[App_rpt-users] Freestar

[Ken]

Is anyone here using the FreeStar software?
http://www.va3uv.com/freestar.htm
They claim Allstar interconnectivity.
What are your comments?
================================
My main comment is: it works fine.

The page you reference talks about how you can take an asterisk installation
and add DSTAR to it (or you can install it from scratch). There are a couple
of different versions of the DSTAR repeater software. If you are clever, you
can have a repeater that switches between analog and digital.  

But a couple FreeStar nodes (including one that I run) have cross-connect
capability. 

I run two FreeStar nodes here, one of which is always linked to my app_rpt
"cluster" (the other is linked to "real" DSTAR reflectors and has no
analog).

The cross connection is done using the combination of an RTPDir channel
driver (still supported by app_rpt) and a KI4LKF "dextra client". The Client
connects to my DSTAR reflector (X-Reflector) and does the A/D D/A conversion
using a DVDongle. The FreeStar digital node connects to the same X-Reflector
as the bridge node and that is how the cross-connect is accomplished.

If the analog audio has good quieting, then things work quite well. Audio is
better than an ICOM radio and microphone, to my ear.  If the analog is
noisy, then the digital side becomes hard to copy, as you would expect.

(Because my X-Reflector has a non-public IP, there is no way for the analog
bridge to be coupled to some DSTAR repeater, or reflector, other than my
own).

73
Ken