Hi, When a repeater is linked to a reflector an internet connection is made and the local repeater will transmit over the air any data sent from the reflector. The repeater will send and data stream it hears to the reflector for retrnasmission by any other linked repeaters. The courtesy of announcing that you intend to link or unlink a repeater advises any other reperater users that the change is comming (unless they object, of course). This avoids disrupting any others comms that may be in progress at that time. Of course if you have listened a bit before taking any action you would likely hear any comms in progress. Unlinking is the only direction that can disrupt comms - a pair of hams might be conversing thru the link. Linking only "adds repeaters", and the only issue is the courtesy of letting others know that they might now speak to a much larger audience. In practice most (all?) repeaters announce the link / unlink action so folks are indeed notified. On the link however the repeater does not announce what reflector is being linked. The link / unlink process is effectively instantaneous - any delay is only latency over the internet. Very unlikely you could beat the link or unlink process. Hope this helps, 73 Ted W1GRI
_____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of kc9ony Sent: Thursday, August 26, 2010 09:56 To: [email protected] Subject: [DSTAR_DIGITAL] Linking and Unlinking questions 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.
