D-STAR - The Most Exciting New Mode

D-STAR is probably the greatest advancement ever seen in ham radio to date. D-STAR stands for "Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio". The system has been developed in collaboration with JARL (Japan Amateur Radio League) and is supported by the Japanese Telecommunications Administration. <span style='color:red'>The protocol is owned by the JARL and not by a single manufacturer. This makes it an open protocol that any manufacturer can use.</span>

The very first company to have radios available with the D-STAR protocol is Icom. The first radio that I bought, in May of 2005, was the Icom IC-V82. This is an entry level HT with the ability to have an optional "UT-118" D-STAR board added to it. Unfortunately I could only afford one radio at the time, and I was hoping to find someone else in my area to experiment with.

To use the radio in digital mode, you must first do the call sign programming. Your call sign is programmed into "MYC" and is displayed on all other radios (except for the IC-2200H) that receive your signal. The call sign of the station that you are calling must be programmed into "YUC". Entering "CQCQCQ" in the place of a call sign will make your radio act like a conventional radio to local traffic. You will be able to speak to anybody else who has his radio set up the same way.

Entering the call sign of a person that you wish to talk to, in to "YUC" will make it like a call sign squelch. You would only hear from the call sign that you have your radio set to. This feature can be handy when you leave your base, and the rest of the family does not want to listen to all the chatter on the frequency. This feature is applicable to both simplex and D-STAR repeater use. This does not make it a private frequency. All other D-STAR equipped radios can hear what is being said. Your base station can hear only your mobile, and your mobile can still hear all calls as long as your mobile is set to "CQCQCQ".

Things get really interesting as D-STAR repeaters become more common. If the repeater is connected into an Internet gateway, every time that you use that repeater, your location is automatically recorded on that gateway. Any other D-Star radio on any other D-Star repeater equipped with an internet gateway, will be able to contact you through "call sign to call sign" calling. The system will automatically track you, regardless of where in the world you are. The call will be automatically routed to the repeater on which you are presently active. You can operate on both voice and data mode at the same time.

<span style='color:red'>D-STAR only defines how the signal is handled going into the box or coming out of the box.</span> It is up to each individual radio manufacturer to decide what features they wish to implement. The Icom <span style='color:blue'>"ID-800H"</span> has both Digital Voice and 950 bps data capabilities and operates on the 2-meter and 70-cm bands. It can also send GPS coordination data, in "NMEA 0183" format, if an external GPS receiver is connected. There is no TNC required for this. Supported data formats are GLL, GGA, RMC, GSA and VTG sentences. A computer, with map plotting software can be connected to the base station, thus showing the location of your mobile. This can be accomplished on the same frequency that you use for voice communications. Handy if you wish to have only one radio with one antenna on your car.

All the capabilities of D-STAR can only be learned as new applications are developed. <span style='color:red'>Because D-STAR is an open protocol, it is not limited to the thinking of only one manufacturer.</span> As other radio manufactures play catch-up, you will see the standard become more enabled as they design in more applications to compete for your dollar. This will only happen as long as hams like you and me buy the D-Star enabled equipment that is currently available. The loss of sales by other manufactures that do not get involve in D-STAR, will force them to support the standard if they wish to keep their share of the ham radio pie.

If you ever travel in the Abbotsford, BC area, give VE7TKO a call at "D-STAR DV on 145.600 MHz". The same holds true if you fly into "YXX" Abbotsford Airport. I live only a few km north of there.

 

D-star is a joke ... its not compatible with any thing other then D-star. APCO25 is the only way to go.

BOB

 

Don't know what it buys me but it sounds too much like work to me.

 

It's brand new. Give it some time before you condemn it.

 

As I said, its not compatible with any thing but Icom's D-star so what good is it if you have a Motorola or Alinco and so on .
APCO25 is an open code.

Bob

 

D-STAR has been around for a few years,so it's hardly new.The problem is that radio manufactures need to standardize their radio specs so that they are compatible with each other. Kind of a waste of money right now until they get that issue resolved.

 

D-Star.  Just another wannabee with a fancy name borrowed from Cadillac's On Star.

WHAT IS APCO 25?

The final documents establishing the APCO 25 Standard were approved and signed in August 1995 at the APCO International Conference and Exposition in Detroit, Michigan.

APCO 25 brings together representatives from many local, state and federal government agencies who evaluate basic technologies in advanced land mobile radio. The objective is to find solutions that best serve the needs of the public safety marketplace. In addition, the committee has encouraged the participation of numerous international public safety organizations, making this a truly worldwide recommended standard-setting initiative.

Specifically, APCO 25 is co-chaired by APCO International and the National Association of State Telecommunications Directors (NASTD). The steering committee, which makes the decisions, consists of APCO International and NASTD representatives, along with federal representatives from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), National Communications System (NCS), and the Department of Defense (DoD). The steering committee is supported by several subcommittees that research specialized areas.

Ten (10) years since and no one really has heard of this either.  APCO another wannabe.  All the buzz words are there.  

"Find Solutions" - Means they don't know where it fits.

And the mention of the military and government agencies is supposed to give it some merit - NOT!

This is on the same fast track as BPL.  Another standard, another group another commitee and another failure.

K2WH

 

WOW Bill not bad.

Bob

 

I have to agree and disagree... Is D-STAR a joke? I dont think so. It is fairly new and is still being worked on and developed, does it have flaws and kinks that need to be worked out, of course it does and probrably will for awhile to come. Is APCO 25 the only way to go? At the present time it seems like the most promising way of integrating communications systems. If I had big bucks to spend on another repeater and had to choose between the D-STAR format and APCO 25, hands down I would go with APCO 25 (I really like being able to choose between multiple brands of radios) Its your money and your choice, if you dont like D-STAR then dont spend your money on it, if you dont like APCO 25 then dont spend your money on it.

 

What ever happened to the "magic of radio?" Using this exciting new communications mode sounds about as much fun as making a cell phone call. Don't get me wrong, I operate some PSK and work all day with the internet and computers. Making my radio hobby just another part of the internet does not excite me in the least. With more and more stuff being "online" and "connected" I think George Orwell's Big Brother is the Internet.
de W5EN

 

Let me get this straight: D-Star is a digital voice mode AND a squelch system? So I could have a radio with my call sign programmed in, and when someone keys up with their radio set to "KI6ABZ", my radio will only be un-squelched by their radio?

Sounds great!

But will it do channel sharing? Is there some way to know who else is talking on the channel, so you don't interfere with them? I'm thinking about the current problem with FRS radios: 3 groups all use 1 channel, but with 3 different CTCSS codes. Sure, you don't hear chatter from the other groups, but you also don't hear your OWN people if the other groups are talking. And you can't tell they're talking, because your CTCSS code is set.

And nobody presses the "Monitor" button on their FRS radio before talking. For that matter, how many of use open the squelch and hit the "Reverse" button on our radios to make sure the repeater input freq is open before keying up?


Intererstingly enough, at one of my clients' shops, where they use a common channel with CTCSS, there's a sign on the mic that says "Press MONITOR first and listen before pressing TALK". Seems like good advice.


Now for the good part of my message:

I think it's about time we have individually addressable radios! GE had a system to do that more than 20 years ago.

But GE's effort was defeated by the cell-phone makers. So now, instead of free spectrum that would roughly be the commercial/personal equivelant of the Amateur Radio Service, we have a segment of spectrum (TV 70-83) that is "Pay for use".

While I think that the cell-phone industry has immesurably helped society, it has also created yet another revenue-stream for CA (Corporate America) and money sink for us. We now brag about spending "only $50 a month" or "only $100 a month" for our cell-phones.

This is yet another indication of where the FCC is going: forget about technically superior services that BENEFIT THE PUBLIC. Instead, go for the money. I don't believe that he with the biggest pocketbook should always win, but that's certainly what is happening in both the legislature AND in the courts.

If APCO25 (nobody has said yet what it IS, just who made it) or D-Star can improve the service, then I hope this idea catches on.

Can you imagine the next step? Every repeater connected through the Internet to a central hub, and every time you key your radio, it registers your closest repeater with the hub. That would become the amateur equivelant of Nextel's PTT service.

Now THAT would be interesting.

 

I thought this was about the Death Star.
And maybe it is, for Amateur Radio.

 

DSTAR is an RF-based system that also happens to have some neat Internet connection features. The 1200 Mhz. mobiles that have been available for some time provide digital voice and 128K digital links. Just plug in your Ethernet cable and go. The repeaters can be linked with a 10 Ghz. digital backbone system that uses ATM protocol, ideal for mixed mode communications, voice, data, and video, with T1 thruput. Fairly impressive for ham gear. There's no reason that the ATM protocol couldn't be scaled up to support much higher speeds, as well.

How does APCO gear compare to DSTAR in terms of price? DSTAR is intended for hams - the gear is not type accepted for government or commercial use. DSTAR is not cheap at this point - probably because ICOM is the only supplier. But that will change if there is enough demand for it.

I wasn't aware of the mobile-to-mobile internet linking ability you mentioned here. Sounds like something that could be useful at times.

 

This is the trend.  The steering of amateur radio slowly but surely intermingled with the internet until the two are indistinguishable.  Once the fabric is tightly woven, one will not be able to operate without the other.

I strongly believe this has been the long term stategy of the FCC, internet providers and other interests who want to get their hands on more spectrum space.  A great example is the FCC's deliberately incomprehensible position on communication matters such as BPL, the removal of CW, the lowering of standards etc.

For years I have been advocating "Get Back to Radio", ever since the digital modes started to appear on the bands but to no avail.

The young people coming into this hobby are as interested in merging computers and radio as we were 40 years ago building receivers and transmitters.  If you can remember your passion to build, imagine the passion of the young people to merge these 2 technologies.

The enemy is within our midst.

K2WH

 

The radio manufactures can't even standardize a simple microphone connector.