[Dstar] Australian D-Star Network News

Tue Aug 18 19:40:54 CST 2009

G'day,

Here is this month's news and information on VK D-Star.

Central Coast Club D-Star installation:

The NSW Central Coast Club D-Star team are testing there D-Star repeater and
Gateway installation on air. The D-Star repeater callsign VK2RAG is located
at the Somersby repeater site near Gosford. Congratulations to the Club for
the hard work they have put in to expand D-Star access to the north coast of
NSW.

New Repeater Gateway Online:

After many months of work the VK3RMM D-Star repeater's Gateway has been
installed and is now being tested. The big challenge for the Gateway
installation was to find the best way to provided broadband internet to the
site. ADSL was not possible as the site was just too far away from the local
telephone exchange so the chose was 3G or a 900Mhz RF link to a remote ADSL
service in one of the towns nearby. After some deliberation it was decided
to use 3G. As the 3G connection has limited bandwidth DV-Dongle access to
the VK3RMM Gateway will be limited. There may also be a slight degradation
of voice at the beginning of some local RF transmissions when listening
remotely. Thanks to everyone who assisted in getting the Gateway on-air.

Australian D-Star Reflector;

The Reflector 003 is suffered from an issue where some Gateways are not able
to link to it. Investigations are in progress to find the cause of the
problem.

Dedicated D-Rats Reflector:

The owner of D-Star Reflector 015 has made port C (REF015C) available for
Slow Speed Data (SSD) transfers using D-Rats and other D-Star SSD and chat
applications. Note that SSD is discouraged on most of the VK D-Star
repeaters as it has can have a negative impact on voice communications.

Australian National D-Star Network Status.

VK2RDS

The ADSL uplink issue is still being worked on by the local Admin team. They
have replaced the router and the modem and have found a problem with the
Dplus linking system which they are working to fix with the assistance of
the US software developer. This problem prevents outbound linking. The
broadband connection to the D-Star International Network is now running on
test. Access to VK2RDS is now available via the DV-Dongle and gateway
linking, however only one DV-Dongle is allowed to connect to the repeater
Gateway at a time.

VK2RWN

The VK2RWN router has been replaced by the local Admin team and the system
should now be operating normally. The move of the repeater to a new building
went smoothly last month.

VK5RWN

There have been a few issue with new operator registrations on this system
which is being investigated. At present new operator are unable to be
registered on the Gateway.

D-Star Repeater Status Summary

VK2RAG - Under Test

-         Gateway under test and may not always be online.

-         Currently REF003 connection issues.

VK2RDS - Operational on all bands except 23cm DD. 

-         ADSL uplink issues are causing some jitter (poor audio)

-         Limited DV-Dongle access.

-         Outbound linking unavailable.

VK2RWN - Operational on all bands except 23cm DD & DV. 

-         ADSL uplink issues are causing some jitter (poor audio)

-         No DV-Dongle access

VK3RBA - Operational 

-         Currently No gateway connection

VK3RDK - Operational

-         Currently no gateway connection

VK3RWN - Operational

VK3RWW - Operational for system testing only.

VK3RMM -Operational on 70cm & 2mtrs

-         Gateway operational (under test)

-         REF003 connection issues.

VK4RWN - Operational

-         70cm DV& 23cm DV off air

-         duplicate IP address an issue for Linking

VK4RDS - Operational

-         REF003 connection issues.

VK4RBX - Operational

-         Currently no gateway connection

VK5REX - Operational

-         Experimentation continues with Home Brew equipment and D-Star
HotSpot

-         REF003 connection issues.

VK5RWN - Operational on all bands except 23cm DD & DV

-         Gateway not operational

VK6RWN - Operational on all bands except 23cm DV

VK8RAD - Check with local repeater operators.

-         REF003 connection issues.

Reflector 003 - Operational

-         Some connection issues.

For more details visit www.dstar.org.au <http://www.dstar.org.au/>  or
http://www.wia.org.au/members/repeaters/data/

Weekly Nets

The WIA D-Star repeaters ports Cs connect to the following nets each week:

EMDRC Net

 <http://www.emdrc.com.au/> www.emdrc.com.au

Thursday 8pm EST (10:00 UTC)

VK3RWN C

REF003 C

Ozark Mountain D-STAR Net

http://www.w0omd.org/

Monday 11am EST  (02:00 UTC)

W0OMD C

REF001 C

If you would like your local D-Star repeater to participate in other D-Star
nets please email me.

A list of D-Star nets can be found at http://www.dstar.org.au/reflectors.htm
and http://www.dstarinfo.com/Nets/Nets.htm

Reflector Connections.

VK3RWN Port C is connected to Reflector 003 C

(This port can be disconnected using the UnLink command when required. 

It will automatically re-link after a preset time of no RF activity.)

The following connections are normally established on Reflector 003:

VK2RDS Port B is connected to Reflector 003 B

VK2RWN Port B is connected to Reflector 003 B

VK3RMM Port B is connected to Reflector 003 B

VK3RWN Port B is connected to Reflector 003 B

VK4RDS Port C is connected to Reflector 003 C

VK5REX Port B is connected to Reflector 003 B or VK5RWN C

VK6RWN Port B is connected to Reflector 003 B

Reflector REF003 port B is the Australian National D-Star connection port.

NOTE: The D-Star linking application occasionally has problems. If you are
taking on a link (such as port B) and getting no response it is possible
that the linking system may need to be reset. Please place an email
notification of the problem on this list for assistance.

User Callsigns

There has been some discussion on the use of multiple callsign suffixes.
Many operators use a different suffix for each radio, M for mobile P for
portable etc.. ( e.g. VK3UR M or VK3UR P ) This can be confusing for remote
stations and friends when they callsign route to you. They may not know
which radio or callsign you are using at the time and will probably use your
base callsign (VK3UR) to contact you.

Hint; Use the same callsign on all radios unless you are using 2 radios at
the same time.

DPRS Beacons

Remember to set your Auto transmit beacon rate for DPRS to 10 Minutes for
mobiles and 30 Minutes for home stations.

If your station is unattended turn off all DPRS beacons.

Linking (Dplus)

The Linking and Unlink functions on Ports A & C of all WIA D-Star repeaters
is available to operators.

Linking allows operators on the local D-Star repeater port to link to a
remote D-Star reflector or repeater port without the operator needing to
program anything special in their URCALL field. This enables a virtual
repeater to be set up between the local port and one or more (if using a
reflector) remote D-Star repeater ports around the world.

Operational hints;

-                   The local WIA repeater systems are configured to
automatically unlink the connection in 15 minutes if there is no local RF
activity.

-                   At selected times when nets are scheduled the repeater
system will automatically drop any links, temporarily disable operator
linking on the port and set the system up for the net. After the net is
completed operations will be restored to normal.

-                   The local WIA repeater will transmit a link status text
message to all radios on the RF port every 10 minutes.

-                   An voice announcement indicating the port you are on is
linked will be played every 15 minutes.

For details on how to use D-Star linking please read the Guide at
http://www.dstar.org.au/Australian_D-Star_Repeater_Linking_User_Guide_V1.1.p
df

WIA D-Star repeater Port Bs are not enabled for operator link control.

Non WIA D-Star repeaters may or may not have operator linking available.

You can use Callsign Routing, Node Linking or Multicasting when you wish to
call any remote operators. For help with radio configurations for Routing
visit the D-Star Calculator at
<http://www.dstarinfo.com/Calculator/Default.htm>
www.dstarinfo.com/Calculator/Default.htm

More information on D-Star is at www.dstar.org.au <http://www.dstar.org.au/>

Cheers,

Richard

VK3JFK

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