Click on any of the following:

A list of radios that will work with the Ottawa DSTAR system

WinDRM - HF Digital Radio Mondiale - free software

D-STAR spec at ARRL

An ARRL News Story on DSTAR

Icom IC-ID1 1.2GHz transceiver info and pricing at Universal Radio in USA.

Icom Manuals (Acrobat Reader format)

Info From Victoria BC

.... greetings from the west coast of Canada - Victoria, B.C. and area!

The WARA repeater club, here in Victoria, is leading this project. If you do a Google search you will find their web page and info on this project. The WARA DSTAR project is an open project, that is to say any and all local individuals or clubs in the Victoria area that are interested may participate. I am not a WARA member but I got involved as WARA required someone familiar with Linux to setup the local DSTAR gateway server.

VE7VIC is the callsign of the WARA DSTAR system. It is on Mt McDonald which is just to the west outside of Victoria. The internet link to the repeater site is via a 5.8 GHZ commercial backbone which just became available to the club a couple of months ago. Previous to that a 2.4 GHZ link from the repeater site to a members home provided the internet connection. There are two ID-1s installed at the repeater site, one for data and another for digital voice. Al Muir, VE7BEU ( email ve7beu at muircom.com ) can give you the details on the DSTAR repeater equipment setup. He is the local ICOM dealer here in Victoria and the Technical Director for WARA.

I have owned an ID-1 since September of 2005. I am impressed with the capability that it provides the mobile Amateur Radio operator when "bandwidth" is required eg.web browsing for info, email, point-to-point file transfers between ID-1s etc. My main interest in getting involved with the ID-1 was for emergency communications which required more bandwidth than what conventional Amateur Radio modes provided.

Another Victoria group to which I do belong, BARS - Base Amateur Radio Service - at CFB Esquimalt is establishing another DSTAR data mode only internet gateway. It is my understanding that there is also a DSTAR system in Vancouver, B.C. but I don't know much about it at the moment.

I hope the above gives you some leads and if I can provide any further assistance as you roll out DSTAR in Ottawa I will try to assist.

Regards

Paul VE7DHM