28 Feb 2008 - D Star Digital Radio

D-STAR is an exciting new form of Amateur Radio that compliments other parts of the hobby including VHF, HF operation, Contesting and Satellite communications etc. Utilising digital communication and the Internet, D-STAR allows you to communicate worldwide with other operators who are connected to D-STAR repeaters.

On Thursday 28th February the members and visitors to KLARC were entertained and informed by Gavin Nesbitt - M1BXF. Gavin is a man who really knows his stuff on the subject of D-STAR and his 'Power Point' presentation followed by a Q & A session and practical demonstration went down a storm. Particularily impressive was the simplex contact made with Bob Warner - G1SAA over a 35 mile path to Histon in Cambridgeshire. Each station was using external colinear antennas but Bob reduced his power to  just 100mW (yes that's right 100mW!) and still came through to King's Lynn Q5 whereas an analogue comparison was virtually unreadable. A great demonstration of the digital technology.

Our thanks to Gavin for his time (and to Bob who must have been sitting waiting for the demo call until about 21.30hrs).

A donation will be sent to Cambridgeshire Repeater Group

 http://www.cambridgerepeaters.net/

by way of a thank you.