much more than just voice
It is not easy for the digital modes in the world of voice operation.
So many negative reports when it comes to audio quality. And YES, it may be partially justified — and this also applies to D-Star’s companions, namely DMR and C4FM. It seems that these modes were interesting for a while because they were new, but then people very happily went back to good old FM modulation.
But what has remained?
A respectable number of repeaters (approx. 31 in OE) that are barely used and at least in OE8 are no longer being maintained, since there’s almost no traffic anymore.
The current situation: (OE8)
Pyramidenkogel (DCS009A) and LKH Villach (REF096A) active.
Why am I writing a post about D-Star?
First and foremost, I’d like to put this mode a bit more in the spotlight again. Of course, not everyone has a D-Star capable radio at home (perhaps because they question whether it makes sense, or simply for cost reasons), but there are still quite a few YLs and OMs.
This post is specifically about 2 radios with which I’ve gained experience:
The IC-705 and the ID-52 plus.
These radios — as well as radios of similar vintage — have many additional functions in combination with a PC or smartphone. I’ll go into more detail about the latter.
Imagine: today is a beautiful day. I go out into nature; maybe I’m activating a SOTA summit or simply going for a hike and I take my Icom along. I tell my QSO partner how beautiful it is here.
Wouldn’t it be great to immediately send a picture I took with my smartphone to the other station?
Perfect, or I could make a QSL card out of it, even better I could include my location.
All this is possible with these 2 radios in combination with the RS-MS1A and ST-4001A apps.
Another situation: voice (both FM and D-Star) no longer works, but a small data packet like a text message might still get through.
Here too there’s the option of a chat via smartphone paired over Bluetooth.
The more participants, the more fun 😉
I can also simply use a map to track my own position or that of another station. Including time, date and on request with a transmitted image.
There is also a GPS logger on board that, if needed, records a hike every 10 seconds. Can be analyzed e.g. via GPXSee:
Even if an activation ends up in a pile-up, that is not a problem either.
Every QSO is safely stored with date and time (in DV mode also with the frequency) in my voice recorder (on SD) 😉
Then there’s still the Terminal Mode:
Well, that is a thing that does not really want to work. Quick explanation. The Terminal Mode has 2 functions as a gateway between a frequency and the D-Star network, or as an integrated hotspot for D-Star.
I tried the latter, with partial success, because you need knowledge of your own home network and it gets complicated. (Port opening/forwarding, static IP) I do not like that, so I looked for my own solution. And lo and behold, for the ID-52 plus a colleague from PA has come up with something. The Doozy app makes it possible to connect my ID-52 plus from anywhere, without any RF transmission, via smartphone into the D-Star network XLX DCS XRF. Also nice when there is no repeater nearby, right? 😉
D-Star offers a lot, whether simplex or via the network (REF, DCS, XLX ….) you almost always have the same possibilities.
Although D-Star is one of the older digital modes, it has evolved further.
I would like to see those who have the opportunity try out these functions.
When I buy a radio, I want to look at all its functions and actually use them.
For questions and as a test QSO partner I am happy to help.
73
Alex, OE8HAM
Transparency Notice
This is a guest post by Alex, OE8HAM. The text was written by the author; the oeradio.at editorial team has only corrected minor typos and formatted the post. Content and opinions are the author’s.
