Still learning about D-Star here. The other night, we tried linking into one of the popular reflectors. We didn't hear anything, so my buddy called CQ. I seem to think I then heard a partial conversation and then acknowledgement of my buddy's callsign. That brought to mind a few questions:
How long does it take for the repeater to connect to the reflector? How long should one wait before trying to initiate a call? So far, in the few times we have done it, no one has yelled at us for interrupting or causing any disruption of data, if that did occur. I just don't want to step on any toes if we are possibly not waiting or listening for a long enough time period. When unlinking, is it necessary to announce to the reflector that you are unlinking? If I want to unlink and not interrupt a conversation, can I just do it? Will they hear a beep and my callsign or does this disrupt the data in any way or just see my callsign with no audio? Just wondering if there is a write up on common courtesy and protocol for D-Star? I know that on the Calculator page, they say to announce your intentions. Obviously, if you are not near a computer or have access to the internet, you can't see how busy or how many things are connected to a repeater or reflector.
