Hi Terry, I know that it's very hard to find detailed information on all these things about ICOM's gateway usage and repeater systems. Some information is for example at http://www.dstar.ca/ for English readers. You can also find an overview at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-STAR .
And here are my experiences from self studies as a user and a gateway admin: Repeaters are being used to talk to each other like in the analog world. But a repeater operator can connect the repeaters (ICOM calls them modules, while module A, B and C are for 23cm, 70cm and 2m outside Japan) to a gateway computer, called a server inside. Thus a repeater system can have: AB1CDE A for 23cm digital voice (DV) and/or data (DD) AB1CDE B for 70cm AB1CDE C for 2m AB1CDE S for the gateway server internally and AB1CDE G for the gateway routing service. Now users who want to talk locally only need to use their module A, B or C with their radio set to the right frequency. But for the usage of the gateway function, a user needs to set up a so called terminal, where you can set initials from A to Z or a space character (in the original D-STAR documentation of the JARL it is A to F and space). These terminals are used for two things: 1. to store where you last pressed your PTT and 2. it has the internal IP for DD usage. For example: if you set your radio to MY:AK4TH the internal database stores at the corresponding terminal "AK4TH___" (_=space) a timestamp and the repeater module, where you have transmitted. This info is replicated to the whole network, so others can call you with setting their radio to UR:AK4TH If you have two radios and set one to MY:AK4TH__H (always 8 characters) e.g. for 23cm home usage, and the second to MY:AK4TH__M e.g. for 70cm mobile usage NOBODY can call you with UR:AK4TH. They always need to know if you are at home or in your car. What a mess! Thus normal users needs only set up one terminal with a space character in the initial field and even the pc-name field could be the callsign in lower case (which is again only needed for DD, but needs to be set either). Keep it small and simple. Hope this helps. 73 de Reiner, dh9fax --- In [email protected], "Terry" <ethu...@...> wrote: >... > Can someone who understands the gateway software please explain: > 1. What it means by a "server"? > 2. What is a "repeater" with regard to a DSTAR gateway? > 3. Finally I am totally lost with what it's talking about with ZoneRPT and AreaRPT. > Any insight greatly appreciated. ...from another posting > AK4TH
