We have semi-permanently linked our repeater to the REF001 C
reflector. As with most D-Star systems, there is a lack of activity
as compared to analog. Of course, that is to be expected at this
point in time. We do have a TON of hams with D-Star rigs here in
Tucson. That is because of heavy promotion by our club and some
high-profile publicity. BUT, WE WANT MORE!!!
Like anything else in this hobby, there are skeptics and holdouts to
D-Star. To spark even more interest, I set up streaming audio of our
"C" 2m repeater available for everyone on our club website:
www.rstclub.org Now, they can hear for themselves what they are
missing. I use a 16k mono Windows Media stream which costs a total of
$6 a month for 25 simultaneous listener slots. I use
www.spacialnet.com. The Windows Media encoder is free from Microsoft
and it works GREAT. I have used this hosting company in the past for
various things and they are great! They have a wonderful website with
INSTANT activation of a stream. Best of all, at 16k, you can run it
without sucking up all of your bandwidth.
We have semi-permanently linked our 2m repeater to the REF001 C
reflector. This way, there is nearly constant D-Star activity and
frankly some very nice, knowledgeable and interesting people on the
reflector. People want to go where the activity is. We are hoping by
doing this, people will listen to the stream and get excited about
D-Star and want to "join the party" and buy a radio. People don't
like to be left out of things and if you listen to the stream, you
WILL feel left out. I have dozens of connections to the stream every
day. I may add another 20 listener slots soon. They are sold in
20-listener packages.
For current D-Star users in Tucson, they like the fact there are lots
of people to talk to now, compare notes and learn more about D-Star.
We are only using one of our modules for this linking, so if they want
to make a more "private" type of gateway call, they can use another
module.
It seems to be working great for now. When the point comes when 2m
activity is too great and we cannot get a word in locally, we will
likely stop linking it. For now, it has really been a good thing.
