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

2. 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

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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 !

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

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

9. 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             

10. 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             

11. A Brief History of D-Star
>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

12. D-Star Infrastructure

13. Growth of Non-Icom Equipment & Software
DV Dongle
DVAP
Radios
DVAR
Hot
Spot
D-RATS
StarGate
Repeater

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

15. >24 DV Repeaters and >7 DD Nodes In Northern California
OUTPUT
INPUT
CALL
LOCATION
SPONSOR
W6DHS
Volcano
N6RDE
K6ACS
Santa Rosa
KD6RC
W6HHD
Mariposa
K6VIS
Visalia
TCARC
K6MDD
Concord
K6CHO
Chico
AREA
K6PIT
Pittsburg
KS6HRP
Folsom
SHARP
W6YYY
Oakland
N6LDJ
WD6SJV
Dunlap
DCTS
WW6BAY
Palo Alto
BAY NET
K6LRG
Fremont
Digital Voice
Digital Voice
OUTPUT
INPUT
CALL
LOCATION
SPONSOR
W6HHD
Mariposa
K6MDD
Concord
KD6SAC
Folsom
K6HLE
WD6SJV
Dunlap
DCTS
K6VIS
Visalia
TCARC
K6CHO
Chico
AREA
KI6JUL
San Jose
K6LRG
Fremont
Digital Data
Digital Voice

16. Repeater Status

17. D-Plus Dashboard – Reflector Status

18. 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

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

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

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

27. 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”

28. 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

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

30. Digital Voice Data Format – Data Section

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

32. 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

33. 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
ICS & Radiogram forms
Messaging
Chat
File transfer
Position reporting
Runs on…
Windows
MAC OS
Linux

34. D-RATS
Chat
Traffic Forms
Position reporting

35. 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

36. 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

37. Bay-Net System
East Bay
South Bay

38. 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

39. IRLP / EchoLink Computer
Bay-Net
Black Mountain East Bay Hills
Repeater
Repeater
Repeater
Repeater
Repeater
Repeater
Modem
Control System
Control System
IRLP / EchoLink Computer
Link Radio
Link Radio
Link Radio
Computer
Internet
Internet

40. Black Mountain 2800’ Above Silicon Valley

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

42. 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

44. 1U Mini-ITX ATOM Motherboard
Centos 5.4 Linux OS
David Lake’s “NI-Star” Software

45. 1U Mini-ITX ATOM Motherboard
30 GB SSD Intel Atom Motherboard DC / DC converter Power control relay

46. WW6BAY Hubs on Reflector 14C

49. 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

50. 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

51. 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

52. 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

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