February 1, 2015

The D Star repeater project got underway recently with some assembly of the repeater components into a 19″ rack cabinet. We still are waiting on frequency coordination from the Indiana Repeater Council so some of the components needed to complete the system are not being acquired until we know what the receive and transmit frequencies will be.  We still need to install a computer, duplexer and receive pre-amp into the cabinet before we can begin some programming and testing of the repeater system.

The 19″ rack cabinet was salvaged from an old commercial VHF repeater installation. The power supply(mounted at the base of the cabinet) checked out and we are going to use it with the new repeater system.

We will keep adding information on this page as the project progresses.

February 21, 2015

We have received tentative assignment of a UHF frequency pair for this repeater. There is a 30 day period in which other repeater operators on the same frequency have the chance to object to the assignment. After the long delays this is a good sign and hopefully progress can now be kept on a steady pace.

February 25, 2015

The Indiana Repeater Council giveth and the Indiana Repeater Council taketh away. Apparently, some repeater owner in an adjacent State is concerned that we might interfere with their linked repeaters on the assigned frequency pair originally issued to us last week. The IRC is now considering issuing us a frequency pair that would be in between the normal 25 KHz step on a 12.5 KHz step. These 12.5 KHz step frequencies are know as splinter frequencies. Hopefully, one of those splinter frequencies will work out for us.

March 5, 2015

The Indiana Repeater Council has now assigned us the frequency pair of 442.1875/447.1875 MHz to monitor for the next 30 days. If there are not objections filed by anyone from any of the States adjacent to Indiana then we should be free to use the frequency pair for the D Star repeater. We still need to acquire a duplexer and antenna based on whatever frequency pair we wind up with. Progress is slow, but steady.

April 10, 2015

The 30 day period for objections from other repeater operators to our assigned frequency pair has passed. We should be hearing from the IRC at any time that we are cleared to use the frequencies on a permanent basis. Last Saturday, we did the power wiring inside the repeater cabinet and tested the power circuit to the repeater controller and RF unit. That all checked out just fine. The next step will be to program the controller, install the duplexer and pre-amp and connect those with coax jumpers. At that point we would need to put a UHF antenna up on the tower and hook it to an existing run of hard line. That would get us to the point where we could test the repeater. In order to take advantage of all of the features of D Star, we will be linking the repeater controller into the internet so that our repeater will join the State wide network of other D Star repeaters.

May 1, 2015

Received word from the IRC that our frequency pair has been coordinated and authorized. We are expediting the acquisition of the duplexers now since the frequency has been confirmed. Also, the Mark Concrete Products company has graciously offered to the Society the use of their tower and equipment room as the location for this repeater. The tower is located on the West side of Shelbyville on Miller Ave and is around 125 feet in height. It is a great location and our thanks go out to Mark Concrete Products for allowing us to have the use of their facilities.

May 19, 2015

Picked up the UHF Duplexers from Dale Schieman of the Indianapolis Carmel Experimenters group. They own and operate the D Star repeaters in Indianapolis. Still need to go pick up an additional filter cavity that works with the receive pre-amp and we will be ready to finish the assembly and place the repeater in the equipment room at Mark Concrete Products and get it on the air.

May 21, 2015

Traveled to Plainfield, IN and picked up a couple of filter cans. These filters go in the feed line on the receiver side of the repeater just ahead of the receiver pre-amp. The job of the filter is to only let that part of the frequency band pass through that contains signal on the receive frequency of the repeater. It rejects signals and noise on either side of that frequency. This allows the pre-amp to amplify or make louder those signals coming into the repeater. The pre-amp and associated filter are necessary since the receiver side of the ICOM repeater is somewhat hard of hearing. Sometime after June 2nd we will finish up assembling these last parts into the repeater cabinet and then transport it down to Mark Concrete Products Company and install it in the equipment room. We are really getting into the home stretch on this repeater.

May 29, 2015

Installed the duplexers, pre-amp and filter can in the repeater cabinet. Just need to provide a DC power lead to the receiver pre-amp and install coax jumpers and we will be finished with the repeater assembly.

June 1, 2015

We ordered the remaining coax jumpers that will hook up the duplexer, receiver pre-amp, filter can and RF unit receiver today. Should have them in a few days and then we will be ready to put this repeater on the air. We will let it run as a stand alone repeater for awhile and then hook it up to the D Star network through an internet gateway. Then, the repeater will be linked with every other D Star repeater throughout the world.

July 24, 2015

The last coax jumper was installed between the duplexers and the hardline going up the tower to the antenna. Power supply lead was also installed for the receive preamp. That completes assembly of the D Star repeater. The repeater is ready to put on the air and do some testing. That should happen sometime in the next few days. Once we are satisfied that it is working properly then we will setup the D Star Gateway and put it on the world wide D Star Network.

September 2, 2015

The ICOM D Star repeater has been operational as a stand alone repeater over a month now. The coverage area is quite large. The repeater has been worked from just south of Muncie from a mobile and a fixed station in the vicinity of Conner Prairie. We will be checking in other directions as time permits. We are planning the installation of the D Star Gateway computer and working out networking issues at the repeater site. Once the gateway is established we will be able to connect with D Star reflectors and call signs throughout the D Star worldwide system.

December 14, 2015

We are only lacking the D Star Gateway connection in order to get this repeater connected to the D Star worldwide network. Finally, found a network router that would handle the Class A network address required for D Star. This project is within inches of the finish line now.

Fast Forward to March, 2017

We finally worked out the internet issues and have established the D Star Gateway connection. The repeater is now fully functional and can be connected to any official D Star Reflector. The repeater defaults to Reflector 030C. Don’t worry about changing the repeater over to other reflectors. Experiment away and have some fun making contacts on other reflectors. After 10 minutes of inactivity the Gateway will disconnect if it is connected to some Reflector other than 030C. After another minute it will reconnect to 030C reflector.