Watch this space for information about Chester County's new D-Star Repeaters

Pennsylvania's first coordinated D-Star repeaters:

NEWS

Pocopson, PA, August 8, 2007--Still awaiting installation of Comcast cable internet connection at the tower. Prognosis is dependent upon marking utilities on prison property prior to trenching. Working through the cobwebs slowly but surely. Gateway will be installed within days of this connection. Hang in!

Pocopson, PA, May 24, 2007--W3EOC A high speed digital data repeater is on the air!

Pocopson, PA, May 23, 2007--W3EOC B and C are on the air! Testing one, two, three...

Pocopson, PA, May 22, 2007--The repeaters made their move to their site on May 15th! All antennas are installed at the 325' and 350' levels. Final commissioning should be completed by May 25th, with a grand switch-on following shortly. Watch the CCAR website for scheduling: w3eoc.org.

The D-Star Gateway is built and will be installed as soon as fixed-IP internet service is established on site.

--W3QA

LINKS

D-Star System Gateways (live status)

Users last heard on the D-Star Repeater Network

D-Star Repeater Directory

Setting Up Your Radio...

By now you know that we need to program some information into our radios for them to work properly. MyCALL, UrCALL, RPT1 C and RPT2 C are the parameters we are going to set up. It is a good idea to set up a memory channel for each system and combination of cross band options you plan to use. This lets you get on the air quickly by having the info already programmed in your radio... just turn to a memory channel and go.

MyCALL

This identifies your radio. If you have more than one ham in the house, program each call into a different memory. That way, several users can borrow your radio and talk to their friends.

UrCALL

This is the station you want to talk to. Most of the time we set this to "CQCQCQ" as we will be calling "CQ" or doing ragchew/roundtable work. "But what if I don't want to listen to all the traffic on the frequency?" No problem, D-Star has the Call Sign Squelch (CSS) feature. It is similar to tone squelch (or PL or CTCSS) in that the radio is unmuted when a specific callsign is heard. So, if the station you want to contact has CSS enabled, set UrCALL to their callsign and they will hear you. Again, use the memories to save frequently used setups.

RPT1 CALL

This is the callsign of the local repeater you want to use. We need to enter more than just the callsign as most D-STAR systems have multiple ports. The 8th character in this field is the "switch", and routes your data to the proper port. Insert spaces as necessary so that the switch is in the 8th position. (The "-" represents a space below.) D-STAR "switch" convention designates 'A' as 1.2 GHz, 'B' as 70cm and 'C' as 2 meters. 'G' is for gateway and 'S' is for server. Here is the W3EOC system, a typical 4-port configuration with gateway:

So, to call my friend who has CSS enabled, on our 70cm port, I need to enter his call in UrCALL and the repeater 70cm port call in RPT1 C like this:

UrCALL: W3WA

RPT1 C: W3EOC_ _B

To call "CQ" or for ragchew/roundtable/net work, enter "CQCQCQ" for UrCALL.

To call out to all the DV ports from the 70cm port, use / in front of the repeater callsign like this:

RPT1 C: /W3EOC_B.

(Note that there is only one space before the 'B' this time. Eight characters total, and the 'switch' must be in the eighth position!) Pretty handy that /, now isn't it?

RPT2 CALL

Here is how you work crossband on your local repeater or use the gateway to contact your friend across the globe. To work crossband, enter the callsign of the other port you wish to use for RPT2 C. To use the gateway, enter G for the 8th character. The gateway accesses a database to find where the UrCALL was last heard and will send your data to that system... pretty cool, eh? Here's a trick... to call "CQ" on the 2 meter port of a distant repeater using the gateway, enter "/K5TIT_C" in UrCALL. Now you will be heard by all the folks listening on 2 meters in Texas! Again, the '/' comes in real handy.

Summary

Here is a table summarizing what we have just covered. The first three columns demonstrate calling "CQ" on simplex, the 70cm local repeater port and on both 70cm and the 2 meter port. The fourth demonstrates calling "CQ" on all the local repeater ports of the W3EOC system. The fifth demonstrates calling a specific station, AC5RA, using the gateway, while the last shows how to call "CQ" through the gateway to a remote system 2 meter port, in this case K5TIT. In each case you are transmitting on 70cm.

Remember: Call sign fields have eight positions for characters, and the last one is where the 'switch' need to be. Adjust spaces accordingly, or be frustrated!

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