{"id":1733,"date":"2026-03-03T08:47:28","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:47:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/?p=1733"},"modified":"2026-03-03T08:47:28","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T07:47:28","slug":"simple-d-star-transceiver-uses-inexpensive-hardware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/2026\/03\/03\/simple-d-star-transceiver-uses-inexpensive-hardware\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple D-STAR Transceiver Uses Inexpensive Hardware"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header\">\n<div class=\"entry-featured-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/esp32-d-star-data-transceiver-0-2-screenshot.png?w=800\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p>[Yeckel] recently put the finishing touches on an ambitious implementation of a simple D-STAR (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio) transceiver using some very accessible and affordable hardware. The project is <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/yeckel\/D-StarBeacon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">D-StarBeacon<\/a>, and [Yeckel] shows it working on a LilyGO TTGO T-Beam, an ESP32-based development board that includes a SX1278 radio module and GPS receiver. It even serves a web interface for easy configuration.<\/p>\n<p>What is <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/D-STAR\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">D-STAR<\/a>? It\u2019s a protocol used by radio operators for voice that also allows transmitting low-speed data, such as short text messages or GPS coordinates. While voice is out of scope for [Yeckel]\u2019s project (more on that in a moment) it can do all the rest, including send images. That makes beacon-type functions possible on inexpensive hardware, instead of requiring a full-blown radio.<\/p>\n<p>As mentioned, voice is a big part of D-STAR. While [Yeckel] was able to access the voice data, attempts to decode it were unsuccessful. A valiant effort, but we suppose voice decoding isn\u2019t terribly relevant to beacon-type operations like transmitting <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Automatic_Packet_Reporting_System\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">APRS<\/a> (Automatic Packet Reporting System).<\/p>\n<p>So far as [Yeckel] is aware, D-StarBeacon is currently the only open-source implementation of a D-STAR radio available on the internet, which is pretty interesting. We\u2019ve seen projects that <a href=\"https:\/\/hackaday.com\/2016\/03\/23\/homebrew-multimode-digital-voice-modem\/\">touch indirectly on D-STAR<\/a>, but nothing like this.<\/p>\n<p>Watch it go through its paces in the video embedded below. Since the T-Beam is just a microcontroller development board, the user interface comes from an Android app on a mobile phone, which is why you see a phone in the video.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"esp32 d-star data transceiver\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/e5j2WmVVSnE?feature=oembed\" width=\"800\" height=\"450\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<footer class=\"entry-footer\"><\/footer>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[Yeckel] recently put the finishing touches on an ambitious implementation of a simple D-STAR (Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio) transceiver using some very accessible and affordable hardware. The project is D-StarBeacon, and [Yeckel] shows it working on a LilyGO TTGO T-Beam, an ESP32-based development board that includes a SX1278 \u2026<\/p>\n<p class=\"continue-reading-button\"> <a class=\"continue-reading-link\" href=\"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/2026\/03\/03\/simple-d-star-transceiver-uses-inexpensive-hardware\/\">Lees verder<i class=\"crycon-right-dir\"><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hackaday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1734,"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions\/1734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pi4zlb.vrza.nl\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}