Press Release

For Immediate Release, 25 June 2012

Lorain County Wireless Operators

LORAIN COUNTY OHIO - We are very pleased to announce another amateur radio initiative from Ohio and a few of the guys that brought you the Northern Ohio Digital Interconnect Group, Reflectors 38 & 39 and the Ohio Wide D-STAR  Net.  The Lorain County Wireless Operators, LCWO.

Lorain County Wireless Operators was formed in an effort to advance amateur radio in the Great Lakes and surrounding areas. LCWO’s four core operators simply want grow amateur radio by showcasing all that Ham Radio has to offer. This group will be complimented by Guest Operators who have experience in specialized areas of operation. The operators will focus their on the air time in unique areas bringing the public’s attention to amateur radio by operating special events stations and also contesting as well as supporting area clubs & public service groups. Our call, NW8S, will support LOTW, eQSL and direct QSL during all events. LCWO has a D-STAR repeater on the air in the downtown Lorain Ohio area that is complimented with a reflector. Although typically linked to REF038A it will be used for experimental D-STAR operations. We will utilize all segments of the spectrum; HF, VHF, UHF, SHF, along with existing and experimental modes during our events.

Look for an announcement regarding our first event in the very near future. The final details of which are being worked through as we speak.

We hope that our efforts to further amateur communications will inspire others to become licensed or more active in a hobby that can be very rewarding and satisfying. Regardless if its talking across town on a local repeater, traffic handling, severe weather, providing relief communications after a disaster or making a new friend in a far away country using Morse Code or a cutting edge mode yet invented there is something for everyone.

http://www.nw8s.com/

https://www.facebook.com/LorainCountyWirelessOperators

Jeff Evans KB8ZUN

Lots of excitement about D-STAR, that’s what happened at Dayton.

It started on Thursday evening at Marion’s Pizza with the Dayton Amateur Radio Club sponsoring a D-STAR gathering. There were a lot of people putting faces to call signs that we talked to on a regular basis.

On Friday morning, we started with the DSTAR InfoCon. 3 hours of D-STAR training for those new to D-STAR led by John WB4QDX. While John held class, Ed WA4YIH opened the DSTARInfo / Georgia D-STAR booth. As the doors opened, throngs of people swarmed the building and the D-STAR booths got busy. Aside from the Icom booth in the main hall, Icom’s D-STAR booth was manned by the Trust Server Team and Dan Smith of D-RATS fame. Georgia D-STAR presented the D-STAR Info booth with a number of helpers throughout the weekend, including Jim Moen of Star*Board fame.

Next door we had the Internet Labs booth with the DVDongle and DVAP.

New to Dayton was Newfield Design and their ProHam D-STAR repeater controller and Northwest Digital Radio with their UDR56K4 radio. Both of these groups exhibited their products. They are quite interesting and will help D-STAR to the next level.

The main D-STAR forum on Friday filled the largest forum room and a  number of great presentations, including my own “No More Programming” presentation that shows you how easy it is to program your radio with information from DSTARInfo, and then talks about the ID-31A that comes preprogrammed from the factory!!!!

On Thursday evening, as had D-STAR Across America with a full room of D-STAR lunatics, whoops, I meant enthusiasts. Ray Novak, Icom America’s General Manager gave a presentation on the history of D-STAR, the reason why many of the choices were made during the design process.

Ken Atkisson talked about DPlusMon and DPlusReport, two tools that are invaluable to repeater administrators and net controls. David Lake gave an update on his project and along with the US Trust Server Team, showed off a prototype repeater. Not too amazing, unless you saw it. A full D-STAR repeater, including the gateway computer in a form factor that would fit inside a shoe box! We also heard from a number of other speakers throughout the evening.

Now many of you may have heard the Yaesu was supposed to show a new digital radio at Dayton, and they did, the FT-1D. There wasn’t much fanfare behind it, and there’s still a lot of speculation about it. What reliable sources have determined is that it is a Tier 1 DMR radio. Tier 1 DMR radios are relatively new and not sold in the US. The Tier 1 DMR radio is currently being sold in Europe as a non-licensed device, similar to the FCC FRS service. An interesting aspect is that the speaker – mic has a camera embedded in it, to allow users to send pictures. Not much else is known about the radio.

The one thing that was the most obvious is that there is a continued, even renewed source of enthusiasm in D-STAR. The UDR56K4 is a new paradigm in radio. AA4RC teased us with some new items coming down the road. One of the most exciting was that there were a lot of areas, previously not covered by D-STAR that have just become or soon will be covered. There was a lot of chatter about additional things in the pipeline. There was a lot of behind-the-scenes discussions going on, some hopefully leading to better collaboration behind many of the developers of D-STAR.

And to top it off, we found out the ID-31A sold out rather early in the weekend, evidently people are really liking the “No programming” concept of the new radio which comes from the factory preloaded with the worldwide D-STAR repeaters.

So don’t wait until it’s too late, go ahead and start making your plans for next year, it’s going to be exciting!

Ed WA4YIH

Icom Site Link

Three more 440 MHz D-STAR digital repeaters will be shipped on Monday destined for the following locations:

• Little Falls, covering both Brainerd and St. Cloud.
• Fargo, supporting the US Coast Guard Auxiliary Amateurs for flood relief /boat and helicopter support
• Duluth for MS150 / Grandma's etc.

In the Twin Cities we are up to four possibly five gateway linked repeaters:

• 444.325 Ramsey County
• 145.11 Hennepin County
• 1283.3 Hennepin County

Erik, NY9D   www.14567.org

NODIG has again enhanced its digital infrastructure of D-STAR based amateur radio services by adding a dedicated reflector port for the American Red Cross. Reflector 39 Delta has been designated for state wide American Red Cross operations in Ohio and may also serve surrounding states as needed. This enhancement rounds out the emergency communications offering of NODIG to the amateur radio operators of Ohio and the agencies they serve.

As with NODIG’s reflector ports designated for ARES, EMA and Skywarn, NODIG does not manage operations for these groups but provides local, state, regional and national linking capabilities. This offers a more spectral efficient venue for Ecomms than that of traditional analog repeaters. These groups also have the ability to pass data, text messaging and manage asset location through DPRS with the system.

NODIGS’s assets and linking partners reach much of the state’s population concentrations with D-STAR equipment in 35% of Ohio’s 88 counties. Many of these locations having had installed D-STAR capable equipment in hospitals and government offices. This reflects a RF footprint of roughly half the state’s counties.

For more information please visit www.nodig.us or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Northern-Ohio-Digital-Interconnect-Group/145438878885464

Saturday January 28, 2012 (9am - 4pm)
Radisson Park Inn Sharon Hotel - West Middlesex, PA

D-STAR Day will be held at the Radisson Park Inn Sharon hotel in West Middlesex, PA., on Saturday January 28th, 2012. Starting at 9 AM and finishing at 4 PM.

We believe about 100 hams will attend from the local area including Pittsburgh, Youngstown, Akron/Canton, Cleveland and Erie. D-STAR Day will include presentations from Icom and other D-STAR experts. If you want to learn more about D-STAR, this is your chance.

ICOM America is excited to attend D-STAR Day. Presenting will be ICOM Division Manager - Amateur and Receiver Products - Ray Novak, N9JA. Staff from DX Engineering and Superbertha.com will be in attendance as well!

In addition to Ray Novak, N9JA – here are some of the other attendees to D-STAR Day:

• Founder of the Georgia Statewide D Star network and D-Rats expert – John Davis, WB4QDX
• The inventor of the DV Dongle – Robin Cutshaw, AA4RC
• ARRL Atlantic Division Director Bill Edgar, N3LLR
• ARRL Western Pennsylvania Section Manager – John Rodgers, N3MSE

There will also be a “field trip” for all participants to nearby (1 mile away) Amateur Radio station K3LR

For more information http://www.dstarday.com/

Many of you may have heard of the project for a group of students from Université de Liège to launch a satellite carrying a D-STAR capable repeater into space. It looks like they are growing closer. They are now anticipating a "late 2012" launch. Let's all wish them the best of luck. Who know, by Christmas you may even be able to make a 1,000 mile D-STAR contact without the Internet!

Here's their January 2012 Newsletter

For details visit http://www.icomamerica.com/en/promotions/amateur/d-star-infrastructure/

From January 9, 2012 to February 9, 2012, qualifying clubs are required to place a US$3,0000* deposit on a 70cm D-STAR repeater with Icom America Inc. (*plus freight and applicable taxes)

Bonus: If you can meet the following requirements within 90-days from the date of purchase, Icom will refund the US$3,0000* deposit. (*plus freight and applicable taxes)

• Install in permanent location identified at the time of purchase
• Fully operational on the USROOT trust server with Icom G2 Gateway Software and within the requirements outlined by the USROOT Administration team
• Minimum of 10 users registered on the "Gateway"
• Guarantee system on air for minimum of 1 year from date of installation

This program is limited to clubs located in priority areas listed below or not within an existing D-STAR Repeater (100 Aeronautical Mile Radius). Send a club biography and an outline of how D-STAR will be used in your community to DSTAR.Promo@icomamerica.com to see if your club qualifies.

Priority areas:

The Pre-Dayton Hamvention® D-STAR Meet, Greet and Eyeball QSO is scheduled for May 17, 2012 from 7 to 9 p.m. at Marion’s Piazza in Beavercreek Ohio. 

Make plans early for the big event.  Come enjoy a casual and relaxing time with friends you have made on the air prior to the big show.

Details can be found at the following Hamvention® web site: http://www.hamvention.org/events.php#dstar . 

Attention to the updated D-STAR frequencies and call signs in the Dayton area, for some have changed.  Handheld coverage has greatly improved and is easily accessible from Hamvention® with our new installation and location of the W8RTL system.

Also note that during Hamvention® week one of the W8RTL repeaters will be linked to Reflector 38C thanks to the Northern Ohio Digital Interconnect Group (NODIG).

Hope to see you there.

Joe – KA8C

We are proud to announce that every Tuesday at 22:30 local time (21:30 UTC) we have a weekly net on our D-Star repeater ED3YAK C, accessible to local users, and users from the network via ED3YAK G. We intend to establish a point / time of meeting to say hello and check the system load. Net is announced in catalan but we accept check ins in spanish, english and french. More info about our system at http://dstar.radioaficionats.cat
73 de John EA3WR

Administradors ED3YAK C, Repetidor D-Star de Barcelona
Webmaster D-Star Catalunya