W1AAD Back on the Air — more upgrades to come

The W1AAD repeater rejoined DSTAR service tonight at about 6:30 PM when it was linked into REF069C for the first time since early January.  Immediately, traffic was heard from all the other repeaters in CT/RI that are linked into 69, so things are working.

This is only the first step in the upgrade, getting the latest Icom G3 software running on the new computer gear at the site.  Over the next few days ircDDBGateway services will be added and the dashboard will be set up.  So don’t be surprised to hear the repeater up/down for the next couple of days.

We are the 63rd G3 level repeater running in the world!

Thanks to Pete W1LAB, Ted W1GRI, and Bob WB4SON who have been spending a bunch of time working on this upgrade over the past four months.  Pete, Ted, Bob and Paul K1YBE have donated equipment or funds to get this done at no expense to the club.

W1AAD repeater — the business end

W1AAD Dashboard

W1AAD Repeater Off Air for Repairs

The computer used for the gateway function of our DSTAR repeater, W1AAD, has been failing for the past few months.  We have decided to take the repeater off the air until we can come up with a reliable alternative that can be managed remotely (access to the site is very restricted).

There is no definite timeframe, but several weeks is is the minimum.

 

W1AAD DSTAR Repeater PC Failing Frequently

The PC controlling the DSTAR machine has become increasingly unreliable in the past few months, after working solidly for years.  Tools installed to allow a remote restart are no longer restoring the PC to operation, requiring more frequent site visits to get things going again.  In addition, the PC is so old that it is not capable of supporting the latest version of the operating system and Gateway software.

For the foreseeable future, it is more likely than not that W1AAD will fail to connect to the internet gateway system.  We suggest using W1HDN in West Warwick (147.045 MHz, + 600 KHz), or using a local internet device like a DVAP, DV3K or DVmega.  Both the DVAP and DVmega work with your DSTAR HT to provide a local RF access point (think of it as a personal low power repeater).  The DV3K is a computer device, using your microphone and speaker to connect to to repeaters or reflectors.

W1AAD DSTAR Repeater Back on the Air

Our thanks to Paul, K1YBE, and Pete, W1LAB, who ventured to the repeater site to reset the computer to restore gateway functions.

There was a bad wind-storm about two weeks ago, that took out internet services in the neighborhood where the repeater is located.  While the internet service was restored a few days later, the PC that we use did not recover from the the loss of internet connectivity.  A manual restart was required to fix things.

We are exploring ways to do this remotely in the future, as we can’t always gain access to the repeater which was in a building that was locked down during the holidays.

Additional Changes to W1AAD DSTAR Repeater

The W1AAD repeater was off the air for a time today to allow some additional changes to be made on the ircDDBGateway software (our thanks to VK4TUX, Adrian, who is doing that work for us, and Pete, W1LAB, who had to go to the repeater site to reboot it this afternoon).

The original DPLUS software services, that are used to link to the DPLUS reflectors, like REF069C, was working but preventing smooth operation of all the new linking features.  A decision was made to turn DPLUS off, and doing that seemed to fix all the voice identification issues and allow linking of any reflector via DTMF.

To use a DTMF command, please make sure your UR field is set to CQCQCQ, which is the normal setting for carrying out a conversation on the repeater.  The following DTMF commands will then work:

0 –> Will give you a voice announcement of link status
# –> Will unlink the repeater
** –> Will link to the default reflector, which is REF069C

*50C –> Will link to REF050C
B2A –> Will link to XRF002A
D5A –> Will link to DCS005B
D523 –> Will link to DCS005W
Two digit codes “01” to “26” can be used to represent the “A” to “Z” letters
Hence, “W” is 23.  By the way D502 would be the same as DCS005B.