MDARC Family,

Below are guidelines for the use of our Club's Groups.io email forums. Please read through and abide by them, to help ensure our forums are a friendly and active way to communicate among ourselves. These Guidelines are also available on this group's web page, and on the Club's web site at?.

MDARC Groups.io Usage Guidelines

The MDARC email groups are open for the discussion of all things related to amateur radio, and especially the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club (MDARC). Anyone interested in these topics is welcome into the main Club group, member or not. The other groups are generally restricted to members of the respective committee. This code of conduct outlines our expectations for all those who participate in our community.

Through your use of any email group hosted by MDARC, you agree to abide by these Guidelines. Group membership is mutually voluntary. That means that our moderators may not make you a member without your permission nor attempt to prevent you from leaving. It also means that you cannot make yourself a member of any of our Groups without moderator approval; nor expect recourse should we remove or ban you.

In short:

• Be a good citizen?- Treat others with respect and report content that violates our Guidelines.
• Stay on topic?- Keep your content relevant to the group.
• Follow the law?- We don't want any trouble here.
• We hope we don’t have to, but?- We'll take appropriate action if we find you violating these guidelines.
  
  
  

Here's how you can get the most out of our Group:

1. Share what you know. Chances are, someone can benefit from what you have to contribute.
   
   
2. Be courteous. Everyone wants to be treated with respect, and showing respect to others makes our group better for all members.
   
   
3. Stay on topic. The topic for this group is amateur radio; and specifically the Mt. Diablo Amateur Radio Club. If you repeatedly stray from the topic, our moderators may edit, restrict or remove your content — or you — from the group altogether.
   
   
4. Moderate your content. We encourage a healthy exchange of opinions. But if you disagree with another member, challenge the opinion or idea - not the person. In return, don’t be easily offended by someone else’s differing thoughts. See item no. 2 above.
   
   
5. Be yourself. Your posting must have your true name and, preferably, your call sign. It must come from an email address that you legitimately use. Also, users must be individuals, not larger groups or businesses, although individuals may represent such organizations.
   
   
6. Post your own content. Have the original creator's permission before re-posting any content that comes from outside the Group. This goes for you too, moderators. If you do re-post any content or quote something (including other emails, books, magazines, news reports, web sites, etc.) include an attribution to the source. This helps keep it legal, and besides, everyone needs access to the same information to discuss a subject objectively.
   
   
7. Have a good time. When people behave responsibly and respectfully our group thrives and everybody wins.
   
   
   

Here are some things our group shouldn't be used for:

1. Don't violate the law. Don't post anything that violates the laws of the United States or the State of California; nor those of your country, state, province, or city. Don't post, or try to trick others into posting; their personal information, someone else’s personal information, or illegal images or documents (like copyrighted or trademarked material).
   
   
2. Don't be unkind. Exploitative or degrading comments are not welcome here. Also not welcome are belligerence, insults, slurs, profanity or ranting. Don't threaten, harass, impersonate, or hurt others, and don't invade other people's privacy. Also, adult-oriented content is not allowed. Don’t encourage or support anyone who does these things. If you wouldn't say it on the air, in public or with a group of friends, don't post it.
   
   
3. Don't be a spammer. Keep off-topic messages out of our group. Don’t send numerous or repetitive emails advocating for or against a particular opinion, concept, person, equipment, regulation, etc.
   
   
4. We are not a business. MDARC is a community, not a marketplace, so we encourage interactions not transactions. Postings of equipment for sale must be related to amateur radio, and are only for private individuals or non-profit groups wishing to dispose of excess equipment, estate sales, etc. Persons or organizations regularly engaged in selling equipment are not permitted.
   
   
   

Violation Response
Our group moderators, at their discretion; may edit, moderate, restrict or remove any content. We may also restrict or remove you from the group, including immediately and without notice, if you violate these group guidelines or we believe you have violated or tried to violate the rights of others. Repeated violations, personal attacks or threats, or any other serious matter may result in the member being permanently removed from any or all MDARC groups. If contacted by a moderator concerning your activities on our groups, please respond within 48 hours. If there is no reply in that time frame, we will act as needed.

Please help us keep our groups an enjoyable and positive experience. If you see content in our groups that violates our rules, please let us know by contacting us via the Group Owner email address, listed on its home page, or sending an email to?info@....

If you feel you have been treated unfairly by a moderator of this group, you may appeal to the MDARC Board of Directors, whose decision is final. Contact them via an email to?president@....

If you have any questions about these guidelines, send a note to the Group Owner, as shown on this Group’s home web page.

Thankx,

Mike Patterson, N6JGA
MDARC Digital Media Coordinator

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We’ll be correcting our C4FM webpage about linking to FCS reflectors with this info:

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Short version:? When using Yaesu Fusion radios to connect our W6CX-DV repeater to FCS reflectors, use Search & Direct and enter the 5-digit FCS reflector number.? Don’t precede that number with “A”.

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??? Jim – K6JM

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PS Long version:? The Fusion/C4FM page explains that we have configured a default reflector, YSF80280 Diablo.? The reflector owner, Tim K6BIV, has implemented a bridge to Wires-X room 80280.? This promotes a local community of Fusion users in the Mount Diablo region.

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But users can have their radios send RF commands to connect the W6CX-DV repeater to other YSF or FCS “reflectors.”? (Yaesu’s proprietary network Wires-X can only be accessed using Yaesu hardware, but many Wires-X rooms can be accessed by linking to YSF or FCS reflectors which bridge to a specific Wires-X room.)?

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The new C4FM web page attempts to explain how to link both to YSF and FCS reflectors, but I have found the FCS information did not work.? Here is the correct information, with the new changes highlighted.? We will be updating the MDARC website with this information.

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…………………..

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The following uses the Yaesu FT2D radio as an example:

• Kerchunk or briefly key up the W6CX repeater to ensure it is put into C4FM mode and will be expecting a C4FM transmission. Otherwise the system might not notice the brief transmission from the next step.
• Briefly hit the X (Wires-X) key on your radio. This sends a very short burst asking to connect and put the repeater into simulated Wires-X mode.
• Response should be “Connected” on radio’s screen.
• Press “Search & Direct” screen button.
• On this screen, also press Search & Direct button to get to the data entry screen.
• Enter what reflector you want to connect to. Simplest way:
• For YSF reflectors, enter # nnnnn (e.g. #56123 for YSF56123 – US – America)
• For FCS reflectors, enter the 5-digit FCS number (e.g. for FCS00170 Socal-Link, enter 00170)
• Press ENT (enter) button on screen and if the reflector is found, the repeater will either be connected to that reflector, or the target reflector will be displayed, in which case press it to connect.
• Note that linked reflectors will be disconnected after 10 minutes of no local C4FM RF activity and our default reflector will be reconnected.

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On the FT2D’s screen, pressing the ID button on the screen will create the #. Other radios may operate differently.

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Roger,

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(I’m copying this to MDARC’s digital voice forum also.)

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I just checked at https://dstar.info/query.html ?and see your callsign is properly registered for D-Star.? So you are in good shape for that.

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The fastest way to get a D-Star radio up and running is:

• In your radio’s settings, put your callsign into MYCALL – the radio’s manual will explain how and you can do that without programming software.? (If you have software for a given radio, though, using that is a little easier.)
• To talk to most repeaters, you can then put your radio into “DR Mode”.? ICOM has loaded their radios with lists of repeaters, so normally you don’t have to set up a detailed codeplug. You can just search the radio to find your target repeater and you are ready to have a QSO.

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BUT, ICOM shipped a lot of radios with an error for W6CX digital repeater’s frequencies.? I contacted them some time back, and I think they finally fixed it, but if either your 9700 or 7100 has the frequencies wrong for our digital voice repeater, then you will first have to fix the W6CX entry before you can use DR Mode on W6CX DV.? You can fix it just using the radio’s buttons, or you can fix it using programming software if you have it for the radio.

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I just did a search for some simple documents that will help people get going on D-STAR.? I found many long documents that try to teach everything with details.? What I wanted was something very short with just the important steps.? I did find a 3-page document for the 7100 that in my opinion is still too long, but I am attaching that to this note.? Go directly to the section “Using your local repeater with Gateway Access” and find W6CX in Concord. ?The (TX) frequency your radio should listen on is 145.000 and the offset is 2.500 mHz.?

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• So using the above doc with radio in DR Mode, set FROM by accessing the Repeater List, find the USA West repeaters, then Mt Diablo W6CX and see what frequencies your radio has for our repeater.?
• If they are wrong, let us know if you have programming software or if you want to fix this using the radio’s buttons and I can give more info.

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???? Jim – K6JM

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