D-STAR is very different from using normal FM repeaters in that you first need to set up your radio to use the D-STAR System. This can be a little confusing for the beginner and its is recommend that you use the programming software available for your radio unless you have lots of patience and time.
Letters are used to define bands or frequencies. These are simple to understand once explained...
A = 23CMS
B = 440Mhz
C = 144MHz
Therefore K6MDD-C is the K6MDD 144Mhz D-Star system and W6DHS-B is the W6DHS 440MHz system....
You can program multiple channels for local and remote D-Star systems that you want to use - one channel per system as the configuration is slighty different.
For example ~ Channel 1 could be for the local K6MDD-C (144Mhz D-Star system) and Channel 2 could be use for W6DHS-C. Even though your not able to direclty contact W6DHS you will use K6MDD-C and also to push your audio to W6DHS-C via the gateway/internet. If you only wanted to speak to local users on K6MDD-C then you would go back to Channel 1 so you don't bother the local users on W6DHS when your not speaking to anyone on that D-Star system.
In the examples below we will program the radio using the above example :-
MY CALLSIGN
Configure this with your own personal callsign ie W6TCP
This is the simplest and once set you can generally forget it. More advanced users can set this up for multiple callsigns but most peole would only ever set this up the first time. Do remember that if your given a copy of someone elses radio configuration file you must set this otherwise their callsign will continue to be sent.
YOUR CALLSIGN
This is the callsign that your communicating with and it varies depending on wether your connecting to a local or remote system.
If your within range of K6MDD-C you would set this to CQCQCQ. In our example Channel 1 would be set to CQCQCQ where as for Channel 2 it would be set to /W6DHS--C as W6DHS-C is a remote system not within local range.
Its important to note that spacing is important between the callsign and frequency letter. In our example the "C" needs to be in the 8th position. If you use anymore or any less spaces it simply will not work. For the sake of clarity "-" is shown as a space.
RPT1
This is used to define the Originating D-Star system. In our example RPT1 would be set to K6MDD C for both Channel and Channel 2. Again watch those spaces... the C must be in the 8th position.
RPT2
This is used to define the Local or Gateway system. For Channel 1 and Channel 2 use K6MDD G. This will use the gateway. Its not really necessary to use the gateway for Channel 1 however Dongle user will not hear you if you leave this blank.
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See the attached screen shots for the Channel 1 and Channel 2 examples.
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D-Star Primer
Tim K6BIV presented this at Pacficon in October 2007. If your new to D-Star your find some very interesting information in the attached material.
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We hope that his imformation has been helpfull and is just an example of a D-Star configuration and will hopefully get you on the air. If you have any questions were be glad to assit you further. Please contact us here.
With D-Star world wide communications is just a ptt switch away......
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