Help Requested: For new Ham and D Star radio user

[VicWad]

Hello,
I just got my technician license and also bought Icom 92d portable d star radio.
Here lies the problem.  The closed D Star repeater from my location from harrisburg, pa is in Allentown, pa.  There is no way for me to reach it with my portable since it is definetly out of reach.  I dont have any frineds with D Star radios.  I am having fun talking on analog repeaters and gaining experience on analog side.
I want to reach out and ask for some input.  What can i do or practise with my d star radio if I dont have another d star radio owner to test/play with and the nearest d star repeater is out of ereach.  I have been playing with some applicatiosn like d chat, d rats etc but cannot verify anything unless i get a handshake with a simplex d star user or the repeater.

Can anyone advise on some things I can work on until i can reach a d star repeater or work with another d star user.  It seems nutty to drive closer to a d star repeater to play with it. 

[KC2TLH]

Well first question is are you using just the rubber duck antenna that came with the radio? If so toss it in the trashcan, and get something better. I personally use a Diamond SRH519 while running around NYC, and a SRH77CA for long distance portable operations.

Do you have a base setup? For working at a fixed/base location you can either build a J-Pole, a small wire dipole, or just buy a decent base antenna. Where I live I am smack dab between all the D-STAR machines in the NY Metro area, and they are all just barely within reach when operating portable depending on conditions, and sometimes even when operating from the shack I have a hard time (using a fixed antenna set about 30-40' up). Today I should have my new Mirage BD-35 amp so I shouldn't have to worry about hitting any machine from the house, or the car.

[VicWad]

Hello.  Yes, I agree.  I threw the rubber duck attenna in spare parts bin.  I got a after market antenna and while i was in shopping mode I got the magmount and the big boy vhf/uhf antenna.  I am looking for a good hf antenna still.  I think I am going to get heavily into hf since it is so much fun already.  2m to 10m repeaters etc....This all I have done on analog side so far in a week.
For D Star side, I downloaded the D-RATS application and have signed up/registered for some d star gateways.  i will play with the D-Rats app to make a contact over the internet to another d star user using a d star gateway.  Using D-Rats I have successfully been able to send text messages using terminal window within thr rs32 software. Aii i can tell is the radio is definetly transmitting when I press a key on the keyboard after CR followed by the text.   I also have successully setup gps alarm function.  I am marking all speed traps as I see them ..he..he  ;~)
As for base station I am saving my pennies for the Iden.
What have you accomplished with D Star to date???

[n5ebw]

Actually Gentlemen, I am going to have to disagree on replacing the antenna (the rubber duck anyway)....

Last year, between August 8th and August 16th, 2008, I traveled to Richmond, Virginia on vacation (this also happens to be my home town).

While there, I had my 92AD with me.  My good friend Steve, KG4PEQ, had recently replaced the stock antenna with the same Diamond SRH77CA you refer to on his VX-7R.

For fun, I wanted to measure how much better the new antenna worked on my 92AD.  To do this, we used the W4RAT repeater, which has a feature that will respond with your signal strength after punching a DTMF sequence in.  I don't remember the exact signal strength's reported, but I do remember the Icom antenna was about .1 dB higher than the Diamond.  Just to make sure it wasnt a fluke, we held the rigs in the exact same position and orientation each time, and did the test multiple times.

So, I'm keeping my stock antenna.  Just because it's a stock antenna doesn't necessarily mean its junk 

I would, however, recommend getting a "real" dual band base antenna for increased performance if you are using it in that scenario.

[VicWad]

Thx for the additional info.  I will keep my icom supplied antenna handy.  I am travelling to sterling, va this coming week and will try some repeaters with stock and after market antenna.,

[KC2TLH]

EBW, I'm not going to dispute your experiment, and observations. They could be quite true. But what I'll try to do is see if I can use the stock antenna to hit, and hold a repeater (W2LI in mUrray Hill, NJ) that is about 30mi away from NYC. When I was using my T90 with the stock antenna I could barely hold the repeater with lots of noise. I switched to the Diamond 519, and proceeded to hit/hold the machine with FQ. Switched back, and nothing. Mind you this was done standing at street level on 7th Ave in front of NY Penn Station with 2/4 Penn Plaza standing in the way. So I am going to try this again with my 91 with the stocker, and the 519 and see what the results are. Maybe Icom decided to give us a decent stock antenna for these radios (hell we paid enough!) for a change. I do know that the stock antennas I received with my V82, T7H, and T90 were junk compared to the Diamonds.

If this experiment works out my hat is off to you, and you saved me from purchasing a SMA version of 777.

[n5ebw]

Definitely give it a shot..  I hope your results are similar, and that mine wasn't just a one off.

[KC2TLH]

I did yesterday (standing in the (pouring) rain with people giving me some pretty weird looks, but hey it's NYC so get over it folks).

But anyways. Both antenna's were able to hit, and hold the W2LI machines (both VHF & UHF) with the stocker very slightly edging out the Diamond. So on a whim I tried hitting the N3MSK machine in Martinsville. That machine is about 10mi South of W2LI, and lower. The Diamond couldn't hit it at all, though the stocker was able to key, and hold the machine with some noise for a QSO. I have to say that Icom actually included a decent stock antenna since the other radios I have the stock antenna was pretty much only good for poking the cat to get him off my keyboard. Though I would like to get a SMA version of the 77 and do a 3-way comparison.

[n5ebw]

FANTASTIC!  I hoped I wasnt the only one.

When you do the comparison with the 77, please share your findings.