D-STAR monitor link...
Tom Azlin
If you want to monitor all the D-STAR repeater activity go to this site:
http://nj6n.com/dplusmon/
This updates frequently showing details of D-STAR activity, including
our own Tysons Corner D-STAR repeaters on 2m, 70cm, and 23cm. Shows the
actual voice routing for each transmission in addition to who is getting
the audio on the several D-STAR voice reflectors.
If you want to see what is happening on the local D-STAR repeaters you
go to one of the following links...
http://www.jfindu.net/dstarlh.aspx?rptr=NV4FM (NVFMA)
http://www.jfindu.net/dstarlh.aspx?rptr=W4HFH (Alexandria Radio Club)
http://www.jfindu.net/dstarlh.aspx?rptr=N4USI (Bull Run)
Eventually we will have two more local D-STAR repeaters on line or back
on line. Stafford Amateur Radio Association has an active repeater but
their gateway is not connected at the moment. The Metropolitan
Washington Airport Authority sponsored D-STAR repeater should be up
later this Winter covering Reagan National Airport and the downtown area
(perhaps a bit further over into Maryland but at least inside the
beltway not covered by the Alexandria D-STAR repeater).
The NFVMA, Alexandria Radio Club, Bull Run, Stafford, and MWAA are all
part of the National Capital Region D-STAR Association. NCR D-STAR is
the local D-STAR owners/operators group. As one of our first actions we
have agreed to have a joint multicast address. This address provides
the following:
1. A "calling channel" so a D-STAR user can call out regionally to find
someone. Then switch to repeater to repeater routing to not tie up the
other repeaters.
2. An emergency network so that regional emergencies can be easily
handled. We are also looking into ways to have local, non-Internet
routing so that this will survive outages.
3. A mechanism for limited regional nets.
I will be providing info at the general meeting tomorrow on how to
program this multicast address into your radios. And providing info to
the board so that this can be put on our NVFMA web site.
You can also find a list of last heard users on D-STAR at
http://dstarusers.org/ As this same site you can track the total number
of users, find D-STAR repeaters around the world, and find some
applications for D-STAR. There about 320 connected D-STAR repeaters
around the world, about 6k registered users, and perhaps 1000 hams using
the system every day.
73, Tom Azlin n4zpt
NVFMA D-STAR lead