D-Star coming to Houston.......

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txshooter
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D-Star coming to Houston.......

Post by txshooter »

D-Star is coming to Houston the equipment is in. 2 meter, 440, and 1.2 ghz al, in one package. Some of the communications guys over at the Red Cross got the package and have been playing with it before putting it on the air.

I got a chance to lay hands on it for the first time today and was actually kind of impressed by what they say it is capable of as a system. Great stuff.......

Too bad the Astro Sabers won;t work with it......

Guess I have to break down and pick up another radio.

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Post by Mong »

Yeah, but they are cheap brand new. I'd have no problem buying them if someone around here actually set up such a system.
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Post by ka8ypy »

we've got a system coming to DC area as well. The Arlington(VA) arc is putting one up in the next year or so.

I'm not sure if the Red Cross is going to do one or not from their national headquarters.

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txshooter
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DStar

Post by txshooter »

ka8ypy wrote:we've got a system coming to DC area as well. The Arlington(VA) arc is putting one up in the next year or so.

I'm not sure if the Red Cross is going to do one or not from their national headquarters.

DB
This is actually being done by the guys that volunteer over at the Red Cross. All private funds. From what they said it seems as if they are almost giving them away. I love some of what they are able to do. I would rather put a good IMBE machine in the air though.

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Re: DStar

Post by ka8ypy »

txshooter wrote:
ka8ypy wrote:we've got a system coming to DC area as well. The Arlington(VA) arc is putting one up in the next year or so.

I'm not sure if the Red Cross is going to do one or not from their national headquarters.

DB
This is actually being done by the guys that volunteer over at the Red Cross. All private funds. From what they said it seems as if they are almost giving them away. I love some of what they are able to do. I would rather put a good IMBE machine in the air though.

Scott
Same here with the IMBE if I could find one. There are several folks in the DC area that would go in on one or two. A pity I have MASTR IIs and not IIIs, the III's could be upgraded to IMBE.

DB
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Post by motorola_otaku »

Last I heard, the only guys playing with D-STAR 'round here were a couple of guys up in Magnolia.. maybe Rusty C. and some of his cronies.

I'm with you on the IMBE thing, though. A lot of people seem to forget that D-STAR is a proprietary-to-Icom format just because it's marketed towards the ham community.
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Post by tvsjr »

Wrong. D-STAR is a protocol owned by the JARL and licensed by Icom, among others. Kenwood, Alinco, etc. are welcome to license/build their own radios. The vocoder is DVSI's AMBE2020, also available for license.
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Post by ka8ypy »

Anybody want to licwnse the AMBE202 and the IMBE vocoders from DVSI and work them into the same radio??

D-Star and P-25 sexy....
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Post by tvsjr »

ka8ypy wrote:Anybody want to licwnse the AMBE202 and the IMBE vocoders from DVSI and work them into the same radio??

D-Star and P-25 sexy....
The next phase of APCO P25 is likely going to end up with AMBE for a codec. Unfortunately, D-STAR uses GMSK rather than FSK or QPSK-C... you'd have to do some significant tweaking, potentially in hardware, to make it play.

Ask Wowbagger... I'm sure he could tell you exactly what to do.

Or, purchase several large rubber band... or duct tape. :mjban:
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Post by mr.syntrx »

The market for a dual mode P25 / D-Star radio is small to nonexistent. It won't happen.
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Post by txshooter »

motorola_otaku wrote:Last I heard, the only guys playing with D-STAR 'round here were a couple of guys up in Magnolia.. maybe Rusty C. and some of his cronies.

I'm with you on the IMBE thing, though. A lot of people seem to forget that D-STAR is a proprietary-to-Icom format just because it's marketed towards the ham community.
Yes, I heard there was one possibly going up on the North Side as well. I was a little suprised.

I have actually had a chance to look over the gear that ther Red Cross Guys have. Looks like I am going to let them use one of the sites I have access to that is close to downtown to put up everything but the Data. At least that is the plan for now. The Data stuff will go over at Chase where they have some space.

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Post by grem467 »

if icom would make their dstars repeaters mixed mode, i think you would see alot more of them on the air. That seems like a HUGE oversight on their part.
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Re: DStar

Post by n3ntx »

ka8ypy wrote:
txshooter wrote:
ka8ypy wrote:we've got a system coming to DC area as well. The Arlington(VA) arc is putting one up in the next year or so.

I'm not sure if the Red Cross is going to do one or not from their national headquarters.

DB
This is actually being done by the guys that volunteer over at the Red Cross. All private funds. From what they said it seems as if they are almost giving them away. I love some of what they are able to do. I would rather put a good IMBE machine in the air though.

Scott
Same here with the IMBE if I could find one. There are several folks in the DC area that would go in on one or two. A pity I have MASTR IIs and not IIIs, the III's could be upgraded to IMBE.

DB
Dan-

how much would we have to fork out for the IMBE machine we'd like to have in N. Charles or S. PG?
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Re: DStar

Post by ka8ypy »

lawman349 wrote:
ka8ypy wrote:
txshooter wrote:
ka8ypy wrote:we've got a system coming to DC area as well. The Arlington(VA) arc is putting one up in the next year or so.

I'm not sure if the Red Cross is going to do one or not from their national headquarters.

DB
This is actually being done by the guys that volunteer over at the Red Cross. All private funds. From what they said it seems as if they are almost giving them away. I love some of what they are able to do. I would rather put a good IMBE machine in the air though.

Scott

Same here with the IMBE if I could find one. There are several folks in the DC area that would go in on one or two. A pity I have MASTR IIs and not IIIs, the III's could be upgraded to IMBE.

DB
Dan-

how much would we have to fork out for the IMBE machine we'd like to have in N. Charles or S. PG?
Depends on if its a V or a U. UHF machines are running 2000 - 2500, Vhf machine are a bit higher.

I included you in the above remark along with Seth and a couple other folks in the area.
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Post by n3ntx »

i was thinking...

that 455' tower in waldorf would be a perfect location.

if we could get ia VHF antenna to about 350', it would cover about 6 counties!

right now it only has charles county systems on it. plenty of room!


how likely is American Tower to donate space? Its not likely they are holding out for sprint/nextel, verizon, or the like. those carriers seem to have RF up the wazoo in waldorf...
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Post by ka8ypy »

lawman349 wrote:i was thinking...

that 455' tower in waldorf would be a perfect location.

if we could get ia VHF antenna to about 350', it would cover about 6 counties!

right now it only has charles county systems on it. plenty of room!


how likely is American Tower to donate space? Its not likely they are holding out for sprint/nextel, verizon, or the like. those carriers seem to have RF up the wazoo in waldorf...
Nice place to put it if we can get Charles county to toss a little weight behind it. In my experience, American Tower is all about money.
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Post by tvsjr »

lawman349 wrote:how likely is American Tower to donate space? Its not likely they are holding out for sprint/nextel, verizon, or the like. those carriers seem to have RF up the wazoo in waldorf...
HAHA. ROFL. American Tower, donate space? Not hardly. They're a group of bean-counters, nothing more. Don't ever forget it. :soap:
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Post by n3ntx »

i am not surprised.


they were a pain in the ass to deal with during the system construction process.
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