[drats_users] Alabama Plans for D-Star Usage during SET (October 4, 2008)

[Les Rayburn]

Please redistribute this to any D-Star related forums, mailing lists, or groups for which you may be a member. Mike Watkins, WX4AL will also include this as part of an ARES Newsletter SET Special Edition to be published on Thursday. 


As most of you know, the successful use of the D-Star system during a state wide event requires routing users and repeaters to a common "reflector" through the gateway. Unfortunately, the number of these reflectors are limited. Like an net frequency on HF, there is no such thing as "owning" a reflector for your exclusive use. It's very much first come-first served.

As D-Star expands with each passing year, the use of reflectors during large scale events such as the Simulated Emergency Test (SET) may tax it's ability to serve it's users. 

During the upcoming SET on Saturday, we propose to use REF002-B for operations within the State of Alabama. This reflector was chosen simply because it is the one commonly used for the Alabama D-STAR Net on Tuesday evenings. Should this reflector be in use, or unavailable to us, we will search for an alternative and relay that choice via the HF Net on 3965khz. 

We had also hoped to make use of slow speed data using the D-Rats Software during SET this year, but it continues to undergo development to address it's use on reflectors. Right now, it simply isn't stable enough for use during the exercise. Instead, we encourage groups to take advantage of the gateway-linking capabilities of D-Star to communicate by voice with the Section, State EMA in Clanton, and various served agency groups. 

Here's hoping that reflector REF002-B is available for our use during SET, and that we really get a chance to show off it's capabilities. 

73,




Les Rayburn, N1LF
ARES AL Section Emergency Coordinator
NCS-SHARES NCS-047
---------------------------------------------
121 Mayfair Park
Maylene, AL 35114
(205) 253-4867
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