D-Star Operation without a D-Star Radio

The other day I was hammering away at FT8 and listening to reflector 30C on my D-Star setup.  I use a SharkRF Openspot and an old Icom 880H.

K1VT was on the air for the first time, accessing D-Star reflector 30C using his mobile phone instead of a D-Star radio.  In fact, he had a fully portable setup and no expensive D-Star radios were involved.  Sounded the sort of thing that many hams would be interested in.  (Normally with D-Star, you need a D-Star radio to access a D-Star repeater or Digital Voice access point.  Using a PC and a D-Star compatible dongle will give you access but then you have to haul your PC everywhere.)

I listen to his description and emailed him to ensure that I had the story right.

The whole thing hinges around the products and interest groups set up by North West Digital Radio <nwdigitalradio.com> and <nw-digital-radio.groups.io>

Here are the basics:

•    He was using a NW Digital ThumbDV connected to a Raspberry Pi model 3B.

•    The Pi was running Compass Linux which is a derivative of Raspian Linux.

•    AmbeServer was the app running on the Pi.

•    On his Android phone he was running BlueDVAMBE.  (Note that there are two versions of BlueDV for Android, BlueDV and BlueDVAMBE)   David, PA7LIM, has done all the work on BlueDV.

•    From his mobile phone, he connected to the AmbeServer, his desired reflector and then he went straight into the internet and DStar around the world.

•    The AmbeServer is also accessible using Windows and OSX devices using special apps.