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Richard VK3XE

Richard VK3XE

The next presentation by the Victorian D-Star Users group will be held on January 20th.     The event will be held at the new Bendigo Amateur Radio & Electronics Club  rooms at Longlea.

Longlea Primary School, 20 Longlea Lane Longlea

 

Richard Hoskin VK3XE /JFK and Peter Willmott VK3TQ. have been experimenting with D-Star since 2006, yes a decade !  Richard and Peter will go through D-Star 101, callsign routing, D-Star evolution and changes over the years in technology, sound quality and gateway systems.

They will have VK3RWW  70cm / 23cm Voice & Data repeater on show and working.  Peter’s portable 50w Kenwood  D-Star repeater working. A 2m Digital Voice Access Point working on a MacBook  and a “Throw in the Car” D-Star Repeater in a sandwich box.  Over the last ten years D-Star has come a long way. You can come along and check out the voice quality of the ID-5100 Mobile and have a chat around the world. Using any of the devices above.

For more information, you can email Peter    petervk3tq@gmail.com or contact Graeme at Bendigo Amateur Radio & Electronics Club   vk3grk@wia.org.au or  www.barec.net.au

Watch out for the D-Star User Group tables at the EMDRC HamFest 2017

 

 

The primary Australian D-Star Reflector, REF003c is off air and is being rebuilt.  Please re-adjust your devices to connect to REF023C. Our secondary Australian D-Star reflector.  Please check with your local repeater or node administrator if  REF023C has been permalinked if necessary.

REF023 C is working very well by all reports

It is with great sadness we announce the passing of John Hackett LA2QAA. John was a regular from Frei Is  Norway, on reflector 3C and the Thursday D-Star net.  Johns fun and sharp wit will be missed by all who knew him.

More information will be posted on vk3.dstar.net.au      The Victorian D-Star Users Group are in the process of contacting his family in Norway

After nine years of operation, the VK3RWN repeater has now been restored IN TEST MODE at Mt Dandenong.

The gateway and 70cm are operational. This was done on Good Friday

Major work has been done to the 70cm Repeater, and is now working on site

VK3RWN B 70cm Repeater is no longer permalinked to REF001C and REF030C

RWN B will however be linked to REF001C for the American D-Star Net, that normally is on,

our time Monday morning. This goes for around four hours with many users world wide joining in.

If you use VK3RWN B 70cm, don’t forget to disconnect when finished

VK3RWN C the VHF repeater, is permalinked to REF 003C The Australian Reflector

It is encouraging to see many users try to re register early

The gateway server has been rebuilt from the ground up, replacing mechanical hard drives to SSD drives

This has necessitated the total reset of the database held at VK3RWN and the US Trust server

This was needed to eliminate many database errors that had evolved over the nine years and

the committee chose to commence with a fresh database, and deleting all previous backups.

If you were were previously registered on VK3RWN, the link to re-register is now working

IF YOU HAVE RE-REGISTERED AT ANOTHER GATEWAY, THERE IS NO NEED TO RE-REGISTER AT VK3RWN

IF YOU ATTEMPT THIS YOU WILL CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH YOUR REGISTRATION

If you need assistance, please send an email to me Peter Willmott VK3TQ

email address vk3tq@bigpond.com and with myself or Terry Churcher VK3BMX will assist you.

Can I also explain to you that internet assisted repeaters are different to normal analog repeaters in there running costs.

VK3RWN is a major part of the Australian D-Star system with relationships to the VK3RMM repeater, relationships to the New Zealand D-Star System and Tasmanian system as it holds many registrations. There are many interstate users registered with VK3RWN

I would thank to thank wholeheartedly the recent donations from D-Star users, Ian, Grant and Gerard. I would also like to thank Richard Hoskin VK3JFK for the amount of time it has taken to rebuild VK3RWN, go to site (over 200km trip) and sort problems on site and generally repair it in a professional way. Many times !!! As with Richard, to Steve Reining VK3UJ, the site manager, who keeps our cavities, antennas, cables etc etc in super condition and to Bob Rogers, owner of JRD Communications for our berth at site. Sometimes we tend to forget these wonderful people , who really know what there doing.

I would also like to thank the Vic D-Star users committee going to keep VK3RWN going for you
We fund raise to pay the internet charges which are the most costly part of the system by about 90% Thanks to EMDRC they pay the power and the licence fee

Any donation we receive goes directly into keeping the gateway open and connected. Your assistance would be gratefully received and revered by the group of hard workers that keep this system alive

To do this you can go to site and join the group there

All the best

Peter Willmott
VK3TQ

President
Victorian D-Star Users Group

vk3tq@bigpond.com

The VK3RWN B  70cm UHF D-Star Repeater is set to be re-installed tomorrow on May 8th.   The repeater has been repaired by Icom Australia and will be re-installed by the Victorian D-Star Users Group  repeater manager Steve Reining VK3UJ. Steve reported that the faults repaired were heat related, a few dry joints etc  Steve said while VK3RWN C is the more popular repeater with locals, VK3RWN B was host to many popular nets that are programmed  to connect. For example the Sunday Night REF 1C net, ran by Connie KB0ZSG, this runs for hours on late Monday morning, and very popular with Hams all over Australia. Steve spoke to me tonight by phone,  saying he has bench checked the receiver  …and its hot…hearing data at  -127db. The transmitter is outputting 25 watts at 438.300  It will be interesting to see how it runs tomorrow night after installation   Why not tune to VK3RWN B and check it out.

The Victorian D-Star Users Group would like to thank Icom Australia, Bob Rogers of JRD Communications & Steve Reining of Westcomm for their assistance to the Victorian D-Star Users Group.

ID-RP 4000 U 70cm D-Star Repeater

ID-RP 4000 U 70cm D-Star Repeater

IMG_0203A group of D-Star enthusiasts in Gippsland are forging the way ahead with D-Star and its becoming a reality for Amateur Radio operators in the Latrobe Valley Victoria

Brian VK3BBB,  Barry  VK3BDG and Gordon VK3NUG have been running hotspots in Morwell, Traralgon and Rosedale , with next step an elevated hotspot.

The boys have been looking for real estate to install the  hotspot that will service the Latrobe Valley

The big news is that  I have been informed that a D-Star Hotspot was installed at an elevated location looking over the valley recently

The Callsign is  VK3BBB B     Frequency is 438.9oo Mhz     No Offset

The hotspot has a permalink to Reflector 30C  (REF030C) for those with DVAPs,  Dongles, and other D-Star Homebrew systems

This will enable Hams from all over the world to drop in chat to Gippsland Hams and vice a versa…its all fun on D-Star

If you’re travelling and / or staying in the Latrobe  Valley  please send your location, and signal report in to us at the website

by emailing Peter    vk3tq@bigpond.com and we will forward them on

We will keep you updated with the progress in the Valley  Good Luck Fella’s and thanks for your work