Icom ID-800 Radio Project

Miles MannWF1F

Marex-MGJuly 2008

2008 Technology changes

• In 2006 I presented a Digital Voice solution.

• In 2 years the abilities of Digital have expanded tremendously.

• Person to Person calls are now supported world wide. An Amateur Radio user in the USA can place a Digital P-to-P call to a specific user in UK or Australia or Japan, etc.

Keep it Simple

• The ID-800 is a very simple dual band transceiver, 2 meters and 70 cm.

• All features will be handled from a simple channel knob.

• Channels 1,2,3 voice

• Channel 4 packet

• Channel 5 SSTV, etc.

ID-800

• Basic 2 / 70 cm transceiver

• Support for external TNC

• Built-in 1200 baud data channel with “Simultaneous” Voice.

• Supports Analog FM-5k, FM-2.5k and Digital Voice (DV)

• Heavy duty heat sink.

Digital Voice

• GMSK Digital Voice support

• Allows for Public or semi-private DV conversations.

• Will take ISS into the next generation of DV hardware.

• DV format compatible with other Amateur Radio DV systems (Icom, Kenwood and DV-Dongle)

New Digital Features

• Dial your Destination repeater*

• Person to Person calls*

• Radio to Laptop calls*

• Supports In-band 1200 baud data, while simultaneously running voice.

• *All calls to an from any Digital repeater in the world.

Repeater to Repeater

• With a D-Radio, you can dial up your Destination repeater.

• Any D-Repeater on the network can be accessed from any other D-Repeater.

• Example: ISS fly's over the Hawaii D-Repeater WH6DIG. Crew dials up the Destination repeater as \W5HDT via WH6DIG Houston Texas.

• All signals going into the Hawaii D-Repeater will pop out the Houston \W5HDT D-Repeater, with full 2-way support.

Person to Person

• With a D-Radio, you can dial up your Destination to be the call sign of a Person.

• Example: ISS fly's over the Hawaii D-Repeater WH6DIG. Crew dials up the call sign of a friend using a D-Radio, WF1F.

• It does not matter what Country WF1F is in, the D-Star network will automatically connect ISS to the last repeater used by WF1F.

• Instant 2-way contact.• If WF1F uses a different D-Repeater the next

day, the Person to Person call will still find him.

Radio to Laptop

• Radio to Laptop works the same way as Person to Person.

• Any USB compatible computer can attached a USB Dongle that supports Digital Radio (SRP $200.00).

• An ISS crew member can use his D-Radio to call friends and family at their home or office.

Benefits

• A simple channel based radio system, very user friendly

• Digital voice capability for semi-private communications experimentation

• Improved packet performance

• Extra large heat sink for improved cooling

• Reliable and in use by thousands

Terminology

• Digital Voice (DV)– 4800 bps data stream real time encoded with

• 2400 bps voice (AMBE encoded)• 1200 bps Forward Error Correction (FEC) for voice• 1200 bps data (text messages, GPS, telemetry,

etc.)

– 6.25 kHz. Bandwidth using GMSK

Terminology

• AMBE– Advanced Multi-Band Excitation (AMBE) is a very

powerful proprietary speech coding standard developed by Digital Voice Systems, Inc. (From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Multi-Band_Excitation)

– Converts audio to and from the digital format used in D-Star Digital Voice at 2400 bps with 1200 bps of FEC.

• FEC– Forward Error Correction

The DV Protocol

DataRadio Header

Radio IDBit

Synchronization64 bits

FrameSync15 bits

Flag2

8 bits

Flag1

8 bits

Flag3

8 bits

P_FCS

This StationComment32 bits/4 char

DestinationRepeater Call

64 bits/8 char

LocalRepeater Call

64 bits/8 char

DestinationStation Call64 bits/8 char

ThisStation Call64 bits/8 char

W7SP B W7SP A CQCQCQ K7VE JOHN

The DV Protocol

DataRadio Header

Audio Frame72 bits

Data Frame24 bits

Final Data Frame48 bits

Alternating Audio/Data

Zone Repeater Illustration

Controller

70 CMUR: CQCQCQRPT1: WA7GIE BRPT2: WA7GIE CMY: K7VE

2 MUR: CQCQCQRPT1: WA7GIE CRPT2: WA7GIE BMY: KC7PAA

WA7GIE B WA7GIE C

Zone Repeater Illustration

Controller

70 CMUR: KC7PAARPT1: WA7GIE BRPT2: WA7GIE CMY: K7VE

2 MUR: K7VERPT1: WA7GIE CRPT2: WA7GIE BMY: KC7PAA

WA7GIE B WA7GIE C

Gateway Illustration

70 CMUR: N5MIJRPT1: WA7GIE BRPT2: WA7GIE GMY: K7VE

23 CMUR: K7VERPT1: K5TIT ARPT2: K5TIT GMY: N5MIJ

Controller

WA7GIE B

WA7GIE C

WA7GIE G(Gateway)

Controller

K5TIT B

K5TIT A

K5TIT G(Gateway)

Internet or Backbone

Internet or Backbone

GPS

“Repeaters and Gateways should have club call signs…”

The Numbers

• Countries 14+ (June 2008)

• Australia Argentina Austria Belgium Brazil Canada Germany Greece Italy Netherlands Norway Scotland UK USA Japan

• Repeaters 320+

• Word Wide users 3,500+

• New Users per day 33

Websites

• http://www.dstarusers.org• http://groups.google.com/utah-d-star-users • http://www.icomamerica.com• http://www.icomamerica.com/support/forums/• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/illinoisdigitalham• http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dstar_digital• http://k7ve.ampr.org• And many more …