GB7OK is now live on the gateway. However, it has not been a simple or easy ride.

As most will know, investigations into bringing the D-star gateway to GB7OK started and stalled several times, the main reason for the length of these delays was down to the availability of ADSL Internet connectivity, needed to connect the repeater to the rest of the World. This was for two reasons. The firstly could Internet connection be possible. The second being ADSL availability at all being available due to the distance between the repeater site and the local (or not so local as the case may be) exchange.

Several months back I donated a couple of HP DL360 1U severs to GB7OK incase the service did become live. Other donations (including a 4U server case) came in too meaning plenty of equipment would be available if things did happen.

Tony managed to an Internet connectivity in exchange for a little surfing access when needed meaning gateway access was going to be a reality.

Tony made several exchanges of communications, including visits to Icom UK in order to gain the required G2 gateway software for installation on to one of our servers which would provide the all important link. This is where the really interesting problems started!

First of all, the G2 D-star gateway software had to be installed onto a Linux platform, not windows that most are used to using. Furthermore, the platform had to be exactly right in order for the G2 software to run. To give and idea what this meant, imagine being told to run Microsoft office on Windows, you have to remove Internet explorer from your PC, remove MS Paint and only use 16 bit colour on your display, you can only use Intel based Ethernet card to connect to your Router and you can not use DHCP to gain and IP address from your router automatically, it has to be a fixed 10.0.0.X range only.

It was a little different to the above but I am sure you get the idea. CentOS was the flavour of Linux we had to install which had to be a specific version number (not updated at all) and as I have experience with CentOS and Linux, Tony asked me to help out.

I removed one of my Intel dual processor servers from a London Data centre to install the platform on. At the same time I took the 4U case from Tony (which he had installed his sons PC inside) in order that we would have 2 servers, a main and standby read onsite. Once the base install had been made, Tony arrange access and both of us went to site in order to get the server connected.

Remember the ‘Wrong kind of leaves on the line’ excuse British rail came out with once? We had a similar scenario with our ADSL set up. The requirements of the gateway software means a specific and very small subnet/IP range has to be used which is not common. The supplied Router (which Tony had paid for) was no good. We took a trip to PC World and found a Linksys that would do the job, Another 60 pound paid out by Tony.

The Internet was not connected and working but the server was not playing ball. We had to leave it there and return another day. With the server re-installed, another visit was arranged and this time, the server was connected. Excellent, we could now hand the server over to the UK IT team in order to make the required configurations to get the server live. However, on installation and final set up, a few issues started to occur and we lost the server before any live traffic past. Another visit would need to be made.

Believe it or not, a Hard drive failure had occurred and the reason for the fall over so this time, we used the 4U server fitted with Tony’s sons PC which worked well and showed really good response times. Darren G7LWT again gave us immediate attention and spent several evenings of his time setting up and configuring our gateway (thank you Darren). Less than 24 hours later, we had our first live contacts through the gateway, GB7OK was open to the World!

Since this time Darren has provided us with more of his time and installed some custom scripts. GB7OK will now broadcast a message every 15 minutes in order to tell everyone what reflector or repeater it is connected too. You can also make this request manually by changing the ‘ur call’ to GB7OK IX keying up with this message will result in the reflector/repeater details being shown along with the current time.

One more note which I am embarrassed to say I did not appreciate until I become involved with this project was the time and money Tony dedicates for the ability of others to enjoy their hobby. It is quite clear that donations do not cover costs of equipment, up keep and site rent and even though this is the case, Tony has signed up to an ADSL agreement adding even more monthly costs to this project still, for the good of others Hams enjoyment.

Anyone can choose or not to make a donation to help with this cost but still the ADSL cost is quite a substantial one over the course of a year while fairly insignificant as a one of 15.00 payment (monthly cost). I therefore would like to propose a ADSL Sponsorship where anyone that wants to contribute may do so by opting to pay for a months ADSL rental. I will kick things off by sponsoring January 2010, anyone else fancy a month?

Enjoy GB7OK G/ and Thanks a bunch Tony G1HIG for being there to manage and finance this project.

Justin G0KSC