D-Star Repeater Information
12-19-2015
The WORC D-Star system consists of three D-Star voice repeaters and
one D-Star data repeater. Frequency information is found on the web
page explaining the repeater list information. The WORC D-Star systems
are open repeaters, available to any licensed amateur operator for local
use. Registration on the WB7DZG D-Star Gateway is NOT required for
local use. If you have registered anywhere, on any other system, you do
not need to register again to use the International D-Star system.
To access the world wide D-Star system, registration on a single gateway server,
anywhere, is required. By convention, the Gateway sponsors desire that you
register on a gateway in your home area. Gateway administrators will not
normally accept registrations from callsigns of operators from outside their local
service area. If you have registered on any other gateway system, please do not
attempt to register with the WORC Gateway server. Your request will not be
approved.
If you are traveling in the WORC service area and have purchased D-Star
equipment, you should still register on the D-Star system nearest to your home.
Most Gateway Administrators utilize on line D-Star registration, so you should be
able to register on your home area system on the internet.
Registrations without a suitable Email address will not be approved.
TURN ON YOUR COOKIES WHEN REGISTERING. You may encounter an Internet
Certificate Warning when you register. Please continue the registration process,
ignoring the expired certificate.
The WORC has installed the latest dplus V2.2 software, allowing use by DV-
Dongles and linking with reflectors and other gateways. Please do not connect to
reflectors for long periods of time, this is a shared system and should be
available most of the time for local use. When our system is connected to a
reflector, it prevents incoming calls from other repeaters.
D-Star repeater addressing:
D-Star digital voice repeaters are unlike FM analog repeaters. When you key
your D-Star transmitter, your message may not be heard by everyone listening
to the repeater. Or your message may be heard by anyone listening to several
repeaters on your local system, OR your message might go beyond your local
area to another repeater in another part of the world.
Control of your message destination is done by utilizing callsign addressing
which is embedded within the digitized voice message when it is transmitted.
There are four separate callsign addresses which may affect your message
routing.
Urcall: The ultimate destination of your message. This may be an individuals
callsign, or for an open message you can set this to CQCQCQ, which will be
audible to any receiving station.
Rptr1: This is necessary to use a repeater to convey your message. This will
normally be set to the local repeater on the frequency you are transmitting on.
The callsign will also contain a suffix letter to indicate which port you are
operating on. This callsign will also be used to route replies to you by the
station you are calling.
Rptr2: This second repeater is also needed for routing of messages if you are
locally crossbanding your digital message or if you are utilizing your local
Gateway to send a message to another city or country. This callsign will also be
used to route replies to you by the station you are calling.
Mycall: This is your own callsign, used to tell stations receiving your message
who sent it, and utilized within the D-Star system to route replies back to your
own station.
Correctly setting any required callsigns will have a direct effect on your
success in making use of the D-Star repeater system. Most operators set their
URcall for CQCQCQ most of the time to enable contact on the local system with
minimal fuss.
If you experience difficulties with the D-Star system on your first attempts,
before blaming the repeater, please check your own call sign settings and be
certain you are set correctly. Also understand the population of D-Star
operators is somewhat small, you do need someone to talk to. Calls in the mid
day on a workday may not be heard, as well as calls in the dark of night.
Read your radio manual, check the various D-Star web sites and spend enough
effort to understand the callsign addressing scheme. That effort will pay off in
more efficient communications.
These web sites will help you learn more about D-Star addressing:
Good Amateur D-Star Practice
¨
Before activating node linking please announce your intentions on the
local system. Let other local users know who is using the system and
what you are doing. Other users may not have a display on their radio
or may be mobile, preventing their use of the Tx messages.
Announcing your activities lets all the users know what may be
happening.
¨
If you link to another system or a reflector, monitor the activities on
the repeater continuously. Drop the linking if local communications
are affected or may be affecting another system. Drop the linking if
you cannot continuously monitor activities on the system.
¨
If you discover the WB7DZG repeater linked, ask on the air who is
using the system. If, in a reasonable time, no station answers locally,
make any changes you desire.
¨
Do not quick key your radio.
¨
When transmitting allow enough time for your D-Star header to be
transmitted and acted upon before speaking.
¨
Use Tx messaging for your name and location information during net
operations.
¨
Priorities for communications
1) Emergency traffic related to safety of life or property
2) Scheduled Local Net activities
3) Intentional station to station communications, linked or local
4) Unscheduled local station to station communications
( ragchewing )
5) Linked monitoring of a reflector or another gateway
regardless of the reason.
¨
When operating D- PRS set your radio for PTT transmitting to avoid
unintentional interference with D-Star voice users. Do not use GPS
automatic transmitting at intervals less than 5 minutes.
¨
Use of the D-Star slow speed data feature can cause interference to
other users. Use slow speed data on the repeaters only during
controlled nets or on simplex frequencies.
Want to try out your
new D-Star radio?
Our unofficial test
and ragchew net is
every Saturday
morning at 0900h
local time.
Set Yourcall to
“CQCQCQ” ,
Rpt1 to “WB7DZG C”,
Rpt2 to “WB7DZG G”,
and call for contacts.
D-PRS and FM APRS:
The WB7DZG 2m (port C ) and 70cm (port B ) repeaters both have D-PRS
Interface software connected. D-PRS position reports sent to the D-Star
repeaters are translated to a standard APRS protocol packet and retransmitted
on the local 144.39 FM APRS frequency with a single hop path setting.
Stations transmitting a location on D-Star locally will appear on the maps
and station lists of local FM APRS stations.
Stations transmitting a location on the local 144.39 FM APRS frequency
are not retransmitted on the D-Star system
Click here to view a video
about D-Star Registration
from Icom.
http://www.dstar.org.au/Australian_D-Star_Repeater_Linking_User_Guide_V1.1.pdf