Issue with Icom 880h and the RPT2 field

[khooke]

Ok. got my new radio, and trying to get it set up. I'm sure this must have been covered somewhere before but I couldn't find any help online. I seems I've got my radio partly set up to connect to my local dstar repeater, W6CX, in that I can receive other people ok, and if I kerchunk with cqcqcq then I'm seeing myself show up on the repeater status page.

My issue though, is how I set W6CX^^^G in the RPT2 field. I think I understand about the different combinations of UR, RPT1, RPT2 and MY, I'm struggling to get the RPT2 value to show up when I'm in the DR mode. It seems the radio is blanking out the RTP2 field and I can't get it to show up.

I did find a post that suggested that the directions in the manual result in the blanking of the the RPT2 field, but it didn't explain what other setting to use to not do this.

I think my issue is from following the instructions to select the GRP CQ mode, which only results in these values set:
UR: CQCQCQ
R1: W6CX^^^C
R2: blank
MY: KK6DCT

If I understand right, this will get me onto the repeater locally, but without R2: W6CX^^^G set, my transmissions will not get forwarded out across the network. Is this correct? Any tips on what settings/mode I need to use/set to get the R2 field to be used?

Thanks!

 

[khooke]

I think I found an answer - what I'm seeing is exactly described in the review article here - the DR mode does not use the RPT2 field? It recommends to use GRP UR instead of GRP CQ and manually enter a cqcqcq value for the UR value. I'l try this out.

http://www.icomamerica.com/en/products/amateur/mobile/id880h/ID880H_QSTReview.pdf

Does anyone else with the 880 do this?

 

[n7jei]

I'm new to D-star, so this is not an authoritative answer!
I too have an 880H, and have not used the DR memories yet.
What I've done is set up the "regular" memories with the data for my area repeaters (only a handful).
This way, I can scan them and have them set up for gateway call signs.
When i select a specific repeater, I use the CS function to change callsigns if I need to.
Don't know if this helps.
I have also found the NIfty-Guide to D-star book and the guide for the 880 helpful.

 

[khooke]

I'm new to D-star, so this is not an authoritative answer!
I too have an 880H, and have not used the DR memories yet.
What I've done is set up the "regular" memories with the data for my area repeaters (only a handful).
This way, I can scan them and have them set up for gateway call signs.
When i select a specific repeater, I use the CS function to change callsigns if I need to.
Don't know if this helps.
I have also found the NIfty-Guide to D-star book and the guide for the 880 helpful.

Thanks for the reply, yes that works too. Since reading my last reply, I should clarify that the DR mode memories do work with the RPT2 value, but you need to select GRP UR. When you select this mode you can also toggle between your UR values so you can send link/unlink and other commands pretty easily too. Definitely not clear in the manual, but starts to make sense once you've played around with the radio for a while and done a lot of reading of other people's experiences.

I can see now in retrospect why Icon has set up the ID51 and other radios with a very different UI, as trying to understand the purpose of the MY/UR/RPT1/RPT2 values and combinations and how to set these values in your radio is quite a challenge... until you get it, and then it all seems to make sense.