INTRO TO INTRO TO d-sTAR d-sTAR George Zafiropoulos KJ6VU George Zafiropoulos KJ6VU

Personal Background KJ6VU Licensed in 1972 Building repeaters since the ‘70s Cactus Intertie Nor Cal – Board of Directors Bay-Net – Board of Directors Builder / trustee of D-Star repeater WW6BAY

Content taken from various presentations from… John Hays K7VE Debbie Fligor, N9DN Dan Smith, KK7DS … thanks !

Agenda Introduction to D-Star technology What is it?  How does it work?  What can you do with it? Building a D-Star & analog repeater system Summary Digital vs analog FM – pros and cons Using D-Star for emergency communications

What is D-Star ? Digital – Smart Technology for Amateur Radio ICOM’s implementation of JARL open standard for UHF/VHF digital voice and data communications Equipment on 2 Meters, 440 MHz and 1.2 GHz Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying (GMSK) with forward error correction

Why Should You Care ? Digital technologies applied to ham radio Spectrum efficiency Voice & data provides new options Audio quality does not degrade over multiple hops Eliminates noise on marginal signals World wide digital backbone Leverage the internet for backhaul It’s fun !

Fun Facts… > 16,000 registered D-Star users world wide > 680 internet gateways ~2,200 active users per day

D-Star First Impressions Conventional wisdom Proprietary Icom System Crummy audio Expensive radios Very expensive repeaters 6 KHz bandwidth     

D-Star First Impressions Conventional wisdom Proprietary Icom System Crummy audio Expensive radios Very expensive repeaters 6 KHz bandwidth My impression now Open standard (mostly) Pretty good audio 50% premium New low cost alternatives Not quite Lots of new cool technology New use models Great user community             

D-Star First Impressions Conventional wisdom Proprietary Icom System Crummy audio Expensive radios Very expensive repeaters 6 KHz bandwidth My impression now Open standard (mostly) Pretty good audio 30% premium New low cost alternatives Not quite Lots of new cool technology Enables new use models Great user community             

A Brief History of D-Star 2001 2004 2006 2008 2011 >16,000 users >600 repeaters DV Access Points Non-Icom repeaters Many new technologies DV dongle, GMSK Modem, DVAR, Reflectors US usage starts to ramp up Popular with emcomm groups G1 and D-Plus gateways Icom rolls out first D-Star products Early adopters install systems Call sign routing JARL defines D-Star spec

D-Star Infrastructure

Growth of Non-Icom Equipment & Software 2001 2004 2006 2008 2011 DV Dongle DVAP Radios DVAR Hot Spot D-RATS StarGate Repeater

Available at www.bay-net.org Repeater Bands K6ACS Santa Rosa 2m UHF W6CO Mt. Veeder UHF KS6HRP Folsom 2m KD6SAC Citrus Heights 1.2 K6HDD Mt. Bullion 2m UHF 1.2 W6DHS Volcano 2m UHF 1.2 K6PIT Pittsburg 2m K6MDD Mt. Diablo 2m UHF 1.2 W6YYY Oakland UHF W6UUU Pleasanton UHF K6LRG Mt. Alison UHF 1.2 WW6BAY Palo Alto UHF KI6JUL San Jose 1.2 Available at www.bay-net.org

>24 DV Repeaters and >7 DD Nodes In Northern California OUTPUT INPUT CALL LOCATION SPONSOR 144.9600 144.5600 W6DHS Volcano N6RDE 145.0400 144.6400 K6ACS Santa Rosa KD6RC 145.1300 144.5300 W6HHD Mariposa 145.4500 144.8500 K6VIS Visalia TCARC 146.5800 147.5850 K6MDD Concord 146.8950 146.2950 K6CHO Chico AREA 147.2400 147.8400 K6PIT Pittsburg 147.6750 147.0750 KS6HRP Folsom SHARP 440.0375 445.0375 W6YYY Oakland N6LDJ 440.0500 445.0500 440.6000 445.6000 442.1125 447.1125 443.8500 448.8500 WD6SJV Dunlap DCTS 444.0750 449.0750 WW6BAY Palo Alto BAY NET 444.1375 449.1375 444.6875 449.6875 K6LRG Fremont 444.8000 449.8000 Digital Voice Digital Voice OUTPUT INPUT CALL LOCATION SPONSOR 1284.1000 1272.1000 W6HHD Mariposa 1284.2000 1272.2000 K6MDD Concord 1284.5000 1272.5000 KD6SAC Folsom K6HLE 1285.3000 1273.3000 WD6SJV Dunlap DCTS 1286.3250 1274.3250 K6VIS Visalia TCARC 1286.5250 1274.5250 K6CHO Chico AREA KI6JUL San Jose 1286.6250 1274.6250 K6LRG Fremont 1249.0750 1249.2250 1250.0000 1255.0000 1299.3500 1249.3500 1299.5000 Digital Data Digital Voice

Repeater Status

D-Plus Dashboard – Reflector Status

User Registration https://dstargateway.dcara.net/Dstar.do You can listen but not access a repeater until you register Centralized registration system Free Allows you to use any D-Star repeater

Using D-Star Simplex UR = CQCQCQ RPT1= RPT2= MY = W6ABC VK8RAD G WW6BAY G UrCall = CQCQCQ RPT1 = WW6BAY B UR = CQCQCQ RPT1= RPT2= MY = W6ABC K1XYZ K6DEF W6ABC = MyCall TALKING TO K1XYZ Boston, MA San Jose

Using D-Star for On a Local Repeater VK8RAD G RPT2 = WW6BAY G UrCall = CQCQCQ RPT1 = WW6BAY B UR = CQCQCQ RPT1= WW6BAY B RPT2= MY = W6ABC K1XYZ K6DEF W6ABC = MyCall TALKING TO K1XYZ Boston, MA San Jose

Using D-Star Repeater to Repeater Linking VK8RAD G RPT2 = WW6BAY G UrCall = CQCQCQ RPT1 = WW6BAY B UR = CQCQCQ RPT1= WW6BAY B RPT2= WW6BAY G MY = W6ABC K1XYZ W6ABC = MyCall TALKING TO K1XYZ Boston, MA San Jose

Using D-Star Reflectors Gateway Gateway RPT2 = WW6BAY G UrCall = CQCQCQ RPT1 = WW6BAY B Reflector UR = REF014CL RPT1= WW6BAY B RPT2= WW6BAY G MY = W6ABC K1XYZ W6ABC = MyCall TALKING TO K1XYZ Boston, MA San Jose

Cool Stuff… D-VAP – Digital Voice Access Point 1 mw 2m simplex data radio USB connection to the PC Provides portable RF access to the D-Star network All you need is an internet connection Take the network with you

Cool Stuff… DV Dongle Turns your computer into a D-Star “radio” Built in DVSI CODEC Simple PC program controls the dongle Windows, MAC, Linux

The Cost of D-Star Conventional Conventional & D-Star $479 $329 D-Star is… $290 $530 the cost of 1-2 CW Filters

What’s Inside D-Star? Data rates CODEC Data format Bandwidth Modulation

Data Rates & Bandwidth For DV Mode (What you use on 2m & UHF) 2400 bps AMBE encoded voice 4800 bps 1200 bps Forward Error Correction (FEC) for voice 1200 bps data (text messages, GPS, etc…) “Slow speed data mode”

DVSI AMBE 2020 CODEC chip DVSI = Digital Voice Systems Inc “World leader in low-bit-rate speech compression technology” Designer of the AMBE CODEC algorithm and chips Used on satellite phones and land mobile applications Anyone can buy the chips for about $20

Digital Voice Data Format – Header Section DVSI AMBE 2020 CODEC chip CQCQCQ WW6BAY B WW6BAY G W6ABC BOB

Digital Voice Data Format – Data Section

D-Star Bandwidth Better Than Traditional Narrow Band FM 40 db down @ 6 Khz away 20 db down @ 6 Khz away D-Star uses GMSK modulation Gaussian Minimum Shift Keying

Other D-Star Applications D-RATS DStarlet d*Chat Dstarusers.org D-PRS interface/javAPRSSrvr uSmartDigi D-Gate D-STAR Gateway D-STAR/APRS Interface D-STAR query Opendstar.org Applications

D-RATS Slow speed digital mode application All-in-one tool for D-STAR data Real uses for the data channel Oriented at EmComm applications No dependence on infrastructure Works on simplex Works on a gateway network Features Email ICS & Radiogram forms Messaging Chat File transfer Position reporting Runs on… Windows MAC OS Linux

D-RATS Chat Traffic Forms Email Position reporting

Agenda Introduction to D-Star technology What is it?  How does it work?  What can you do with it? Building a D-Star & analog repeater system Summary Digital vs analog FM – pros and cons Using D-Star for emergency communications

Bay-Net Intro to Bay-Net History Goal 1999 ARC State Lead Unit & Cactus sign Statement of Understanding 2005 Bay-Net created by NCCRA - First NCCRA “open repeater” system 2006 Started working with ARCBA and Orinda ARES Goal Open repeater system covering the bay area Supporting public service organizations including American Red Cross Bay Area chapters Orinda ARES Financial and technical support by System owners Northern Cal Cactus Radio Association Sierra Radio Systems Bay-Net

Bay-Net System East Bay South Bay

San Bruno Fire 6:20 Burlingame Red Cross comm team alerted to check in to Bay-Net 6:25 Emergency net activation Cell phone system was unreliable – Network overload - Equipment failure at fire site Bay-Net was the main communications link between… Burlingame Red Cross San Bruno EOC ICP Evacuation Center Nets running for more than one week

IRLP / EchoLink Computer Bay-Net Black Mountain East Bay Hills 444.075 Repeater 145.390 Repeater 145.390 Repeater 443.225 Repeater 927.8625 Repeater 443.975 Repeater Modem Control System Control System IRLP / EchoLink Computer Link Radio Link Radio Link Radio Computer Internet Internet

Black Mountain 2800’ Above Silicon Valley

GaAs FET Preamp & Cavities 444.350 Duplexer 444.075 Duplexer GaAs FET Preamp & Cavities 444.350 Repeater 444.075 Repeater Cactus 420 Link Radio Control System Site Controller D-Star Computer Site Controller Computer

WW6BAY D-STAR Block Diagram Celwave 526 Duplexer Angle Linear GaAs FET preamp and filter Maxtrac Rx Maxtrac Tx Satoshi modem board USB Intel ATOM mobo Centos 5.4 G4ULF NI-Star SW Ethernet Internet

1U Mini-ITX ATOM Motherboard Centos 5.4 Linux OS David Lake’s “NI-Star” Software

1U Mini-ITX ATOM Motherboard 30 GB SSD Intel Atom Motherboard DC / DC converter Power control relay

WW6BAY Hubs on Reflector 14C

www.bay-net.org

Agenda Introduction to D-Star technology What is it?  How does it work?  What can you do with it? Building a D-Star & analog repeater system Summary Digital vs analog FM – pros and cons Using D-Star for emergency communications

Digital vs Analog Analog Digital Not intelligible Analog No Signal Solid copy Increasingly noisy No Signal Digital Solid copy “R2D2” Many claim one has better range than the other Too close to tell However, D-STAR hangs in longer without noise

Both Have Downsides… Analog Gets noisy Squelch tails D-Star Disruption in the header (first 600 bits) will cause the whole transmission to fail More complicated setup and operation

D-Star for Emergency Communications For voice comms - conventional FM is generally better Universally interoperable Easy to use Cheap How can D-Star be used? D-Star can be ideal if you have internet access using a D-VAP Excellent secondary support system Use data channel for position and messaging Callsign routing can be very handy Wide area / out of area comms

Summary D-Star is an exciting mode Lots of potential Excellent secondary mode for EmComm Give it a try Jump on in !