While discussing the issues surrounding interconnection of non-DSTAR (analog - VOIP/ROIP) systems to D-STAR, I have had several people say "but the ID cannot be translated" between systems. This has been brought up in a couple of person to person discussions in just the past few days. Whether you have such interconnection or not, for the purposes of the US regulations, this is a "red herring" argument (if you are not familiar with this term, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_herring_(plot_device) ).
ID requirements are for the originating transmitter (Rule 97.119 http://www.arrl.org/FandES/field/regulations/news/part97/b.html#119). It does not have to be relayed, translated, transcribed, etc. It only has to be copyable on the signal of the original transmitting station. Practical examples of this are link transmitters on linked repeater systems, the link transmitter may use a low frequency tone to CWID its transmitter, but it is filtered out on the link receiver so that it is not relayed on the next repeater. Anyone monitoring the link transmitter would be able to extract the ID, meeting the regulatory requirement, but those on the linked repeater would not. If you have ever been on a wide area linked repeater system, such as the Evergreen or Snowbird interties, you will note that you do not normally hear the IDs of remote repeaters, even though every transmitter (including link transmitters) must ID. Move this to an analog to D-STAR or D-STAR to analog relay and the same situation exists, the transmitting stations must each individually ID; the D-STAR user, the D-STAR repeater, the analog repeater, any links, and the analog user, but there is no requirement that those IDs be heard on every transmitter in the circuit. This message is not advocating the interconnection, it is merely to point out that the ID argument is not valid. A given gateway operator may have other reasons for not wishing interconnection, and it is within their rights to deny it. Some other countries have the requirement that the receiving station be able to copy the originating station's identification to engage in a communication. It is my opinion that this becomes the responsibility of the station in a country with such a regulation to inform the station with whom he is communicating of the need for the identification information, which could be provided a number of ways, as a courtesy, but the network has no responsibility to automatically provide that identification. Each station is responsible to follow the rules and regulations that apply to his individual operation and not the rules and regulations in another country of which he may or may not have direct knowledge. -- John D. Hays Amateur Radio Station K7VE <http://k7ve.org> PO Box 1223 Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 VOIP/SIP: [email protected] <sip:[email protected]> Email: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
