ICOM Callsign Routing -vs- Dplus Linking

You may have noticed many gateways that allow linking and some don't allow linking. Here is my view (WIlliam Stillwell - KI4SWY), And not everyone will agree with me.. but I thought I would just post this up here anyways.

ICOM Originally designed D-Star to be a user routable system, and to this day, it still is, however, there was a lack for the ability to do nets in Gateway V1 software, so an well devoted person (Robin Cutshaw) found a need to create a way to software link repeaters together for nets. Hence came Dplus + Reflectors. (Note The software was originally was based on decho/dshark which was just a util for admins for testing there gateways.

Moving on, Most users know of the Callsign Routing, If you want to talk to Jim (Fictuous Callsign of K1XXX), and you are K2YYY , and you will be using the K1ABC Repearter Port C you would program your radio with:

urCall or YourCall Sign: K1XXX

Rpt1: The Repeater your using (K1ABC C)

Rpt2: The Repeater your using's Gateway Callsign (Letter 'G' in Eighth Position) (K1ABC G)

myCall or MyCallsign: K2YYYY

Now, as you can see, when looking at this, it can be confusing, as when you talk in third person, it doesn't make since, it would of more intuitive if they used "DEST" and "SOURCE" instead of "urCall" and "myCall".

Now, when you key your mike, you should then say "K1XXX , this is K2YYY on k1ABC port C" then pause for a few , and try again., I have also heard of users requesting the use of the gateway "prior to calling".

Now, What are the cons of this you ask? Well, Both the Caller (myCall) and Receiver (urCall) need to be registed into the gateway system, you also will need to make sure the terminal you are using is already register'd as well, You may ask what is the "Termina" you speak of? On the D-Star Gateway registeration system, there is a page called "Personal Information" when you first registered, and aproved your were required to go back into the website, and add at lease one terminal, this terminal usually has a "Space" in in the intial feild, failure to do this will not allow you to use the gateway system. The other problem with this method, is that if the destination or receiver or urcall moves to another system, as of this righting (3/2009) it can take up to 69 Minutes to Propagate to the next system.. (This is based on simple math, in that is sync time * 2 - 1 minute for the max, and sync time + 1 for the minumum, and current sync time is at 35 minutes.)..

Now, to avoid the "I can't wait 36 to 69 minutes" is to use the Repearter callsign, this requires you to know the remote repeater, to do this, you use the following method:

urCall: /(REMOTE SYSTEM)(PORT)

Rpt1: Same as Above K1ABC C

Rpt2: Same as Above K1ABC G

myCall: Same as Above K2YYY

Downfall is you need to know what urCall is.

The Cons for this is, you gotta know where the person is you want to talk to... You also still have to wait for anybody to respond, you are alos still recommend to callout the same was as before, "CQCQCQ this is K2YYYY on K1ABC Port C Calling Anybody on <REMOTE SYSTEM>  Port <PORT>

I find it easy to program my radio with common systems that I use.

My "Typical" Memory map looks like this:

As you can see, then on my radio, i have YIBLOC, YIBNTB, YIBCNA, YIBCNB, YIBCNC, etc.

This is the way ICOM/Jarrl Invisioned "D-Star" Low speed Voice/Data to be used.

New "Options" that came with V2 Gateway software, a thing called "Multicasting" now, in multicasting, this requires all the gateways to have a "Multicast" Group Setup, and when a user has a Multicast Group setup in there urCall field, when they key the mike EVERY gateway module setup will be able to here the caller. This is pretty useful, however, it is NOT being heaving used as it requires "Cordination" between all gateways, the setups are not Replicated between gateways, and it requires are larger outbound bandwidth for the gateway server.

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Now, Dplus, what it does, and how it works.

Dplus Limitations:

1) It replays everything it heres going to and going from the gateway server to the Controller. This is a good thing right? Yes, and No. If you have a Module linked to another module, and you have incoming Routed traffic, the remote system will here it, but nobody can respond..... Example:

Repeater A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H has Port B linked to Reflector X

Now, A User on Repeater K Callsign Routes to a User on Repeater B , Guess what? Everyone on Repeater A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H just heard you, but NONE of them can respond back to you except for users on Repeater "B" or they one-touch your callsign.. So, now your conversing with User X on Repeareter G, your callsign routing into Repeater B, and the user on Repeater G is talking to you via Callsign Routing... Now, what happens when say, Repeater B or G drops the Link? Neither your conversation just got severered and you have no clue whats going on..

You also cannot link to more the one repeater or reflector at a time from any given module, and any additional links will not work, and will be greated by "Remote System Busy" etc.

Some system owners "teach" there users on how to use dplus for linking into systems.. Although it works good for that, I feel that is not what it was originally designed for, and should only be used for nets, and admin use. I treat dplus as a tool like echolink or irlp, and last i checked in florida, most of those systems don't allow user linking either.

73,

William Stillwell - KI4SWY