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John,

Very interesting post. First, I’m glad you are making use of sending radio commands to link the W6CX DV repeater to various D-STAR reflectors or repeaters. MDARC encourages users to make full use of the repeater’s capabilities (obviously first making sure the repeater is not busy). As you have probably noticed, when you link somewhere, if there is no local RF activity for a while, it will automatically reset to the default reflector.

Every D-STAR repeater/gateway can be configured to accept incoming direct links or not, and if allowed, the max number of links at one time. So when a direct to repeater link attempt does not work, it is likely either the gateway admin is blocking incoming links, or currently the max number has been reached.

It’s also true there are several gateway software packages being used on D-STAR repeaters. The two most used are ICOM’s G2 or G3, usually with the DPlus add-on that supports REF reflectors, and G4KLX gateway software, which supports REF, DCS, XRF and XLX. W6CX uses the MMDVM (multi-mode) version of G4KLX’s software to allow support of D-STAR, DMR and C4FM.

Both ICOM and G4KLX have configuration settings that can manage inbound linking. If you have a particular repeater you’d like to link to directly and are unable, you might try to track down that repeater’s trustee or D-STAR Admin and ask if they support inbound linking.

One reason why inbound linking is not always enabled is internet bandwidth to the repeater site. Most reflectors are located in commercial data centers with very high network bandwidth, while most repeaters are located at remote sites with limited internet bandwidth. Admins may find inbound direct links take up too much bandwidth at the remote site.

Generally, if you want to target a given repeater, you can find out if that gateway has a Dashboard showing current link status. If that gateway is linked to a default reflector (e.g. for W6CX, that is currently REF014C), then you can link to that reflector and get access to the target repeater. And since you are linking to a reflector most likely in a data center, you are not affecting the repeater’s network bandwidth usage.

Jim – K6JM

From: [email protected] <[email protected]> On Behalf Of John Crowley - KF6WSK via groups.io
Sent: Sunday, April 24, 2022 11:33 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [W6CX-DigitalVoice] Linking/Touting to other Repeaters

Jim,

Thank you for your reply. I have been able to link to reflectors; what I was trying to do was linking to individual repeaters. That was an interesting point that for the REF you need to be registered and have your call in the radio's MYCALL

For example there is a digital voice repeater in the UK GB7DC which I have successfully linked to using; UR GB7DC.BL
Before linking I drop the REF014C link on W6CX then establish the link and switch to UR CQCQCQ to make voice contact.
Their system is running MMDVM with a dashboard where I can see that the link and subsequent CQ call have gone through.
I have also just routed to the GB7DC system using UR /GB7DC.B and that has worked


What does not seem to work is when I try to Link or route to a repeater using I believe G2/G3 systems

For example the Western Oregon Radio Club has a D-Star system



When i put UR WB7DZGBL to link or /WB7DZGB to route nothing happens other than the W6CX repeater announcing Not Linked when attempting to link
They have a DPlus Dashboard which I look at after attempting to link or route but do not see my callsign.

Another system I tried to connect to was KR4AIK a D-Star system in South Carolina.

I did not know if it has to do with the types of server software G2/G3; the Oregon and South Carolina are using the USROOT Director according to dstarinfo

There was another system in Oregon I believe I also could not work but it was using ircDDB USROOT for their directory although they may still in the process of setting it up.

This is just curiosity on my part.

I do appreciate the W6CX system and connecting to the Washington Digital Radio Enthusiasts weekday morning nets on REF029A
73
John KF6WSK


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