On Jan 20, 2010, at 6:11 PM, Catrina White wrote: > I promise.. this is my last.. until the next time! LOL! > What is callsign routing again? Is that when I have my local repeater's name > in the your call sign?
There's a number of ways to do callsign routing. They're documented in the Icom manuals that come with the radios, actually. It's a bad name, since EVERYTHING requires a callsign. Think of it this way... "Callsign routing" is when you program your radio with either the person's callsign you're trying to call, or the repeater callsign they're listening to. (There's slightly different "syntax" so the Gateway can figure out whether you're giving it a person's callsign or a repeater's.) Every transmission is an individually routed transmission in callsign routing. The Gateway looks at the header and says, "This transmission has an destination address on it of 'WY0X'. Looking in my database, 'WY0X' was last heard on 'W0CDS B', I'll send this transmission there." If you unkey and key up again, the process starts over. It's like putting your voice message inside an envelope and mailing it. If the outside of the envelope (the header) gets "smudged" by RF multipath, interference, weak signals, etc... there is some "guesswork" the gateway does (it makes some assumptions) and tries to route to the last "envelope" that it saw go past. In D-PLUS "Repeater Link" or "Reflector" use, you use the callsign field (remember, callsign routing came first - so add-ons have to use fake callsigns to trigger things) to send a COMMAND to the local Gateway server's copy of D-PLUS that tell it... "Hey there, 'W1ABC B'! Would you please take all local traffic on this repeater and send a copy to 'W0CDS B'?" It replies and says, "SURE!" (Actually Robin's voice says, "Remote repeater linked". After that you switch back to the fake/placeholder callsign 'CQCQCQ' and the D-PLUS software handles copying it to the remote repeater or Reflector. Everyone on the local repeater gets passed to the remote one, or to the Reflector (conference of repeaters on a dedicated server that does nothing but make copies of packets and send them out to everyone, very quickly, on bigger "bandwidth" than most repeaters have). So... without getting into even more really gory details that's the differences in a nutshell. Each has a little different syntax because all we really have is eight characters to do three or four different things. The "/" prefix typically means "repeater callsign follows", and characters in the 8th character field are always "special" in D-STAR. There's some problems/design issues with both, and there's definitely challenges with mixing them at the same time, on the same repeater. If a repeater is D-PLUS linked somewhere, it's generally advisable to unlink it prior to playing with callsign routing, at least until you REALLY understand what's happening. > You're right.. there is a steep learning curve, everything is as clear as > mud, and #1 rule: change is inevitable! > > Why they can;t keep things constant with somethings, and not change it, would > make learning this type of stuff easier. I heard on the radio the other day > some poor guy getting really frustrated.It is very easy to do. but it would > keep all of our frustration levels in check if there were no change. If you're saying D-STAR is a change for hams, who often are not network/routing "geeks" so they're trying to learn concepts like "source routing" that computer tinkerers, scientists, and engineers have been doing since the 80's... yeah. If you're saying if the possible ways to route a D-STAR call has changed, not really. Callsign routing is the original Icom Gateway design, and the Reflectors and D-PLUS are a few years old at this point, and there haven't been any significant changes in quite some time. It's kinda a "Baskin Robbins" problem. When you first walk up, you don't know what the 31 flavors taste like, so you might eventually try them all. But if you at least try a few, you'll find you like some more than others, and you'll gravitate toward the "flavor" of how to call someone that you like. :-) > well, I guess my brain is getting it's work out, wil that keep me alzheimer > free for a few more years since i'm working it so hard? Yup. Thinkin' is hard, but good for you! :-) Good for all of us, actually. Ham Radio's more fun than cell phones designed to punch digits and a send button, and then all the hard choices after that are made for you by an engineer. You get to choose more things in D-STAR, which is both a blessing and a curse. When I'm presented with a tough topic like "What are all the ways I can call someone on D-STAR?" I just set myself a goal to try to do each one. No timeframe, no rush. I find a friend on a remote repeater, get a phone number (it helps to know what they're really hearing and what they're not at first, so you're not guessing if something is working) and set up a time to play. You can also just play on-air, but sometimes it's easier to figure it out with a friend. Eventually, once you "get it", you promise to help someone else "get it", and it grows that way. It helps to be actually interested in the differences, but anyone can learn it all, even if it seems "boring". And there's no deadline as to "when"... learn one way, then another... Or as our Australian ham radio friends like to say, "No dramas!" One final note about playing with callsign and D-PLUS features: There are places/repeaters in the D-STAR network where the local administrators have linked them to a Reflector, turned off the ability for anyone but a "chosen few" to command the links, and since they're always linked somewhere, they discourage callsign routing. This is boorish and dull. It turns D-STAR back into a cell phone. Yawn! We encourage experimentation around here, and I think that's true of MOST systems, but just pointing out that not all allow users to control things. That's their perrogative, but it takes away frustration at learning and replaces it with uninformed users... I don't personally like that trade-off, but I do understand the sentiment "Let's just make this easy for everyone". It's their call. -- Nate Duehr, WY0X [email protected] http://facebook.com/denverpilot http://twitter.com/denverpilot
