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brian.waterworth
Apr 07, 2023
In Resources/Links
I have attached the club presentation I gave on Node-Red at the April 2023 club meeting. regards, Brian Waterworth VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Jan 23, 2021
In Resources/Links
See attached for a presentation I gave to the club in 2019. Worth a read if you operate rtty, psk31, FT4, FT8, JT9, JT65, or JS8. Regards, Brian VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Feb 16, 2020
In DMR
It was pointed out at the February 2020 club meeting that the default security (e.g., Pi-Star DMR Gateway login to a Brandmeister master server) is easy to compromise. Why? the default password is in the clear and easy to find on the web. There have been reports of non-licensed people buying a hotspot and usurping a certified hams DMR Id and callsign and then running traffic through the unlicensed person's hotspot. To thwart this, you can change your hotspot security settings in Brandmeister's self-care page, turn on hotspot security, type in a password, and then hit save. Next, you will have to go to your hotspot (e.g., Pi-Star), find the DMR Gateway settings (e.g., expert --> DMR GW), and then look for DMR Network 1. In that section of the expert settings, you will find a password field. Type in the password you set in Brandmeister's self-care page. Click apply/save (whatever your hotpot has) and then reboot the hotspot. Assuming you typed everything correctly, you will see, at the bottom of /var/log/pi-star/DMRGateway...[a date].log, a message similar to this: BM_Canada_3021, Logged into the master successfully This assumes you chose the Canadian BM server. See this web page for some details: https://brara.org/BLOG/2019/05/15/brandmeister-hotspot-security-by-al-af4fa/ regards, Brian VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Feb 06, 2020
In DMR
On Feb 4, I gave a short pitch on sending and receiving SMS messages using DMR protocols. The presentation also contained two slides at the end regarding sending and receiving APRS messages (not position reports) using DMR. If you have any questions or want to continue the discussion here, please feel free to post and/or reply. regards, Brian VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Dec 04, 2019
In DMR
For those wishing to update their code plug for the new VE3YRA DMR Repeater located at Bloomington Side Rd and Yonge, frequency is 444.51250 +5MHz CC1. Both TS1 and TS2 are enabled. I am not aware of any TG restrictions. Allan H and I tested it last night at the club meeting, using TG9 on TS2. It worked just fine, even as far up as Sharon Temple. The antenna situation is not perfect right now, but changes are to come. There are two antennas at present: RX antenna is a Mag Mount about 16 feet off the ground. TX antenna is an existing UHF antenna at the site; I think it is at ~160ft off the ground. Duplexer cans are being investigated at this time to enable both RX/TX to be on the same antenna (the 160ft one of course :-) ). Note: at this time the repeater is not connected to the internet. However, it has been programmed to connect to Brandmeister once it is connected to the internet. VE3YRA is also defined to Brandmeister in anticipation of this future connection. For any specific questions about the repeater, Steve (VE3UT) and David (VA3DCY) can be contacted. regards, Brian VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Nov 23, 2019
In Repeaters
I watched a great video on setting up a multi-mode Digital repeater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9XCnZQkvQ0 It was a breakout session at the 2019 TAPR DCC conference. This sort of compliments the DMR Networks presentation given at the Nov 2019 YRARC Meeting. It also describes setting up a DMR XPR8300 repeater as connected to Brandmeister. But wait, this is not all. An MMDVM (hotspot technology on a RPi) board was used as a controller into a Motorola radio. Some of the concepts presented were similar to the IRLP/Echollink node the club has on VE3YRA. regards, Brian VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Nov 06, 2019
In DMR
This post has the PDF document Brian (VE3IBW) presented to the club on Nov 5, 2019. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment on this post and I will endeavour to answer your questions. regards, Brian Waterworth VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Nov 03, 2019
In DMR
The YRARC club now has access to Yaseu System Fusion and DMR repeaters in York Region. We are quite fortunate that these repeaters are high enough to cover York and adjacent regions. But not all our club members will have both types of digital radios. Fortunately, there are DMR to YSF (and vice versa) bridging technologies that allow our club members to converse with others in and around the Ontario region. There are even bridges to converse more widely (US, Australia, Europe, even WW). Since I have elected at this time to invest and use DMR, I wrote the attached guide from the perspective of Pi-Star and my DMR HT (Anytone 878). The main focus of this guide, though, is toward Pi-Star configuration and less so on the DMR radio used. I think a YSF user would be able to figure out how to configure their radio and Pi-Star to do the reverse without a lot of effort. However, I am agreeable to create another guide, if there is a demand, to configure Pi-Star for YSF2DMR bridging. For now, I will focus on the DMR2YSF Bridging. regards, Brian Waterworth VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Nov 03, 2019
In DMR
Configuring the Anytone 878 and Pi-Star to pass and receive APRS traffic for either Digital APRS or Analogue APRS can be a bit challenging. There are youtube videos; some are good, some are not. I watched many :-). I decided to piece together the best of what I watched and read to help me remember what I learned. I am getting older and being able to retain configuration I do infrequently posses a challenge. I hope this guide (see attached) provides you with the necessary information to configure your Digital APRS and Pi-Star successfully. Hope to see you on http://aprs.fi . regards, Brian Waterworth VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Oct 04, 2019
In DMR
After the DMR Quick Start presentation, Eric (VE3EB) and I (VE3IBW) had many inquiries about which MMDVM hat for a Raspberry Pi that we bought to make our Digital Hotspots. MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat Duplex MMDVM Hotspot P25 DMR YSF NXDN Pi Revision 1.3 + OLED On eBay: https://www.ebay.ca/itm/173398296164 The fun thing about this RPi Hat is that it is a duplex board and supports five modes: D-Star, DMR, YSF, NXDN, P25. Duplex MMDVM boards give your hotspot a repeater feel and allows you to transmit on one DMR Time Slot while the other one is in use. Very handy for sending a message to TG 4000 to end a QSO on a busy TS. There are simplex boards too that cost less. This MMDVM hat comes with a very small OLED screen already soldered onto the board. Handy and fun to see who is talking and the IP address of the RPi when on your QTH network. The hat is purported to support all RPi models. It plugs into the GPIO bus of the RPi. I use an RPi 3A+ for its speed, memory footprint, and low power draw. Some others in the club prefer a 3B+ or 4 because it has an ethernet jack. I bought the RPi at Elmwood in Toronto. Had to pay shipping, but the overall cost was quite cheap. Whatever mode you choose, having a gateway onto the various Digital Amateur networks (and there are many) makes these digital modes a lot more fun. regards, Brian VE3IBW
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brian.waterworth
Oct 04, 2019
In DMR
I have uploaded the deck that Eric (VE3EB) and myself (VE3IBW) presented at the Oct 2019 club meeting. There is a slide with links to many of the items we discussed to help you find good references to fill in any areas we didn't cover.
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