DCS D-Star Reflectors

The German hams guys behind the DV RPTR open source modem, and ircddb (the open-source IRC based routing distributed database) in February 2012, spun off a new reflector protocol.  

Activity on these new reflectors can be seen here: http://xreflector.net/neu3/




The main difference (and the advantage) of DCS compared to old reflectors is, that is does not more use the Header-Voice separation.

The separate transmission of headers and voice packets makes sense on RF due to the limited bandwidth. But it causes many routing problems in old reflectors.  DCS uses a new format and transmits (over the internet) the routing information with every single voice packet. This makes routing much more reliable.

Protocol wise there is no header packet, instead each AMBE packet includes a header which adds a lot of resilience and allows you to pick up a QSO mid over.

Operation wise: The main differences are that DCS reflectors use channels A to Z and they have names, DCS001 A is world wide, and is permanently linked to the A channels on all other DCS reflectors. A nice touch.

The new client code is implemented already in Jonathans gateways, in the Control Center and in a couple of Icom clients.

DCS was invented and developed in February by DG1HT, Torsten. I am helping him in debugging and testing. DCS001 runs at a gigabit intenet node in a high school and is currently designed
for up to 700 simultaneous QSOs.

vy 73
Kurt
DJ0ABR