[Dstar] VK3RMM D-Star repeater

[Adrian]

>
>> 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.
>>
>>
>>
>
Are you running CentOS 5 on the gateway machine?. If so the kernel wont 
recognise the next-G modem without some tedious modification of the 
kernel with a airprime patch or similar, and I never had this working on 
my CentOS 5 box here.

I also have used fedora 10 (now updated to 11) on another pc here.

In your situation, (If you go with Next-G/3G), I would be running the G2 
gateway software on fedora 10 with a simple basic install of just those 
packages required for stable operation, and it is very stable.

Many of the early gateways on D-Star used fedora, which has the same rpm 
structure as CentOS.

Networkmanager in fedora 10 works very well with the next-G/3G modem, 
with the cmotech cdma driver already in the kernel.
The connection is very solid 24/7. I never turn mine off here, and am 
using it to send this email.

I get 180kb/s download speed and 120kb/s up regularly in practice, and 
sometimes as high as 300kb/s with a strong signal.

The connection is simple in the Networkmanager>Mobile broadband config 
(gui) tab, and all that is needed is *99# in the basic number: field, 
with login name and password beneath.

PPP authentication is set to pap only protocol, with IP4V  set at 
automatic method. The speed is very good.

The interface will not be eth0 of course, but ppp0.

There may be a cdma hub with an eth interface available for an easier 
setup, that you could also use. I know Maxon make these for their range 
as a option.

vk4tux