What is D-STAR? D-STAR stands for Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio. The purpose of D-STAR is to allow amateur (ham) radio operators to speak further and clearer using digital voice while sending data from 1200 BPS on up at the same time.

The D-STAR system covers communications on VHF, and UHF radio bands while defining interfaces for both radios, repeaters, internet interconnections, and PC interfaces.

D-STAR is the result of research by the Japan Amateur Radio League to investigate digital technologies for amateur radio.

Technical Details

D-STAR transfers both voice and data via digital encoding over the 2m (VHF), 70cm (UHF), and 23cm (1.2 GHz) amateur radio bands. Voice is encoded as a 2400 bps data stream using AMBE encoding with 1200 bps FEC. The combined data stream is sent at 4800 bit/s (3600 bit/s voice + 1200 bit/s low-speed data) on the 2 m and 70 cm bands, and at 128k bps on the 23cm band.

Radios providing data service use a RS-232 or USB connection for low speed data (1200 bps) and ethernet for high speed connections (128k) to allow easy interfacing with computer equipment.

The VHF and UHF radios support a 1200 bit/s low-speed data channel, in addition to digital voice. The 1.2GHz radio offers 128 kbit/s high-speed data in digital data (DD) mode.

Most D-STAR user radios will operate in either analog voice or digital voice modes, making them compatible with existing repeater systems.

D-STAR repeaters only operate in digital voice (DV) mode, they will not repeat an analog signal.

BCFMCA VE7RAG D-STAR Repeater Installation - Mt Seymour, BC

Through the cooperation and support of ICOM Canada, the British Columbia Frequency Modulation Communications Association (BCFMCA) and BCWARN, a full suite of D-Star digital VHf/UHF/1.2g voice and data repeaters including an internet gateway were installed during the first quarter of 2007 at the BCFMCA Mount Seymour repeater site, 3500' ASL. Testing has proven solid VHF DV (digital voice) communications in excess of 160km and 1.2g DD (128kbs digital data) in excess of 55km.

In addition to providing outstanding D-Star digital coverage of the Lower Mainland, Southern Vancouver Island and NW Washington State from this site, the data side is seamlessly integrated as another communications layer within the existing BCWARN network. In fact, the BCWARN backbone is also used to link the VE7RAG D-STAR Gateway to other D-STAR repeaters via Internet. (BCWARN anticipate placing or supporting additional D-Star digital voice and data repeaters at other select sites along with BCWARN nodes as funding became available in the future)

BCFMCA VE7RAG D-STAR Repeater Frequencies

The BCFMCA has a full D-STAR repeater stack on the air.

This includes the following parts:

As of April 2008, the repeaters are now connected to the internet via the ICOM G2 Gateway software. This allows users to connect to other D-STAR repeaters arround the world!

To register on the BCFMCA D-STAR G2 Gateway, go to https://dstar.bcfmca.bc.ca/Dstar.do . After you register, please contact VE7FET (see contacts) to advise, so he can complete the authorization.

In addition to giving Lower Mainland hams a opportunity to explore D-STAR with a wide-area repeater system, BCFMCA will be working with the BCWARN to develop applications based on D-STAR to integrate into Emergency Communications.

For more in-depth information on D-STAR equipment, check out:

D-Star (last edited 2008-09-25 05:11:19 by va7dx)