All posts by k0jsc

About k0jsc

Firefighter/EMT, Amateur Radio Operator

Digital Modes

Amateur Radio

The WE0FUN Fun Machine repeater system was the first in Colorado, and among the first in general (to our knowledge), to create a truly mode agnostic repeater system that can be accessed from anywhere in the world using any of the common digital modes (NXDN, P25, DMR, DStar, System-Fusion “C4FM”, M17) or analog via AllStarLink.  Beginning in late 2017 we started to bridge and add digital modes into the system which consisted of roughly 12 analog repeaters at the time. The first mode added was DMR, allowing the use of a number of MMDVM based multimode repeaters, several Motorola DMR repeaters throughout the state of Colorado and access to the system via hotspot and Brandmeister TG310815.  Following that in early 2018 we added C4FM (System Fusion) and DStar into the Digital <-> Analog mix. We completed adding all of the digital modes in late 2018 by adding support for NXDN and P25.

Most of the digital interfaces (how to access them) remained word of mouth until we published all of the information so that hotspots, dongles, MMDVM repeaters etc…  would display the various capabilities that can be used to connect into the WE0FUN Fun Machine repeater system.

The underlying technologies used to accomplish this task are listed below (in no specific order) with an accompanying diagram at the bottom of this page.

To allow for more granular control in terms of being able to connect/disconnect modes, for a variety of purposes, each mode is transcoded into analog which is carried by a specific ASL node.  Each of these ASL nodes can then easily be disconnected or connected to other ASL nodes or hubs quickly and easily.

The course of this project has presented more learning opportunities and frustration than can be relayed in type.  This, however, is in the spirit of amateur radio and has made each participant the better for it (even if we didn’t know so at the time).  We have also contributed code and community support back to several of the Open Source projects that are listed above; we believe that this too is very much in the spirit of amateur radio and hope to see these projects grow in usage and support.

We now support DMR, M17, P25, NXDN, DStar and YSF.

DMR is available on Brandmeister using TG 310815 running on a dedicated server in Cañon City

DMR Dashboard: https://dmr.we0fun.com

P25 is available via TG 10209
P25 Dashboard: https://p25.we0fun.com

M17 is available via reflector M17-815 Module B
M17 Dashboard https://m17.we0fun.com

DStar is available via xrf815, xlx815, dcs815 MODUle B
DStar Dashboard: https://xrf815.we0fun.com

NXDN is available via TG 31081 running on a dedicated server in Cañon City
NXDN Dashboard: https://nxdn.we0fun.com

C4FM (YSF) is available via the WE0FUN CO Fun Machine running on a dedicated server in Cañon City
C4FM Dashboard: https://c4fm.we0fun.com

“high level” diagram of how it all ties together.

P25

Amateur Radio

We’re working with a couple new repeaters which support many digital modes including P25.  I mention P25 because it’s bridged over to analog using talkgroup 10209 along with the DMR bridge to analog using talkgroup 310815.  One of the repeaters is at our Mt Pueblo site and the other is on Fremont Peak.  The Mt Pueblo machine is on 449.950- which requires Color Code 15 for DMR and both time slots are linked to Brandmeister.  The DStar mode is enabled along with P25 using a NAC of 293.  The same is true for the Fremont machine which runs on 449.500-

Boone decommissioned

Amateur Radio

After a couple of years we’ve decided to decommission the Boone repeater. The town of Boone was more than gracious to give us access to a site and it worked well during the time it was on air. The distance to travel was too great for me to service that machine and Cedarwood covers the area well.

-k0jsc