You can send email using D-Rats and the low speed data of the ID-800 but you have to send it to another D-Star/D-Rats station that allows the email to go out thru his or her ISP. Tom - W4UOC In a message dated 11/3/2009 10:27:19 A.M. Eastern Standard Time, [email protected] writes:
At 01:11 AM 11/3/2009, kc9mnl wrote: ...I thought I heard somewhere that you can use the radio to browse the internet or send email *AT LOW SPEEDS*. Is this possible? How would I have to configure my radio?... Steve KC9MNL Hi, Steve, Until you asked, I hadn't gone looking. "Browse the Internet" and "at low speeds" is kind of a contradiction, and I don't see any products for that. Anything besides small, text-only web pages would be painfully slow using DV Data. Limited e-mail is more realistic at the speeds available to the DV Data mode. A quick search brought up two applications that offer some kind of e-mail: D-RATS and DSTARCOMMS. Here's a lot of information on using D-RATS for e-mail: _http://www.d-http://wwhttp://www.d-http://wwhttp://www.http:/_ (http://www.d-rats.com/documentation/4-howtos/5-internet-email/) Dan takes a cautious approach to e-mail in D-RATS, and it looks like "human intervention" is required so that messages can be screened to eliminate inappropriate content (business stuff, naughty language). Here's a link to DSTARCOMMS, which is an inexpensive commercial product: _http://www.dstarcomhttp://_ (http://www.dstarcomms.com/) DSTARCOMMS sounds more like what you're looking for - a client application that (among many features) would let you send and receive e-mail via your D-STAR radio in DV data mode. But I couldn't quickly figure out what's needed to make the connection to the Internet. I suppose that could be software at the repeater/gateway. Or it could be any user radio on a repeater or simplex with a PC/Internet connection. In any case, you'd need more than just your own radio connection - you need something on "the other end" to make that Internet connection. The web site doesn't address the issue of "appropriate content." There is a Forum section, but it requires registration to even just read forum messages, so I didn't go there. It appears to be a British product (call signs and location references on the sample screen-shots are all from Great Britain). The creators are quite shy, and are identified on the web site only as "sales (at) dstarcomms.com. Maybe someone on the list can say more about it. I'll add only that DV Data use on repeaters requires some care. It's true that your station can send data while you're talking - a very cool feature. But your station can't send data while SOMEONE ELSE is talking on that channel. This may not be well understood. To voice uses, DV Data appears as a "dead carrier, but your signal uses up the voice channel even if you're not talking. Users who have their beep turned on may get a lot of annoying beeps during your data session. Your local repeater group may have a policy about data use. 73, Gary KN4AQ <X> ARVN: Amateur Radio//Video News Gary Pearce KN4AQ 508 Spencer Crest Ct. Cary, NC 27513 [email protected] _ (mailto:[email protected]) 919-380-9944 _www.ARVideoNews.www_ (http://www.arvideonews.com/)
