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D-STAR Repeater progress

Needs to be a UHF repeater,

Is this because of the "availability" of pairs? Doesn't seem to matter because there are no 440 pairs here either! I told Mole he needs to try registering as a Mormon Church. They all seem to get pairs...

:headbang
 
--Hi. Will your repeater (and ICOM D-STAR repeaters) "pass through" analog signals, or will it ONLY word with D-STAR enabled radios? I know that an analog radio would obviously not transmit D-Star, but was curious if a D-STAR repeater would work with plain ole analog rigs. Thanks.
 
--Hi. Will your repeater (and ICOM D-STAR repeaters) "pass through" analog signals, or will it ONLY word with D-STAR enabled radios? I know that an analog radio would obviously not transmit D-Star, but was curious if a D-STAR repeater would work with plain ole analog rigs. Thanks.

That's one thing about D-Star repeaters: they won't pass analog signals. Remember, part of the point is to take less band spectrum; if it passed analog then it wouldn't achieve that goal.
 
Anything new to report on your progress - Mole?

BTW - don't know that much about D-Star. What are the advantages? Features? Reason for choosing it over regular analog repeaters? Can an analog radio access a D-Star repeater - for one?
 
Anything new to report on your progress - Mole?

Yes. I have repaired the damaged radios, assembled them into the case and am almost ready to go. I now have to purchase a duplexer for the pair I choose.

BTW - don't know that much about D-Star. What are the advantages? Features?

The first advantage is that it uses quite a bit less bandwidth, allowing for more stations within the same spectrum. It can also transmit data at the same time as voice, so the transmissions typically include callsign info, GPS status (if desired) and comments. If you enable the GPS stuff, the system knows where in the world you are when you key a repeater and it can auto-route you to the station you want to contact. There are a bunch of other stuff that it can do. If you have the funds to try out one of the radios, it's pretty cool!

Reason for choosing it over regular analog repeaters? Can an analog radio access a D-Star repeater - for one?

Because the coverage for D-Star stinks in the area around here and I wanted to learn something new. There are plenty of analog repeaters. And no, an analog radio cannot access a digital repeater.
 
Yes. I have repaired the damaged radios, assembled them into the case and am almost ready to go. I now have to purchase a duplexer for the pair I choose.

Glad to hear you got the radios repaired. Looking forward to hearing you on the air!
 
Well, Mole's not updating, but since I've been nagging him about it I'll fill those of you in who have been following the saga...

The Duplexer has left the building and should be working in the next couple of weeks.
**Jump_im**

I've been jonesing for him to get this thing rolling after getting the full on D-Star station a few months back. Good thing the wife thinks it all cost $25...
 
Update:

I got the repeater 1/2 working on a test frequency. It is able to RX & decode D-STAR data just fine, which is a start. It actually does attempt to repeat, but no remote D-STAR radios can decode what it is sending yet. This is similar to the issue I originally had, and turning up the TX deviation seemed to help. I'm going to change a few configuration settings this week to see if it finally makes this thing work properly.
 
Good to hear your making progress again. Did you get the GM300s repaired or what are you using?



Update:

I got the repeater 1/2 working on a test frequency. It is able to RX & decode D-STAR data just fine, which is a start. It actually does attempt to repeat, but no remote D-STAR radios can decode what it is sending yet. This is similar to the issue I originally had, and turning up the TX deviation seemed to help. I'm going to change a few configuration settings this week to see if it finally makes this thing work properly.
 
Good to hear your making progress again. Did you get the GM300s repaired or what are you using?

I found some junk GM300's that were beat up but working on ebay and swapped the head, covers, etc. with the nicer ones.

But it get worse...

...Today I was working on trying to figure out why the repeater would decode fine, but anything that it transmitted could not be decoded by any other D-STAR radio. I tried changing the JU551 (it's P551 on these radios) to flat audio output, which didn't help. I tried adjusting the deviation on both the radio and on the Star*Board. Nothing is working, and I saw recently that someone else trying to do this with GM300's on the yahoo group is having the same problem.

Then out of nowhere, the RX radio (which was working fine) decided to shut off and it won't power on now. I have no idea why. I'm beginning to question whether or not I should continue to try this with these GM300 radios as I'm not having much luck. Perhaps I should try this with something else.
 
Sorry to hear your having such bad luck with the GM300s. I've done several simplex hot spots and a couple of repeaters all using GM300s and with great results.

I would be happy setup the radios and Star Board for you. I still have one of the first beta Star Boards running on the hot spot in my shack.

Do you have anything connected to pin 10 on the GM300? This is the ignition sense pin and if shorted to ground, will cause the radio to go dark.



I found some junk GM300's that were beat up but working on ebay and swapped the head, covers, etc. with the nicer ones.


Then out of nowhere, the RX radio (which was working fine) decided to shut off and it won't power on now. I have no idea why. I'm beginning to question whether or not I should continue to try this with these GM300 radios as I'm not having much luck. Perhaps I should try this with something else.
 
Sorry to hear your having such bad luck with the GM300s. I've done several simplex hot spots and a couple of repeaters all using GM300s and with great results.

I would be happy setup the radios and Star Board for you. I still have one of the first beta Star Boards running on the hot spot in my shack.

Do you have anything connected to pin 10 on the GM300? This is the ignition sense pin and if shorted to ground, will cause the radio to go dark.

There is a wire attached to the interface cable, but it's cut off on the other side. I suppose it's possible that it shorted to another wire, but I don't see how. It was working just fine.

I'll drop you an email - I think I'm going to take you up on your offer to see if you can get this thing going.

Tim
 

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