This is our big announcement for DStar Gateway II software. The new software is now running on the repeater. This means that until all of the old gateway convert we will not be able to connect to them. The good news is that there are already at least 15 to 20 already fully converted. That is about 20% of the existing gateways in the US.

Please note now that when going to the registration/login page you will most likely get a warning about the security certificate. This is because the certificate is not registered with one of the big "pay me for nothing" companies. The certificate is our own generated certificate and will provide as much encryption for the connection as anyones certificate. If you see this error, just simply click on the choice most like, "yes, I see you complaining but I want to do this anyway". We won't be asking for anything more than your name email address and a password.

I am inserting this paragraph to try to circumvent wasting time and effort. If you are not within the general coverage area of the WX8GRR repeater please do NOT attempt to register with us until you have completed the proper footwork. First of all you need to go to the DStarUsers Website . Look for information about the closest DStar repeater to where you live. If you happen to have a summer home in the WX8GRR coverage area (or winter home or just spend alot of time in our coverage area) please feel free to register with us if you are not registered somewhere else already. You only need to register on ONE gateway connected to the US trust server. Registering on more will only cause problems for you. Other than that if there are other DStar repeaters with a gateway closer to where you live, please contact them, not us for registration. If your callbook information is not up to date, or you live well outside of the the WX8GRR coverage area I will send email to you before I approve the registration. In that email I will have all the information that you could have saved alot of hassles by simply reading right here on this webpage. Neat how that works isn't it? I am not saying I won't register someone out of the area, I will register anyone that needs to be registered, but you must pass the requirements that are found elsewhere in this very webpage, read on.

The first thing that you will need to do in order to use the features of the new G2 software is to register. This can be done online as we now have available an online signup right on the internet. Start by pointing your browser to the G2 login page If you have not signed up on this page then you will need to sign up, even if you were registered on the old gateway you will need to register on Gateway II software.

If you have not registered please follow the lower section of the page for new users to request registration. Once you have completed that part you must then wait.... and wait.. ok, well it seems that way. Unfortunately I can not pre-approve you, so you have to wait until I log in as the admin of the site and notice that you have requested registration and then approve you. You would think that since they asked for an email address the software would have been smart enough to email me when someone tried to register, and email you when I approve it, but nooooooooooooo... we have to do it the hard way. ( Please tolerate me just a little longer, I didn't write the software so I get to complain too). Once I have approved your registration you will be able to come back to the site and login using your callsign (all in uppercase) and the password that you created. Don't forget your password!! unlike everything else in the world where the admin can at least reset the password, once again I say noooooooooooooooooo... I have to delete you as a user and you get to start from registration again....

Now that you are registered you will need to go back to the same page again, and login using your callsign (in uppercase) and password. Once you have logged in you will need to go to the "Person Information " page. This is a link under the title toward the right hand side of the page. (Please remember, I did not write those webpages, and it was not super fun hacking them as much as I did to make the instructions a little better... no actually it was kind of fun... ) There you will need to put in some information before you will actually be able to use the features of the gateway.

You will notice that there are several rows to fill out. Those are all for different versions of your callsign to be used for various radios etc. You will at minimum need to fill out the first line with nothing but your callsign with a space in the box labled "initial". Yes, you must put a space in the box, you must click on the box and press the spacebar on your keyboard. Yep, it is nearly the stupidest thing I have ever seen too ... unless of course you were the administrator trying to make heads or tails of it without the nice instructions that I am leaving here for you... Look at this example to get an idea of what this is supposed to look like.

You will need to fill out the blanks like the example. The first one should be just your callsign in Upper case, a space in the "initial" box, Leave the RPT box alone as you are not a repeater, and just your callsign in lowercase in the "pcname" box. Other lines may include the inital M for Mobile or P for portable, or honestly any other letter in the alphabet, however we are being asked to NOT USE the following A B C G S for your initial as these all have a special meaning inside the system. It is not that it would break the system, but if you follow what is being asked, it will make troubleshooting much easier. One final note, the pcname field can not be left blank. It can contain letters, numbers dashes and underscores, that is it. << --- notice the period) Any attempts to be cute here and there is a good chance it will cause problems. Every entry in this field is to start with your callsign. I am strongly suggesting that you follow the example from the example picture. Trying to not follow the convention in the picture could easily cause a problem at all of the gateways ( again, I didn't write it... I am just trying to work with it). Messing this up can get our gateway blacklisted as well as yourself. Please be careful and please follow the convention that was setup to use.

Last but not least, I will approve anyone who belongs on this gateway. We are located in Grand Rapids, Michigan USA. If you have another DStar system closer to you than us, please register with them. Once you are registered you can use the gateway features on any DStar system unless of course you do something to get one of the admins to ban you on their gateway. If you don't have a local gateway or you are avoiding politics you will get an email from me asking why you would like to register on our gateway, please be prepared to answer that question. If the answer is to avoid paying club dues, I will simply inform you now that I will be happy to register you, just send me twice as much money as the club dues and I will register you. We may own our repeaters privately, but they cost money to purchase and operate, and I just want to be sure that you are really against club dues, so send along twice the amount of the local club dues and I will be happy to approve you as a dstar user, of course the admin of your local machine may then ban you..... sorry, no refunds available.