General D-star range question...

[N9OQT]

I am investigating getting involved in D-Star. But I have no experience with it.

I believe that it would be useful to use my home internet connection from around town for sharing images, get radar updates, etc. for storm spotting. Also as a backup for of communication when out doing that.

But I do not know anything about range of digital transmissions at 10 watts on 1.2 GHz. I thought that the ID-1 seemed nice for using internet remotely. The speed is much better at the higher bandwith and higher frequency.

But if I have a half or full wave antenna at say 30 feet, running 10 watts communicating with an identical station mobile, any idea on what the range would be? I know that it will depend on weather, terrain, etc., but I just would love to know an approximation.

Also, and this is a pretty wild idea, but has anyone ever tried to hook up a wireless router to a mobile D-Star installation so that perhaps a radio install could be done in the trunk, and a single laptop with a WiFi connection could work from the front of the vehicle untethered?

I am still in the very early stages of investigating, but would love to be able to have remote access to the internet, and my files from home, remotely. Without the uncertainty of spotty cell connections around town, but the additional options for emergency communications.

Thanks in advance for any help,

Patrick N9OQT

[NY9D]

ID-1 radios have a lot of advantages for long haul data transmissions.  The radios have a lot of power (10 watts), the RF decks are good, the band is interference free, and the protocol does not seem to time out like plain 802.11b transmissons (optimized for short range) might after 10 miles or so.  The disadvantage of 1.2 is that you are line of sight.  So to a downtown building top, 15 miles is a piece of cake.  But mobile to mobile, this is not 2 meters where signals will go out and bounce around.  Those using these ground to ground have had issues.  Figure a few miles max- any obstruction and you are usually blocked.  But we have had perfect luck hitting our 400 foot sites 15 miles away.  We look at 1.2 like a satellite band - if you can see the "bird" you are good to go.  These are half duplex so normal TCP applications are ideal.  Streaming, esp. bidirectional, is not ideal.  But a missing persons simple web site app- we think 10 PCs could share an ID-1.