D-STAR System D-mystified Howard Brown, KG6GI Brian Roode, NJ6N

Who Are We? Howard, KG6GI SOARA Repeater Director Systems Engineer (C&C/ATC) Brian, NJ6N SOARA Repeater Team Unix Systems Programmer D-STAR gateway management team d*Chat Author

D-Star System Overview

Voice Encoding Utilizes Digital Voice Systems AMBE 2020 Chip

Baseband Allocation DV Radios (ID-1, ID-800, IC-91AD, IC-2820,…) Digital Voice w/ Fwd Error Correcting – 3600 bps Low Speed Digital Data – 1200 baud Channel Spacing ~ 10 kHz DD Radios (ID-1) High Speed Data Transfer – 128 kbps Channel Spacing ~ 200 kHz

Each Radio Has Frequency, Mode and 4 Call Sign Fields to be Programmed Operating Frequency Configuration Mode MyCall UrCall Rpt 1 Rpt 2 Simplex or Duplex FM or DV  Source Call sign  Destination Call Sign  1 st Repeater  2 nd Repeater

D-STAR Simplex Call

Local Zone (Repeater) Call

Gateway Call

D-STAR by the Numbers Germany, France, Italy, Austria & Switzerland added this past spring 414 repeater systems internationally 2869 users registered on gateways 193 gateways on the “US Root” trust server Over 800 users using gateways each day!

Remote Zone CQ Call

Generation 2 Gateway Software Gateways can now have a dynamic IP address. The gateway synchronization process is much better. Multicast routing enables gateway admins to pre-define a list of up to 10 gateways that a specific "URCALL" (e.g. /COMMUTE) will route to. Users wishing to use the multicast group may program it into their radio. When they transmit to "/COMMUTE" for example, their voice data is routed to all of the repeaters configured by the gateway admin. The ability to disable a broken/malicious gateway system. Users register themselves now and administrators approve the registration. Users can specify up to 10 "terminals" or their call with single- character modifiers.

Digital Voice (DV) Dongle The DV Dongle Connects to your PC or Apple Mac via a USB port Provides encoding and decoding of compressed audio using the DVSI AMBE2000 full duplex vocoder DSP chip. The DVTool application available for Microsoft Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X Leopard, or many flavors of Linux

DV Dongle Functions Provides AMBE 2020 interface to a computer through USB port. Provides a ‘RF-less’ D-Star radio Replaces RF function with internet connection The dongle can monitor gateway traffic The dongle can transmit over the gateway Many more uses

DPlus Functions Installed on the gateway computer Echo Test URCall = “K6SOA^^E” Echos back your transmission Repeater ID UrCall = “K6SOA^^I Plays local system voice message or link status Establish Link UrCall = “XXNXXXML” Terminate Link UrCall = “^^^^^^^U” Central logging to database for reporting Dongle use via DstarUsers.org Author: Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC

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

D*Chat Runs on Windows Enables text based communications between multiple stations simultaneously. Runs on repeater, through the gateway, or on simplex frequency. Customizable Can send periodic QST message. Filters GPS data from the message stream. Has 7 quick send text message slots Authored By Brian, NJ6N

D-RATS New application that provides for: Text Chatting File Transfers Position Reporting & Geographic Mapping See Author: Dan Smith, KI4IFW

D-STAR Comms Main Features Text Chat (Send and Receive text messages between DStar Comms Users) URLS are clickable! Beacon Mode (Periodically send Text Based Beacons) 2 Independent beacons available Gateway (Will allow RF users to relay s to the internet) Composer (Allows user to send an through a DStar Comms user who has configured the Gateway) Address Book for keeping users address. Heard List (Automatically records heard users callsigns) Private Messages (Send PM's to specific users) Auto reply (Sends a predefined message when status is away) PM Inbox. (Saves all received PM's while away or set) RX/TX/PM Text colour can be assigned. Assign a sound (.wav) to a TX/RX event See: Author: Matt, M0DQW

D-STARusers.org Home

D-STAR Repeater Directory

D-PRS interface D-PRS applications allow D-STAR GPS activity to map to standard APRS clients D-PRS converts Icom GPS information generated by Icom D- STAR radios in GPS mode into TNC2 fomatted APRS strings. D-PRS resides on the gateway computer D-PRS Interface is a Windows GUI application that lets you run a mapping program locally and watch what is happening on your local frequency. See: dstarusers.org/solutions.html Authored by: Pete Loveall, AE5PL

Opendstar.org Applications dShark – D-Star packet protocol analyzer dsWatch – Shows gateway synchronization information in real time dPlus – This application provides voice recording/playback functionality (In active development) Echotest - ‘XXNYYY E’ Authored By: Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC

Southern California D-STAR Systems South Orange ARA (SOARA) K6SOA Laguna Beach (1000’) Full Stack w/ Gateway / / / MHz Brian Roode, NJ6N; Howard Brown, KG6GI Independent Radio Club WA6IRC Contractor’s Point Full Stack / / / MHz Leon Brown, KC6JAR; Ken Chafin, W6CPA

Known SoCal Systems (con’t) Pocket Auto Patch Association (PAPA) Oat Mtn (KI6JKA ), Saddle Peak (KF6BQK ) Palomar (WB6YES ), Woodson Mountain (KI6KQU ) Gateways on Oat Mountain & Saddle Peak Ed Kane, W6ONT; Cecil Casillas, WD6FZA Dennis Hughes, KE6RYZ Keller Peak (KC6RYZ ) Ray Wunno, KE6LE Rancho Palos Verde (KE6LE ) Ray Waldemar, WA6NVL

SOARA D-STAR ‘Stack’

Gateway (IBM X305 Server)

D-STAR User Radios

More Information SOARA D-Star Community Primary Information Icom Forums D-STAR Calculator Georgia D-Star General Information D-Star Specification STAR.pdf STAR.pdf