My friend Pete, W1LAB, one of our DSTAR and Linux gurus, mentioned that he had become interested in a new HotSpot, the ZumSpot, that has become quite popular and is sold by HRO. Part of the appeal was the rather low cost of the Yaesu FT-70D handheld radio (about 1/2 to 1/3 the cost of a DSTAR HT). The FT-70D runs what is called Yaesu System Fusion (YSF). There are not many repeater locally, but there is a robust set of YSF “Rooms” (think Reflectors) that folks can use.
I purchased a ZumSpot and the FT-70D, and set about learning how to use them. It took about an hour to assemble the tiny case, transceiver, and Raspberry Pi Zero-W board.
I was fortunate that my ZumSpot arrived with fairly new software on the SD card which allowed it to setup a Auto AP (Access Point) because it couldn’t connect to my WiFi network yet (lacking knowledge of the SSID or Password). By connecting my cell phone to the local AP (SSID Pistar-Setup). The documentation didn’t spell out the password, but it is “raspberry”. Once connected to the Auto AP, you could use the Configuration page to setup Pi-Star including the Wireless Configuration. The only other “glitch” not documented was that I had to do a Power/Reboot command to reboot the RPi and get the WiFi Configuration Changes to take place. From that point on, it was simply another node on my home WiFi network.
The ZumSpot supports DSTAR, YSF, NXDN, DMR, and P25 connections (only one active at a time), figuring out the mode your radio is in and switching to that digital mode for the HotSpot. In addition the software supports bridging several modes together, so my FT-70D, in C4FM mode, can connect to DMR, NXDN, and P25 nodes.
So I also have an FT-70D and a ZumSpot Pi-Star, both purchased from HRO. I have the newest (wiresX) firmware in the radio and the ZumSpot is up and running and updated. Now what do I do? I’m staring at a silent radio (on the ZumSpot frequency), and I have no idea how to actually get it to talk on a “room” or whatever it is called to reach hams on some repeater somewhere. What is the next step to get connected to someone?
Thanks,
N7PS
Hi Conrad,
Well I am guessing the reason you bought the Zumspot is that you don’t have any YSF (Yaseu System Fusion) Repeaters near you. So the goal is to get your Zumspot working correctly so that you can use it to connect to YSF Rooms. An example of a fairly popular room is “Rag Chew America”, which is room 64230. It will have some activity each day, especially at night, but it isn’t wall to wall active. That’s the room that I have my Zumspot set to.
Assuming you have configured your Zumspot, perhaps setting the default room to RC America, and have set the Mode of your 70D to “DN” (Digital Narrow) using the “MODE” button, then the next step is to activate WIRES on your 70D. You do that by pressing the “F” key, then pressing the “AMS” key. You should see the word WIRES flash on the display, and hopefully will hear a set of four rising tones (mine often misses it the first time, and I have to wait about 20 seconds for the radio to timeout before I can do it a second time). After the tones, you should see your call like “WB4SON-ND” scrolling on the LCD. Rotate the channel knob one step CCW. The LCD will be showing “*—–“. Enter 6 4 2 3 0 and press the “AMS” key. That will take you to room 64230, America Rag Chew.
You might like this site: https://amateurradionotes.com/pi-star.htm
Conrad, I also have the FT-70D but am using the Rugged Spot by Nex-Gen. This is als what I have been missing. TY foryour advise! Ed N1YLN
Dang, I meant Robert!
Thanks, Robert!! That’s exactly the information I had been missing. I actually had figured out how to get the radio to connect to Wires-X on the one Fusion repeater I can reach from my QTH in Spokane, but hadn’t really figured out what I should use for the “YSF Startup Host” in the Pi-Star configuration, since that list is completely different from the list of “rooms” on the Yaesu site. With your information, I found a choice on the Pi-Star list called “YSF64230 – America-RC – YSF-TO-WIRES-X”. In the meantime, I contacted another ham who suggested using “FCS00290 – America Link WIRES-X”, that also worked …. and I actually made a couple contacts from there! Yay, success!! Thanks again for your thoughtful response, it is much appreciated – N7PS
Hi Conrad – glad the comment was useful. Very nice to run into you on the air as well. Be safe on that big AM Tower! 73, Bob, WB4SON
I too was ‘stuck’. I have an FT-70D and had no idea how to connect to a room!
And I should mention that I have been able to talk to some of our club members through our Fusion repeater but it is not yet up with Wires-X. In the mean time, I will check out other Fusion rooms!
Look for other posts in my blog, Russ. I have used Wires on my FT-70D, but it is sometimes hit-or-miss (works sometimes, not others). I think it is tied into the bit error rate (BER) which seems to vary all over the place with my radio. 73, Bob, WB4SON
Hey Russ, hopefully the tips helped. 73, Bob
OK, I can connect to YSF and FCS with my FT70 and pi-star. But how can I connect to my home repeater? The node is 35584 and room is 45584?
Program your ft70 to your home repeater frequency.
I guess I connect the same way with my FT991A ?
Correction
I’m new to the FT-70DR and the world of Hotspots.
So I’m wondering what Hotspot would be the best to buy, feature’s, compatibility.
Would use with home network or linked to a laptop connect to a network, if possible.
thanks
Hi Randall,
I have only used three different DV Hotspot devices, don’t know if I am qualified to recommend one to someone. Certainly the one I’ve been talking about is a popular choice (Zum Radio ZUMSPOT). It’s sold in the US by HamRadio.com My advice is to buy whatever unit your fellow hams are using near you so that you can ask for help.
Good luck — it isn’t hard to setup. 73, Bob, WB4SON
Robert, thank you for the above mentioned article and information others have asked about and brought more questions to the table. I purchased a Zumspot as well about 1 month ago and have it configured to our home wireless internet with little to no issues there. I have a question about my two digital radios… one is the Yaesu FT70-D and the other is a Baofeng DM-1702B DMR handheld. I want to be able to set up my Yaesu FT70-D where while in the digital mode, I can set up say 12 different rooms on 12 different channels. In other words, I want each of the rooms to be like: Ch 1: AmericaLink, Ch 2: RagChew America, etc… since the Corpus Christi area does not have a System Fusion repeater operating that I know of, I am using my hotspot. I even have purchased the RTSystems licensed software for my Yaesu handheld to try to program each of the 12 different channels to be assigned to different rooms. Each channel is on my UHF simplex channel to connect to the hotspot. But when I try to go to channel 2, or 3, etc, it won’t work… is this just the limitations of the FT70-D? And for the Baofeng, let’s just say that radio is a joke… any information from you or others would be great fully appreciated! Thank you and God bless!
Hi Mark,
I’ve mostly been using DMR recently, and never tried the FT70-D to do anything other than the room that I had on default for YSF. I do know that particular radio has issues sending DTMF tones, which was the way I was going to change rooms — it severely over modulates the radio in YSF mode, even when using the minimum modulation setting.
As for DMR, I haven’t tried the DM-1702. I’ve had good luck with the Alinco DMR HTs. But I’ve notice with both brands of HT that I’ve used, that their Analog RX is quite insensitive. But since I use it with my HotSpot, that’s never a problem.
Very helpful, thank you!
Glad I am not the only one not connecting to digital repeaters:) I have the 70dr and it hooks to analog repeaters fine but not to any digital so far, we have three fusion repeaters here in the Lehigh Valley in PA but not connecting so far. Would like to figure out what I am doing wrong.
Is the american rag chew room still operational??
I have no idea, Peter, sorry!