‰ NOW 40 WPM ‰ IMPORTANT. WITH MINE, I SET THE CENTER FREQUENCY AT 147R000 MHZ AND THE TUNING STEP AT 15 KHZ TO CAPTURE ALL OF THE REPEATER CHANNELS ON THE SCOPE. THE SCOPE SWEEPS ACROSS A RANGE OF 25 TIMES THE TUNING STEP. THE CONSTANT 25 IS FIXED. SO, IN MY CASE, 25 15 IS 375 KHZ, AND THE SWEEP RANGE IS ALMOST THE ENTIRE UPPER 2 METER REPEATER SUBBAND 146R625 TO 147R375 MHZ. THE STANDARD CHANNEL PLAN AND TUNING STEP IS 15 KHZ FOR THIS SUBBAND, SO ALL REPEATERS IN THAT RANGE WOULD BE DET DR MODE OPERATING EXPERIENCE THE D STAR SYSTEM AND PROTOCOLS HAVE EVOLVED OVER THE YEARS, RENDERING OPERATING MORE USER FRIENDLY WHILE MAINTAINING ITS SOPHISTICATION. THE CURRENT DR SYSTEM SEE FIGURE 1 IS FAIRLY EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND USE. THE MORE OPERATORS LEARN AND USE THE SYSTEM, THE MORE USEFUL IT WILL BE IN TERMS OF COMMUNICATIONS UTILITY. THERE ARE A NUMBER OF WAYS TO PROGRAM THE TO OR SO CALLED DESTINATION FIELD AND THE FROM OR ACCESS FIELD. TO FIND AND PROGRAM AN ACCESS REPEATER, I REALLY ENJOYED USING THE NEAR REPEATER SEARCH FUNCTION. THE RADIO COMPARES ITS CURRENT GPS LOCATION WITH THE STORED FILE DIRECTORY OF REPEATER POSITIONS AND THEN DISPLAYS THE CLOSEST MACHINES, READY FOR SELECTING/PLACING INTO THE DR ACCESS FIELD. I WAS ALSO ABLE TO USE THE DR SCAN FUNCTION TO SCAN NEAR REPEATERS FOR ACTIVITY. THE SCAN STOPS WHEN A SIGNAL IS RECEIVED. THERE ARE ALSO MANY WAYS TO POPULATE THE TO FIELD WITH THE VARIOUS D STAR COMMANDS TO EFFECT REFLECTOR LINKING AND UNLINKING, ECHOING YOUR TRANSMISSION BACK TO YOU, REPEATER STATUS INFORMATION, CALL SIGN ROUTING, REPEATER NODE ROUTING, LOCAL CQ, AND SO ON. I PERFORMED THIS BY SIMPLY USING THE DIAL AND ENTER BUTTON TO SELECT AND ENTER WHAT I WANTED IN THAT FIELD. I COULD THEN QUICKLY CHECK THE FOUR DV/DR CALL SIGNS/PARAMETERS BY SELECTING THE CALL SIGN MENU ITEM. OTHER FUNCTIONS THERE ARE SEVERAL FUNCTIONS THAT ICOM HIGHLIGHTED AS UNIQUE FUNCTIONS IN THE FIRST THREE PAGES OF THE BASIC D STAR GUIDE, INCLUDING THE NEAR REPEATER DV/FM SEARCH DISCUSSED ABOVE. THERE IS A DV GATEWAY FUNCTION THAT ALLOWS YOU TO MAKE A DIRECT GATEWAY CALL VIA THE INTERNET NO LOCAL ACCESS REPEATER REQUIRED. AN OPTIONAL DATA CABLE AND PC/DEVICE ARE REQUIRED. I DID NOT TRY THIS FUNCTION. I FOUND THE CONTACT AUDIO RECORDING FUNCTION TO BE USEFUL, AND I CAN SEE AN IMPORTANT APPLICATION FOR IT. I PURCHASED AN INEXPENSIVE 16 GB MICRO SDHC CARD, PLUGGED IT INTO THE SLOT ON THE MAIN UNIT, AND FORMATTED IT FROM A MENU ITEM. I THEN RECORDED AN ENTIRE SESSION OF THE LOCAL ARRL ARES NET, WHICH RAN 30 MINUTES. WONDERING HOW MUCH DATA STORAGE I HAD USED AND HOW MUCH I HAD LEFT, I WAS ABLE TO CHECK THE CARDS INFORMATION FROM ANOTHER MENU ITEM. IT REVEALED THAT I HAD USED ONLY 30 MB, LEAVING A WHOPPING 275 HOURS 10 DAYS MORE OF RECORDING TIME AVAILABLE. AS MY PRIMARY INTEREST IN AMATEUR RADIO IS PUBLIC SERVICE/DISASTER RESPONSE COMMUNICATIONS, I QUICKLY REALIZED THAT THE RADIO COULD RECORD THE TRANSMITTED AND RECEIVED COMMUNICATIONS AND MESSAGES FOR AN ENTIRE INCIDENT ‰ END OF 40 WPM TEXT ‰ QST DE W1AW ƒ