Chris Matthieu, N7ICE, demonstrates how to surf the web on an Icom ID-1 D-Star ham radio!
Video Rating: 4 / 5

24 replies
  1. luther349
    luther349 says:

    no hes getting it threw the d-star band its a new feature to ham and is outside the standards but thankfully the fcc ignores it. ham has always been able to send data fax pics emails text normally around 9600 bud. d-star is that ability evolved able to go slightly above 56k speeds enough for a web browser. 75kbs isn’t much faster then dailup. its because d-star uses wifi on its own network to give you no range limits. as long as 1 tower is in range your worldwide.

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  2. fyrfyter33
    fyrfyter33 says:

    That is not even close to how it works. D-STAR in this case, is using a 1.2GHz radio in digital data mode. There is no WiFi component of D-STAR. He is using the ID-1 ($1k in US) to pull the digital data, and then a WiFi router, to make his own remote Wifi AP. One big problem with this. Trees can block line of sight for 1.2 GHz, so that can kill the speed and signal. Also, bandwidth is shared. So 2 people pullling digital data 128kbps is split in half for each user.

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  3. fyrfyter33
    fyrfyter33 says:

    You have to use 1.2GHz and have that data repeater in your area with a gateway as well. There are two 1.2GHz repeaters. One for data and one for voice. They also have to have the D-Star gateway setup, to allow internet access.

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  4. fyrfyter33
    fyrfyter33 says:

    Nope. You could buy a wireless USB 3G connector, and pay lots of data every month for $60/month to equal the 1k the radio will cost, if there is even a 1.2GHz data repeater in your area. Currently, there are not a lot of these.

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  5. GreatPurification
    GreatPurification says:

    D-Star NEEDS to have DD capabilities in the VHF bands!!! It’s nothing new you can even get WiFi equipment in 900Mhz that will penetrate better than 1.2Ghz, and give you over 3,000kbps compared to the 128kbps. Does D-Star have any DD plans in VHF?? And, its 2011, 128kbps is like dialup. VHF DD + 500kbps is what we really need. Espeically for the price of this gear. Oh, and where’s the handhelds that support DD? None yet….

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  6. eric c
    eric c says:

    do you need the icom id-1 specifically to browse the web? is this possible through their other dstar compatible mobile TRs?

    Reply
  7. GetTFC
    GetTFC says:

    Yes this is how D-STAR can be used and YES your not even close 🙂 Don’t use it, do you? Connecting any wifi AP gives it a “wifi component”. The connectivity is there, if you don’t understand it don’t comment on it 😉

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  8. fyrfyter33
    fyrfyter33 says:

    @GetTFC perhaps you should read up and note the line of sight issues and shared bandwidth problems. 1.2GHz DD D-Star is an infancy technology. It speaks volumes when an East Coast state is setting up a statewide D-Star network, and says the data transmission quality or even worthiness of 1.2GHz is dismal at best, and they opt to omit it. Furthermore, if someone wants to kill of the DD side of things, it is not going to work at all. Maybe you should read the D-Star spec again?

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  9. MichaelJE2
    MichaelJE2 says:

    A slightly more efficient way to get power to the wifi router would be to just wire it directly to your car’s battery, that way you can skip the DC to AC and then straight back AC to DC conversion. I’m 99% sure that linksys router takes 12V. 😉 (Just don’t hook it up backwards!)

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  10. presw
    presw says:

    I wonder about the legality of this idea. You are not supposed to use ham radio for any commercial traffic. It’s hard to avoid anything commerical in the Internet. Technically it seems Chris did not hit any commercial sites but sites have ads in them etc…W2PW (WD2NY D-star & WR2UHF analog IRLP)

    Reply
  11. WB3CAI
    WB3CAI says:

    Thanks for the demo. Hey, no monthly cell fee – I guess you should support the group that provides the repeater and network bandwidth.

    Reply
  12. on4sax
    on4sax says:

    All images are already cached on your browser, so the “BOOM” speed is not realistic at what I expect from 128kbit semiduplex. You should have cleared your cache first and then you would probably see the images building up like they do on DialUp or ISDN 🙂

    Reply

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