PROGRAMMING YOUR RADIO

There are a few things that you will need to know in order to fully utilize the D-Star system. Use of the D-Star system not only includes the WMPORN D-Star repeater, but eventually will include operation of the D-Star Gateway connecting to other systems around the world. When you are ready to program your radio you should take a look at the DStar Programing Calculator Page written by Ed Woodrick to help in programming your radio.

Quickstart Guide

Now that the gateway is operational you MUST be registered on one of the gateways associated with the trust server. Most all of the US DStar repeaters with gateways are connected to the same trust server. If you are registered on any one of these servers you are able to use any of the gateways. To make things simple, it is suggested that you be registered on your local system. Since you can only be registered on one system being registered on your local system is what the gateway operators have accepted as the standard. For registration on the WMPORN gateway you will need to send email to n8wkm at wmporn dot net. Sorry, spam is high, and if you are unable to figure out that email address I would be concerned about your ability to program your radio.

When programming your radio there are a couple of things to notice. Each radio has a place to store special memories for digital repeaters. These memories have places for additional information not needed with analog repeaters. The additional information is used for what D-Star refers to as routing. Because this is a digital system, data starts streaming as soon as you press the PTT. This data can in fact tell the repeater what it is that you want to do. It can tell the repeater who you are (your callsign that you have programmed into the MyCall slot in your radio memories) as well as what transmitters you want to begin transmitting your signal.

Icom refers to these places in the memories as RPT1 and RPT2. This is a fairly simple concept, RPT1 will always be the callsign of the repeater that you are trying to access. RPT2 will be the repeater where you want your signal to be retransmitted. Just for the record, any repeater that you access will repeat your signal over the same band module that you are accessing. If you access the VHF receiver, the VHF transmitter will retransmit your signal.

The trick to using the repeater is in putting the right information in the right place. First of all, it is important to understand that ALL D-Star routing information is the callsign of the repeater followed by a letter code that is known as the route identifier. Please take special note that ALL route identifiers go in the 8th position regardless of the callsign. For the WMPORN repeater you would use "WX8GRR C", "WX8GRR B" or "WX8GRR G" at this time.

To make things perfectly clear "WX8GRR C" is associated with the 2m band module, and the "WX8GRR B" is associated with the 70cm module. Though it is not in use just yet, the 1200MHz module caries the designator of "WX8GRR A". Anything that is headed out to a user on the internet such as another D-Star repeater or a DV-Dongle user will include "WX8GRR G" which stands for "Gateway". The G module is actually assigned to the computer that is attached to the repeater.

In programming your radio to use only the 2m Module, you can program "WX8GRR C" into both the RPT1 and RPT2, or just into the RPT1 call. This will tell the repeater to only retransmit your signal on the 2m transmitter. By changing the RPT2 call to "WX8GRR B" you will effectively tell the repeater that you want your transmission to also go out on the UHF transmitter. For more detail, please see D-Star Routing Explained.

For more information about how routing works for the WMPORN D-STAR Repeater project please send email to "dstar at wmporn.net" . It isn't that hard to figure that out, and doing it that way helps to keep that email address from being sent a bunch of garbage email.