For information on D-Star in Australia, please visit the national D-Star web site, http://www.dstar.org.au

The local D-Star repeater VK5RWN is located in the north eastern ridge line that over looks Tee Tree Gully and most of the greater metro area. Unfortunately coverage south of O'Harron Hill is patchie at best, or just not there.

The actual site was the best that was available to AREG at the time of planning / installation for the system. We hope that other D-Star repeaters will be built around Adelaide to provide coverage where VK5RWN does not.

D-Star System Overview

The system overview diagram is provided below, it may be hard to read, so for a pdf of the D-Star System Logical Architecture HWCI.dpf, click on the previous link.

 

The logical architecture diagram provides some indication to what is involved to build the facility for D-Star system.

D-Star System Lightning Protection

The lightning protection of the site was always going to be a very interesting configuration. As the diagram provided in AS1768 Australian Standard for lightning protection are great if you are building a site from scratch, but when you have to retrofit a site and upgrade the facilities, then it gets a little harder.

The main premis is to create a ring earth around the building, and from that earth, connect the surge devices that protect the power, telephone line and antenna system with a low impedance earth strap.

The earth strap should be wide around 50mm and at least 1mm think, this is so the surge current can flow in the outer section of the conductor the same as RF does. Lightning does not go around corners, so all bends in the strap have to be slow and gradual to avoid any high voltage points that can cause a flash over.

For a shetch on the lightning earth installation at VK5RWN Site please click on the following pdf's, VK5RWN_Earthing_installation_end_view_of_hut.pdf and VK5RWN_Site_Lightning_Earth_Rev_2.pdf

 

D-Star Antenna System

The diagrams below provide details on the Antanna system used at the VK5RWN repeater site for the D-STAR system.

2m & 70cm Antenna System

23cm Antenna System

Site Works at VK5RWN Repeater

Hello D-STAR user,

Due to the failure of the VK5RWN D-STAR computer server at the end of March, the computer has been offline whilst it was being rebuilt.

The computer was put back on line on Monday 4th May.

Unfortunately, with the re-building of the computer, a database needs to be re-established and this requires you, a previously registered D-STAR user, to re-register.

This process is or should not be as complex as your first time of registration. Please follow the steps below,

you need to go to the D-STAR registration page at, D-Star_Registration_on_VK5RWN and
click on the registration button as a new user
complete the form using your original callsign (in capital letters) exactly as your original application, don't forget to click on 'yes' for the D-STAR Usage Agreement, add your name in full, i.e., your first and family name, your email address and a password, (I don't think it needs to be the same as your old one but it can be),
once filled out, click on 'OK' and you should get a message acknowledging a successful submission.
Once you have made the submission, I as the D-STAR Administration officer, will again approve the application and send you an email advising the approval.
On receipt of my approving email, go back to the registration page at, D-Star_Registration_on_VK5RWN and
using your callsign, in capital letters, and your password, log in,
once in, review your 'personal information' from the menu bar. It should be exactly as your original entry. This information was not lost, but the database tables linking this information with the 'User Information' was lost or corrupted with the failure of the computer and needed to be re-established through this re-registration process.
you may edit the information within your 'personal information' however it must still comply with the original instructions sent to you at your initial registration onto the D-STAR gateway.
Once you have checked, and edited as you may require, your personal information, you can log out and this will complete your re-registration.
you will need to allow the system between 2 - 4 hours for the Trust Server to be updated and then you should have full D-STAR networking capabilities again.

It is highly recommended that you only have two entries, with one callsign with an extension. The first line in the table with your plain ordinary callsign in 'pcname', eg, vk5bb, must remain exactly as that.

The second line 'pcname' must be different from the first line eg, vk5bb-p.

It is recommended that you do not have any further entries unless you intend to have more than one D-STAR rig on at the same time. Therefore if you do have more than one D-STAR rig, you do need to ensure that your callsign in all rigs are the same. The reasoning behind this is due to a number of complaints where other amateurs have not been able to connect or call due to the variation in the callsigns and the alternative one on line at the time.

The above information is only a recommendation, it is up to you as to whether you wish to maintain a number of callsigns with different extensions.

If you have any problems with this process, please contact me via email, and please add a contact phone number so that I can try to assist.

Regards and 73,

Ben Broadbent, VK5BB
VK5RWN D-STAR Administration Officer.

All the best AREG