D-STAR Say Yes

Since the love/hate D-Star topic has been discussed at area club meetings, two points of view are provided for your review. It is interesting that most hams who dislike D-Star have no or little experience with it. Perhaps D-Star is for the open minded and patient hams willing to try something new.

As the German philosopher Schopenhauer (1788–1860) put it:

“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident”.

The following is a posting from ehams.net on May 18, 2013 and is well written with factual information included.

It is worth reading for all that may have said no to D-Star.

Say Yes To D-Star

David J. Holmgren K9RUF

Well after reading an article on the internet titled “Say No To D-Star” I thought it was appropriate for me as a D-Star user to defend D-star. These are some of the misconceptions people have about D-star.

1. D-Star doesn’t work without the internet. False. First off D-Star can operate simplex or point-to-point like we use at hamfests to tell our friends about a hot deal we’ve spotted for them. It can also function like an analog repeater re-transmitting signals using a specific frequency pair. Now here’s where the internet comes in. Since these are digital signals they can be routed through gateways attached to the internet to communicate to other D-Star repeaters around the world.

2. D-Star isn’t radio. False. This is similar to point number one but I hear it all the time. If you’re talking into a microphone connected to a radio with an antenna attached to it then you’re using a radio. Period. This is D-Star. And yes there is a device that hooks to your computer called a DV dongle and it relies solely on the internet using your computer for the microphone and speaker. This is actually a pretty cool device when you’re traveling so when you’re in a hotel you can work your home repeater anywhere in the world. While this D-Star device connects directly to the internet it also connects you to repeaters that transmit RF.

3. D-Star is just too “computery” for me. I don’t want to mess around with computers. I just like to pick up my microphone and start talking to people. Hmmmm. I’ll bet you use a computer for logging contacts or maybe controlling your HF radio. Actually if I put an analog and D-Star mobile radio next to each other and asked you pick out the D-Star radio you couldn’t tell the difference because they both have, a microphone.

4. D-Star is proprietary since ICOM is the only radio manufacture selling it. False. The D-Star format was developed by the JARL as an open standard protocol. This means any radio manufacture can build D-Star radios. The only part of D-Star that is proprietary is the digital codec or the Ambi digital encoder chip. But if you want to go down that road I can open up any analog radio and show you custom chips they use as well. Kenwood and Yaesu could have built D-Star radios but they chose not to take the gamble. ICOM took the gamble and they are now reaping the rewards. With the success of ICOM these other manufactures are now looking to develop their own formats to get into the digital radio business. This is unfortunate and will only confuse hams since the D-Star format is already a very popular digital standard.

5. D-Star is too expensive. Sort of, with two thoughts. If Yaesu and Kenwood would simply humble themselves and build a D-Star radio giving ICOM some competition then prices would come down. I agree that $600 for a dual band analog/digital HT is expensive. However on the flip side we’ve been conditioned to think that a dual band HT should cost $50 with all the Baofengs being dumped on the market from China. Try pricing a Japanese dual band HT for a better real world price comparison. Also remember a D-Star radio does digital and analog so it should cost more. You do get what you pay for. Here’s an example of an economical way to get into D-Star. If you own an analog transceiver with a built-in serial port connector such as a Kenwood TM-D710, An ICOM IC-7000 or a Yaesu FT-857 you can buy a $100.00 PCBA that will install between this radio and your PC with a USB cable. This is one example of the many non ICOM D-Star ideas being created because of the nature of this open standard. D-Star is exploding and I’m looking forward to seeing all the new ideas at Dayton.

6. I’ve heard D-Star audio and when the signal gets weak I can’t understand anything at all. It sounds like R2D2 from Star Wars. That is true but in side-by-side test comparisons between and an analog and a D-Star radio with the same power, same antenna and the same distance the D-Star radio was more readable than the analog radio. The difference is that when an analog radio signal gets weak it fades gracefully into the noise floor. When the D-Star signal gets weak it starts breaking up and this sound can be a bit jarring.

7. This D-Star stuff takes up a lot of bandwidth on the ham bands. False. Because the D-Star digital signal is compressed it takes up only 6.25 KHz vs. 25 KHz for a wide band FM signal. If some of the dormant analog repeaters were switched to digital there could be almost 4 times as many frequencies available for the space taken up by one analog FM signal. I’m not promoting this idea but in densely populated areas where frequency pairs aren’t as available this would be a good solution.

8. I don’t like D-Star because it will replace analog. False. Both formats can and do co-exist. Remember before FM came along on VHF and UHF there was only AM. Keep this in the back of your mind with regard to D-Star as it grows more popular over time.

9. Why do I have to register my call sign to use D-Star. I don't have to do that with analog. When you register your call sign with the D-Star network the second you transmit the whole world knows you are on the air. This is handy when you want to find your other D-Star friends. There is also another function called call sign routing that allows you to work your home repeater through another D-Star repeater as you travel. If you are only using your D-Star radio simplex then registration is not required. Registration has its benefits because every time you key your mike your call sign appears on all the D-Star radios listening to that frequency. Personally I think this accountability keeps jammers away. Remember those anonymous crank phone calls we would get before caller ID came along? I know, now we have the telemarketers calling but at least we know who is now calling so we can elect to ignore the call.

10. The Audio on D-Star just sounds funny to me. Sort of true. Digital audio is compressed and as such is not as full sounding as wideband FM. However after listening to it for a while you learn to appreciate the quietness between words and the overall clarity. Occasionally some users of D-Star sound like they are underwater or are very muffled. These are usually hams using their computers to get on D-Star and their computers have very poor quality microphones. I recommend for those using their computers for D-Star to use a quality headset with a quality mike. If you use the standard hand mike on the radio you’ll sound great.

In conclusion, say yes to D-Star. Whenever something new comes along we tend to resist change. Then after we use it for a while we wonder how we lived without it. Remember that new thing called the internet! I encourage everyone to learn more about D-Star by attending one of the free D-Star seminars being held every so often or talk to a D-Star user to experience it first hand. My hope is when you hear derogatory comments about D-Star you’ll now know the other side of the story. The nature of ham radio is learning and experimenting so keep an open mind as fresh ideas come along advancing our hobby.

Very 73,

David J. Holmgren

K9RUF

The following is a posting from WB2MIC's D-Star webpage . More ham radio topics on his website http://www.metaphoria.org/ .There are several points made here as well. Everyone is entitled to their opinion.

WB2MIC

Amateur Radio Station

Wells VT FN33jk

Just say NO! to DSTAR.

Prelude

In the late summer and early fall of 2010, I let myself be persuaded by a few local hams

and

few hams from New Jersey to get involved with DSTAR. I promptly purchased an ICOM IC92AD digital voice dual band transceiver, a hotspot board and cable, firmware for the hotspot board, and a Motorola GM300 8-channel transceiver. I was so gung-ho about DSTAR that I was going to put up a DSTAR repeater atop Northeast Mountain in Wells VT up at 2,100 feet above sea level. Let the DSTAR begin in Vermont!

I borrowed a DSTAR hotspot and got on the "air" with the IC92AD while awaiting my hotspot board to arrive. Almost immediately a nag started to bother me about DSTAR ham "radio". Within two weeks, I sold it, literally giving much of the DSTAR gear away just to get rid of it from my ham RADIO shack.

Below are some of my conclusions about DSTAR as a result of my experience with it. Obviously, DSTAR does not float my boat. If it is for you, wonderful. Have fun with R2D2.

My Thoughts on DSTAR

Proponents of DSTAR have openly stated that they want to keep the "CB ops" and truckers off the mode. It is, however, DSTAR itself that is the CBification of amateur radio. Is it not elitism with a proprietary pecuniary twist not in the spirit of amateur radio that DSTAR is leading us into? I have heard more than a few DSTAR hams say they wanted to keep the mode safe from certain factions of hams. Not to worry. The cost of DSTAR radios almost guarantees this. Guess what? Not all hams can afford the broadband Internet. And many live in rural areas where dial-up is their only affordable option. Is DSTAR an elite "mode"? As an infamous pseudo-politician says, "You betcha!"

Someone has finally figured out a way to extract a fee from hams in order to use a particular mode. What a wonderful metamorphosis of the ham radio spirit? By the way, DSTAR is not a mode. GMSK is the mode that DSTAR utilizes. Of course many CBers and GMRS radio operators technologically have the ability to create Internet-based DSTAR-like networks of their own. DSTAR appears to be elitism driven and apparently it is rampant.

Seems to me that when a ham radio mode, vis-à-vis hotspots and dongles, depends upon the Internet to communicate it is no longer ham radio. When it depends upon a corporate-based for-profit with a monthly ISP-required fee delivery system during emergencies it is suicidal.

I've given DSTAR much thought. The error I made was ignoring the feeling in my gut early on that there was something very wrong with entire idea. DSTAR is not the future of amateur radio. It may well be, the beginning of the undoing of amateur "radio". Is it technological progress? Well, maybe. But only in a very limited and narrow sense. DSTAR, however, cannot do anything new other than pollute the ham bands with redundant digital noise on multiple frequencies in multiple and many locations as every hotspot board and repeater linked to a reflector regurgitates the same hash all over the country. Wait. It does this all over the WORLD! So much for its spectrum saving capabilities.

Any system that relies upon keeping external computers on 24/7 to communicate has no need for a radio. Thus, the popularity of the aptly-named dongle. A DSTAR dongle is a $200 - $300 device (little box) that you plug into your USB port so you can then plug a headset into it and play pretend radio over the Internet. Holy AMBE code, Batman!! We have now reached a point where we can play ham radio and play with our dongle all at the same time! Feels good but is no substitute for the real thing - RF generated by a radio that is free using the free and natural ether.

DSTAR is not the end-all future of ham radio as some claim. Not even close. It will be gone a long time (none too soon for me) while CW will remain the best and most efficient digital mode using the most advanced computer available for its operation -- the human brain.

DSTAR is marketed vis-à-vis it's "wonderful" worldwide interconnectivity ability using hot spot boards -- that are dependent upon the Internet to function. Therein one finds both the lie upon and the insult to what ham radio is. The purveyors of hotspot boards are, in effect, like drug pushers selling ham's a dependency upon a corporate communications infrastructure that is unnecessary and unneeded in ham radio.

My sense is that DSTAR will go the same route that AOR did with its digital voice modems. In short time, seldom, if not nowhere to be found.

One hotspot board manufacturer told me that some purveyors of DSTAR push it for their own personal gain and status. This should have been obvious to me with the advent of front men pushing DSTAR in Vermont (and everywhere else).

I have no problem with people selling gear they make to the amateur radio community. But DSTAR and hotspot boards are very different in that they require a continuous stream of monetary resources out of one's pocket just to use the DSTAR system, i.e., Internet connectivity, ISP, etc. As such, DSTAR is a leech technology where spending money is the modus operandi for the operating mode. This is antithetical to the spirit of amateur radio.

The other day I worked a ham in Texas who was living in an apartment where no antennas could be put outside. He was running a small magnetic loop in his living room running 35 watts and had an S9 signal into Vermont. Then I worked a station in Colorado running 5 watts into a 32 foot wire. Compare this with DSTAR that requires the Internet infrastructure with gobs of Cisco and other routers, computers, wires, and ISP subscriptions over which to communicate. DSTAR is not progress for ham RADIO.

DSTAR/hotspots maneuver ham radio into dependency upon the Internet. This is what makes it so distasteful. New hams coming into the amateur radio service by way of DSTAR will naturally gravitate to more of this same dependency. They will find it difficult to distinguish radio from the Internet and/or conflate the two. This does not bode well for ham radio.

And of course when a DSTAR transmission: fuc@& u6 %349 then &%ri up ich tef is the prob^4d me un dit bit. Sorry, I'm R2D2'ing again. QRX, while I plug in and run my dongle on my computer to maintain "radio" communications. Sheesh!

73, Jozef WB2MIC

Afterthoughts:

Not only are hams encouraged to use the minimum power necessary to maintain communications they should also be using the minimum infrastructure necessary. DSTAR just doesn't cut it. How can it? It's not ham radio.

Giant Corporations are running our lives more and more from cradle to grave. Ham radio is a respite from this intrusion and insanity. DSTAR is Corporate infiltration of the means of transmission of the special and beloved hobby of amateur radio. As a (KJ4) ham told me in an email responding to this webpage, "Keep up the good fight! No corporate control of 'free ham radio! Death to DSTAR!' " Indeed, KEEP UP THE GOOD FIGHT!