D-STAR Gateway in Russia

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M0ZZM
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Joined: 03 Aug 2013, 19:13
Location: London (UK)
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D-STAR Gateway in Russia

Post by M0ZZM » 04 Jan 2014, 01:21

Dear All,

An opportunity to install a D-STAR gateway/transponder in Russia may materialise (Oryol Oblast). I would use it when I travel to Russia and would be keen to make it available for public use. The required output would be no more than 15-20W max, on an omnidirectional vertically polarised antenna. To my knowledge there is no D-STAR gateway whatsoever in a radius of 200Km or so.

My questions are:

1. According to the Russian regulation, would I be able to legally set it up without a local licence, for example as M0ZZM B?
1a. If yes, would this allow unattended operation?

2. If a licence is required, where could I apply, how much could it cost, and how long would it take to obtain it?

3. I would like it to be a low-cost system, therefore without cavity filters. In a UHF doplex setup, how much would the split frequency be?
3a. Would it be possible to have a cross-band system, such as UHF RX and VHF TX (or vice versa)?

4. Could I also add an Echolink gateway?

Many thanks.

73
Raul M0ZZM
73
Raul M0ZZM

M0ZZM
Posts: 11
Joined: 03 Aug 2013, 19:13
Location: London (UK)
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Gateway Details

Post by M0ZZM » 04 Jan 2014, 01:33

Me again...

I would like to add my gateway's frequency and specifications to the Nodes Status page (Dashboard), I tried through the Self-Care section but haven't managed to find the place where my gateway can be edited.

Can anyone tell me where I can add these details?

Thanks
73
Raul M0ZZM

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R3ABM
Posts: 3105
Joined: 08 Jun 2012, 07:43

Re: D-STAR Gateway in Russia

Post by R3ABM » 04 Jan 2014, 08:12

Hi, Raul!
M0ZZM wrote: 1. According to the Russian regulation, would I be able to legally set it up without a local licence, for example as M0ZZM B?
1a. If yes, would this allow unattended operation?
You have a very interesting idea. Russian Regulations is allowed to work using callsign of CEPT countries within 90 days. It require the use of amateur radio callsign prefix when working out of the country. But as we know, D-STAR is unable to use the prefix. As I see it, there is nothing wrong with this, you can run your repeater for a while with your callsign. Getting local callsign welcome.
M0ZZM wrote: 2. If a licence is required, where could I apply, how much could it cost, and how long would it take to obtain it?
You can get a temporary license and pass an examination for permanent license.
M0ZZM wrote: 3. I would like it to be a low-cost system, therefore without cavity filters. In a UHF doplex setup, how much would the split frequency be?
3a. Would it be possible to have a cross-band system, such as UHF RX and VHF TX (or vice versa)?
Your repeater should work on the digital band. Frequency can discuss a little later. Operations in cross-band prohibited.
You have option to buy China's compact duplexer for $90 on eBay.
M0ZZM wrote: 4. Could I also add an Echolink gateway?
Yes, the problems are the same as with the D-STAR.
R3ABM / DL5ABM / ex. UB3ABM

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R3ABM
Posts: 3105
Joined: 08 Jun 2012, 07:43

Re: Gateway Details

Post by R3ABM » 04 Jan 2014, 08:20

M0ZZM wrote:I would like to add my gateway's frequency and specifications to the Nodes Status page (Dashboard), I tried through the Self-Care section but haven't managed to find the place where my gateway can be edited.
This data is displayed automatically from our ircDDB. In this case, your gateway (we call it Node) should be be registered in it. ircDDBGateway reports all the necessary data to the network core of D-STAR Russia & CIS. You can register your gateway (login and password) in our Self-Care.
In order to display data in a desired geographic group, you need to comply with our rules for the Location field in the settings ircDDBGateway.
In your case, it may be so: Mtsensk, Orel Oblast/KO83gg.
You can split it into two lines:
Location 1: Mtsensk
Location 2: Orel Oblast/KO83gg
R3ABM / DL5ABM / ex. UB3ABM

M0ZZM
Posts: 11
Joined: 03 Aug 2013, 19:13
Location: London (UK)
Contact:

Re: D-STAR Gateway in Russia

Post by M0ZZM » 05 Jan 2014, 23:00

R3ABM wrote:Hi, Raul!

You have a very interesting idea. Russian Regulations is allowed to work using callsign of CEPT countries within 90 days. It require the use of amateur radio callsign prefix when working out of the country. But as we know, D-STAR is unable to use the prefix. As I see it, there is nothing wrong with this, you can run your repeater for a while with your callsign. Getting local callsign welcome.
Thanks Artem. So this is reassuring as I could easily setup a simplex gateway such as, for example, M0ZZM C and remove it when I leave. In the UK we can do this (and I believe foreign visitors can do the same under CEPT) but one important restriction is that you cannot let anyone else access your gateway. If you want to allow 3rd party traffic you need a licence - not for you, for the repeater. For example, my gateway has a licence with its own callsign MB6IBK, for which I am fully responsible.

Another thing to note is that by using your own callsign solution you are also unable to register the gateway with ircDDB, losing callsign routing capabilities and some networking. So the best solution would be having a gateway licensed in Russia, can this be done by foreign operators, for example having RA3XYZ gateway licensed to M0ZZM, or to a temporary Russian callsign that I could obtain?

Also, if I requested a temporary licence and, say, I came back after six months, would they be able to keep the callsign for me so it can be reassigned to me when I return, with the gateway would also keep the same callsign? On average, I spend about a week in the country, two or three times per year.


R3ABM wrote: You can get a temporary license and pass an examination for permanent license.
I believe this is for the personal licence, but how about a gateway's licence?
R3ABM wrote: Your repeater should work on the digital band. Frequency can discuss a little later. Operations in cross-band prohibited.
You have option to buy China's compact duplexer for $90 on eBay.
On 70cm with a split of 5+ MHz it would probably work, but it would also require an extra RTX... and that, unless I find a donation from somewhere, would push the budget up.

I would be keen to upgrade it if I could let other local radio amateurs use the system in my absence, but that I think goes back to the licensing issue as the system would need unattended operation licensing. There are many radio amateurs over here, there are antennae almost on every house - I even managed to meet one of them by chance (Sergey UA3EGS) as I was driving by his house when he was working on his HUGE dipole. He showed me his homebrew 80m station. I think none of them, or only a few, operate in 2m and 70cm, let alone D-STAR. I scanned many times 144-146 and 430-440 but heard nothing other than taxis (around 433 or 435, I can't remember), remote controls, and some other alien type of data. However I was thinking that if I helped them by setting up some infrastructure, they might one day want to explore these bands; in this case a networked gateway would be a great service to their local community and a duplex system would allow them to communicate locally.

So, that's what I have in mind. Do you think I have any chances to put it into practice?

73
Raul M0ZZM
73
Raul M0ZZM

M0ZZM
Posts: 11
Joined: 03 Aug 2013, 19:13
Location: London (UK)
Contact:

Re: Gateway Details

Post by M0ZZM » 05 Jan 2014, 23:03

R3ABM wrote:
M0ZZM wrote:
This data is displayed automatically from our ircDDB. In this case, your gateway (we call it Node) should be be registered in it. ircDDBGateway reports all the necessary data to the network core of D-STAR Russia & CIS. You can register your gateway (login and password) in our Self-Care.
In order to display data in a desired geographic group, you need to comply with our rules for the Location field in the settings ircDDBGateway.
In your case, it may be so: Mtsensk, Orel Oblast/KO83gg.
You can split it into two lines:
Location 1: Mtsensk
Location 2: Orel Oblast/KO83gg
Sorry, I was referring to my MB6IBK. I see it's listed but there are no details, I tried to go to the page where you can edit the data but haven't found the place where I can fill the data in.
73
Raul M0ZZM

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R3ABM
Posts: 3105
Joined: 08 Jun 2012, 07:43

Re: Gateway Details

Post by R3ABM » 05 Jan 2014, 23:18

M0ZZM wrote: Sorry, I was referring to my MB6IBK. I see it's listed but there are no details, I tried to go to the page where you can edit the data but haven't found the place where I can fill the data in.
Raul! These data should be edited in configuration of your gateway software. The gateway should be registered and logged in to our ircDDB (ircddb.dstar.su). After that it will be listed on site's Dashboard automatically.
R3ABM / DL5ABM / ex. UB3ABM

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