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Founded in 1921 to encourage Amateur Radio
May 2014
W5SH Repeater is 146.840 PL 110.9
Email list is W5SH in Yahoo.com groups
On the Web @ http://www.W5SH.org
What is a D-STAR
Richard — K5ANR
Bill — AF5IP
Daryl — KC5SLQ
et. al.
Have you ever thought about if you
could access the Internet from ham radios? Or have you ever thought if you
could communicate with a friend in another city or country using a simple
handy radio? Or want to send a simple
text message, or know the call sign of
whom is on the air right now? The
D-STAR system is such a system; you
can easily realize these functions without using a tricky gadget or complicated
facilities.

What does "D-STAR" stand for?
The D-STAR stands for Digital Smart
Technologies for Amateur Radio. It is an
open standard digital communication
protocol established by JARL (Japan Amateur Radio League)

What can I do with a D-STAR radio?
4.8kbps digital voice (DV) mode and
128kbps data * (DD) mode communications are available. When using DD
mode with a PC and the D-STAR radio,
high speed data communication is possible
Copyright © 2014 Kilocycle ARC of Fort Worth

Can I send data with a voice transmission?
Yes, you can. In DV mode operation only, you can simultaneously send up to
950bps of data, such as call sign, short
data message or GPS position with a
voice transmission.

Can I call a foreign countries?
Yes, you can. The Internet gateway allows you to relay your call to a remote
D-STAR repeater over the Internet. The
D-STAR repeater call sign and IP address must be registered to the gateway
server. Some restrictions may apply
based on specific country regulations.
—- cont. on page 3 —-
Inside This Issue…
What is a D-STAR?
1
Cleaning Dirty Wire
2
Hamfests in the area
2
More Classes in 2014
2
Announced DXpeditions
2
New Member Notes
5
March Meeting Notes
6
http://www.W5SH.org
Cleaning Wire
I was working on rebuilding my 80M full
wave loop the other evening and all was
going well until I tried to solder the wire.
It has been out in the weather for a
while and was a mess.
I ran to the kitchen and mixed up a
small batch of vinegar with a lot of table
salt and warmed it a little. Then I soaked
the end of the wire in the “juice” for a
few minutes and rinsed with warm water
and baking soda.
Wire was just like new and the antenna
works again…..nothing like Jr. High
chemistry to get things going!!
More Classes in 2014
We are planning a two day Technician
Class license series for May 17 & May 24
We are also planning to hold a two day
General Class license series in June.
Classes are always free for anyone interested in gaining a license. There is a
charge for taking the FCC exam.
Exact dates are not yet available but will
be posted on the website as soon as
they become available. W5SH.org
Hamfests in Area
06/13/2014 | Ham-Com 2014 - "REGIONAL ARRL CENTENNIAL EVENT"
Location: Plano, TX
http://www.hamcom.org
07/12/2014 | Texas City Hamfest - 2014
Location: Texas City, TX
http://tidelands.org
Announced April DXpeditions
2-May
28-May
Mauritius
3-May
11-May Dodecanese
3-May
12-May
4-May
18-May Liechtenstein
7-May
14-May
Cyprus
7-May
15-May
Antigua
Ogasawara
Copyright © 2014 Kilocycle ARC of Fort Worth
3B8
SX5LA
JD1YBT
HB0DRK
5B
V25
7-May 18-May French Polynesia
FO
9-May 15-May
Micronesia
V650XG
11-May 22-May
Iceland
TF
14-May 14-May
Faroe Is
OY
14-May 17-May
Micronesia
V63PSK
15-May 25-May French Guiana
FY
http://www.W5SH.org
D-Star (continued from page 1)

Can I use the D-STAR repeater without connecting to the Internet?
Yes, you can use a D-STAR repeaters as
a local repeater. You can also communicate with other D-STAR radios directly.

Can I receive a call only when the
call is intended for me?
Yes, you can. The call sign squelch
function opens the squelch only when
you call sign is received.

How can D-STAR help first
responders using D-RATS
D-RATS is a multi-platform integrated
tool for communication using D-STAR
radios (read more here ).
With only a pair of radios (or an entire
repeater stack) a variety of data transmission methods are supported, including:






Instant-message chat
Automatic beacon messages
File transfers with error detection
Structured forms
GPS position reports
And much more!

DV A/P Dongle for PC and MAC
The DV Access Point Dongle connects to
your PC or Intel based Mac via a USB
port and provides a 2 meter or 70 cm
Access Point for use with a D-STAR radio. Using an Internet connection, a
user may connect to and communicate
with D-STAR gateways and reflectors
around the world. The DVAPTool application used with the DV Access Point
Dongle may be installed and run on Microsoft Windows XP/Vista/7/8, Mac OS X
Leopard/Snow Leopard, or many flavors
of Linux.
D-STAR is
making
it’s way
into the
mainstream of
Amateur
Radio,
especially
in the ECOM world.
More Information on D-Star is available
on the internet. One of my favorite places to look is the D-Star Info website.
There they discuss hardware, software,
and all things D-STAR.
Take a little time to learn about it to see
if you can add this new tool to your
toolkit.
ICOM is releasing new D-STAR ready
radios at a rapid rate to replace some of
the older models. New HF-VHF-UHF
transceiver model IC-7100 is now available in the US. They continue to offer
the IC-9100 with D-Star as an option.
There are 9 D-Star repeaters in the area
including 3 in Fort Worth. The FW repeaters are KB5DRP, W5SH, and
KF5MMX.
The newest of the D-STAR ready offerings is the IC-5100 mobile 2M/440 unit.
It is just coming to market and should
be available in the US late 2nd Q 2014.
There are also a number of handheld
D-STAR units on the market including
the ID-51A, IC92AD, and ID-31A among
others.


How Many D-Star repeaters are
there in the DFW area?
How can I tell if anyone is using
D-STAR without buying a new radio?
There is a webpage www.dstarusers.org
that shows D-STAR activity world wide.
The site also has a LOT of other related
information.
Informaton from ICOM, ARRL, and other commercial and SIG group pubs.
Copyright © 2014 Kilocycle ARC of Fort Worth
http://www.W5SH.org
April Meeting Notes continued….
—— continued from page 6 ——Approximately 150 riders participated.
They were a few issues, but no serious
injuries.
Save-The-Date:

June 7 – first half of Saturday General class – site to be determined.

June 12 / 13 – HamCom in Plano.

June 21 – second half of Saturday
general class.

June 27 – ARRL Field Day
New Business:
None.
Jimmy AE5YP made a motion that the
club look into purchasing a projector.
Motion seconded by Ed KE5UCT.
Rick W7REF the members to form a
committee to research what type of projector is needed and how much they
cost. David K5TRX, Ed KE5UCT and Jimmy AE5YP agreed to be on the committee.
Net Control:

April 22 – Rick W7REF

April 29 – Daryl KC5SLQ

May 6 – David N5TRX

May 13 – John N5KFX
Continuing Business:
Meeting Adjourned at 7:36 PM.
Richard K5ANR has produced a flier for
the Police Safety Fair, which will be
passed out to prospective hams and potential club members.
Presentation on a novel approach to antenna tuning without an antenna analyzer presented by Ed Williams.
He asked the club if they were interested in making a tabletop display / kiosk
for use at these types of events. Some
sort of static display plus a monitor
showing videos, etc...
Rick W7REF proposed that the club buy
its own video projector due to issues
with reliably obtaining one for the classes.
Copyright © 2014 Kilocycle ARC of Fort Worth
Meeting quickly reconvened
Proposed to membership that club purchasing a club T-shirt for Brooke, our
loyal waitress.
Motion to purchase a shirt for Brooke
made by Richard K5ANR.
Motion seconded by John N5KXF.
http://www.W5SH.org
New Member Notes
Welcome to any new or prospective Kilocycle Amateur Radio Club (ARC) members!
Meetings!:
Email:
The club uses a Yahoo email group to
per-form much of the planning and coordination activity for the club events.
Just to give you a ‘lay of the land’, so to
speak, the Fort Worth Kilocycle ARC
meets every 3rd Thursday of the month
at the Ol’ South Pancake House. The
restaurant is on University Drive just
south of I-30 in Fort Worth. Show up at
about 6:15PM (more or less), come on
to the back room, and join us for dinner.
The servers can point you to the right
room. The meeting starts at 7PM and
we usually have a quick business meeting and then a presentation. The
presentation topic can range from amateur radio history to modern technical
topics and quite a few things in between.
Go to http://groups.yahoo.com and
search for the club call sign - W5SH,
and subscribe. The moderator will get
you approve the request.
Our website:
One thing we feel very strongly about is
helping others become Hams. We hold
several amateur radio license classes
during the year to help recruit new amateur radio operators and to help with
upgrades for those who are already licensed. In fact, we offer FCC license
exams for Technician, General, and
Extra class licenses after every club
meeting.
The club has a website, w5sh.org, with
resources ranging from a repeater
search engine that can find any coordinated amateur repeater in the state of
Texas to announcements on upcoming
events.
Radioactivity!
Our net is every Tuesday night about
8:30pm on the w5sh repeater---146.84pl 110.9
As a club we participate in a number of
on the air activities including Texas QSO
Party, State Parks on the Air and ARRL
Field Day. In addition to these, we encourage participation in Public Service
events. Some of these events are the
Cow-town Marathon, the Memory Walk,
the March of Dimes walk, Special Olympics, and many others during the year.
Classes:
Membership benefits:
As an incentive, new hams are offered a free membership until the
next dues time. For everyone else,
membership dues are due in April.
Membership forms are available from
our treasurer during club meetings. Club
members receive a club t-shirt when
they join, or you can pay extra for polo
shirt. Talk to Daryl — KC5SLQ coordinates this for the club.
Copyright © 2014 Kilocycle ARC of Fort Worth
http://www.W5SH.org
April 17, 2014 Meeting Minutes
Meeting called to order at 6:58 PM by
Rick W7REF
Visitors: Alex – K5WAC & Lee – W2DZL
KC Secretary
———————
Bill—KF5FEI
New General licensees from last class
introduced.
Also, Chisholm Trail walk / run / bike
event on the new tool road is coming up
in May. Sign up on the RACES website if
you would like to help out.
Treasurer's Report:
Philip KB5ASY announced the current
checking account activity:
(REDACTED)
Motion to approve minutes made by
Mike Kegley.
Minutes approved by membership.
Vice President's Report:
Daryl KC5SLQ has ordered shirts for the
new members. Approximately 20 postcards sent advising local hams of club
meeting. Daryl said he needs to check
remaining postage to see if the club
needs to purchase more stamps.
Education:
Ed KE5UCT advised they just wrapped
up the general class and there is a 2day tech class in the works, slated for
Saturday, May 17, and Saturday, May
24. Location to be determined. Possible
location may be the Benbrook Library.
Ed advised he will talk with the North
Richland Hills club to see about conducting a joint extra class in the future.
Upcoming Events:
Rick W7REF – Field Day is coming up at
the end of June. The May club meeting
will focus on field day planning, arrangements, etc... No one has volunteered to be the coordinator so far.
Copyright © 2014 Kilocycle ARC of Fort Worth
Jimmy AE5YP – Sponsors of the Honored Heros Run would like the hams to
help out again this year. The event is
tentatively scheduled for the later part
of October.
Ed KE5UCT – Police Safety Fair is April
26, from 9 AM until 2 PM. The club is
going to set up a booth to demonstrate
amateur radio and solicit people interested in becoming hams or joining the
club. Ed, Daryl and Carl agreed to work
the booth.
Also, May 17 there will be a RACES renewal / new member class held at the
EOC in Fort Worth. See the RACES website for details.
Jimmy AE5YP – March of Dimes walk /
run is this weekend – email him if you
can help out.
Jimmy AE5YP reported that last weekend was the Ride for Heros bike ride.
David KF5LKG advised the net was
down for a while due to power issues.
The event ran 9 AM to 12 noon.
Jimmy AE5YP advised the Kiwanissponsored North Texas Classic Bike Ride
went well. They set up at 6 AM and
were shut down by 12:30 PM.
———Continued on Page 4 ——-
http://www.W5SH.org