[d-star] Mining ARC 1.2 Machine Up

Tue May 15 13:23:05 UTC 2007

I finally brought my laptop back in the house and hooked it up so I can 
send email. Erik has already said the D-STAR 1.2G data repeater is 
installed and running from 3M Center at 1299.000 MHz. The call sign is 
currently KC0TQI-1 but if you transmit on 1299.000 it should set that 
automatically. Once you are on 1299.000 and the D-STAR is set for DD  
RPS, you should be able to connect to the repeater.

You will not really see anything happen at this point. If you PING 
172.16.0.1  you should see packets sent and received. That proves you 
can talk to the repeater itself.  Next PING 172.16.0.20.  If you get a 
response from .20 it means the computer at the site is working.

Now start your web browser and in the address bar, enter: 172.16.0.20  
and return. This tells the browser to connect to the remote computer. It 
should come back with a short little web page and a few links. The 
Trivnet link doesn't do anywhere because it isn't running on that 
computer. And the computer isn't hooked up to anything in the outside 
world yet. In the future it will connect to packet radio via the 
computer. Right now, it is mainly there to give something to connect to 
and prove the repeater is working. You can try to FTP to 172.16.0.20 and 
LS for a file name, then GET filename if you want to see how fast it 
runs. My tests always come out around 10.4KBytes/sec on average.

One of the links is to the Citadel program which is on the computer. 
This is what we're thinking of using as a email/chat/bulletin system at 
each site. Take a look at it and see what you think. I think you can 
find manuals and directions for Citadel on SourceForge if you look.

The digital voice side is also connected and maybe working. I haven't 
been able to prove any connection when playing around myself. The call 
sign is again KC0TQI and the frequency is 1285.100MHz (-12MHz offset). 
Just be sure the D-STAR is set for 1285.100 MHz and  DV  RP-  and it 
should work.

My biggest annoyance on Sunday when Max and I were testing the repeater, 
was that from the fire station, under 2 miles away, I couldn't hit the 
repeater from any of the antennas that were basically roof level. The 
only antenna that worked for digital data was a 2M four pole antenna at 
50 feet. I don't know how well it radiated, but it did bring up the data 
repeater while running on low power. And with all those antenna 
problems, I wasn't going to try high power.....

My best guess is that from that close I may have been below the antenna 
beam and just not getting enough signal into the repeater. This is a 
common problem with very high-gain antennas like these. You too may find 
that close-in is a problem but a long way away works well. We have a lot 
of playing to do.....

Just a reminder that if you want to build a cheap beam for 1.3GHz, you 
should start with a search for "WA5VJB wooden beam" and follow the link. 
Kent Britain has designed a whole series of beam antennasusing wood for 
the boom and 12 gauge solid wire for the elements. You cut the wire to 
length, drill the holes in the wooden boom, stick the wire in place, 
connect the coax to the driven element, and use your new antenna. Very 
simple and cost effective.

Next changes will not be until after May 20 some time. If nobody can 
access the 1.2G digital voice repeater I'll have to go up to the site 
and see if I can find what is wrong. If anyone can prove it is working, 
then we probably will not go up until after June 3. Don't know for sure, 
but there are a number of things to be done before we can get the packet 
interface working......

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.

estgard wrote:
> Doug and Max and team got the Mining ARC D-Star system installed Sunday.  It
> works great.
>
> I bought an ID-1 - and tried it out
>
> The ID-1 is amazing- you set the call, the repeater call and plug it in.
> You set a static IP on the computer and it just works!
>
> So far:
>
> - No custom radio/TNC cable wiring
> - No radio deviation adjustments
> - No TNC parameter setting
> - No serial port parameter speed/baud/parity/word length issues
> - No software required
> - No character mode interface training
> - About 100K bps
>
> The operator training issue almost completely goes away. The only thing we
> need to do is to distribute IP addresses and masks in advance if they want
> to use central services, or for hospital to hospital links.  
>
>
>
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