XLXJET

What is XLXJET?

XLXJET is a multiprotocol gateway reflector. D-STAR, DMR and YSF all reach it directly, and it transcodes between them, so operators on three different modes can share the same room without anyone needing a particular radio.

It began as a D-STAR only reflector and a way into the legacy REF, XRF and DCS networks. That is no longer what it is. Transcoding was added in September 2026 and it now runs on every module.

What that buys, in plain terms. Modules A to D link out to four legacy D-STAR REF reflectors. Before transcoding, reaching those meant owning a D-STAR radio. Now a DMR handheld or a Yaesu C4FM radio opens the same four rooms.

It works the other way too. Modules E to J carry DMR talkgroups from the TGIF network, and a D-STAR operator can join those without touching a DMR radio.

Three Ways In

Whichever mode you arrive on, you land on a module, a letter from A to Z. The module is the room. How you choose it depends on your mode:

Your mode	How you pick the module	Ports
D-STAR	Link to XLXJET and the module letter, the same as any XLX reflector	20001 DPlus 30001 DExtra 30051 DCS
DMR	Talkgroup 4001 to 4026 selects module A to Z. 4001 is A, 4002 is B, and so on	8880 DMRplus 62030 DMR MMDVM
YSF (C4FM)	Connect to YSF reflector 95112, US-XLXJET, then DG-ID 10 to 35 selects module A to Z. DG-ID 10 is A, 11 is B, and so on	42000

Both numbering schemes come from the reflector software itself rather than from a convention: DMR talkgroup 4001 plus the module offset, and YSF DG-ID 10 plus the module offset. The per-module numbers are in the table below so there is nothing to work out.

Module Map

Twenty six modules exist. Eleven are in use. The rest are held for future links rather than named after rooms nobody is in.

Module	DMR TG	YSF DG-ID	Destination	What it is
A	4001	10	REF001C	Legacy D-STAR, Mega Reflector
B	4002	11	REF014C	Legacy D-STAR, West Coast
C	4003	12	REF024C	Legacy D-STAR, General Use
D	4004	13	REF030C	Legacy D-STAR, Southeast US
E	4005	14	TGIF 31665	The Mothership
F	4006	15	TGIF 9050	East Coast Reflector
G	4007	16	TGIF 31656	America Link
H	4008	17	TGIF 23426	FreeSTAR
I	4009	18	TGIF 2351	CQ-UK World Wide
J	4010	19	TGIF 31061	SoCal Digital
K to Y	4011 to 4025	20 to 34	not in use	held
Z	4026	35	Echo test	Parrot, local to XLXJET

Module Z is the built in echo test, also known as a parrot. Transmit on module Z and the reflector records you and plays it straight back. It is the quickest way to check your audio and confirm your connection is working without needing another operator on the other end. Module Z runs on XLXJET itself and does not link out anywhere, and it works from any mode.

The Four Legacy D-STAR Links

Modules A to D reach the older D-STAR reflector networks. Those networks came in three flavours, and the difference between them is the protocol behind the scenes rather than anything a user sees:

REF. The original D-STAR reflectors, using the DPlus protocol and requiring registration in the US-Trust system. They were the first reflector system built for D-STAR and support modules A through E. All four of XLXJET's current legacy links are REF.

XRF. The second generation, using the DExtra protocol. Open source, independent of US-Trust, and supporting all 26 modules A to Z.

DCS. Originated in Germany, using its own DCS protocol, which embeds the routing information in every voice packet rather than sending it once in a separate header. That makes connections more reliable. 26 modules, A to Z.

XLXJET can link to all three, and has done. It currently links only to REF reflectors. The XRF and DCS links it once carried were removed in September 2026 to make room for the DMR bridges.

Transcoding, and Its One Limit

Transcoding is what lets a D-STAR radio and a DMR radio hear each other. The two modes use different voice codecs, AMBE+ for D-STAR and AMBE2+ for DMR and YSF, so something has to convert between them in real time. That job needs hardware vocoders, not software.

Every module on XLXJET transcodes. There is no list of enabled modules to check and nothing to request.

The limit is simultaneous transmissions, not modules. The vocoder hardware provides a shared pool of six channels, three in each direction. So up to three transcoded transmissions can run at the same moment, on any modules at all.

In practice that ceiling is rarely met, and when it is, the effect is on the transmission that arrives fourth rather than on the reflector as a whole.

How It Works

XLXJET runs a fork of N7TAE's new-xlxd, an improved open source XLX reflector server. Transcoding is handled by a separate AMBE server holding the vocoder hardware, which the reflector calls out to per transmission.

The links to the legacy D-STAR reflectors are not made by the reflector itself. Each one is a separate client daemon, one per module, using one of three connector types:

ref-con. Links to REF reflectors using the DPlus protocol. The original xlxd project declined to add this natively, so XLXJET implemented it independently. This is the connector behind all four current legacy links.
xrf-con. Links to XRF reflectors using the DExtra protocol. This was the first non-XLX peer type added to xlxd, introduced in Pull Request #85 to LX3JL/xlxd by chazapis.
dcs-con. Links to DCS reflectors. This connector did not exist in any xlxd fork. XLXJET improvised it by building on the ref-con and xrf-con code to create a DCS outbound linking connection.

The DMR bridges on modules E to J work differently again. They are HBlink peers, one per module, each subscribed to a single talkgroup on the TGIF network and pointed at an XLXJET module by number.

The live picture, including which modules currently have traffic, is on the XLXJET dashboard. This page describes what the reflector is for. The dashboard describes what it is doing.