New to D-Star, new to 23cm

[VA7LWE]

Hello denizens of the D-StarUsers forum.

Well, I took the plunge and got myself an ID-1, partly to play with D-Star and to see what the fuss is all about, partly for the DD mode, and partly to have a 23cm radio in the shack - a band I've never used before.

The radio is now set up and I currently have a temporary antenna situation - a mobile 23cm antenna in a mag mount, indoors (currently on the window sill).  The antenna system will change soon enough into a yagi pointed a local repeater, but I was hoping that I'd be able to get something to work with this lash-up.

So far, leaving the radio on in DV mode and tuned to one of two 'obvious' local repeaters (VE7RAG and VA7ICM) I haven't heard a thing.  This isn't very surprising as I'm guessing from the repeater stats that I'm going to have to make a cross-band/port call to get to the users that there are, as I'm not seeing any activity on 23cm. 

Now, what I'm wondering about is as follows:
1. Am I mad to expect an indoor antenna with no LOS to a repeater (8 miles away or so) to be able to work on 23cm?  Cell phones are higher-frequency still, and lower-power and these make it into cell towers at this sort of distance, so I'm thinking that this should work.
2. Given that this is digital radio, is there a way to quickly test a round-trip into a repeater without having to actually do a classic radio check with another operator? 
3. The nearest repeater that I actually registered with (VE7RAG) now looks like it is just out of LOS, behind the flank of one of the local mountains.  There's probably only a degree or two in it (according to me experiments with Google Earth!).  I'm wondering how critical this is usually, or whether a repeater that's only 8 miles away ought to be workable even if it's not quite on a direct path.  It turns out that my second choice (VA7ICM) is almost perfectly on LOS, even if slightly further away.  I now understand that I'm going to have to unregister with VE7RAG before trying to sign up on VA7ICM... or is it OK to be temporarily registered at two repeaters?

Thanks!

-- Luke

[Pete AE5PL]

1. Am I mad to expect an indoor antenna with no LOS to a repeater (8 miles away or so) to be able to work on 23cm?  Cell phones are higher-frequency still, and lower-power and these make it into cell towers at this sort of distance, so I'm thinking that this should work.
2. Given that this is digital radio, is there a way to quickly test a round-trip into a repeater without having to actually do a classic radio check with another operator? 
3. The nearest repeater that I actually registered with (VE7RAG) now looks like it is just out of LOS, behind the flank of one of the local mountains.  There's probably only a degree or two in it (according to me experiments with Google Earth!).  I'm wondering how critical this is usually, or whether a repeater that's only 8 miles away ought to be workable even if it's not quite on a direct path.  It turns out that my second choice (VA7ICM) is almost perfectly on LOS, even if slightly further away.  I now understand that I'm going to have to unregister with VE7RAG before trying to sign up on VA7ICM... or is it OK to be temporarily registered at two repeaters?

First, welcome to D-STAR.
1. For DV, you should be fine.  DD might be an issue.
2. Sure, place CQCQCQ in URCALL, VA7ICM  A in RPT1, and VA7ICM  G in RPT2.  You should see VA7ICM  G respond back that it doesn't know CQCQCQ (you will see VA7ICM  G show up on the front display).
3. Once you are registered on a gateway, you have open access to all gateways.  There is no need to unregister from one and register with another (in fact, it is a bit cumbersome to unregister/register a user).  You may not register on two gateways.  Try using the VA7ICM system.  As long as the station ID in MYCALL is registered in your personal information portion of the VE7RAG gateway, you will not have any issues.

Hope this helps.

73,

Pete AE5PL

[VA7LWE]

Thanks Pete a lot for your informative comments.  That indeed helped a lot.

I just installed a 23cm yagi (Comet CYA-1216E) on the tower this Sunday, and hopefully it is pointed within about 10 degrees of VA7ICM according to its location on JFindU.  So, with the ID-1 connected up I should be able to see if I can get the repeater tomorrow (I'll use the trick you mention in answer to my question 2).  Looking forward to that... if a little apprehensive than I'll get a resounding silence back from the aether ;-) 

I bought 23cm for the novelty factor and the DD mode, but I suspect my ability to make real use of my ID-1 is completely predicated on my ability to get into a repeater - I don't think there are too many fellow 23cm users here in Vancouver, and my scan through the band in FM mode has yet to find any activity.

Good to know that it doesn't matter which repeater/gateway I register on.  It looks like admin attentiveness varies considerably as my original request to register on VE7RAG (before I figured VA7ICM might be better) was met with almost instant response, whereas I'm still waiting to hear from the VA7ICM admin almost a week later on the same question as to whether I should register there.  Still... it's a hobby, right?  :-)

Cheers

-- Luke