Thank you for the clearest explanation of d-star routing and the mysteries of UR, RPT1/2 etc and the confusing logic in setting them! Each scenario is clearly explained. After giving up trying to get my IC705 working on d-star by putting the 705 in terminal mode, via home wifi to a reflector (which I understand you should be able to do) I bought a hotspot. That didn’t work either and I spent a week listening to reflectors but not being heard, until I saw this video and I set the radio up correctly! (Still can’t get the 705 to work in terminal mode though! So if you can do one for that as well please .... 😉). Anyway - thanks from an M0 for helping me get on the air on d-star!
Mike, we have an IC-705 at the National Radio Centre which we run D-Star on. I will have a work with some of the guys and see if we can make a video for you when the centre opens after lockdown. Keith
You have given me the most comprehensive instructions so far. And the PowerPoint or whatever you used is fantastic. Seriously. I've been a ham for about 3 or 4 years now. Until a couple weeks back I've been mostly into DXing. This HT thing took me by surprise. I'm now wondering if the Icom ID51 (not sure of the name) wouldn't have been better. It just seems as if the Kenwood's architecture may be a little convoluted. Maybe it's the same with the Icom. For instance I went nuts trying to find why I couldn't do what the manual said to do regarding the up arrow. It said hold it down and you'd get to mycall or urcall. Not important as it didn't work. I finally found that I needed to be in the digital data area for that to work. I probably should just take a whole weekend and the manual and try to get myself familiar with the radio. I have been able to make local repeater contacts thankfully. I will absolutely be watching your videos a lot. And Thank You So Much for making this video by the way. I really appreciate it very much.
Thank you for your comment, it really does mean a lot to know that it has helped you understand dstar. Stick with it and enjoy accessing the reflectors. 73 Keith
Wait a minute please. You jump right in and explain how to set up d-star. Unfortunately, I still don’t know what d-star is a why I need this in the first place. I have none of these complications down on 20 meters. I think I’ll just change frequency and be done with it. No programming, just fun rag chewing on the old ham radio. I honestly don’t want to be bothered pushing all those buttons! Someone please enlighten me! Thanks!
@@TheHamRadioJunkie So sorry. Didn’t mean to be rude. I do enjoy your videos. It’s just that when I clicked on your video I was thrilled thinking I might finally understand what this was all about. Understand that it was meant for the more advanced vhf/uhf ham. I will do my research. Thanks! 73’s cheers
Thanks for this. I have been having great difficulty understanding anything else I have seen about D star. Maybe I will be able to try it now! Thanks for you nice clear video. Mike. G4HLT
Thankyou! But darn is this Dstart crap confusing. I've watched 20 videos and read many web sites, and played with my new IC-705 functions and still have no basic idea of what the heck Dstar is or what you do with it. I've gotten far enough to configure a local repeater that is a few miles away from me, and do an echo test, and the echo comes back loud and clear. So I guess I have stuff configured correctly. Maybe. Here are some very basic questions I haven't found an answer to. 1. Do the repeaters act the same as analog repeaters by default? That is, if I select a repeater on my radio, and I'm in the DV mode, will I receive audio of anyone that sends to that repeater with CQCQCQ? And I could just transmit back and talk like a normal analog repeater works? 2. What happens if multiple people try to transmit at the same time? Will my radio not allow me to transmit if someone else is talking to the repeater? How can I tell if the repeater is busy? Or does it allow many people to use the repeater at the same time through some magic and digital bandwidth sharing? 3. Are the repeaters normally used for local chatting like the analog repeaters get used, local nets, etc? Or are they used like radio swtichboards to connect to other operators located though "gateways?" to other repeaters for private one to one calls? 4. What is a "gateway" vs a "reflector" vs a "hotspot". What do they each do and why do we use them? 5. If I use my local repeater to "connect?" to a "gateway?" am I blocking that repeater from being used by anyone else? Or does it support multiple uses at the same time? Can other people see that I'm using it somehow and how I'm using it or what???? 6. I am getting the hint that a "reflector" is like a "chat room" where people can connect from all over the world and chat with each other just like we do with normal local analog repeaters, but that these are made possible by the magic of digital linking over the internet using Dstar. Is any of this correct? 7. on my radio, it sees to have a "reflector" mode.I can select and the "UR" field status display changes to "USE REflector CQCQCQ", What does it mean that I'm in the "reflector" mode? Have I done something to the repeater I'm connected to by setting this, or is it just my radio config I've changed at this point? 8. I see options for "Link to reflector" and "unlink..." You must tnter the reflector number. Ok. But if I link to a reflector, what does that do? Does it tie up my local repeater and make it link to this reflector for all local users? Or is it just a logical defined connection for me and my radio, so that messages from that reflector, get transmitted by my local repeater and hear it. But if I'm lesenting to messages from a reflector, can other people be using the repeater for their own use, like listening to a different reflector? Or can the repeater onlyi connect to one reflector so if I do that, I've blocked all other local users from using this repeater for their needs? 9. Any advice for a video or document or web page that gives a simple high-level overview of what Dstar is, and what you can do with it, that answers all the sorts of questions I asked above, before it jumps in to explain "you must add spaces" crap to how to "set it up" so I have a clue what it is I'm actually "setting up" to do? One way or other, I will figure all this out, but after one day of trying to dig into all this, I'm shocked at how many absurdly complex "starter" videos and web pages I've come across with none of them even giving a high-level intro to what point of all this is! :)
So to initiate a link, you would just key up and that would establish the link provided everything is set up. Then when you are done key up using the YOUR: Spaces and Suffix of "U" to unlink?
Good day mate. I m operating an e92 and I m trying to check my local dstar repeater. Do you have anything on this radio , which I could use ? 73 de SV4RIN
I use an old DV4mini into a USB port on the PC. I then click on the icon on my screen and the pre_ downloaded softwarecomes into action. It is not perfect but it works! I then turn on my icon handheld and put out a call. I,m sure your method is more efficient and would achieve more but it sort of boggled my 88 year old braincells,.thanks anyway!!!!
Hi Keith, great video very informative and really easy to follow for a beginner on D star like me. I will definitely check you other videos to learn more about the mode and how to make the best of it and my radio. One topic that really interests me is to learn of a way to use this mode to spot my self on SOTA watch website while on summits doing SOTA. Do you have any video that could provide some useful information on this? Thanks for sharing.
Hi, thanks for the kind comments. I do not use DStar to self spot but it would be possible to send your APRS location via the system if you have a GPS enabled DStar radio. Every time you TX it would ping your GPS location via the APRS network.
Very well explained, thank you! So after I key up a reflector, I need to then switch UR to CQCQCQ. My question is after I link to another repeater using AB1XYZAL, and key it up, do I also need to change UR back to CQCQCQ? And what about a direct callsign call to G4GCC for example, do I key it and then go back to CQCQCQ or do I leave G4GCC in the UR field for the entire QSO?
@@timbarnett4708 once linked change ur back to cqcqcq. I cannot recall regarding direct call. If you try with leaving the callsign of station you are calling and see what happens.
Hi, just got my new 52A a few days ago. Still in the email process for my Dstar ID, so, can a ham enter the required info in the radio to set it up for receive (NOT TO PRESS THE PTT) to hear how digital sounds??
Thank you. Much better than every other video I’ve seen. But I still don’t know what you mean about a hot spot. Also does a radio like the ic-705 need to actually hit an actual repeater or can it use its own wifi? I’m very new. Waiting on my call sign.
Clear as MUD, however, if I was using it it might be clearer. I will be looking back on this in the future though. Now the spaces? Replaced by **? This was not around when I was in a Ham Club, but that was many moons ago! You still had to sit Morse back then! Now I am showing my age! I should have gone through my licence back then, but work got in the way then family life, it still is! :-(( But come the colder nights and I shall get stuck in again, I was ready then got distracted again, to many things going on and being disabled does not help! RTTY was new way new back then! Dear me! I have been the star unwillingly of Slow and fast scan TV at the club, I was sitting there minding my own business when the operator at the other end said "Oh, wait, turn back a bit, I see a known face there!" Yes, well, in front of the whole club, just as well I had been going there for a while!
You are in good company Bob, I am also a less abled ham (wheelchair mobile), doesn't stop much apart from needing a hand getting the antennas up and down. You know you are old school when you talk about RTTY on a machine rather than a PC.
@@TheHamRadioJunkie Not quite in the wheelchair yet, but I was told I would be 6 years ago, maybe up to 10 years ago. I am just stubborn. Anything up a ladder is a problem! I used to climb ladders every day for a living at one time!
@@TheHamRadioJunkie thanks, I was just wondering, just slightly confused as you did say Spaces. But cleared up nicely, thanks and take care out there and stay safe!
newbie question, can you contact someone that is using an analog radio through a digital link using dstar (with a dstar radio of course) ? And can you use a hotspot to connect to the digital world using an analog radio?
So would it be legal for a foundation callsign to connect this radio to the internet from abroad to a UK repeater and transmit/receive from a UK repeater while sitting in a hotel in Italy, for example?
machoneboard you would be transmitting in the country you are in on holiday even if it is into a hotspot. If you went to North Korea you wouldn't be allowed to operate even if you had a full licence.
@@TheHamRadioJunkie Is it ‘transmitting’ though, if it it just 0s and 1s into a router from a box, with no antenna connected? I don’t think NKorea even allows email but SKorea definitely does!
@@TheHamRadioJunkie Though old, 89 years young, I'm a newbieTech. I'm looking into DStar and need also how use the software to store memory etc. Btb, I got interested in Ham from my uncle a bachelor all his life. He was a fiddle player. He was Ray Noble's first fiddle player on that little song, "The very thought of you." He was also a very good brass pounder. He said it helped his vibratto. He could send and recieve at 60 wpm. He used to copy on a typewriter the news sent in CW from a Cuba station. He used to live in Hollywood and just prior to the war had a custom monster tube outfit that would make the lightbulbs glow at night. He put out the Californoa Kilowatt. At the beginning of the US in WWII, JE Hoover visited him to see his equipment. At that time, the US had very little radio equipment on the West Coast. Anyway, he donated his stuff to the Govt. He worked for awhile as a civilian decoding Japenese signals. Thought you might get a kick out of the story.
