Omaha Digital Communications Group

This Independence Day weekend has been a great one for our ham radio family to catch up on projects. My son (Jay/W0JWS) and I got my HF digital station back on the air for BPSK31 following some earlier frustrations with my RigTalk and RigRunner Plug-and-Play seemingly not wanting to transmit (turns out you have to pay attention to which COM port you think you’re talking to!).

To add to the excitement, we’ve got a D-Star mobile radio on its way to us thanks to a tip from a First Data coworker and ham, Joe Moll/K0DNS. Joe passed along the news that Gigaparts is running a really good sale on D-Star radios and accessories. I couldn’t pass up the discount and ordered an ID-800H mobile dualband D-Star ready radio for about $80 off what I’d been pricing elsewhere. If you’re interested in getting into D-Star or expanding your capability, definitely check out the sale.

That said, I’ve had a lot of ham radio friends ask about D-Star and its value, especially given the expense of having to buy new radios equipped with the functionality. Like about anything else in this hobby, it’s not cheap. The benefits definitely need to be clear to make the jump. Here are a few reasons to consider getting involved with D-Star capable amateur radio:

D-Star Radio Framework

D-Star isn’t simply “digitized voice communications” — it’s a packetized radio framework that supports digital voice as just one of many of the applications that share the same frequency. If you think of computer communications back before the Internet and other packet sharing networks, everything was point-to-point communications, with the use reserving the resource (be it a leased line or a radio link) and being locked into a specific application. Packet sharing separated out the medium from the application and allowed the medium to be shared by lots of different applications.

D-Star does just that for amateur VHF/UHF/SHF frequencies, giving you immediate access to the voice application that runs on top of the framework, but also leaving it open for amateurs to build and operate other applications. Out of the gate, D-Star’s gateway-linked voice is a great application that allows you to connect and talk with hams worldwide on other D-Star gateway-linked repeaters. Of course, IRLP does a similar linking function without the expense of a new digital radio.

APRS over D-Star, GPS position reporting, text messaging, and even slower speed Internet communications are able to run along side with voice traffic, putting D-Star’s framework more to use. Many more applications are out there that I haven’t experimented with, and given the open framework, it’ll be exciting to see how else it’s put to use. For the Linux hacker, open source programmer, or other digitally-inclined experimentalist, D-Star is a great place to put your amateur license to work.

In time, I hope to see us activate a 1.2 GHz D-Star digital node in Omaha as well, providing 128 Kbps IP connectivity for amateur use around the greater Omaha area (if you’re interested in seeing 1.2 GHz active, shoot me a note at my callsign at yahoo.com).

Getting Started

The other Omaha Digital Communications Group guys had some good tips for me when I was ready to jump into D-Star that are worth passing along. Their recommendations helped me get into the digital mode with a lot of flexibility, while watching the wallet:

• Go handheld first: Your HT gives you a lot of mobility vs. the expense of a mobile that sits idle in your car or truck half the time. I picked up a D-Star ready IC-92AD ($500-$580) which is a little on the steep side for a dual-band HT (my Yaesu VX-7R was a bit less than $300).
• Get an amplifier for mobile use: I added a Mirage B-34-G 35 watt amplifier for $100 and it’s been great for solid D-Star while mobile in my truck.
• Get your software and PC cables for your radio: Besides helping with programming your radio, the cables and Icom software (e.g. RS-92) are very handy since they get you going with the other digital applications.

If you have questions, definitely reach out to one of us KD0CGR repeater guys (John/WB0CMC, Greg/W0AAI, Steve/N0UP, Corby/K0SKW, Jamie/W0JRS) or some of the D-Star savvy people in Omaha (like Mary/N0TRK). Some of the initial setup can be confusing, especially if you accidentally read the Icom manuals, so don’t hesitate to reach out via email or on the analog repeaters.