stuff you re going to be doing lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 22 4 CORE CONCEPTS Before we get into stuffing things into the rig we need to sit down and have a few words about WHAT we are going to put in the rig and why By now you should have your rig and chosen the programing cable and concepts and got yourself registered at a D Star repeater So we are going to assume all of that is done While D Star is similar to analog radio it has another side entirely one more complicated than simply filling out a chart This is because D Star can do a lot of things analog systems can t When the JARL worked all this stuff out they kept it simple really simple Unfo
75. over the way you operate One of the things that happens when you register to a repeater is it fills in an I don t know what to do clause in the protocol If another ham Call Sign routes you the gateway first checks the last heard lists if it finds you it shoves it out the last place it heard you If it doesn t find you it asks Where is he registered the software then tells itself he is registered on this repeater and then stuffs it out there The second function of registering is to allow gateway access You want to talk on other repeaters link node route talk on a linked repeater You have to register If you don t register with a repeater you can t use a hotspot talk on a linked system locally they hear you but across the link they don t you won t be able to communicate to A DV Dongle user or a DVAP user Even they have to register before they can use it Also you register to one repeater that s it If you find yourself having to move out of state etc you need to unregister and register back in your new local We are talking permanent moving not trips etc lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 17 3 6 1 WHAT IF IAM NOT REGISTERED WHAT CAN I DO AND WHAT EFFECTS CAN I EXPECT If you aren t registered you can still talk simplex and kind of talk on a repeater say kind of cause there s a few gotcha s Anyone using the DVAP and DV Dongle or linked will not be able to hear you
76. put these 4 slots for every repeater because nothings worse than to stumble on an open repeater key up and get the west coast reflector when lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 31 you re expecting to just talk locally When you re done using these commands flip back to your CQ slot or you re going to feel silly very quickly lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 32 4 6 CALL SIGN ROUTING This is probably one of the coolest options on the D Star repeater Ever been on a trip and wanted to talk to a friend back home over the air Well that s what call sign routing does You set up your fields for that local repeater as per normal Then you put in your friends call sign in the Your call field If he is on a repeater s last heard list and still there when you key up with his call sign in Your call field then it s going to get routed to him there Also if he is listening on the repeater that he is registered to then he is going to hear it To talk back to you he simply changes his Your Call field to your call sign and away you two go When you re done just switch back to CQCQCQ Also if you hear someone call sign routing to you use the one touch reply feature on your radio See the One Touch Reply Section for more information You can also use that function if you hear someone call sign routing on your repeater to talk to that person the person calling W8JNE The format is Call Sign Send
77. re for the IC 80 WCS 80 poh a eae for Windows 7 64 and 32 bit Vista and XP with D Star settings and new D Star Locator Programming Software for the IC 91 WCS 91 gc Se for Windows 7 64 and 32 bit Vista and XP with D Star settings and new D Star Locator Programming Software for the IC 92 WCS 92 Version 4 00 _ for Windows 7 64 and 32 bit Vista and XP with D Star settings and new D Star Locator Programming Software for the IC 2200 7 Version 4 00 WCS 2200 for Windows 7 64 and 32 bit Vista and XP with D Star settings Does not include the D Star Repeater Locator Programming Software for the ID 800 7 Version 4 00 you for Windows 7 64 and 32 bit Vista and XP with D Star settings Does not include the D Star Repeater Locator WCS D880 K February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 68 10 2 INSTALLING PROGRAM GETTING STARTED WITH YOUR NEW SOFTWARE It is your standard Windows software no known installing quarks at this time so if you know how to install software skip to the next section The software package arrives with an interface cable software disk and basic instructions 1 Insert the CD into the CD ROM drive 2 Allow time for the computer to read the CD Follow instructions on the screen Finally click Finish to complete installation This icon will be on the computer desktop screen February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 69 10 3 INITIAL SETUP 10 3 1
78. re out what went wrong and to begin trouble shooting what s wrong Basically you can eliminate the am registered has it been propagated issue 3 6 3 1 W8CMH Website Under Construction Gateway Registration URL https w8cmh no ip org Dstar do Email k8nio arrl net This went up on the week of the 10 of April 2010 and is fully operational 3 6 3 2 W8BAP Website http w8bap ham radio op net Gateway Registration URL https w8bap ham radio op net Dstar do This only has a B node at the time of this edit he does have the C node frequency pair set up and is working on getting the C node up and functional Some people have difficulty reaching it as it only has a 440 node at the moment but it is fully up and operational and wide area coverage lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 19 3 7 A SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT GATEWAY REGISTRATION PLEASE READ When you register with a gateway to the system you re telling the gateway system Hello this is my home repeater if someone tries to reach me and all else fails send it here Especially getting started and DV Dongle users especially you tended to pick a repeater that allowed you to do it over the net This got you in the system and got that 299 piece of plastic to work Remember DV Dongles and DVAP cannot be call sign routed to or Node Routed to Those are the two procedures for a traveling ham to get to you or someone DX ing without forming a link Since the
79. repeaters allow you to create a link others do not The reasons vary from other users kept forgetting to take the link down other users kept linking it up to the reflector and leaving it there to an owner just wanting it for local use The old adage When you play in someone s house respect their rules you didn t pay for their house so you have no real say on how they run their house Comes to mind Some repeaters do allow linking W8CMH s Gateway does at this current time Linking is very similar to Echolink and IRLP where you connect the two repeaters together and anyone who are registered on a gateway and plugged into their local repeater node can chat back and forth without any real change in settings on their rigs That simple Your voice goes into the node talks to the gateway gateway says hey node C is linked to node C on this other repeater or node C is linked to reflector 001c II pass it there too And any traffic on the other side is also passed back and comes out the node that it s linked to Now this can be a lot of fun but it can also be extremely misused You remember your technician s exam Every repeater has a control operator That s they guy who s call sign is on the repeater If something goes on on his repeater the FCC will go after him So if two hams connected to NALL in Florida and Joe here left the link up from W8CMH C to N4LL s node C and two guys on the other end start
80. repeaters and by now you should be familure with the Core Concepts lt February 27 2011 9 3 1 My CALL File View COM Port Clone Help ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 59 olem alela E a 1D 800 wy Memory CH fi DTMF Autodial a Call Sign My Call Sign E Your Call Sign fi TX Message E Common Setting H 0 Function Memory m The software puts things in a tree We need to get some basics set up First step is the My Call and slash fields Simple right enter it in and hit enter when done If you try to add a 5 character in the slash field it will chop off the extra characters K February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 60 9 3 2 REPEATER CALL SIGN Gb w7 update icf CS File View COMPort Clone Help olem 2lbrla sh Repeater Call Sign E Memory CH ne orcatson oae ueno ancars ens E DTMF Autodial A ee be FON weve G _ON Use WOBAP G ON Use ya eign WEDIG C Use W8BAP B _Use E YourCallSign leg WapiG B Use EEN WSCMH G _ON_ Use RE Te WeRTL G _ON Use WSCMH C i _Use E VFO Call Sign WBRTL C Use W8CMH B Use E TX Message E WeATL B 2 Common Setting WERNL G _ON Use El Function Memory EA wean c _Use E wern B _Use i E Koseic G ON Use KD8BIG C Use
81. res the last transmission into a Volatile memory the 880h can store up to 10 But the last one that came first is the one by default it grabs So here am on W8CMH he s node routing in activate my one touch reply button My BK Tone T scan by holding it while two short then two long beeps are heard My rig then goes and grabs the My Call field of the last caller and then drops it into the Your Call field to call sign route back Some rigs will actually grab RPT1 value and use that it s one of those look it up in your own manuals So he calls press and hold my button and my rig then sets up the 4 call fields like My Call Your Call W8KWA W8CMH C W8CMH G KC8VWO Hence my call goes out through the gateway to the repeater node KC8VWO called from and everyone there on that node can hear me They just have to either node route me or hit their one touch reply During this operation people listing to W8CMH can hear him and me KC8VWO can t hear the others on W8CMH C unless they either one touch reply him put his call in their your call field or node route to where he is at Pretty simple Just double check your manual to make sure you know how your rig is going to manipulate the fields for this The 800h just has the one option but the 880h has two options etc When you re done with this rock the memory slots back to CQCQCQ to speak locally lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 42 4 12 Bus
82. rol Panel Hardware and Sound Devices and Printers gt Add a device Add a printer 4 Devices 6 ACER X193W Back UPS RS Natural Keyboard USB SATA Bridge Wheel Mouse Elite Optical a Printers and Faxes 3 a amp Fax Microsoft XPS Stylus NX110 Document Writer 4 Unspecified 1 Icom USB to Serial Comm Port COM3 10 items 4 4 See it listed in the unspecified category that s what we want we can see its showing up on COM3 Systems may vary as long as there s no flags we are good to go So let s move on to the next step Take your rig turn it on and stuff the cable into the right socket Install your programming application Then start it lt February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 58 9 3 CS D800 Now we know what comport the cable is registered to So let s start the program If you missed the first window and aren t sure where you connected check the Com Port Section make sure your right where you should be ee CS D800 More Revision 2 0 Normal Speed High Speed Cloning Software for ID 800 C 2004 2005 Icom Inc Now let s read from the rig by clicking the icon We will see letters on the rig and it s going to chunk right along Now for the most part this setup is similar to quite a lot of rigs and for experienced Hams should be self explanatory and old hat I m not going to bother to explain how to fill out for standard FM
83. rtunately ICOM in the manual doesn t cover the core concepts very well and without a good working knowledge of them the rest is useless This section is probably the one you re going to refer to the most lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 23 4 1 THE MAGIC FIELDS call this concept the Four Magic Fields In reality its 3 Major Magic Fields and one Minor Your MyCall field is static which means it doesn t change for you No matter what you re doing on that radio your MyCall doesn t change Yep a set it and forget it field The other three magic fields do Yes there is logic to it and once you comprehend the logic the rest is easy The other three fields are Rpti Rpt2 and Your Call These three fields change depending on what you are doing There are also some rules about how things are entered into these three fields called the magic 8 character You re going to learn to hate this 8 character rule trust me on this one For right now ignore frequencies PL tones and everything else We are going to talk about the fields alone This is the part that tends to screw everyone up It also is the way you need to start thinking about D Star repeaters So let s see an A Typical D Star repeater Stack This is how you need it B iis Fet nig to think of a repeater J O a 2 OO eur ID RP2C Repeater controller stack There is a standard convention that all of a Dors t
84. s 2 meter and 440 D Star stations 440 stations or stations for your trip to the Dayton Hamvention Under Settings select Bank Names and Linking can click The resulting screen is below VWIIVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIg9g0g0g0g0000F WIVIIVIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIaG2 We have entered Local in Bank A in B we entered Simplex in C we entered Repeat There are only six character spaces for the Bank name so be creative After we complete the names press OK to save and exit this window February 27 2011 ID 880H amp RT Systems Software 74 D 8 mme t File Edit Communications Settings DStar Window Help Deh ta eark m4 Rpt 1 Rpt 2 requency Channel gn CalSign CallSign 145 49000 023 w BothN e off wlSkHz Eel elof l0 CQCQCQ_ W8CMH C 145 39000 023 Both N off 5kHz off oO icgcacq _ waDIGC waDIGG 146 52000 023 BothN Off SkHz Off lo 146 67000 023 Bothn loff 5 kHz Off lo 3 o Next move the mouse over to the Bank column for Memory 0 This is the Columbus D Star repeater to store in the Bank named Local Next with the pull down tab select Bank to select A Local Repeat this for the remaining channels for simplex and repeater File Edit Communications Settings DStar Window Help Del tre g eLA 2 Pager Digital Your Receive DCS o Digital Frequency ocs Polarity Skip Step Channel Squelch
85. s MY call 1 Own station s call sign lt 8 ASCII chars fill blanks with space characters 4octets MY call 2 Own station s call suffix 4 ASCII chars fill blanks with space characters 2octets Packet Forward Check Sum FCS CRC CCITT checksum G x x 16 x 12 x 5 1 72octets 20 ms of digitized voice from the AMBE codec with Forward Error Correction 24octets _1st data frame 72octets next 20 ms of digitized voice 24octets _1st amp every 21st data frame are used for synchronizing data across the link see spec voice data frame repeats until last data frame contains a unique terminating bit pattern 24 ortals Octets Before we tear it apart let s walk through what an Octet is As we all know computers and electronics understand binary Yes or no 1 and 0 ASCII is a standard worked out a long time ago Eight binary places equates to one Octet 8 A 01000001 so think 1 octet is one letter or number not binary Let s give you an analogy to break this down Sync Pulses Hey you Who me Yah you What do you want In a conversation first thing we do is get attention of the party we are trying to speak to This is just what sync pulses do Flags This is basically a check list like a piece of mail Postage there Return Addy is it open it s a yes or no check list February 27 2011 D Star What is it 9 Routing This section is pretty self explanatory
86. s you plug it into your USB port and Talk via PC s speakers and microphone There are a few gotcha s you should know about e It does not call sign route e It does not Node Route e t cannot link a repeater e t cannot Cross band a repeater e It requires the target repeater reflector to be connected to the internet e t requires you to be able to maintain a 34K a second steady connection dial up won t cut it e The Java Stable version of the program stinks e And people have trouble getting it to work if you don t have the microphone plugged in ESPECALY THE JAVA VERSION So just what is it that you get mean why shuffle out 299 for a chunk of plastic The beta is a lot better than the stable The stable one where the main website points you to is a java program Don t get me started on why hate java The Beta of 2 0 is written in NET if your running windows 7 then chances are net is already installed The 2 0 beta gives you a lot more options When you launch the software it has a black terminal window and you can see what s going on Plus you can see what other users fields are set to This greatly helps you pin point another hams configuration issues It can also tell you who are linked to the repeater or lt February 27 2011 DV Dongle 85 reflector dvap or Dongle or other repeaters plus pulls up the last heard as well as let you send some data across Not to mention for some whe
87. s your voice to W8JNE by first checking the last heard on the local repeater s last heard then to the Gateway system and then if that fails to the repeater where W8JNE is registered lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 33 4 7 NODE ROUTING Simple concept route your voice to a repeaters specific Node W8BAP The Format Is Call sign and the Node letter in the 8 Position This works the same way Call sign routing does the people on the other end has to change their Your call field to point to your node Via their 1 touch reply Remember when you do use this to announce what repeater you re calling from so they can change theirs to get back to you This is W8KWA calling from W8CMH Node C Node routing to W8BAP node C this W8KWA calling from W8CMH Node C Notice said where was calling from twice just in case they missed it the first time It also gives them more time to activate their One touch reply When you re done with the QSO change your Your call field back to CQCQCQ by going back to your CQCQCQ memory slot Of special note this works on all D Star Repeaters connected to the internet It doesn t matter if they have the DPlus installed or not For some repeaters in Japan it s the only way to get there lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 34 4 8 LINKING When it comes to D Star repeater operations this is probably the most heated argument topic out there Some D Star
88. simply means you have not used it yet in the memory slots February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 61 So in short if your going to have it listed in RPT1 or RPT2 you need an entry here 9 3 3 YOUR CALL 1 800 Memory CH DTMF Autodial Call Sign E My Call Sign E Your Call Sign E Repeater Call Sign EE VFO Call Sign TX Message Common Setting Function Memory Use No Call Sign __ Use DO Ls MN Avedia c U Use AWBDIG B _ Use W8DIG C KD8DRGC Use E wei B KD8DRGB Use mA weoic 4 DEJ kT74PRB Use MA wag Use AWEBLC _ Use W8DIG E Use AWBBTHDC Use 1 wecm _ Use AWB8THDB _ Use ME wecmy E Use TEE KSBIG B Use KSBIG C _ Use DAI Av8RNLC Use AWSANL B Use ANBRTLC Use U14 AWACLL C _ Use AWBBAP B U23 U73 U24 U74 U77 REFOOICL Use WSBAPBL _ Use We8DIGCL Use WEDIGBL Use U33 u83 c c c c c En 63 69 03 o o G GSN ard al od CIC C c c o co c c co DDIN 1H Use TA N8CxI WGBI _ Use U44 E kps8zrF Use KCEZYB _Use ma DEA koeces Use m J DETA wekHw _ Use list for call sign routing This is where you put your Your Call fields Again you can see a System starting U01 CQCQCQ U02 U The next set is for the l s and E s of the repeaters I m setting
89. single can be received sent This is similar to the FM Analog lt February 27 2011 Definitions amp Expressions 3 term of Falling into the static because of the abrupt nature that this has hence the term Falling off the Cliff Gateway 2 0 The software on the repeater s Gateway system that makes it all possible It runs on Linux and CentOS is the Linux distribution that it recommends Linking Creates a link from one repeater node to another repeater node or Reflector allowing for everyone on the node who is registered on a gateway to communicate with the other target My Call One of the Magic 4 Fields normally the operator using the rig Memory Bank group A method of organizing memory entries Node Often used to refer to a node or module of a Repeater stack IE W8CMH Node C 145 490 Node Routing Sends a Voice envelope to a node on either the same repeater or another node on another repeater One Touch Reply A function of a D Star rig to be able to quickly answer a call sign route or a Node route by pressing a button putting the caller s call sign into your Your Call field This way you can call sign route back to them R2D2 A term used to describe Noise in a D Star communication I got a bunch of R2D2 on that meaning that some of the signal made it through but not all of it thus it creates a lot of robot like noise when that happens It a
90. ssseessre 91 TAX D Star Cl birinne te i ri a ea E Ta OE ns 92 Introduction 1 1 INTRODUCTION Hello everyone and welcome to D Star for dummies the Reference Manual There have been a lot of changes since the very first revision went out Some confusion flame wars and quite a few questions have popped up since the first revision and some things have changed and some things where learned This document here is called D Star for Dummies and is designed to get you going from ground up into the world of D Star There are a lot of things going on and it all can be confusing I m have broken it down into hopefully simpler terms including some screen shots to show you step by step what to do and how to get there as well as bring you somewhat up to date here in Columbus Ohio Since the first version of this went out it has really become a monumental prospect Hams have wanted a D Star for Dummies to get up to speed and some kind of dedicated D Star Reference manual of sorts So we are taking what we know and building on it Think of it as a kind of collective knowledge At first you start out with the basic concepts and then move on to the rigs This book doesn t replace your manual Think of it as a kind of Add on that the manual should have had but didn t We cannot cover all of the rigs so as hams get rigs if it isn t covered here it is a matter of a volunteer of a rig and software combo stepping forward to volunteer
91. ting to print it Like said there s always going to be an electronic version free If am approached by a publishing house that part is non negotiable If it does get printed then the profits well most of them will probably go to either a ham club or a charity or something along those lines But let s not put the horse before the cart Hams that have worked on this know a head of time that retain the rights and that there will always be a free version available electronically The way see it any publishing done will be for those who simply want it in a book format instead of printing it out themselves Isn t that what all ham books should be Acknowledgments First off want to thank my father Chuck W8JNE for all of his help not just in getting me into amateur radio helping me get rigs but also helping me proof what you are reading here have probably spent more time in writing and re writing this document then quite a lot of people would think was worth it also want to thank George Foy N4DLR for his work with the 880H with RT Systems Software and the ARRL Travel Plus don t ask for any money on this and yes it has been offered to me wrote all of this simply to help others get on with D Star That s right folks this document is for you ham radio operators in the surrounding Columbus area to get you up to speed on the new mode of operation Table of Contents D gt MAL FOGOUCTIOG secconwstenecnatiuct
92. tion is put it into the gateway software which synchronizes every so often so all the repeaters get the list just the call signs Please bear in mind you are running with Email s so sometimes the mail may not get there or real life pops up or the email ends up getting caught up in a junk mail filter When he gets the message and adds you in he s going to send you a conformation message saying you re in and you re good to go With your rig until you get conformation and it s in the system you can only talk locally even if the repeater is linked up Think of it as a list of who can go on the gateway network If your call sign isn t in the list the repeater ignores it This isn t the fault of the Repeater Admins but a security feature written into it by the Japanese folks who are writing the repeater gateway software Also when you register just register your FCC call sign no W1AW 4 or anything wonky like that just your FCC CALL sign 3 6 3 CHECK TO SEE IF YOU ACTUALLY ARE REGISTERED There is a website http query ki4swy org index php up by KI4SWY there you can enter a call sign and it can look in the propagation database for it and tell if your registered to which repeater and also the last heard If you enter your call sign in there and it finds it then you know your registered and in the system Then if you run into trouble you know it s a settings problem or a repeater problem It is great for helping figu
93. to keep tabs on people This is what he told me with a straight face or rather voice that someone had told to him Let s face it we ham s love gossip but when we pass on information half heard while we were doing something else it just tweaks the snot out of information When the 145 49 went digital while was away in Virginia for my Certs which got thanks found out through the grapevine that the COTN Central Ohio Traffic Net which the 5 49 was the 4 in line back up repeater had some difficulty with their 7 24 and started to freak out about the 5 49 going digital A whole lot of half baked ideas flew out then from conspiracy theories bribes Icom only you name the misconception and it went flying So anyone listening to the COTN over heard that and didn t know any different is now most likely passed on the same information to others and probably added a twist of their own This flurry of misinformation can be expected especially by hams like said we love to gossip After you have finished reading this and understanding this document at least you can help stop out the misinformation and get some correct information into other s hands D Star or DV isn t going away it s something that ARRL their band plan and the Frequency Coordinators are going to have to deal with Give us 20 years and would be surprised if you could buy a 2 meter 440 rig without DV People said the same thing about PL tones 20 years a
94. tware by Icom is free but you do have to by the cable which is universal for all of their D star rigs for the moment just the 80D 800H and the 2820 you have to buy a licensed copy of their software Now it also works with ARRL Travel Plus which own and Icom s software doesn t It also allows you to work with multiple files at once Icom s doesn t If you buy a new rig you also have to buy a new bit of software to go with it think you can use the same cable Now the RT Systems Software does have an interesting perk If you have multiple rigs like most hams who been in it for a few years if you use their programing system on all your rigs it makes it a breeze to Sync so all the memory slots are identical For now in the core concepts we are going with the ICOM cable and the ICOM software but that s just for simplicity See other sections for more how to on the RT Systems software lt February 27 2011 D Star What is it 16 3 6 GATEWAY REGISTRATION Since Version 1 of this document several things have changed and we have discovered a few new things In order to get out and talk to the world you need to be registered on a gateway This is true for a rig DV Dongle or the new Digital Voice Access Point DVAP or any of the other DV D Star toys you either build or by that connects to a repeater Non Simplex One of the misconceptions out there is it s all a bunch of power hungry people who want power
95. u have bought the software If on Vista or XP 1 First Step is to go to Icom s website and get the updated driver regardless if you have XP Vista have installed this on Vista and know the driver supplied with the disk tends to have quarks with Vista Be safe and get the latest drivers 2 Next install the drivers Yes know sounds stupid not supposed to work that way but blame that on Icom If you try to plug it in and then feed it the drivers it won t install right 3 Now you plug in the cable See the next Step Windows 7 1 Plug cable in Windows 7 goes gets the drivers and installs them Congratulations the cables installed lt February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 56 9 2 INSTALL SOFTWARE This section takes for granted you installed the cable and drivers already Note Windows 7 has the 32 bit driver built in The programming cable is USB gt Serial gt to a headphone jack Windows will see it as a USB to Serial cable and assign it a com port We need to know what com port it assigned it to Click on the Triangle Otherwise known as the system tray expander See the Icon of the USB cable with a green check mark Click there Heck US8 SATA Bridge USB Buffalo 1T E Here you see everything Plugged in including my External hard drive We want to Open Devices and Printers so click there lt February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 57 al gt Eo gt Cont
96. uld be linked to a reflector you could be routing and telling the other person in another state that you re on the 5 49 will bring up the obvious question Which 5 49 do you mean The next one to go over is the W8KWA Listening when with in one month I you re calling a CQ of sorts to see if anyone s listing on 2 gotan OO notice for meters Now it s W8KWA on W8CMH Node C you add to it not ID ing ever ten Monitoring Listening or Calling CQ This lets everyone minutes Despite the know who you are and if it s linked up where you re calling fact I swore I did now from what repeater and node You may be talking on a linked system or someone just put up a link or it may be plugged into the reflector It is just good practice Be proud of your call sign state it often and clearly Whelp this is probably the biggest change operational wise other than referring to repeaters by call signs instead of You ID every time you Key down In the beginning when I got my ham ticket in DV mode I ID every time I Key down To me this is worth the price of a D Star rig no longer having to frequency Every time you Key Down out goes your call sign on worry about that the screen Now legally speaking FCC requires you to give your particular note call sign out every 10 minutes You do that with every transmission But the finer points of FCC rules say you have to WAZ give it audibly at the be
97. up for The next set of call signs or rather commands is for the Node Routing use in the memory slots The next set of call signs or commands is for the things want to create a link to This is where tend to put link commands for the reflector and other repeater systems And finally at the bottom this is where put my Call sign left enough space to grow on either side and keep them organized Remember you re going to be putting a lot of slots in for one repeater So if you got a system that means you can fill in the blanks faster Also of note is the Use field again It is the same thing as the repeater banks All it shows is if have used it in one of the memory slots K February 27 2011 ID 800H amp ICOM SOFTWARE 62 9 4 Memory SLOTS E emoy CH Decision time how to set up the banks in version 1 suggested the first bank for standard FM Since my T 200 home repeater went digital put the first bank as Local l 201 300 D Star repeaters My Second Bank is FM Repeaters Simplex This leaves me 3 banks of slots for trips etc 301 400 BE 401 500 nek JE Program scan It s my organization system you re free to incorporate CALL CH your own The key thing is to remember to leave space in case you need to add that quick command and of course keep organized so you can operate efficiently 0 ae Offset R
98. wide So DV has to duke it out with Analog FM over the band plan See the FM Analog vs DV section for more information about current issues Now let s get to the Your Call Field this is where things happen lt February 27 2011 Core Concepts 28 4 4 COMMON YOUR CALL ENTRIES and Rpt2 when using a repeater is pretty much fixed on a per repeater node basis I can only come in one node and talk to the gateway etc per node repeater by step CQCQCQ Your basic call out W8CMH E Runs an Echo test on W8CMH This is per repeater so if you were on W8BAP it would be W8BAP E so on and so forth it only works to the repeater your connected to and that repeater has the DPlus software installed so can t run an echo test through W8BAP from CMH Also be advised sometimes the echo tests don t work for some reason or another Remember the E needs to be in the 8 position or it won t work W8CMH l Returns information on Link Status Again this is repeater specific td i and depending on the I I as in Info being in the g position If it s connected to another repeater or reflector it will either tell you or show you on your screen Good to use to check before you do any serious rag chewing because someone else may have accidently left it linked U Unlinks all links It is a simple command universal The U is in the git position All you have to do is key down for a moment and it will unlink everything
99. y LOCK OUT FUNCTION 4 12 1 WHATISIT Busy lock out function is an extra step to help prevent doubling It is actually a before The Busy lockout function inhibits the transmission while receiving a signal on the selected frequency to prevent interference to other stations Icom Manual 4 12 2 WHAT DOES IT DO Take two hams ham A and Ham B there in a group QSO Both key down exactly at the same time as hams we know this is doubling The odds of it happening at exactly at the same time are slim Most of the time we get into old habits and key down wanting to add our two cents into it and we end up doubling over another Most of the time there is a half second delay we normally don When you key down your rig asks itself is anyone transmitting see the if the busy indicator is on If no then out your signal goes as per normal If it detects a signal then it sends your voice into the bit bucket dev null trash can then gives you a warning On the 880h 800h you get 5 rapid fire beeps believe me you will notice it Your rig With the 92AD you get a single beep and the VFO remains open even with you pressing the key down 4 12 3 How Do I KNOW IF IT IS TURNED ON OR NOT Well the litmus test is try to double wait a half a second at least after someone 4 12 4 WHAT HAPPENS IF TWO PEOPLE WHO HAVE BUSY LOCKOUT TURNED ON KEY DOWN EXACTLY AT THE SAME TIME You double 4 12 5 SO WHY SHOULD TURN IT ON THEN

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