On Mar 7, 2009, at 9:16 PM, Don Russell wrote: > One repeater was VHF and some lid was keying up in analog on the > output. >
LOL... > There was also some cable leakage interfering occasionally. > Or was it all cable leakage? Anyway... setting the rig to forced DV mode instead of "Auto" and you won't hear any of that garbage... just nice clear digital when you're in range, R2D2 when you're on the edge, and nothing after that. (Unless the rig gets tricked into thinking some noise is digital signals, and it'll R2D2 a bit. The RF attenuator helps in that situation, if you leave it on with the squelch mode -- but purists might not want to use it. Either way... DV mode only is the way to go on known DV channels.) > When everyone was being cool it was a blast! > That's true of ALL ham radio! (GRIN) > Now to figure out what all the beeps and boops mean. I didn't get > much out of the manual > I think it was machine translated or by someone who does not speak > english as their native > language, shame shame icom. at least let one of your US employees > fix it! > It happens. > there are double beeps, single beeps, and I thought I heard a lower > tone beep too. > Can anyone enlighten me on what they signify. I think one means the > repeater heard/registered you. another one is like a roger beep... > not quite sure. > Don't know about different tones, but the rigs beep (it can be turned off) at the end of each received digital transmission. When you key up a D-STAR repeater, it (almost) always replies with its callsign and either an "RPT" or "UR" indicator (or similar, depending on rig) back to you. These mean: "RPT?" - I don't know who you wanted me to route that to, but I heard and repeated your transmission here locally. "UR?" - I heard your transmission, and routed your call (via callsign routing) succesfully to the remote repeater, as well as repeating it locally. These are in relation to the original Icom-style callsign routing. The newer "linking" done by D-Plus is done by software that's not capable of sending that second message, so the link is just "there" and you always get "RPT?". The reason you get "RPT?" when talking locally (and you're set to "CQCQCQ" in your UR field in your rig... is actually quite simple... there's no callsign "CQCQCQ" registered anywhere. So the repeater and Gateway are simply telling you -- "I couldn't route that to where you asked me to route it, but I heard you and repeated you locally." Cool, huh. Now where it gets a little weird is the timing... the repeater doesn't always kick back that response right away it can take one to five seconds (in my observations) for it to come out. And then SOMETIMES it misses sending it altogether -- or you're still keyed up when it decided that you "fell out" so you don't see it. So the general rule of thumb is... when someone else unkeys, WAIT until you see the repeater respond. You can "tailgate" in real fast often and keep a fast-paced LOCAL conversation going, but if either callsign routing or even the linking stuff is involved, you really need to pace yourself and wait for things to settle before transmitting. It just works better. (And of course, graciously handing over the conversation to a SPECIFIC person in a round-table is always good practice too, to avoid doubling. Doubling in digital tends to just jam everything up until both parties are done, unlike Analog FM with its "capture" effect for the stronger signal.) Sometimes you'll see your own transmissions when you unkey, and maybe even hear a TINY part of your own voice bouncing back... since the repeaters aren't real-time... there's a bit of buffering going on between RX and TX up at "the hill". So once in a while you'll hear TWO beeps, but only when YOU unkey... since you're seeing the end of your own transmission, and then the repeater's reply message and callsign. This is a bit rig-dependent on "turn around" time from TX to RX in your user rig... (I rarely hear it on my IC-91AD, but often hear the last syllable of my voice coming back when I unkey the ID-800H.) > Anyway the radio works and I had fun! > Sounds like you got the most important part covered! :-) Nate WY0X
