History
In 1999 an investigation was put into finding a new way of bringing digital technology to amateur radio. The process was funded by the Japanese government and administered by the Japan Amateur Radio League. In 2001, D-STAR was published as the result of the research and Icom entered the construction of the new digital technology by offering the hardware necessary to create this technology.
In September 2003 Icom named Matt Yellen, KB7TSE (now K7DN), to lead its US D-STAR development program.
Starting in April 2004 Icom began releasing new "D-STAR optional" hardware. The first to be released commercially was a 2-meter mobile unit designated IC-2200H. Icom followed up with 2 meter and 440Mhz handheld transceivers the next year. However, the yet to be released UT-118 add-on card was required for these radios to operate in D-STAR mode. Eventually Icom began selling the card and once installed into the radios it provided D-STAR connectivity for each of the transceivers. The June 2005 edition of the ARRL's QST magazine reviewed the Icom IC-V82.
JARL released significant changes to the existing D-STAR standard in late 2004. Icom, aware that the changes were coming, had placed the release of their hardware on hold for a period of as much as a year while they awaited the changes. As soon as the changes were out, Icom announced they would be able to finish up and release equipment.
The Icom ID-1 1.2 GHz mobile radio was released in late 2004. This was to have been the first D-STAR radio, providing full Digital Data (DD) functionality.
The first D-STAR over satellite QSO occurred between Michael, N3UC, FM-18 in Haymarket, Virginia and Robin, AA4RC, EM-73 in Atlanta, Georgia while working AMSAT's AO-27 microsatellite (Miniaturized satellite) in 2007. The two operators used a variety of Icom gear to make the contact and experienced slight difficulty with doppler shift during the QSO.
As of late 2009 there are around 10,800 D-STAR users talking through D-STAR repeaters which have connectivity to the Internet via the G2 Gateway. There are around 550 G2 enabled repeaters now active. Note, these numbers do not include the scores of users with D-STAR capabilities but not within range of a repeater, or working through D-STAR repeaters that do not have Internet connectivity.
The first D-STAR capable microsatellite is scheduled for launch during early 2012. OUFTI-1 is a CubeSat and is built by Belgian students at the University of Liège and I.S.I.L (Haute École de la Province de Liège). The name is an acronym for Orbital Utility For Telecommunication Innovation. The goal of the project is to develop experience in the different aspects of satellite design and operation. The satellite weighs just 1 kilogram and will utilize a UHF uplink and a VHF downlink.
Read more about this topic: D-STAR
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