James, Instead of sitting there wondering what the repeater owners allow and don't allow, when they connect to reflectors and what their policies are, try to find them and ask them. Many of the D-STAR repeater owners around the world are advocates for the mode and are happy to talk about it. From a combination of searches of QRZ and the closest repeater map on www.DSTARInfo.com<http://www.DSTARInfo.com>, it looks as if the group that owns the repeater closest to you is http://kcdstar.byrg.net/ . It looks like they have a fairly decent web site and a number of names are posted in different places.
Do a little leg work and talk to them. As to hitting the repeater, as someone else mentioned, it's just RF. VHF/UHF frequencies are notorious for moving the radio 3 inches and going from full quieting to no signal at all. Remember, the repeater is probably running at least 20 watts out of an antenna with gain. An HT runs a couple of watts out of an antenna with loss. HT coverage of a repeater is ALWAYS significantly less than mobile coverage. Ed WA4YIH From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of James Earl Wells Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 1:56 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] DSTAR communication Makes since. Thanks.. WOw. have I been educated tonight. But isn't that what this is suppose to be all about? Helping each other with these sort of things. I appreciate your help in how this stuff works. This makes since because I think some of the ones around here are just as you stated. Thank You I know there is more for me to learn here but this is a big start. James KD0AJZ ----- Original Message ----- From: Nate Duehr<mailto:[email protected]> To: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2010 12:41 AM Subject: Re: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] DSTAR communication On Apr 6, 2010, at 10:40 PM, Adrian wrote: > > >> >> What else is there to do? are people really that rude that they will jsut >> key up and not check to see if anyone is transmitting? > > Good chance that those are gps(a) beacons, which a few operators run too > frequently. 5 minute intervals is really the shortest period needed without > upsetting the system. I hadn't thought of that, but yes... remember that many stations on D-STAR are running un-attended AUTOMATED data transmissions in the so-called "low-speed data" feature of the voice transmissions. GPS beacons are one great example. They're not keying over you, their beacons will wait until the channel is clear if they're set up correctly. Also note that SOME gateway/server operators have set up some beacons from the Gateway/Repeater system itself. Look at the data line on your rig to see if there's information going past other than the callsign. W0CDS transmits a timestamp at the top of every hour on all three band modules in order to know they're all still operating correctly, and as a mild "public service", here locally. If users want it disabled, we'd probably do it... never any complaints that it was there. It helps folks figure out where the coverage pattern really covers too, as they travel around the area. -- Nate Duehr, WY0X [email protected]<mailto:nate%40natetech.com>
