Right now you can order a SharkRF OpenSpot for 50% off until Easter or maybe supplies run out. You need to buy in Euro dollars and pay a good chunk of money for shipping. I (n0nki) would like to organize a group purchase to save on the shipping… If you buy on your own, you’ll pay 95 Euros + 24.85 Euro in shipping… If you pay use(sales) taxes as all of us legally need to do, you spend about $160 USD.

With the group buy, we’re looking at about or less than $140 combined including the sales tax which I’ll process (unless you can provide an exemption certificate for resale)… This rate assumes 7 purchases and we’re just about there… The price only goes lower if you are interested… But we need to hurry as the group doesn’t want to loose out because we were waiting on someone to commit.  If interested, contact me (n0nki) and let me know you want in the group buy. I’m going to place the order on Friday… Prepayment expected as we’ll be waiting a few days for the delivery and I can’t afford to be holding extra equipment or without the funds if someone backs out.

If you want to just buy direct, here’s the link: https://shop.sharkrf.com/

 

Here’s a jumble of calculations if you would like to try and figure out my math.

1.28	$ Conversion			Qty
euro	Qty1	USD		7	USD
Shark	95	121.6		665	851.2
Shipping	24.84	31.7952		38.11	48.7808
Sales Tax	9.5872	12.27162			71.99846
0.08					971.9793
Total		165.6668			138.8542

Here’s another teaser for a future bridge between networks. Zello is an application available for your PC or mobile phone that provides a push-to-talk interface to “channels”… There’s now a channel for Minnesota Talk-group 3127… Today they are not linked, but there’s still a community of hams who have the app installed. Might be soon that the hardware is purchased to bridge these networks. Imagine pulling your cell phone out of your pocket and participating on the DMR network using nothing but a free app on the phone you already have with you!  Check out https://zello.com/channels/k/fIWvQ

 

The Buffalo Hamfest was this past weekend. Quite a few people were in attendance. I’d like to toss out a few thank you’s to John KA0KMJ and I know I’m going to be missing names and calls but there were several people associated with the Maple Grove Radio Club who supported us this past weekend. From purchasing table space, providing power, providing an outside 70cm antenna, etc. Galen and John, Dave and Dave, everyone who stopped by the booth. Thank you for making the event what it was. Wouldn’t have been the same without each and every one of you.

In other news, there was a digital conference in Puget Sound. You can watch the entire set of presentations online via YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1sWCtVzzak  Information about the conference is posted at http://www.microhams.com/mhdc/

Looks like some really amazing technical content. I’d love to attend one of these coming years. Here’s some of the slides from the event.

• MHDC2018-KU7M
• MHDC2018-K7UDR
• MHDC2018-K1JT
• MHDC2018-PE1PLM
• MHDC2018-VE7DXW
• Dr. Taylor’s talk,

 

Matt, NØYNT had planned to move his repeater over to Brandmeister but discovered the weather has taken control and the door lock was frozen making the site inaccessible. A future date will depend on weather cooperation. Galen as already updated the codeplug so new code-plugs will not work for Nationwide and Worldwide talk-groups on this one repeater.

Matt may need to fight back with lock-deicer… More news as it develops.

Terry’s repeater in Centerville was moved from the K4USD cBridge over to Brandmeister about 4pm this past Saturday the 31st. Minnesota State TG3127 is on Time-Slot 1.

Updated code-plugs (Radio Programming) are available for download on this website.

The move includes a couple of minor changes for talk-group numbers. The Old TG1 becomes 91, the Old 3 becomes 93.  MNDMR is now available at TG31127.

Bill – KDØYRF has announced that on Wednesday evening after the Wednesday night net, January 10th, Repeaters connected to the MNDMR cBridge will be reconfigured to modify or swap the time-slots for two talk-groups. Minnesota Statewide TG3127 will be moving from Time-Slot 2 to Time-Slot 1 just like the MTKA, BLM, BLW, Chaska and StPaul repeaters. They will then move their MNDMR TG31127(1127) from Time-Slot 1 over to 2.

The impacted repeaters are AIR, MSP, LIT, BKH, MED, RST.

The move for Minnesota Statewide from TS2 to TS1 accomplishes the goal of freeing up Time-Slot 2 for more user activated activities including Local2, Local9 and the TAC talk-groups. Today Minnesota Statewide is where most of the activity is. If it’s active, these other talk-groups are impacted and basically unavailable.

Please plan for updating your code-plug (Radio programming) on Wednesday night after the net or around 8pm January 10th. New updated code-plugs can be found on this site around that date.

For anyone handy with a soldering iron, here’s some eye candy. It’s not that difficult to add an OLED display to the MMDVM hotspots if you have a steady hand, good eyesight and about 10 bucks. I’m recommending the Pi-Star software distribution for our MMDVM hotspots as most all of the configuration is now possible from a web browser and the software for running external displays is built in (always could be enabled, but it’s easier now) OLED display can be sourced from China for about 4 bucks and 4 weeks… Amazon will bring you one tomorrow if you like: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01AE3MR7Q/ I plan to polish my plastic case with one of those headlight rejuvenation kits. Should become crystal clear with a small amount of elbow grease.

Enjoy!

If you’re a digital radio nerd, you might be interested in the sexy, ham sexy, new hardware under development. I am one of the early pledges to see this hardware come to fruition. You can check out the device here: http://kck.st/2jUfo1z

This little USB dongle will support the bidirectional trans-coding of our digital streams from one radio technology to another. So, someday in the not too distant future, you might be able to turn on your DMR radio and bridge to another radio frequency in a another part of the state or world. Let’s say you’re on vacation and in Hawaii. Imagine turning your radio dial to a DMR talk-group where you can control a remote base in Minneapolis and entering the 146.XX repeater into the DTMF pad on the front of your radio. That ability to encode and decode the analog stream into the DMR network is provided by this hardware. There’s still software in development and the same is true with this hardware. It’s not here today, but there are those of us behind the scene working on these technical challenges. DStar, Fusion, Analog, DMR, P25, Other IMBE are all modes being worked on.

I’d like to ask for your financial support. Installing and operating the DMR network isn’t inexpensive. The repeaters themselves begin to look really cheap when you consider the filtering, cabling, duplexers, electric bills, hard-line, connectors, lightening protection, Internet access, routers, microwave links, etc. With your financial support, I can continue to invest in new technologies and increase the capabilities of Minnesota’s DMR (and other) Radio Networks. The KickStarter project will be funded at the end of January. I hope to have ~$400 for this hardware dongle and will contribute testing and code review to the projects. Additional projects include the WhiteBear Township Water Tower DMR site, Duluth Hill DMR site and with the right funding, a major DMR installation in the eastern metro. Unfortunately both WhiteBear and eastern metro have hellacious installation expenses. Paypal donations gladly accepted at ejosterberg@gmail.com – 73 nØnki – Eric Osterberg I’d like to thank those of you who have already donated for past projects and without any solicitation. I very much appreciate this.

Check out the video on Kick Starter, (link above)

Software Info: dvswitch, hblink, hbbridge, dmrlink, ipsc2hbp, dmrlink, dmr_utils <– all of these found on GITHUB @ https://github.com/ – Amazing work by many including nØmjs, n4irs, m0nwi, HuskyARC, MrBungle42 and so many other names.

I thought I’d share with everyone that I’m working on the content for the code-plug clinic. Coming soon. 73 – NØNKI (Eric Osterberg) n0nki