"Call Sign" setup and use

[Taxman]

I got back into radio this past March (after a 42 year hiatus) and got myself an IC-91AD as my first forey into DSTAR. I guess I'm a little thick when it comes to the "UR, RPT1,RPT2,MY" setup and use. I'm registered in the Dstar system and now would like connect to other, more distant, repeaters other than those in my region. I'm having a little difficulty wrapping my mind around the concept of "linking" vs "routing" of repeaters, reflectors, and nodes. I cruzed the Dstar sites for info and got out the 91AD operating manual and recently attempted to set the "call sign" criteria so as to "link", "route", or otherwise connect ot an AU repeater with "G" capabilty through the local gateway repeater. Needless to say, I was unable to connect or otherwise initiate a link (to anything) except the local repeater. Beyond the fact that I'm probably doing something wrong, I noticed that my Call Sign settings seemed to constantly revert back to their original settings, requiring me to re-enter them all from scratch each time I entered the Call Sign menu. In a nutshell. I guess I'd like to be able to listen to (and maybe TX through) a foreign repeater as opposed to calling a specific station.

These were my settings:

UR:VK7### (Repeater Call Sign)(tried the"/" in front of the call and "CL" at the end)(tried REF001A too)
RPT1:W1###  C (two spaces between the call sign and the "C" ?)
RPT2:W1###  G (two spaces between the call sign and the "G" ?)
MY:K1TAX/

So if anybody has an hour or three to give me a tutorial on this or direct me to an online tutorial that they found useful, I'd appreciate it.

Thanks again,

Bob
K1TAX

[jfelkey]

I had similar  problems as you and then I discovered the following site:  http://www.DSTARINFO.com/faq/FirstSteps.htm

Be sure and use the D-STAR calculator and everything is laid out for you.

73

KF7BBS

[n5ebw]

I had similar  problems as you and then I discovered the following site:  http://www.DSTARINFO.com/faq/FirstSteps.htm

Be sure and use the D-STAR calculator and everything is laid out for you.

73

KF7BBS

Or, feel free to check out the sticky that's at the top of this forum called "Presentations", (http://www.dstarusers.org/forums/index.php/topic,35.0.html) which includes one of my own:

http://www.d-starusers.org/presentations/Hamcom2008.pdf

[KG4RRN1]

When using a IC-2200H, if you want to connect to a distant repeater, or the ham with a D-STAR radio you are hearing, or seeing their call in your radio, you must enter the repeater callsign, or their callsign in the RPT 2 field. I forgot how to enter that.
The other question I had, related to a conference connection, where several repeaters(3) are tied into another freq on VHF, from any node (A,B,C) and to join the conversation, you must know the parameters of the callsign, that is entered into the system exactly, or your transmissions will not be heard.