Can I register myself onto the D-STAR Network?
Regrettably it is not possible for anyone to carry out D-Star registrations without access to the process integrated into the G2 software that is installed to control the Icom D-Star repeater gateway.
The registration process is driven by the Icom G2 gateway software. It lives on a Linux operating system and is part of a complex algorithm which is able to keep hundreds of gateways informed about new registrations, deleted registrations, user IP address ranges, device addresses and the last-known whereabouts of all users. This is not a trivial piece of software and has been carefully honed to do all that work within a small bandwidth while allowing the gateways to carry significant voice and user data traffic.
We understand that, the people in charge of the "Trust Server", the central part of the network outside of Japan, are not at all keen to allow contributors using third-party software. It has been shown in the past that it is very easy to break the system and extremely hard to rebuild it. This escalates with more gateways.
We in the UK, and possibly others, also chose not the allow the users themselves to register at our G2 gateways because it is also possible to make simple, un-obvious errors at this level and break the system for many, perhaps thousands of users. Registration sounds like a simple process since we all do it every day on countless websites; it is not so simple in D-Star terms.
15/04/2015
