On 8/10/2010 10:36 AM, Carl W8KRF wrote:
Will this apply to my hotspot? I have several calls registered. My
92AD is W8KRF A, my car is W8KRF M, my hotspot is W8KRF B, and my
DVAP is W8KRF C. 90% of the time I am on the hotspot which is linked
to WB8THD C. WB8THD C is usually linked to REF001C. The only time
I am on RF is when I am in the car and out of range of my hotspot. It
gets very confusing when Dongels, DVAPS and Hotspots are involved.
AND...is it G2 or DPlus...or whatever else the gurus are coming up with.
What is "traditional" for those of us who are coming into this in the
middle of all this change.
73,
Carl
By not understanding call sign routing there has been a trend to assign
too many radio specific "initials" by D-STAR users.
A station has *one* callsign, in Carl's case that is W8KRF. All
radios; handheld, mobile, base, etc. should have the MYCALL set to
"W8KRF" (blank initial). Having radio specific callsigns breaks simple
callsign routing. The only exceptions to this should be, two radios
operating on different repeaters/frequencies *at the same time* or if
you have a couple of ID-1s and want to have a special callsign for
"digital data" (128K) and one for digital voice. All other initials
"P", "M", "H", ... are both unnecessary, but also counter productive.
(A club with multiple radios operating in network fashion is a possible
exception.)
If you run a Hotspot and/or DVAP they should probably have their own
initials for the DPLUS network, as they don't provide callsign routing
anyway.
/So why do I say that additional initials are not only unnecessary but
probably bad?/
Let's say I want to contact Carl, and I don't know what Reflector or
Repeater he is on, nor which radio he is using, with callsign routing I
can simply set "URCALL" to "W8KRF" and if all of his radios use the same
"MYCALL" my signal will be routed to the last repeater he was heard on,
regardless of whether he was on his handheld, mobile, or base. This
makes it very simple to find someone (and quite frankly the feature of
D-STAR that I think is unique, linking is just like analog linking).
If, on the other hand, Carl has "A" assigned to his handheld, "M" to his
mobile, "J" to his second mobile, I have to set "URCALL" to each of
these in succession to try to find him, assuming I even know what
initials he is using. (Each callsign and initial combination is a
unique address on the D-STAR network.) -- If you want to let the world
know which radio you are using, put it in the short message or the 4
letter comment.
Callsign routing probably would have gained traction earlier if the
updates to gateways weren't so slow, but ircddb has solved this problem
if gateway owners will just install it. (http://www.ircddb.net) I have
observed updates for a station moving to a new repeater completing
before PTT is released by the operator. With these rapid updates, you
just have to key up on a new repeater and you can continue your callsign
routed qso fairly seamlessly.
--
John D. Hays
Amateur Radio Station K7VE <http://k7ve.org>
PO Box 1223
Edmonds, WA 98020-1223
VOIP/SIP: [email protected] <sip:[email protected]>
<mailto:[email protected]>
