And since call sign routing doesn't work perfectly either, then you can't use it.
Maybe some combination of solutions is what you are looking for. You might try a jFindu lookup http://www.jfindu.net/lastreports.aspx?call=N2LZ&dstar=1 to see if it has seen him. But if he's just channel surfing, there's really no way for anything to know where he is actually listening, so just blind calling might be the only way. With linked repeaters, at least you know where you called him at, as opposed to callsign routing where your signal just goes into the ether..... Callsign routing doesn't work well if the destination is switching between systems. That's just the way it works. Ed WA4YIH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Fran Miele Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:44 AM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re:callsign routing Thanks to all that responded for the info. Linking doesn't work as I never know what repeater he is on. Fran ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dave Cooley Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2009 9:22 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re:callsign routing Fran, The easy answer would be just link the repeaters. This works if: 1. You know where the other party is (and) 2. Either your repeater or the distant end repeater is not linked (you can't link into a repeater already linked) You can however callsign route into a linked repeater! So, given that many active repeater sysops are linking their systems to reflectors to generate some traffic, chances of linking drop dramticaly. Knowing how and when to use callsign routing is important. I was forced to use callsign routing at first as none of the local Sysops allowed end user linking so I had no other choice. After using it for a while and understanding it I still prefer it to linking for short, peer to peer, messages. Linking, however is best if you are participating on a net or round table rag chew. As you know the information you place in the ur call field is what is sent to the gateway as your intended destination, (in this case N1GAT). The radio has no idea where his last transmission was heard. The gateway makes the decision where to route the call based upon information the it receives from the US Trust Server in Dallas Tx. This update is designed to happen approximately every 15 mins. You can check here to see when a gateway was last updated http://dsync.dstarusers.org/index.php . Click on the specific gateway and you can see when it last updated to the trust server. Depending upon when you switch to a new repeater it could take up to 29 mins (theoretically) for the update to be sent to the trust serve and then proliferated to the rest of the gateways. The gateway looks in the file it receives from the trust server and finds where N1GAT was last heard and addresses the packets to that gateway and port. To see the last heard position look here http://www.jfindu.net/PrefixLookup.aspx <http://www.jfindu.net/PrefixLookup.aspx> (Special note: This info may not be the same as that on the trust server as this page is "Real Time" Thus the lag of up to 29 mins.) At this point it becomes just another IP packet on the internet. To check and see if you and where your transmission went go to http://nj6n.com/dplusmon/ this lists all transmissions (domestic) that go through a gateway. If a repeater is linked to a reflector it is using a portion of its available internet bandwidth to send a "copy" of all repeater transmissions to the reflector. (Thus the reason why linking is better for nets and round table rag chews) If you call sign route to a party that is on a linked repeater you are also using that available bandwidth. Some sys ops have robust commercial internet connections that can handle multiple connections such as this but the majority use a form of residential internet service such as DSL or cable and do not have sufficient bandwidth to accommodate much traffic. As a general rule it is best to go to your stand alone repeater as you mentioned for a QSO. The other drawback to using call sign routing into a linked repeater is that while everyone can hear you on the other end, you can only hear the person that has captured your call and put it in their ur call field. You would be able to hear them only if they put your call sign in their UR call field. Contrary to what some will tell you, call sign routing works well for what it was intended. Once you use it and understand how it works it is a much easier way to use Dstar for a single party QSO. It also is the only way to track down a distant party if you don't have the internet at your fingertips. We use call sign routing in conjunction with DRats and it works great. The downside to call sign routing is that folks get confused when they hear a QSO in progress and try to join in and are not heard by the distant party. If this happens they only need to capture the call of the distant station using the call capture feature and then they will be heard. Again this is only good for several users on one repeater talking to just one user on the distant repeater. Linking is the best solution for multiple to multiple QSOs. Tech point: The 2820 and 91&92ad can be set to auto populate the ur field when it receives a call sign routed call. This works great when you get a call sign routed call it automatically puts the callers call sign into the ur field and sends it right back to them. This only happens when your radio sees a call sign routed call to you. It will not switch call signs to whatever station it hears ( as some have been lead to believe) The 800 (not sure on the new ones) are not capable of this automatic feature although it says you can in the manual. I hope this helps. I can be contacted anytime ( when I am on the air) using callsign routing. All of my radios are set for autofill so I will just come right back to you. 73 -- Dave Cooley N2LZ www.tampadstar.com
