Enjoying D-Star (By Don Arnold, W6Gps); Encounter With D-Star - Kenwood TH-D74A/E Operating Tips

4 ENJOYING D-STAR (by DON ARNOLD, W6GPS)

4 ENJOYING D-STAR (by DON ARNOLD, W6GPS)

4.1 Encounter with D-STAR

I have been a Ham since the early 1970s, so I loved talking HF and Local repeater
operations. Several places I lived in had antenna restrictions, but somehow I would be
able to hide an antenna or just work worldwide HF in the car. I did do a little D-STAR
around 2010. It was ok, but limited to where a repeater was and had limited access to the
D-STAR network. So I set it aside.
When the KENWOOD TH-D74A/E was released August 2016, I tried my D-STAR
experience again. Now, instead of having to depend on D-STAR repeaters, mobile Access
Points along with mobile Hotspots opened up a broader more accessible D-STAR
experience. In the first 4 hours on the air with my new KENWOOD TH-D74A/E, I worked
15 new countries that I thought I would never get.
I find the majority of D-STAR activity is with a Hotspot and D-STAR Access Point.
Examples of the Access Point are DV Mega, openSPOT, and the popular DVAP. In the first
QSO's I have had with the TH-D74A/E, people remarked about the audio quality. The
TH-D74A/E has DSP processing before and after the AMBE encoder. You can customize
both mic audio and receiver audio with the built in graphic equalizers.
My advice to the first time user of the TH-D74A/E is to learn a few features at a time. You
can get overwhelmed with this featured enriched handheld transceiver. Please check out
some of my TH-D74A/E instruction videos at https://www.youtube.com/user/w6gps.
I have simple setup video instructions there.
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