[d-star] DStar Comms

Sun Feb 17 15:31:24 CST 2008

Actually the two groups doing the most with DD Mode are not traditional
packet people but are the two organizations handling some of the largest
planned mass casualty events in the USA- The Medtronic Twin Cities Marathon
and the Marine Corps Marathon.  We independently came to the same conclusion
a few years back- packet was not fast enough to handle large amounts of
actual real time emergency response data.  When you take care of 300+ real
injured people in the space of a few hours and send >50 people to hospitals
in three hours and track them in real time and have hundreds of health and
welfare database queries you need a high performance data platform.

So yes the need base is far different.

-----Original Message-----
From: d-star-bounces at lists.twinslan.org
[mailto:d-star-bounces at lists.twinslan.org] On Behalf Of Mark Thompson
Sent: Sunday, February 17, 2008 3:02 PM
To: n0nas at amsat.org; List for people interested in the D Star repeaters
Cc: n0nas at amsat.org
Subject: Re: [d-star] DStar Comms

Doug - 

It seems that the Minneapolis area is unique in that the traditional packet
community has exploited the use of 1.2 GHz D-STAR high-speed digital data.
In most other areas D-STAR is driven by the use of 2m & 70cm digital voice &
internet gateway access with 1.2GHz DD being an afterthought. Consequently,
there is more interest in those areas in Digital Voice's low-speed data. 

There is no audio from the speaker of a Digital Voice radio while low-speed
data is being received. Since DV data can be sent simultaneously with a
voice transmission & since the data only transmissions are short messages
there may not be that much channel contention. 

In addition to using DV data for transmitting GPS coordinates for D-PRS/APRS
use it can also be useful for sending short text messages. 

The program UK D-STAR Comms is that latest of several text message
applications using DV data. There is a German application called D-TERM. The
first & most popular application is: d*Chat. A link to the d*Chat web site &
video of use of it by a ARES group is below. 

d*Chat 
D-Star Keyboard to Keyboard Chat Application for Windows by NJ6N 
http://nj6n.com/dstar/dstar_chat.html 

d*Chat Video 
Use by ARES Group 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuPy34EPYf0

You also might find interesting a video about a group using both low-speed &
high-speed data for ARES use: 

ARES using D-STAR Video 
Amateur Radio Emergency Service Group Using D-STAR 
http://youtube.com/watch?v=q8dUJp0rc0g 

73, Mark, WB9QZB
Chicago, IL

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/illinoisdigitalham/

----- Original Message ----
From: Doug Reed <n0nas at amsat.org>
To: List for people interested in the D Star repeaters
<d-star at lists.twinslan.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 6:36:24 PM
Subject: Re: [d-star] DStar Comms

Just from reading the description, it sounds like the program was 
intended to work with low-speed D-STAR radios over the data port. It 
just doesn't seem that useful to me, at least not if you are trying to 
monitor a DV repeater or listen to some high-traffic event like a 
swap-net. Essentially it is using D-STAR data as if it were a packet 
channel. The only saving grace is that the data passes without hearing 
the BRAAAP of packet. But if you listen closely, you should still be 
hearing the audio path open and close on a quiet carrier as the data 
blocks are sent and received. Or maybe the D-STAR radio is smart enough 
not to open the audio path if the data is present without the voice PTT 
being keyed.... But you can't send data without sending a carrier which 
means you are taking time away from any other use of the channel. You 
wouldn't want to use this on a busy channel during a net. The data would 
forever be trying to flow and either disrupting communications or 
extending a voice message block. i.e. sending a block of data may take 
longer than saying "yes" into the mike. But if you want to leave your DV 
radio sitting on a quiet simplex channel, it could be used as both a 
data and calling channel.....

>From  my viewpoint, the only low-speed DD application I've found useful 
is the GPS/APRS location burst. That should be short enough not to cause 
any problems.... This is one of the main reasons we ordered the Icom 
2820H with D-STAR and GPS. We will automatically have D-STAR GPS 
capability and the GPS will also feed other systems in the comm van..... 
But it could be that in the future we'll be seeing applications for 
D-STAR low-speed DD that just haven't been thought of yet.... Even this 
D-STAR Comms program would be considerably more useful if the ability to 
"scan" a DV channel and jump to a DD channel for data was inherent in 
the software. Although then it would be best if the DV channel was 
pretty quiet rather than running an active net....

73, Doug Reed, N0NAS.

Mark Thompson wrote:
> DStar Comms is an application used with D-Dstar enabled radios through the
data port on the radio. There are many features and functions that would
support many groups and users requirements. 
>
> Main Features: 
>
> 1) Text Chat (Send and Receive text messages between DStar Comms Users) 
> 2) Beacon Mode (Periodically send Text Based Beacons) 
> 3) Email Gateway (Will allow RF users to relay emails to the internet) 
> 4) Email Composer (Allows user to send an email to a DStar Comms user who
has configured the Email Gateway) 
> 5) Address Book for keeping users email address. 
> 6) Heard List (Automatically records heard users callsigns) 
>
> www.m0dqw.co.uk
>
> ----- Forwarded Message ----
> From: Gavin Nesbitt gnesbitt at tiscali.cz
> Sent: Saturday, February 16, 2008 2:44:46 PM
> Subject: DStar Comms
>
> Hi all,
>
> Sent of behalf of Matt M0DQW
>
> ------------------------------------------------
>
> If you've heard of DStar Comms before then please forgive me.
>
> Just thought I would send an email to the group to let you know about 
> the latest version of DStar Comms.
>
> Here's the current feature list:
>
> 1) Text Chat (Send and Receive text messages between DStar Comms 
> Users)
> 2) Beacon Mode (Periodically send Text Based Beacons) 
> 3) Email Gateway (Will allow RF users to relay emails to the 
> internet via fixed users) 
> 4) Email Composer (Allows user to send an email to a DStar Comms user 
> who has configured the Email Gateway) 
> 5) Address Book for keeping users email address. 
> 6) Heard List (Automatically records heard users callsigns)
> 7) Font style and colour selcation for main window.
>
> If you would like to try the software please visit my website:  
> www.m0dqw.co.uk for the D-Star Comm download and forum.
>
> Thanks and 73's
>
> Matt - M0DQW
> www.m0dqw.co.uk
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Gavin Nesbitt,
> M1BXF.
>
> CRG Technical Coordinator.
> www.cambridgerepeaters.net 
> www.camb-hams.com
>
>
>
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