Considering DMR hotspot - will it be possible to listen only?

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Hoggorm

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I use a Pi-Star based hot spot but, there are others. If you pick a Pi-Star hotspot you can register an account at Brandmeister and, using the API, you will have the ability to select, and change, the static talkgroups at will, no transmission to the hotspot required. The API gives you the ability to change the hotspot from the Pi-Star dashboard or by logging in to your Brandmeister account . Additionally, having a hotspot with WIFI allows you to connect the hotspot to your smartphone and take your listening on the road. Connect up, and start enjoying world wide communications from a hand held radio.

That sounds just about what I’m after. And if I understand you correctly this hotspot will send any transmissions on a talk group I decide to my radio, even after days or weeks? I ask because I read somewhere that the talk group would “disconnect” a user after a certain time if it did not receive any transmissions. May I ask what other parts your Pi-Star based hot spot consist of?

The SharkRF openSPOT and openSPOT II also permit you to set static talkgroups that would not require you to have a DMR transmitter to change talkgroups via the web interface (similar to Pi-Star).


Thank you. I’ll consider that!

Ok. But I already gave you the resource to listen to all the DMR you can stand: Brandmeister Hose.
Do you have some sort of bigotry against that? Just curious.


No, not really. It is just that radios interest me a lot more than just listening in on a web browser. For example, I do listen to Air Traffic Control conversations, but I never listen to it via the website LiveATC.net, only via my own radios. I do however host a receiver that feeds to them, but only because the radio part interests me.

I would like to play around with my radio listening to DMR, not from a webpage. It's just a bit difficult to explain I guess...
 

bill4long

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I would like to play around with my radio listening to DMR, not from a webpage. It's just a bit difficult to explain I guess...

Yeah, whatever. Again, in the OP, you said, " would it be possible to configure a DMR hotspot at home so that it will allow me to listen in on any, or a given TG and thus finding out if I find this interesting?"

You can surely listen to Brandmeister for a day to see if you think it's interesting. Having a hotspot is not going to do you any better than Brandmeister if you want to discover that. Jeez.

If you already have an Amateur license from Norway (which you didn't bother to reveal until later in the thread), you can legally operate the USA. Get a $65 Radioditty GD-77 and a $40 MMDVM hotspot. Baofeng makes even cheaper radios, I believe. Problem solved. Next.

See the ARRL website for details about reciprocal operating in the USA.
 
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OhSixTJ

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No. "Jumbospots" use Pi-Star which has no way of convenient way of changing talkgroups without a radio.

I asked you if that was specific to DMR because I can pick any D-star reflector from the dashboard on my pc and link or unlink to it without a radio.

Edit: it’s the admin page. Seen at the 6 minute, 10 second mark in this video: https://youtu.be/ozgNbSN_Oz0

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

OhSixTJ

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That sounds just about what I’m after. And if I understand you correctly this hotspot will send any transmissions on a talk group I decide to my radio, even after days or weeks? I ask because I read somewhere that the talk group would “disconnect” a user after a certain time if it did not receive any transmissions. May I ask what other parts your Pi-Star based hot spot consist of?




Thank you. I’ll consider that!




No, not really. It is just that radios interest me a lot more than just listening in on a web browser. For example, I do listen to Air Traffic Control conversations, but I never listen to it via the website LiveATC.net, only via my own radios. I do however host a receiver that feeds to them, but only because the radio part interests me.

I would like to play around with my radio listening to DMR, not from a webpage. It's just a bit difficult to explain I guess...

Yes you can set the hotspot to the reflector or group and it will stay there (and transmit to your radio) as long as it’s powered on. I don’t know why you’re not acknowledging my replies but I answered your question in the 2nd post on this thread.


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Hoggorm

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Yeah, whatever. Again, in the OP, you said, " would it be possible to configure a DMR hotspot at home so that it will allow me to listen in on any, or a given TG and thus finding out if I find this interesting?"

And again, as I said previousily, I’m sorry that my initial question was not clear enough. English is not my native language. I did my best to explain but it was not good enough.

If you already have an Amateur license from Norway (which you didn't bother to reveal until later in the thread), you can legally operate the USA.

Well, I did not consider it relevant for the question.

Get a $65 Radioditty GD-77 and a $40 MMDVM hotspot. Baofeng makes even cheaper radios, I believe. Problem solved. Next.

Ok, thank you for the advice. I’ll consider it.

I don’t know why you’re not acknowledging my replies but I answered your question in the 2nd post on this thread.

I might have misunderstood, but I understood your reply as if you did not really know if this would work regarding DMR.

- “It might be possible to do the same with DMR but I don’t know for sure since I don’t operate that mode. “
 

KJ6ZNS

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That sounds just about what I’m after. And if I understand you correctly this hotspot will send any transmissions on a talk group I decide to my radio, even after days or weeks? I ask because I read somewhere that the talk group would “disconnect” a user after a certain time if it did not receive any transmissions. May I ask what other parts your Pi-Star based hot spot consist of?


My hotspot is based on a RaspberryPi Model 3 B+ and a MMDVM_HS_HAT_DUPLEX. I chose the to use the RaspberryPi Model 3B+ to have the ability to use ethernet or WIFI (other RaspberryPi also have both). I chose the MMDVM_HS_HAT_DUPLEX to be different, and have more flexibility. The Duplex unit is capable of using both time slots, instead of just one that most of the spots use. You can see a picture of the Duplex board at www.commswg.site/_amateur_radio/mmdvm_duplex.shtml#preface. The Duplex board works with DMR, DStar, Yaesu Fusion, P25 and NXDN.

If you set a talkgroup as static, it will stay on 24/7/365. If the talkgroup is dynamic (requires a transmission to the repeater/hotspot to activate) then the talkgroup will be active for 15 minutes after the last transmission, and then drop. I currently have 3 static talkgroups set on TS1, and 2 set on TS2. I have had as many as 4 static on each TS but, too much traffic at times. I can change the static groups at any time directly from the Pi-Star dashboard, using the Admin page (API is installed to allow this). So, if you use the Duplex board, and have 4 static talkgroups set on each timeslot, you could scan 8 talkgroups from your scanner. As far as I know, you can change, from the dashboard, the static talkgroups on any hotspot that uses Pi-Star, as long as API is enabled,

Don't limit yourself to just listening with your scanner. There are many DMR radios available, from very inexpensive to, how much do you want to spend? The most popular seem to be the TYT MD380/390 and the Anytone AT-868/878UV. The Retivus also appears to be popular. Most, if not all, of the amateur radios are DMR and analog so, you don't loose analog if you want DMR. Some, like the Anytone, are also dual band.

I hope this answers your questions and helps clear things up for you.


Tim - W6TGM (KJ6ZNS was my original call sign)[/QUOTE]
 
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bharvey2

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I'v had the first gen Openspot for a few years and it was simple to set up and has been rock solid since. I don't know how the new model does but if history is an indicator, I suspect it is an upstanding product. I've heard good things about the Zumspot which I think is a Raspberry Pi variant. I think HRO sells it for around $120 or so.
 

w2xq

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Hoggorm, as you already have a han radio license I don't understand the problem. Get a DMR ID (free) and a Brandmeister account (free).

Shop around for a DMR radio, something like the widely known and popular TYT MD-380. In the USA, a new -380 and second battery costs US ~$120. A new hotspot using the free Pi-Star software costs as little as US ~$90.

Otherwise bill4long's suggestion of tuning into talkgroups using https://hose.brandmeister.network/group/TG where 'TG' is a 3-5 digit number, e.g., 91, 310, et al, is the best solution. Norway is 242.

If your browser fails to produce audio, try another browser. I have the situation where Chrome and Internet Explorer do not work on my decade old Windows 7 netbook, but Opera produces audio properly. On my new Samsung tablets, the Chrome browser does not work, but DuckDuckGo does work. It makes no sense to me.
 

Hoggorm

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My hotspot is based on a RaspberryPi Model 3 B+ and a MMDVM_HS_HAT_DUPLEX.



I hope this answers your questions and helps clear things up for you.



Thank you very much. It sure does



Hoggorm, as you already have a han radio license I don't understand the problem. Get a DMR ID (free) and a Brandmeister account (free).

Thank you. I do have a DMR ID, but not a Brandmeister account yet. The point of doing it this way was to skip the step of buying a dedicated DMR transceiver, but I may end up doing so anyway.
 

N5XTC

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Try listening to TAC 310 live stream up. This is one of the most popular and busiest ragchew DMR talkgroups. It is bridged to C-Bridge and Brandmeister.

http://hose.brandmeister.network/group/310/

You can see what is currently active on all Brandmeister TGs by clicking here:

http://hose.brandmeister.network/ click on any target to hear the live stream
thanks for this link. What is most active, or most interesting, whatever TG to listen to. I am new to DMR and do not have a DMR radio yet but am a licensed ham and have a DMR # (or whatever they call it). i Know I dont need it to listen, but am thinking about a hot spot at some point as I dont believe I can copy our DMR repeater from my location.
 

N5XTC

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Hoggorm, as you already have a han radio license I don't understand the problem. Get a DMR ID (free) and a Brandmeister account (free).

Shop around for a DMR radio, something like the widely known and popular TYT MD-380. In the USA, a new -380 and second battery costs US ~$120. A new hotspot using the free Pi-Star software costs as little as US ~$90.

Otherwise bill4long's suggestion of tuning into talkgroups using https://hose.brandmeister.network/group/TG where 'TG' is a 3-5 digit number, e.g., 91, 310, et al, is the best solution. Norway is 242.

If your browser fails to produce audio, try another browser. I have the situation where Chrome and Internet Explorer do not work on my decade old Windows 7 netbook, but Opera produces audio properly. On my new Samsung tablets, the Chrome browser does not work, but DuckDuckGo does work. It makes no sense to me.
also, i dont see where i make an account on brandmeister. i guess i dont need one but would not mind signing up, like i said i have a DMR id.
 

enCrypt

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I wonder if the OP meant (as I've also wondered) that he wanted to listen into comms via a hotspot without a radio at all? i.e. some way of tapping into the audio directly from the Pi connected to the hotspot?
I only have the Phoenix network on my local repeaters and wondered if it would be possible to do the above to listen to Brandmeister, Yaesu Fusion, DStar etc etc?
I DO have an Amateur license...
 

Hoggorm

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I wonder if the OP meant (as I've also wondered) that he wanted to listen into comms via a hotspot without a radio at all?

On the contrary. I would like to listen to the DMR signals using a radio, not a website. My question was if this was possible with only a scanner since most video tutorials on DMR hotspots both assume I have, and use, DMR ham radios.
 

n1kez

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I hope you have figured it out by now. Almost any hotspot MMDVM with Pi-Star can do what you want. Thought the web interface you can add/drop (static) Talk Groups as much as you want. You can also set up your scanner up to follow a specific or all of the TG’s you’ve set up. You could even set the scanner to only listen to specific calls (DMR ID’s).

Im very happy with the Pi hats sold by N5BOC. Very stable / complete boards. Not the cheapest though.

I too use a scanner to listen but also have a variety of DMR/DStar radios for when I want to participate in a QSO.

Enjoy. Get the Pi and the hat. You’ll figure out the rest. That fun part of the journey to learning new technologies.
 

Hoggorm

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I bought a hotspot from BI7JTA. It was completely assembled. All I had to do was to enter my personal data, register with Brandmeister and choose what static talkgroups I'd like to have active on the hotspot. I have no dedicated DMR tranceiver, so the scanner is working without any problems.
 
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