One of the basic tools for any amateur involved in communications in the field is the go kit -- a portable, self-contained station, organized specifically for rapid deployment. Some are engineered for repeated use at recurring events (races, parades, festivals, etc); others are more general, for use in emergency conditions. Typical setups consist primarily of VHF/UHF FM radios -- which is fine if you just need simplex or a local repeater.

At many events, however, one needs more. Particularly for races (such as the Twin Cities Marathon, for which this setup was designed), digital systems are indespesible for keeping track of runners. Jotting notes on paper doesn't scale when you you have tens of thousands of people; you need a database.

For several uears, the Twin Cities Marathon has used a system called Trivnet to track runners. Originally desiged for packet (and itself derrived from the older ARES/Data), it worked well enough -- but with D-STAR, could we improve it?

Over the past 3 years, the 14567.org group has been putting together an infrastruture of D-STAR digital data nodes covering the core of the metro area. Using these nodes, we can get ~128kbps data communications between net control stations covering the marathon course. Using this system, we can tie updates from the course into a database at the finish line, allowing near-real-time updates of where a tired or injured runner has been sent.

This new version of Trivnet, written specifically for D-STAR (but still also packet-capable), is powered by a server running Linux, Apache, PHP, and PostgreSQL. Any sufficiently reliable hardware will do; for portability, I've used small 1U servers -- originally a Sun Netra X1, and now a Supermicro system with an Intel Atom processor. Both feature short-depth rackmount cases.

This setup includes:

• 30A 12VDC switching power supply
• Kenwood TM-733A dual-band radio
• Bayonics TinyTrak4 (with KISS-only firmware)
• Icom ID-1
• Ubiquiti Networks Bullet 2HP WiFi access point
• an ethernet switch.

The primary interface for Trivet uses a web page, presenting messaging, data entry, and search results in an easy-to-use format. It can also run with packet radio, but in recent years it hasn't been used, and is less tested.