Droidstar and DVSwitch Mobile: Thoughts

Read Time: 4 minute(s)

I’m enjoying Droidstar more and more these days. DVSwitch Mobile works great for IAX connections to my AllStar nodes, but it’s a bit fiddly at times. To me, Droidstar offers a more seamless experience when jumping among different modes.

First, though, let’s listen to audio captures through Droidstar and DVSwitch Mobile. Fair warning: I recorded audio on my smartphone in a cradle in my Honda Ridgeline truck on a 19° F morning with the engine running and heater going. That means you’ll hear background noise introduced by the environment, not by the apps. For both captures, I was connected to my AllStar node-in-the-cloud 57945 which was connected to W6EK on AllStar 51018.

Droidstar capture:

DVSwitch capture:

I think audio quality is comparable, so that isn’t really what differentiates the apps. Where I see the big difference is in connecting to other modes. For example, connecting over YSF in DVSwitch Mobile is, well, a mystery. I get a *YSF in the address field, which probably means I don’t have YSF set up in the Accounts space in DVSwitch Mobile. In Droidstar, selecting YSF returns me to the last YSF connection I had (US-KCWide) and I simply hit Connect. That’s far easier (but to be fair, maybe I just don’t have DVSwitch set up for YSF).

DVSwitch has an AllStar WT mode which I find handy. I tend to use DVSwitch only for AllStar. I turn to Droidstar for other modes, but I do also use it for AllStar over an IAX connection. I must say that I am finding Droidstar to be less reliable than DVSwitch. Sometimes Droidstar opens to a black screen and never shows the interface. Sometimes it hangs, i.e., just stops working.

Speaking of AllStar, is it really digital? I describe it as analog-to-digital because analog input is converted and sent digitally. However, unlike a fully digital mode, AllStar does not include other data in the stream. For example, you don’t see the call sign of the station you are hearing because that data is not embedded in the signal. With DMR, YSF, and other digital modes, you do see call signs because they are carried with the audio in the digital stream. Below are screenshots from my cellphone showing an IAX connection to node 57945, which is connected via DTMF *351018 to W6EK AllStar 51018. Although there is audio coming through when I took the screenshot, you see no other data about the caller. Compare that with a YSF connection where you do see the caller’s call sign.

I also like how Droidstar handles DTMF by providing a field just for sending DTMF codes. When I am connected over Droidstar to my ASL node 57945, I can enter *351018 in the DTMF field and press Send. That connects me to the W6EK ASL node 51018. To disconnect, I send *151018 via DTMF.  It works very smoothly.

More and more, I find myself turning to Droidstar. I wish it was more reliable, but I really appreciate the capability of using many digital modes and the overall ease of use…when it works. This morning, I started with Kansas City Wide on YSF, switched to my local YSF repeater (W7NEE) over AllStarLink (ASL node 289802), and returned to KC Wide. Even when I’m out of RF range of the W7NEE repeater, I can listen in on ASL via my smartphone and Droidstar.

By the way, the Kansas City Wide network is a great resource. The proper name is America’s Kansas City Wide. KC Wide offers many different ways to connect, now also including M17. They also have a robust schedule of nets. I find it to be a good community of radio amateurs.

As a somewhat humorous aside, when I went to test the two audio embeds above, I was stumped for a moment as to why they weren’t working. I had forgotten that I was remotely connected to one of my other computers using Windows Remote Desktop over Tailscale. That connection was so speedy and seamless it seemed like I was on my local laptop. I wasn’t. I shook my head, laughed at myself, saved my work and disconnected so I could test locally. Sometimes technology gets the best of us!