Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
If you haven't already, I'd recommend you consider the non-ICOM approach, which will allow you to save significant money. This would be using a gmsk modem or Node Adapter board to interface between the server and an analog radio. The boards are in the US $100 - $150 range. For initial testing, you could start out with DVAR Hot Spot by KB9KHM in full duplex repeater mode. This supports DPlus but not callsign routing and runs only on Windows. Soon to be released is Dave Lake G4ULF's NI-Star software, which has been tested and accepted by the US Trust team to be fully G2 compliant. It runs on Linux, typically CentOS, and repeaters running it during the careful test phase typically run the other standard applications like Dplus, DPRS/D-Star Monitor, etc. without modification. David's blog at http://g4ulf.blogspot.com/ says they are now working on packaging and documentation, and that release is imminent.The first repeater up and running was GB7MH in Sept 2009 as reported by the RSGB RadCom magazine Feb 2010. One of the most recent to come online is WG2MSK. See http://www.sidigital.org/ Once NI-Star is officially released, I expect to see many more new D-Star repeaters brought up with considerable savings compared to the ICOM only installation. Jim - K6JM - Original Message - From: Charles Scott To: dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com ; mids...@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 12:10 PM Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller All: Before I go out looking to buy new, does anyone have a UHF voice module (ID-RP4000V) and controller (ID-RP2C) available? Two? We're looking to put up two sites in Northern Michigan, primarily for E-Comm use. One site already has a transmitter combiner and receiver multi-coupler with separate recieve/transmit antennas so I could litterally just plug it in there (would be replacing an existing UHF analog repeater). The second location we'll probably have to install antenna hardware. Both have good network connectivity. Would be good if we could save a bit rather than pay retail. If not, where's the best deals? Thanks, Chuck - N8DNX
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
You might look for a Motorola RP1225 or a narrow banded Kenwood TKR -- I have a stock TKR-820 in service with a minimum of work, just pulled the deviation down (the receive is still wide but works). Read about it here: http://k7ve.org/blog/2010/06/converting-the-kenwood-tkr-820-to-use-with-d-star/ -- I am waiting for G4ULF's package before putting it on the USTRUST, but it is running on the Multi-Trust right now using the OpenG2 stuff, which you can find at http://groups.yahoo.com/prcrepeatercontroller/files On Aug 26, 2010, at 12:42 PM, J. Moen wrote: If you haven't already, I'd recommend you consider the non-ICOM approach, which will allow you to save significant money. This would be using a gmsk modem or Node Adapter board to interface between the server and an analog radio. The boards are in the US $100 - $150 range. For initial testing, you could start out with DVAR Hot Spot by KB9KHM in full duplex repeater mode. This supports DPlus but not callsign routing and runs only on Windows. Soon to be released is Dave Lake G4ULF's NI-Star software, which has been tested and accepted by the US Trust team to be fully G2 compliant. It runs on Linux, typically CentOS, and repeaters running it during the careful test phase typically run the other standard applications like Dplus, DPRS/D-Star Monitor, etc. without modification. David's blog at http://g4ulf.blogspot.com/ says they are now working on packaging and documentation, and that release is imminent. The first repeater up and running was GB7MH in Sept 2009 as reported by the RSGB RadCom magazine Feb 2010. One of the most recent to come online is WG2MSK. See http://www.sidigital.org/ Once NI-Star is officially released, I expect to see many more new D- Star repeaters brought up with considerable savings compared to the ICOM only installation. Jim - K6JM John D. Hays Amateur Radio Station K7VE PO Box 1223 Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 VOIP/SIP: j...@hays.org
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
Sorry typo - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcrepeatercontroller/files/ On Aug 26, 2010, at 1:06 PM, John Hays wrote: OpenG2 stuff, which you can find at http://groups.yahoo.com/prcrepeatercontroller/files John D. Hays Amateur Radio Station K7VE PO Box 1223 Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 VOIP/SIP: j...@hays.org
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
Jim: Interesting. I'm somewhat familiar with the hot spots, but didn't realize it was going this far. So, if I have this right, what's needed is the GMSK node adapter board, a repeater, and a computer. At that point, and with the NI-Star software when that's released, we would have the same functionality as the Icom repeater, controller, and gateway computer, right--and then some? I have two Vertex VXR5000's I could do this with. Neither are narrow-band right now. I could mod them without too much trouble but I probably don't have to do that unless I get moved to a narrow pair assignment. Has anyone used a VXR5000 for this? Chuck - N8DNX On 8/26/2010 3:42 PM, J. Moen wrote: If you haven't already, I'd recommend you consider the non-ICOM approach, which will allow you to save significant money. This would be using a gmsk modem or Node Adapter board to interface between the server and an analog radio. The boards are in the US $100 - $150 range. For initial testing, you could start out with DVAR Hot Spot by KB9KHM in full duplex repeater mode. This supports DPlus but not callsign routing and runs only on Windows. Soon to be released is Dave Lake G4ULF's NI-Star software, which has been tested and accepted by the US Trust team to be fully G2 compliant. It runs on Linux, typically CentOS, and repeaters running it during the careful test phase typically run the other standard applications like Dplus, DPRS/D-Star Monitor, etc. without modification. David's blog at http://g4ulf.blogspot.com/ says they are now working on packaging and documentation, and that release is imminent.The first repeater up and running was GB7MH in Sept 2009 as reported by the RSGB RadCom magazine Feb 2010. One of the most recent to come online is WG2MSK. See http://www.sidigital.org/ Once NI-Star is officially released, I expect to see many more new D-Star repeaters brought up with considerable savings compared to the ICOM only installation. Jim - K6JM
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
Chuck, I don't have personal experience with the VXR 5000, but if Pin 3 is flat to the modulator and pin 6 is flat from the discriminator and it is true FM (no PM), then it may be a good candidate. Just start with my article and the pinout at http://www.repeater-builder.com/yaesu-vertex-standard/vxr-5000/vxr-5000-repeater-mods.html -- buy a node adapter (Satoshi or Enicomms) and give it a try, if the VXRs work out, let us all know, if not, look for something that will work like the Kenwood TKRs and use the node adapter with that. Expertise on Node Adapters: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gmsk_dv_node Software expertise: http://w9arp.com/hotspot/ , http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcrepeatercontroller , http://g4ulf.blogspot.com On Aug 26, 2010, at 1:54 PM, Charles Scott wrote: Jim: Interesting. I'm somewhat familiar with the hot spots, but didn't realize it was going this far. So, if I have this right, what's needed is the GMSK node adapter board, a repeater, and a computer. At that point, and with the NI-Star software when that's released, we would have the same functionality as the Icom repeater, controller, and gateway computer, right--and then some? I have two Vertex VXR5000's I could do this with. Neither are narrow- band right now. I could mod them without too much trouble but I probably don't have to do that unless I get moved to a narrow pair assignment. Has anyone used a VXR5000 for this? Chuck - N8DNX John D. Hays Amateur Radio Station K7VE PO Box 1223 Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 VOIP/SIP: j...@hays.org
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
John, anyone: Is there a difference between the Satoshi and Enicomms node adapters that I need to consider? Yes, the VXR-5000 does have discriminator output. I believe the TX side can be optioned to be flat, but don't know much beyond that, so I'll have to do some research. Chuck - N8DNX On 8/26/2010 5:09 PM, John Hays wrote: Chuck, I don't have personal experience with the VXR 5000, but if Pin 3 is flat to the modulator and pin 6 is flat from the discriminator and it is true FM (no PM), then it may be a good candidate. Just start with my article and the pinout at http://www.repeater-builder.com/yaesu-vertex-standard/vxr-5000/vxr-5000-repeater-mods.html -- buy a node adapter (Satoshi or Enicomms) and give it a try, if the VXRs work out, let us all know, if not, look for something that will work like the Kenwood TKRs and use the node adapter with that. Expertise on Node Adapters: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/gmsk_dv_node Software expertise: http://w9arp.com/hotspot/ , http://groups.yahoo.com/group/pcrepeatercontroller , http://g4ulf.blogspot.com
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
From a practical point of view they are pretty equivalent. Both run fine with the DVAR software. G4ULF's package is being tested against both and a few bugs and documentation issues are still being worked out before general release. They do have different licensing terms for their firmware which you may want to consider, I like PA4YBR's terms better. Satoshi makes disparaging remarks about other manufacturers of boards and firmware on his site, but does offer a nice enclosure with his boards. I will say that KI4LKFs (now unsupported) program RPTR and PA4YBRs firmware have some minor annoying problems on my setup, but we will eventually get it sorted out. Enicomms is in the US, Satoshi is in Japan, and PA4YBR also offers a board out of the Netherlands. http://www.dutch-star.eu/ - Fred, PA4YBR/KA4YBR http://d-star.dyndns.org/ - Satoshi Yasuda, 7M3TJZ/AD6GZ http://enicomms.com/ - Mark, G7LTT/NI2O On Aug 26, 2010, at 2:46 PM, Charles Scott wrote: John, anyone: Is there a difference between the Satoshi and Enicomms node adapters that I need to consider? Yes, the VXR-5000 does have discriminator output. I believe the TX side can be optioned to be flat, but don't know much beyond that, so I'll have to do some research. Chuck - N8DNX John D. Hays Amateur Radio Station K7VE PO Box 1223 Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 VOIP/SIP: j...@hays.org
Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller
John and Charles pretty much answered your questions. To me, the key point is that G4ULF's software has been accepted by the US Trust team to be fully G2 compatible, and that he has tested his code with Fred's firmware (says so on his blog site), so you have a choice of boards and firmware. This free software and inexpensive node adapter board do save money, but as you know, all the repeater RF issues have to be addressed. The good news is with this approach, you can employ an analog radio that you may be able to get quite inexpensively, as long as it allows or you can get directly to the discriminator output and the modulator, bypassing filtering. And as you've already noted, you can typically adjust the deviation down to what other ICOM D-Star radios expect. Jim - K6JM - Original Message - From: Charles Scott To: dstar_digital@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 1:54 PM Subject: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Looking for D-Star UHF Repeater/Controller Jim: Interesting. I'm somewhat familiar with the hot spots, but didn't realize it was going this far. So, if I have this right, what's needed is the GMSK node adapter board, a repeater, and a computer. At that point, and with the NI-Star software when that's released, we would have the same functionality as the Icom repeater, controller, and gateway computer, right--and then some? I have two Vertex VXR5000's I could do this with. Neither are narrow-band right now. I could mod them without too much trouble but I probably don't have to do that unless I get moved to a narrow pair assignment. Has anyone used a VXR5000 for this? Chuck - N8DNX On 8/26/2010 3:42 PM, J. Moen wrote: If you haven't already, I'd recommend you consider the non-ICOM approach, which will allow you to save significant money. This would be using a gmsk modem or Node Adapter board to interface between the server and an analog radio. The boards are in the US $100 - $150 range. For initial testing, you could start out with DVAR Hot Spot by KB9KHM in full duplex repeater mode. This supports DPlus but not callsign routing and runs only on Windows. Soon to be released is Dave Lake G4ULF's NI-Star software, which has been tested and accepted by the US Trust team to be fully G2 compliant. It runs on Linux, typically CentOS, and repeaters running it during the careful test phase typically run the other standard applications like Dplus, DPRS/D-Star Monitor, etc. without modification. David's blog at http://g4ulf.blogspot.com/ says they are now working on packaging and documentation, and that release is imminent.The first repeater up and running was GB7MH in Sept 2009 as reported by the RSGB RadCom magazine Feb 2010. One of the most recent to come online is WG2MSK. See http://www.sidigital.org/ Once NI-Star is officially released, I expect to see many more new D-Star repeaters brought up with considerable savings compared to the ICOM only installation. Jim - K6JM
