Status Update: KO7SLC Salt Lake ARES Repeater - 1.2 gHz Data Module Testing

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N0KGM - Robb Kunz

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Mar 11, 2012, 10:58:20 AM3/11/12
to utah-d-s...@googlegroups.com, bartva...@gmail.com, patm...@gmail.com, e...@slcoares.net
We were successful with preliminary testing of the new 1.2 gHz data module on the KO7SLC D-Star repeater this weekend.  The repeater is located at the Intermoutain Medical Center in Murray.

We connected two of the Cottonwood Heights EOC ID-1's through the KO7SLC data module at 1298.750 RPS...we kept the link up and running between the two radios for about 90 minutes.  Both radios were Line-of-Site (LOS) to the repeater.

We also tested and used DV to coordinate on the repeaters:

C Module: 145.150-

The internet gateway is still not connected and we did not identify any 1.2 GHz DV capability yet.

The next round of testing, which is planned from now until the end of March, is to include:

1. Testing various data files/images of various sizes to test, time and record the bandwidth/speed going through the repeater using the Cottonwood Heights ID-1's radios

2. Testing lower power settings to determine how that affects data transfer speed using the Cottonwood Heights ID-1's.

3. Test the Cottonwood Heights EOC HQ ID-1 direct to the Intermoutain Medical Center in Murray which is not LOS.

4. Complete installation/configurations of ID-1's in various Hospitals and Medical Centers such as Riverton and Alta View (thanks to full support from John Mayou - KF7JBA)

5. Run a complete peer-to-peer AND repeater test cycles of 4 locations, including performance load testing and analyze the time and speed impacts (this test scheduled for April).

More specific information on the repeater can be found on the Salt Lake County ARES Website D-Star page at:

http://www.slcoares.net/home/d-star-information

Anyone who wants to participate and learn more about D-STAR including helping us run various tests can contact me at N0...@arrl.net or 801.633.2004.

This increase in activity and implementation across the valley will be exciting and useful to all of us!

Cheers,
Robb - N0KGM





John D. Hays

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Mar 11, 2012, 2:43:53 PM3/11/12
to N0KGM - Robb Kunz, utah-d-s...@googlegroups.com, bartva...@gmail.com, patm...@gmail.com, e...@slcoares.net, Horace Hamby
Hi Robb,

Exciting developments!

A couple of questions and comments.

The ID-1 and RP2D are both simplex radios on DD (technically on DD it is RPS which means its simplex with the "repeat" flag flipped).  When you say the two ID-1s were connected "through" the data module (RP2D), what do you mean? Were they both connected to some application on the other side of the RP2D?  Or were the ID-1s talking directly to each other?

You have an advantage in Salt Lake County (over up here near Seattle) as you can probably get line of sight between major hospitals, clinics, and EOCs to IMC.  I'm just curious if you were able to put the 23cm stuff up near the antennas as transmission loss will be very high at those frequencies?  Because of the bandwidth at 128kbps digital data, you will see significantly shorter useful range as compared to digital voice on the same frequency, so you will probably find that you need higher power and possibly high gain antennas to have reliability over distances. (I'm sure John Lloyd can give you great path loss figures.)

There are ARES groups here in Kirkland and Bellevue, WA working on similar projects.  You can probably share notes with them -- I have CC'ed a contact on this email.  Once your gateway is up, you might want to try some ID-1 <-> ID-1 contacts through the gateway over the Internet.

I imagine you are implementing Icom's G2 gateway.  If so, I'd like to encourage you to add the ircDDB add-on to your installation. It gives you much greater connectivity as shown on the statistics show at the bottom of this page http://ircddb.net/ -- the first step is the register KO7SLC here http://regsrv.ircddb.net/index.htm and then follow the procedure here http://download.ircddb.net/ircddb-icom/install/ircDDB_Installation_Icom-en.pdf -- once you get your credentials back from registration and have the Icom G2 software installed, the whole process should take less than 1/2 hour.   It will also allow your teams to use STARnet Digital (see my presentation video at http://k7ve.org/blog/starnet-digital-videos/) for tactical operations across the state.  I have yet to have a good test platform, but believe we could use STARnet Digital groups to tie multiple RP2Ds together to build an extended data VPN.

If you have not purchased and implemented the Icom G2 gateway, you might want to look at ircDDBGateway http://db0fhn.efi.fh-nuernberg.de/~g4klx/gateway.html  which can be used with both Icom Controllers and various homebrew repeater (or simplex "hotspot") systems.

I'll be excited to follow the development and use some of the new systems when visiting my son (KD7PRM - not active) in Salt Lake City.


John D. Hays
K7VE
PO Box 1223, Edmonds, WA 98020-1223 
  

John Lloyd

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Mar 12, 2012, 12:47:28 PM3/12/12
to N0KGM - Robb Kunz, John D. Hays, utah-d-s...@googlegroups.com, bartva...@gmail.com, patm...@gmail.com, e...@slcoares.net, Horace Hamby, ll...@ussc.com, Utah_VHFS...@yahoogroups.com
Hi Robb,

Good news and good to hear that you have your stack up and operating at
the Hospital!

I have an ID-1 radio and would like to test with you on 1.2 GHz DV and
DD modes.

Please let me know when I can try to access your EOC radios. I can try
from either my home location or at work in Murray.

Thanks,


John Lloyd, K7JL

> <http://db0fhn.efi.fh-nuernberg.de/%7Eg4klx/gateway.html> which can be


> used with both Icom Controllers and various homebrew repeater (or
> simplex "hotspot") systems.
>
> I'll be excited to follow the development and use some of the new
> systems when visiting my son (KD7PRM - not active) in Salt Lake City.
>

> ------------------------------------------------------------------------


> John D. Hays
> K7VE
> PO Box 1223, Edmonds, WA 98020-1223

> <http://k7ve.org/blog> <http://twitter.com/#%21/john_hays>
> <http://www.facebook.com/john.d.hays>


>
>
>
> On Sun, Mar 11, 2012 at 07:58, N0KGM - Robb Kunz <robb...@gmail.com
> <mailto:robb...@gmail.com>> wrote:
>
> We were successful with preliminary testing of the new 1.2 gHz data
> module on the KO7SLC D-Star repeater

> <http://dstarusers.org/viewrepeater.php?system=KO7SLC> this


> weekend. The repeater is located at the Intermoutain Medical Center

> <http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/imed/maps/Pages/home.aspx>


> in Murray.
>
> We connected two of the Cottonwood Heights EOC ID-1's through the
> KO7SLC data module at 1298.750 RPS...we kept the link up and running
> between the two radios for about 90 minutes. Both radios were
> Line-of-Site (LOS) to the repeater.
>
> We also tested and used DV to coordinate on the repeaters:
>
> C Module: 145.150-
>
> The internet gateway is still not connected and we did not identify
> any 1.2 GHz DV capability yet.
>
> The next round of testing, which is planned from now until the end
> of March, is to include:
>
> 1. Testing various data files/images of various sizes to test, time
> and record the bandwidth/speed going through the repeater using the
> Cottonwood Heights ID-1's radios
>
> 2. Testing lower power settings to determine how that affects data
> transfer speed using the Cottonwood Heights ID-1's.
>
> 3. Test the Cottonwood Heights EOC HQ ID-1 direct to the
> Intermoutain Medical Center

> <http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/imed/maps/Pages/home.aspx>


> in Murray which is not LOS.
>
> 4. Complete installation/configurations of ID-1's in various
> Hospitals and Medical Centers such as Riverton

> <http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/rivertonhospital/maps/Pages/home.aspx>
> and Alta View
> <http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/altaview/maps/Pages/home.aspx>


> (thanks to full support from John Mayou - KF7JBA)
>
> 5. Run a complete peer-to-peer AND repeater test cycles of 4
> locations, including performance load testing and analyze the time
> and speed impacts (this test scheduled for April).
>
> More specific information on the repeater can be found on the Salt
> Lake County ARES Website D-Star page at:
>
> http://www.slcoares.net/home/d-star-information
>

> *Anyone who wants to participate and learn more about D-STAR


> including helping us run various tests can contact me at

> N0...@arrl.net <mailto:N0...@arrl.net> or 801.633.2004
> <tel:801.633.2004>.*


>
> This increase in activity and implementation across the valley will
> be exciting and useful to all of us!
>
> Cheers,
> Robb - N0KGM
>

> --
> You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google
> Groups "Utah D-STAR Users" group.
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RUSS HARMON

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Mar 12, 2012, 1:36:57 PM3/12/12
to robb...@gmail.com, utah-d-s...@googlegroups.com, bartva...@gmail.com, patm...@gmail.com, e...@slcoares.net

That is good to hear. I have been waiting for this stack to get on line!!! When you get the cofigurations done for the ID-1s,  I have the ID-1 radios for Jordan Valley MC  and Pioneer Valley Hospital at my home in Surgar House/ Millcreek area. I would like to get them programmed and start testing.

Russ Harmon  
KC7WVQ
Salt Lake City, UT
801-467-4338h
801-554-0215c
 

Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2012 07:58:20 -0700
From: robb...@gmail.com
To: utah-d-s...@googlegroups.com
CC: bartva...@gmail.com; patm...@gmail.com; e...@slcoares.net
Subject: [UT D-STAR:521] Status Update: KO7SLC Salt Lake ARES Repeater - 1.2 gHz Data Module Testing

Pat - N6VLU

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Mar 12, 2012, 1:41:00 PM3/12/12
to Utah D-STAR Users
Thanks to Robb for the testing. You are correct, there is no DV on
1.2G and there are no plans for it at the present. Cost and bandwith
are issues that may prevent it from ever coming to fruition. We
expect to have the gateway up soon. Charles Gray KE6QZU and John
Mayou are currently leading that effort and Robb has graciously
offered to help if needed. John Mayou KF7JBA (ARES liaison for the
hospitals) will be programming the ID1's with Robb's help. During
Shakeout 2012 we will use the 1.2g data for the hospitals and work out
any kinks.

There have been some requests for help programming D-STAR radios so I
will be having a programming 'party' at my house on the 24th at
1:30pm. We will also have Larry Jacobs (WA7ZBO) who is a managing
member with the Utah BBQ Association providing some mighty fine dutch
oven cooking. If interested send me an email at e...@slcoares.net for
further details.

Thanks again to Robb for his help and to John Lloyd K7JL for tuning
the duplexers.

Pat Malan - N6VLU
Emergency Coordinator
ARRL SLCo ARES
Cell: 801-413-7438
Email: E...@slcoares.net
Web: www.slcoares.net
Twitter: SLCOARESINFO
PO Box 95541, South Jordan, UT 84905

On Mar 11, 8:58 am, N0KGM - Robb Kunz <robb.k...@gmail.com> wrote:
> We were successful with preliminary testing of the new 1.2 gHz data module
> on the KO7SLC D-Star repeater<http://dstarusers.org/viewrepeater.php?system=KO7SLC>this weekend.  The repeater is located at the Intermoutain
> Medical Center<http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/imed/maps/Pages/home.aspx>in Murray.
>
> We connected two of the Cottonwood Heights EOC ID-1's through the KO7SLC
> data module at 1298.750 RPS...we kept the link up and running between the
> two radios for about 90 minutes.  Both radios were Line-of-Site (LOS) to
> the repeater.
>
> We also tested and used DV to coordinate on the repeaters:
>
> C Module: 145.150-
>
> The internet gateway is still not connected and we did not identify any 1.2
> GHz DV capability yet.
>
> The next round of testing, which is planned from now until the end of
> March, is to include:
>
> 1. Testing various data files/images of various sizes to test, time and
> record the bandwidth/speed going through the repeater using the Cottonwood
> Heights ID-1's radios
>
> 2. Testing lower power settings to determine how that affects data transfer
> speed using the Cottonwood Heights ID-1's.
>
> 3. Test the Cottonwood Heights EOC HQ ID-1 direct to the Intermoutain
> Medical Center<http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/imed/maps/Pages/home.aspx>in Murray which is not LOS.
>
> 4. Complete installation/configurations of ID-1's in various Hospitals and
> Medical Centers such as Riverton<http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/rivertonhospital/maps/Pa...>and Alta
> View<http://intermountainhealthcare.org/hospitals/altaview/maps/Pages/home...>(thanks to full support from John Mayou - KF7JBA)
>
> 5. Run a complete peer-to-peer AND repeater test cycles of 4 locations,
> including performance load testing and analyze the time and speed impacts
> (this test scheduled for April).
>
> More specific information on the repeater can be found on the Salt Lake
> County ARES Website D-Star page at:
>
> http://www.slcoares.net/home/d-star-information
>
> *Anyone who wants to participate and learn more about D-STAR including
> helping us run various tests can contact me at N0...@arrl.net or
> 801.633.2004.*
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