Any of you that have followed the progress of the homebrew D-STar that I built may recall that I was having some difficulty keeping it stable. Essentially, the repeater was going into a looping TX condition periodically. After trying everything I could think of, I finally decided to try swapping out the Moencomm GMSK Star*Board for a DVRPTR_V1 board, which is available from D-STAR Boards - The original DVRPTR V1 - D-STAR Repeaters and Hotspots. I did this because I convinced myself that the problem was caused by the Dutch*Star firmware. The DVRPTR_V1 board uses open source firmware and with an optional enclosure costs $120.
Here is a pic of the little unit attached to the repeater:
After a month of usage with the new DVRPTR_V1 board, I can report that the repeater is now flawless. It's using the G4KLX D-Star Repeater software with ircDDB Gateway and can connect to any Icom repeater or reflector, as well as all of the homebrew repeaters and reflectors. For the PC, I'm just using an old netbook with Windows 7, but you could just as easily use a linux or Raspberry Pi machine.
The price on D-Star radios has really dropped; the Icom ID-31 can be found new for less than $300. I've since converted the MoenComm Star*Board into a hotspot or DVAP (DV Access Point), attached to a cheap UHF FM radio. Using this combo, you can get on the D-Star systems and the W9WDX repeater even if you don't have access to a local D-Star repeater.
Now is as good a time to try dabbling in D-Star if you've been holding out!
Here is a pic of the little unit attached to the repeater:
After a month of usage with the new DVRPTR_V1 board, I can report that the repeater is now flawless. It's using the G4KLX D-Star Repeater software with ircDDB Gateway and can connect to any Icom repeater or reflector, as well as all of the homebrew repeaters and reflectors. For the PC, I'm just using an old netbook with Windows 7, but you could just as easily use a linux or Raspberry Pi machine.
The price on D-Star radios has really dropped; the Icom ID-31 can be found new for less than $300. I've since converted the MoenComm Star*Board into a hotspot or DVAP (DV Access Point), attached to a cheap UHF FM radio. Using this combo, you can get on the D-Star systems and the W9WDX repeater even if you don't have access to a local D-Star repeater.
Now is as good a time to try dabbling in D-Star if you've been holding out!