Linking to Reflectors or Repeaters
Most of the fun from using D-Star comes from talking over links to users connected to reflectors. Reflectors are really conference servers. A transmission on any one of the connected systems is repeated on all of them. This means there are more people out there to talk to than just the people within RF distance of your closest repeater.
D-Star Linking and Reflectors were invented by Robin Cutshaw AA4RC. His system is called D-PLUS. This has really become the "killer app" that has caused significant D-Star growth throughout the world. D-Plus reflectors are named REFnnnx, as in REF001C.
Two other linking systems have since been written -- DExtra creates XRF reflectors and DCS creates DCS reflectors. They all operate in similar ways. W6CX, unlike most other ICOM D-Star repeater/gateways, supports all of these linking systems.
Linking is easy. The Administrators for most D-STAR repeaters allow registered users to issue link and unlink commands over RF – just put the link or unlink command into the URCall of your radio and hit PTT. For example, if you want your repeater to link to REF014C, just put “REF014CL” in URCall. The first 6 positions are for the name of the reflector or the callsign of the repeater to be linked to. The 7th position is the band module (normally A, B, C, D or E) and the 8th position is the D-Plus command. L is the link command, U is the unlink command. A common way to do that is to program your radio with several memories.
Every RF user can program their radio to unlink, then link to any of the above connections. Just dial up the memory with the linking or unlinking command, press PTT to ask the gateway to do the command, then immediately dial up your normal QSO setting like the W6CX example below.
Note: Users who have a newer D-STAR radio that supports DR mode (e.g ID-51A and ID-5100A) have some simpler options for DPlus linking, but the following will work for all D-STAR radios.
Let's assume your are in RF reach of D-STAR repeater W6CX module C on 2 meters. Shown below is an example of some memories you could set up in your D-STAR radio. The name of the memory isn’t important and is just to remind you what that memory is used for.
http://www.mdarc.org/activities/repeaters/dstar/linking
Most of the fun from using D-Star comes from talking over links to users connected to reflectors. Reflectors are really conference servers. A transmission on any one of the connected systems is repeated on all of them. This means there are more people out there to talk to than just the people within RF distance of your closest repeater.
D-Star Linking and Reflectors were invented by Robin Cutshaw AA4RC. His system is called D-PLUS. This has really become the "killer app" that has caused significant D-Star growth throughout the world. D-Plus reflectors are named REFnnnx, as in REF001C.
Two other linking systems have since been written -- DExtra creates XRF reflectors and DCS creates DCS reflectors. They all operate in similar ways. W6CX, unlike most other ICOM D-Star repeater/gateways, supports all of these linking systems.
Linking is easy. The Administrators for most D-STAR repeaters allow registered users to issue link and unlink commands over RF – just put the link or unlink command into the URCall of your radio and hit PTT. For example, if you want your repeater to link to REF014C, just put “REF014CL” in URCall. The first 6 positions are for the name of the reflector or the callsign of the repeater to be linked to. The 7th position is the band module (normally A, B, C, D or E) and the 8th position is the D-Plus command. L is the link command, U is the unlink command. A common way to do that is to program your radio with several memories.
Every RF user can program their radio to unlink, then link to any of the above connections. Just dial up the memory with the linking or unlinking command, press PTT to ask the gateway to do the command, then immediately dial up your normal QSO setting like the W6CX example below.
Note: Users who have a newer D-STAR radio that supports DR mode (e.g ID-51A and ID-5100A) have some simpler options for DPlus linking, but the following will work for all D-STAR radios.
Let's assume your are in RF reach of D-STAR repeater W6CX module C on 2 meters. Shown below is an example of some memories you could set up in your D-STAR radio. The name of the memory isn’t important and is just to remind you what that memory is used for.
http://www.mdarc.org/activities/repeaters/dstar/linking
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