I believe linking dstar repeaters has made a tremendous contribution to the growth of dstar and accelerated the growth in number of users and activity.
That said: Our local repeaters are linked to different reflectors using a time table. 2AM-11AM to 5A, and 11AM to 2AM to 1C. Folks only have to set UR=CQCQCQ and RPT1 and RPT2 setup to make contacts. Twice in as many days I have been called by DX stations and used call sign capture to reply. Opppssss - we are still linked. Wait, change the UR=^^^^^^^U to unlink. Now what was his call ? Oh yeah, JE4QMK/1. Quick - enter JE4QMK in the UR and go back. In fairness, I could have remained linked and shotgunned both the reflector and the JA dstar repeater. At the same time I have made calls onto a reflector having unintentionally set UR=DL9MB or JA1###, etc. It seems with so much brain power floating around out there that linking software could screen the sending station's UR and either unlink or send a call progress tone from the repeater letting the person making the call know something is amiss or not send the call to the reflector. If the repeater gateway could discern whether the call arriving at a gateway originated via reflector or via source route, and depending on the source, inhibit sending to a reflector for a few minutes it would really simplify operations and better mix reflector calls and source routed calls. Probably just dreaming, but these features would sure promote smoother dstar operations, particularly when folks want to use Dstar Features like call sign routing and 'one touch' in gateways that use linking. It is easy to unlink first when originating a call, but you never know when an incoming call will arrive and linking does not play smoothly with mixed routing. 73 de nu5d
