In August 2019, I set up an XLX reflector for D-STAR that can be accessed via personal hotspots and repeaters with internet access. The reflector is numbered XLX678 and you can view the latest activity on the reflector dashboard at: https://xlx.m0lxq.com.
To connect to XLX678, you can use the XLX, DPlus (REF), DExtra (XRF) or DCS protocols as XLX678, REF678, XRF678 or DCS678 but XLX is preferred. So, for example, if you wished to connect to module B, you would enter XLX678BL into the ‘Direct Input (UR)’ field on your radio.
Since February 2022, Peanut has been available on module B thanks to Mike, VK2AMF for the AMBE transcoding via his server.
XLX678 started life in a datacentre in northern France, but moved to London in September 2022 due to a large increase in hosting costs. Since June 2023, XLX678 has been hosted on a server located in Quality Technology Services’ datacentre in Piscataway, New Jersey, USA. The datacentre building is 360,000 ft² in size (that’s over 8 acres!) and runs off 100% renewable energy – the building itself has solar panels that provide 2 megawatts of power alone! You can find out more about where the server is located here.
I pay for the hosting of XLX678 myself. Should you wish to make a contribution to the upkeep costs, a donation would be most welcome via Buy Me a Coffee.
The XLX protocol enables transcoding to DMR and Yaesu System Fusion reflectors too, however, at the moment this requires an AMBE hardware encoder to be directly connected to the server and I do not have direct access to it to do this. It is possible that the open source IMBE vocoder could be implemented into the XLX software at some point in the future, but for now, we have to wait!
There are 10 modules currently enabled on XLX678:
- A – General
- B – 6:30 Net (Peanut)
- C – Chat 1
- D – Chat 2
- E – Chat 3
- F – Chat 4
- G – Chat 5
- H – Chat 6
- I – Testing 1
- J – Testing 2
Unlike some D-STAR reflectors, there is no echo module enabled on XLX678.
Why 678? There are a large number of reflectors and it was the most memorable number (i.e. three consecutive numbers) that was available. Interestingly, since I set up 678, a number of reflectors have been created using letters only, i.e. XLXAAA etc. A full list of the active XLX servers can be seen here.
