Alabama Repeater Link System, D-STAR

he enhancement of the Alabama Linked Repeater System is one project of the ARRL Alabama Section. The ultimate goal is for Alabama to have a state-of-the-art, 24/7 statewide repeater system. This repeater system will connect amateur radio operators throughout the state, and be a vital mechanism linking agencies such as, National Weather Service, Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, EMA’s and Red Cross during times of severe weather and disasters. This link would be a backup and supplement the existing statewide HF Alabama Emergency Net system on 3.965MHz.

Alabama amateurs are pioneering D-STAR use and leads the nation on new digital radio communications technology. Digital repeaters using ICOM D-STAR technology are being located in throughout Alabama and can connect state amateurs together and the outside world via the internet.

This project is comprised of three parts, first, this is the Alabama ARRL project to upgrade and enhance the state wide linked repeater system. Second. this will provide more emergency communications capabilities of ARES, Southern Baptist, EMA’s and others and third this will help radio amateurs continue to be productive in radio innovations. All three of these show the contribution and justify the use of amateur radio.

Radio clubs and groups throughout Alabama are considering adding a D-STAR repeater systems in their area. This is a great project for clubs and groups. Fund raising and the dedication to install and use this new technology will greatly benefit your club. Some clubs are finding that grants are available.

Digital is the future of radio communications and many advantages are being realized. Digital uses smaller bandwidth, is BPL tolerant, digital data transfer, GPS position, automatic IDs and more.

Alabama locations that would be a great partner in the Alabama Repeater Linked system and prime repeater are sites such as, Huntsville, Cheaha, Mentone, Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, Montgomery, Clanton, Mobile, and Magnolia Springs. Get in touch with the Alabama Repeater Council frequency coordinator to allocate your frequencies.

Alabama D-STAR Digital Repeater Project Status:

(listed in order of activation)

Huntsville On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: KI4PPF
145.430 - C

443.375 + B
1284.000 -12MHz A
Data frequency: 1251.800 A

Pictures

Cheaha Mountain, Anniston Alabama On the Air

Repeater Call sign: WB4GNA
145.300 - C
442.425 + B

1285.000 -12MHz A (coming soon)

Data frequency: 1251.00 A

Pictures

Tuscaloosa, Hospital On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: W4KCQ

146.605 - C

444.075 + B

1284.400 -12MHz A

Data frequency: 1249.000

Pictures

Huntsville, Experimental On the Air

Repeater Call sign: KI4QMQ
145.360 + C

443.325 + B
1285.000 -12MHz A
Data frequency: 1251.00 A

Magnolia Springs, On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: KI4SAZ

145.310 - C

444.300 + B

1285.00 -12MHz A

Data frequency: 1251.00 A

Pictures

Tuscaloosa, Tall Tower On the Air

Repeater Call sign: W4TTR

145.350 - C

442.900 + B

1287.960 -12MHz A (coming soon)

Data frequency: 1248.200 A

Pictures

Birmingham, On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: K4DSO

145.410 - C
443.200 + B

1283.400 -12MHz A

Data frequency: 1250.00 A

Guntersville, On the Air

Repeater Call sign: KI4RYX

145.140 - C

Alabaster, On the Air

Repeater Call sign: N4RON

146.730 - A

442.075 + B

1293.000 -20MHz A

Data frequency: 1248.00 A

Mentone - On the Air

Repeater Call sign: KI4SAY

145.440 - C

443.325 + B

1285.000 -12MHz A

Data frequency: 1251.00 A

Mobile - On the Air

Repeater Call sign: W4IAX

145.390 - C

444.900 + B

Montgomery - On the Air

Repeater Call sign: W4AP

146.920 - C

other bands soon

Alpharetta/Cumming GA, On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: KI4SBA

145.200 - C

444.350 + B

1284.400 -12MHz A

Data frequency: 1250.00 A

http://www.southbears.net/d-star.htm

McHenry Mississippi, On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: KI4TMJ

145.170 - C

444.475 + B

1284.000 - 12MHz A, DV

Data frequency: 1250.000 A

New Orleans Louisiana, On the Air *Gateway Connected*

Repeater Call sign: W5GAD

146.925 - C

444.925 + B

1285.000 - 12MHz A, DV

Data frequency: 1251.000 A

The Alabama D-STAR group has standardized presentations for use to help grow and promote D-STAR.

The Montgomery Amateur Radio Club host a "nuts to bolts" seminar on D-Star in conjunction with their Hamfest on November 10th, 2007 which was also the Alabama ARRL Section Convention.

This will be a three part D-STAR seminar (beginning at noon). D-STAR radios, hardware and communications examples will be shown. ARES, EMCOMM, Southern Baptist Disaster relief amateurs are encouraged to attend.

The seminar will consist of, three sessions
D-STAR Introduction: Rick Seeders, KG4PNL

Call Sign use in D-STAR: D-STAR Call Signs: Greg Sarratt, W4OZK
Advanced D-STAR: D-STAR Advanced: Greg Sarratt, W4OZK

If you are new to D-STAR, or just want to dig a little deeper, this seminar is for you.

Please RSVP by sending an email to kg4pnl@arrl.net

The ID-1 can be configured to connect to the WAN and it works well. Here is a working example for the Huntsville KI4PPF repeater.

The D-STAR Position Reporting System (D-PRS) is interfaced with the Automatic Position Reporting System (APRS). The Huntsville D-STAR KI4PPF repeater will pass your GPS coordinate information via RF to the APRS existing network.

To use the system you will need to add a message command in your D-STAR radio's TX message area. Go to this site to compute the message command. http://www.aprs-is.net/dprscalc.htm

The Alabama D-STAR booth at Hamcation, Orlando Florida was a big hit and a blast! Our booth had several hundred visitors from local, regional, many other states and even one amateur from Hawaii. We demonstrated a full D-STAR repeater, using 70cm for the Hamfest repeater. A laptop computer connected to a 1.2g ID-1 radio surfing the internet on the high speed data port. We also conducted a D-STAR presentation and the Orlando ARC meeting. The local amateurs showed us much hospitality.

Tuscaloosa D-STAR repeater, W4KQC moved to the DCH medical tower in Tuscaloosa and has Internet access !

Alabama and Georgia Baptist Disaster Relief teams join together to install the second GA D-STAR repeater system. The gateway is coming soon.

Huntsville Alabama was proud to host an exceptionally successful, informative and fun D-STAR seminar!

Most of our nation’s serious D-STAR experimenters and users were in town for this event. Over 100 amateurs from all over the USA and Canada were in attendance and 16 states and 2 providences were well represented. Everyone together made this a successful event!

There was plenty of D-STAR repeater equipment, radios and servers to see and use. ICOM had great representation. GigaParts also have several representatives in attendance and provided seminar specials.

The Friday night social time and club meeting was a hit. 85 amateurs attended the meeting and there was plenty of pizza and drinks for everyone. Many D-STAR seminar attendees, local club members and there were 10 non-ham local college students that came to learn about the new digital technology were in attendance. It was fitting for one of the students to win the IC-91AD door prize. The students plan to have a license class and get their amateur radio licenses soon.

The Saturday seminar had every session full of eager amateurs learning more about D-STAR. Dynamic Q&A sessions and great audience interaction was the norm.

The door prize lot turned out to be an impressive collection. Several repeater directories, D-STAR tee shirts and D-STAR radios we given away. The major door prize winners were:

IC-91AD, HARC club meeting door prize, Matthew Davis, senior student at Drake State Technical College.

I want to thank all the attendees and instructors that attended the Huntsville D-STAR training seminar! The knowledge gained, meeting other users and information exchange was beneficial for all who attended. Added thanks to the instructors for talking much of their time preparing and presenting the material.

I appreciate the effort from ICOM, GigaParts and the amateurs to come together to continue the innovation and exciting technology in digital amateur radio!

Lets here form other seminar attendees. Write your comments, observations and what you learned and submit it here so many others can benefit from your experience.

The East Alabama D-STAR Repeater Net meets on Thursdays at 7:30 pm, on the Cheaha Mtn D-STAR VHF, 145.300- WB4GNA-C. The (CCARA) Calhoun County Amateur Radio Association and the (CVHRA) Coosa Valley Ham Radio Association host the net. NCS and NM is KG4EUD. See http://cvhamradio.org/ for more information.

Two more Alabama amateur radio clubs voted to purchase and install a D-STAR repeater systems. Congratulations to Montgomery and Birmingham amateur radio clubs! They will find many hours of experimentation, innovation, and fun with the new digital communications technology as several other Alabama groups have.

There was a Alabama Digital Repeater Project, D-STAR forum at the Huntsville Hamfest on August 19th. This was one of the most popular forums at the Hamfest.

The forum reviewed the status, configuration and future of the Alabama Digital Repeater Project using D-STAR. Was a D-STAR user group meeting and we heard a review from each Alabama repeater local area user about their system. D-STAR status, hints, kinks, coverage area, Gateway (GW) and operation was discussed. Certified GW operators will be available for questions. Special guest was Ray Novak, N9JA.

D-STAR radios and repeater equipment was on display. This was a great forum meeting of D-STAR users, repeater owners and interested amateurs.

D-STAR Training Class at Huntsville Hamfest

ICOM hosting a D-STAR Gateway Training and Certification class on Friday
before the Huntsville Hamfest. Over 50 amateurs traveled from over 6 states to attend the class and learn more about D-STAR.

The class covered how to setup, configure, test and "go live" with a D-STAR gateway server. The certifications test was given.

D-STAR (Digital Smart Technology for Amateur Radio) repeater systems are becoming a reality across America. Approximately 30 amateurs traveled from around the USA to attend a day-long session held on Saturday, July 22, at the University of Texas at Arlington, in Arlington, Texas. The D-STAR 101 training class was graciously hosted by members of the Texas Interconnect Team,. K5TTT, put on a very informative class covering the software and operations of D-STAR. Attendees learned that this is not your conventional repeater or computer network, and that many traditional practices and conventions do not apply.

Training and certification is required on the Gateway software, which connects the repeater to the internet. After taking the class and submitting to the certification process I understand why! This is a challenging network convention that has to be performed absolutely correctly because information is mirrored across the entire network that spans the USA. Many of the class participants took the certification exam and are now certified to install and manage the Gateway software.

Four Alabama amateurs traveled to Arlington to take the training and are now certified to install the Gateway software. Jay Isbell KA4KUN, Ron Shaffer W4VM, Clay Williams KG4UYP and Greg Sarratt W4OZK are certified and will assist with your system installation.

It was interesting talking with the Texas Interconnect Team and D-STAR owners and users from across America while learning more about this new technology.

Georgiana 145.19-
Greenville 440 hub
Montgomery 444.450+
Friendship 147.200+
Birmingham 145.570s
Tuscaloosa 440 hub
Muscle Shoals/Florence 145.41-
Huntsville 145.23- pl186.2
(all PLs are 203.5 except Hsv is 186.2)