The Colorado D-STAR Association is ON THE AIR!

That’s right!  A lot of people worked a lot of hours and the Colorado D-STAR Association repeater is now operating!  See the Repeater page for configuration information.

We will also be discussing D-STAR on the Learning Net tonight (Wednesday 5/14) on frequency 449.350- (tone 100) at 7:00 p.m. local time.

The Learning Net

. . . is a great time to ask questions about D-STAR or any other amateur radio topic. 

Every Wednesday (except the 3rd Wed. of the month) at 7:00 p.m. local time (Denver area)

145.490- (tone 100)

Battery Powered Portable Set up

Courtesy of Matt, W0MSJ

OPTIMA YellowTop gel cell battery 75ah:

• Gel cell for safety, will not spill acid or vent explosive gasses.
• YellowTop is Optima’s deep cycle type battery (lower amps longer life) which is better for radio work than a traditional starting/lighting/accessory type automotive battery (higher amps shorter life)
• 75 ah because it was conveniently available at Costco

Battery Tender Jr:

• Automatically and intelligently maintains the battery at full charge so it will always be ready to go
• Simple battery charger the size of a large wall wart
• Capable of re-charging a dead battery (slowly over the course of a couple days)
• Available at HRO

Role up type J-pole dual band antenna:

• Good performance
• Ultimate for portability

Kobalt brand tool box:

• Solid steel construction
• Simple classic design
• Just large enough to hold the Radio, battery/charger, antenna and a few accessories
• Inexpensive, available at Lowe’s

The components will be permanently mounted inside of the tool box to form a simple, sturdy, self-powered portable station that can be taken to a shelter or other location and be instantly operational. In time I hope to add a power supply, rapid charger, and-depending on need-possibly another battery.

 Other thoughts:

• Though I like the Icom IC-208H its lowest power setting is 15 watts. Another model with a lower 5 watt setting would be more battery friendly.
• There is a vendor that shows up at hamfests with dirt cheap sealed led acid batteries that are used medical device back up batteries. They are high quality batteries that sat connected to a battery tender in a hospital monitor for a year and where replaced due to contractual requirements but are essentially new. They are smaller than an optima battery which means one would be highly portable and several would be a lot of backup power.

Welcome!

Welcome to the Colorado D-STAR Association website and blog.  Colorado D-STAR is just getting started, so the website will be dynamic, with frequent modifications and changes.

A lot of excitement is building about putting up a D-STAR repeater here in Colorado and we hope to have it up and working in the May/June, 2008 timeframe.  Hopefully, the website will be mostly finished by the time the repeater is up.

73,
Becky, KD0AOE