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Another local ham and I both communicated D-Rats via hotspots to the D-Plus Reflector 48B here in Louisiana.??Our local repeater lost its Internet connection after Hurricane Zeta came through our area last year.??He was using a Zumspot and I was using an older??DV-Mega on a Raspberry Pi.??So, you can run D-Rats through a hotspot.??The question is will the repeater or reflector you are using allow data transfers.

Many of the XL series repeaters and reflectors are built using MMDVM boards and computers that were connected to originally standard analog repeaters.??According to our local repeater guru, there is a setting in the MMDVM software that the repeater/reflector owners need to set to allow the digital data to be utilized.??There is a reason for this.??When a station is operating D-Rats, whenever you type something in chat, send out a position report, etc., the program keys the radio to transmit if the channel is not busy.??If you are transmitting, either sending or receiving files or email, the program is keying the radio sending acknowledgements or data.??To others on the system trying to use voice only, it looks like someone is just constantly kerchunking the repeater as no audio is being heard.??This usually becomes annoying to folks used to just hearing voice traffic and can tie up the repeater for several minutes at a time if large files are being sent.??Some repeater owners may choose to turn the D-rats capability off.??Most of the larger repeater and reflector stacks have either an Alpha and/or Delta option besides the VHF and UHF B and C modules to give the people wanting to send data a place to go that won’t interfere with the local voice traffic.

If you find that you are unable to send D-Rats traffic through that particular XLX, or DCS repeater/reflector you may need to check with the owner/operator to see if he has allowed or turned off that feature before you decide that your setup is the problem.??D-Rats is also capable of operating on a simplex channel to another local station.??That is the way to utilize D-Rats in an emergency situation where local repeaters, or the Internet has failed.??Just remember, when you are using D-Rats via any route going through a repeater, reflector, or hotspot, you may be keying up and tying up a large number of other systems.??This is the main reason that during normal operation, we like to keep the ratflectors Internet-only.??If a ratflector is connected to RF it is going to affect a large amount of infrastructure that others might want to be using.??Just imagine the havoc it would cause if a ratflector with folks passing traffic were connected to something like REF 30C.??During emergency conditions, yes, the reflector could be placed under net control and the system used by any means necessary by the folks involved in the emergency, but we try to keep other uses to a minimum during times of normal operation.