What on E.A.R.T.H. is the D-STAR project?

 

D-STAR stands for Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio is our club’s new venture into digital voice communications for the Rio Grande Valley.  It was originally developed by the Japanese Amateur Radio League and is fully supported by Icom, one of the top manufacturers of amateur radio equipment.

 

As you well know, when a disaster strikes (like tropical storms and hurricanes) our local ham community may have to stow or secure their larger antenna systems to avoid damage.  The beauty of D-STAR is that Digital Voice communications will virtually eliminate the static that you might have heard on traditional FM analog repeaters.  Since error-correction of the signal is part of the D-STAR protocol, even users on HT’s should experience much better performance over longer distances.  Imagine joining a “Net” this fall and actually being able to clearly hear all of the participants without the constant repeating of traffic and callsigns.

 

While D-STAR can be implemented on multiple frequencies, our club is going to deploy on the 2m spectrum first.  Our second phase will be to roll out high-speed data over 1.2GHz for emergency communications in a disaster.  D-STAR can work independent of the internet for file and multimedia transfers over short distances (i.e. EOC to EOC links). 

 

The D-STAR system can link repeaters together locally and through the Internet utilizing callsigns for routing of traffic. The repeater servers are connected via internet "gateway" software, available from Icom. D-STAR radio operators can then talk to any other amateur participating in a particular gateway environment – including crystal-clear QSO’s around the world or across Texas.

 

Speaking of Texas, the current master gateway in the United States is operated by the K5TIT group in Texas, who were the first to install a D-Star repeater system in the U.S.

 

Want to learn more?  Check out the following links regarding D-STAR:

 

www.dstarinfo.com

 

www.dstarusers.org

 

http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/dstar/dstar/default.aspx

 

http://www.dvdongle.com/DV_Dongle/Home.html

 

http://www.dvapdongle.com/DV_Access_Point_Dongle/Home.html

 

 

If you need more info, feel free to contact Toby Driscoll, N5SIM or Lea Hilton, N5ZZA.

 

This is going to be a fun project that will allow us to better serve the community as well as attract new membership to our ranks.  We could definitely use your help in funding this on-going project, so please be sure to check out the “Donate” link on the home page.