If you're not satisfied with the service, I sincerely believe you should put up your own Dstar machine, or full duplex hotspot.
It's not that hard or expensive anymore. Gary KB2BSL From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of milkman Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 9:46 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: I Want To Know??? I think that you to are missing my point. None of the D-Star repeaters in my area are up and running. So no hw can you use what is not there? I DID NOT SAY THAT I CAN'T REACH THEM. I work mobile and base. It's that the repeater's not online! Please read what was said. And Ed himself said that D-Star is worthless to some locations. And I live in one of those locations. And like I said I can hit repleaters 100 miles away. Mobile and Base. So to me 40 miles is nothing. Everyone in America does not live in a D-Star hotspot. So that makes it worthless. I give up! --- In [email protected] <mailto:dstar_digital%40yahoogroups.com> , "J. Moen" <j...@...> wrote: > > My experience with D-Star repeaters is they give me a bit more range than analog FM, as long as there's no multipath. I can work a D-Star repeater on top of Mt. Diablo in northern California from Dixon with my 91AD running less than 5 watts with an HT -- this is over 40 miles. In the greater San Francisco Bay Area, we have six D-Star repeaters I'm aware of, not counting ones north of the Bay, or over in Sacramento. They all work. > > I put up a D-Star Hotspot using a spare analog FM radio and a spare laptop for $140. Though it has a lousy antenna, this gives me HT access ot the D-Star network out about a mile, and when I crank the Hotspot power up from 5 to 10 watts, I get mobile access out about 15 miles with the lousy antenna. > > D-Star flat out works. If you live somewhere where it doesn't, that only shows that those repeater operators are not achieving what almost all other D-Star repeaters are doing. You should refrain from drawing a line through your one data point. > > I have a friend living in a small town in Iowa. They don't have the funding to put up an ICOM D-Star repeater. He and a few others bought ICOM D-Star radios and have been operating simplex. But he now has a D-Star Hotspot on the air, so he can get into the D-Star DPlus network of repeaters and reflectors from his home area and while mobile. He may convert it to a D-Star compatible repeater. I gave him the Hotspot hardware, another friend gave him the computer, and he had a spare analog radio. So he has D-Star network connectivity for no out of pocket costs. Life is too short to complain -- get creative and enjoy! > > Jim - K6JM > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: milkman > To: [email protected] <mailto:dstar_digital%40yahoogroups.com> > Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 11:37 PM > Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Re: I Want To Know??? > > > > > Ed,You say that 37 mile is pretty far? I can hit repeaters over 100 miles away everyday on 2m. I work more than one repeater 4 in Harrisburg, Pa- 2 in Hagerstown, Md - 1 in Salisbury, Md- 1 in Crisfield, Md. I work Delaware, Virginia, & DC. All more than 40 miles. So how is D-Star better than that if 37 miles is far? And I live in a hole. And yes NONE of our D-Star repeaters are working! And I realize that not all 600,000+ Hams are on VHF & UHF. But I do know that I can talk 50+ miles on 2meter simplex mobile. And I would like to know what happens to D-Star when the power fails. Can I still talk everywhere? I also think that D-Star equipment is not cheap. I paid over $500 for a dual band. That I can't use where I live. How is that cheap? (I paid $650 for my FT-857D and it covers everything). And I'm not the worlds cheapest Ham. Yes I do own a few 2m & dual banders. Plus an Icom 706MK2G, Yaesu FT.857D, Alinco DX-77T,& Ten-Tec Omni VI+. But when I look at the Baltimore, MD/Washington, DC Metro area and only find 7 D-Star repeaters for 2meters. And I know that Maryland's D-Star do not work at all. Also New York City ONLY have 3 D-Star repeaters. Which are 2 major Metro Areas in the US. So I'm really confused. Where are the users? Sure not here. Check the New York and Maryland, DC, DE, VA, & WVA area repeater Council list. I guess it's that I feel robbed & lied too since there's nothing here. Now I see it as a waste of money for my area. I think it needs to be made public that D-Star is not up and running in all areas of the USA. And I think that with over half of the 500 repeaters worldwide in the US. Still comes out to 250. With 50 States that works out to an average of 5 per State? And you say 37 miles is kinda far for a repeater? So that means most of the Hams in the U.S. couldn't use D-Star if they wanted to. But Ed I do thank very much for you openning my eyes to just how worthless D-Star is for most of us living here in America. Thanks everyone for helping find out that D-Star is not for everyone. Just a few select Hams. Which I think is very unfair. And after getting the facts. For me and most other Hams it is throwing good money after bad. Thanks again for letting me know! I'm sure glad that I came here. This group is on the ball. > > These are up to date listings. With in the last month. Pages are dated. > > http://www.tmarc.org/index_files/Page403.html > > http://www.nationsdial.com/nk2u/ > > Israel W1ASA >
