D-Star

If you missed the April 4th meeting of the AARC and the presentation by  Jim Trulove (WB5EMI) and Roy  Walker (WA5YZD), don’t worry. We’ve got the presentation available for download here. The presentation (PDF format of the slide deck) includes information on D-Star, with local repeater information and operating details.

The Austin Amateur Radio Club’s D-Star Repeater is operational on 146 MHz (2m), 440 MHz (70cm) and 1200 MHz (23cm DD and DV) and our gateway is connected to the Internet.

The W5KA D-Star Repeater is a project of the Austin Amateur Radio Club (AARC) in conjunction with the Williamson County Amateur Radio Club (WCARC) and operates under the AARC’s club license. The repeater is located near the intersection of Ben White Blvd. (Hiway 71 / 290W) and South 1st Street in the South Austin Medical Center. The antenna is a tri-band Diamond X6000 ~100 ft. AGL, which gives us great coverage in most of the metro Austin area.

The repeater is connected to the internet to allow local D-Star users to make contacts via the Gateway through the Internet to any D-Star system in the US Trust network. We also often connect to one or more “reflectors”, which allows for an exciting type of DX that at times can be international.

You must register with a D-Star repeater in the system to use the Internet Gateway on our repeater. If you do not register, you can only use our repeater for local QSO’s, even though you may hear stations that come in remotely through our Gateway. Only one registration is necessary, and multiple registrations can cause problems for the user. If you are not registered and want to associate through the W5KA repeater, please use the following link.

https://w5ka.dstargateway.org:8443/Dstar.do

Be sure to complete the “terminal” tab, if you want to traverse the gateway, because the “system” uses that information to identify you by private IP address. Please allow a few days for the volunteer administrators to approve your registration.

Please send an email with subject “New D-STAR Registration” to dstar-admin [[at]] austinhams.org (remove spaces and brackets) when you submit a registration request.

D-Star users that associate with the W5KA D-Star system are encouraged to join the AARC or WCARC clubs to help support the expenses of the 4-repeater-module D-Star system, provide for additional repeaters in outlying areas, and support emergency communications for the amateur community.

• The repeater call is W5KA (Full D-Star Stack, A, B, and C-modules, plus A-DD)
• The 2m repeater output frequency is 146.78 MHz (- 600 KHz split)
• The 440 repeater output frequency is 440.65 MHz (+5.00 MHz split)
• The 23cm repeater output frequency is 1293.100 MHz (-20 MHz split)
• The 23cm DD module frequency is 1248.200 MHz (Half-duplex Data)

• Go to the following link: https://w5ka.dstargateway.org:8443/Dstar.do
• Click Register (New User), enter your full name, email address, and choose a password
• After creating a new login, click the Personal Information tab and create a “terminal”, Click Update
• Create additional “terminals” under Personal Information as needed (probably none)
• Send an email to dstar-admin [[at]] austinhams.org (remove spaces and brackets) to tell us you have registered.
• Be patient! It may take 24-72 hours for registration to be completed.

W5KA Registration: https://w5ka.dstargateway.org:8443/Dstar.do

• Central Texas DSTAR Group : https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/DARN-CTX/ — Yahoo groups deprecated; no replacement suggested yet.
• DSTAR Digital Group : http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dstar_digital/ — Yahoo groups deprecated; no replacement suggested yet.
• W5KA D-STAR Interest Mail List : D-Star@austinhams.org