HotSpot for Digital VHF Radio

In January I set up a digital VHF radio hotspot in my home. Hotspots are personal, low-power devices that allow amateur radio operators to connect their radios to the internet and access digital voice (DV) systems around the world. Hotspots act as a personal digital voice repeater and gateway, providing a way for hams to communicate using digital voice modes like DMR, D-STAR, and System Fusion, even if there is no local repeater available.

There are many VHF radio hotspots available. I ended up purchasing a Hamspot 4 Hotspot and am very happy with it. In this post I’ll share my setup and how I’m using my hotspot.

In this post I’ll share my setup and how I’m using my hotspot.

I’d love to hear from any readers who have experience with digital radio. How are you using it? What talkgroups are you linking to?

Hamspot 4 Hotspot

I purchased the Hamspot 4 Hotspot which is a Raspberry Pi computer with a duplex MMDVM board. An MMDVM stands for Multi-Mode Digital Voice Modem. Duplex means that the modem can transmit and receive at the same time. The Hamspot 4 Hotspot page says that it is loaded with PiStar software but it is actually loaded with WPSD, a next generation fork of PiStar.

My hotspot sits on my radio desk behind my grandfather’s call sign plaque. It’s plugged into a USB-C cable for power and connects to my Fios Router through the wall brushplate to my communications utility closet

The hotspot acts as a low powered repeater. 10 milliwatts of RF power covers my house and my yard. With the hotspot and my Yaesu FT5D I can talk worldwide.

Connecting to Maine

In the screenshot above you can see the browser based dashboard for my hotspot. I’ve configured it to connect to a Yaesu System Fusion repeater group covering Maine and New Hampshire (UFB New England network). Why not my local, Boston or Massachusetts networks? The Maine accents connect me with my home and remind me of time with my grandfather, Fred Bean, who’s VHF radio was always listening on the N1ME repeater.

A little (but not much) about my setup

I’m not going to walk you through how I’ve set up my FT5DR and WPSD. There are a ton of videos on YouTube about that. They describe it better than I probably can. When it comes to VHF digital modes, I’m very much an “appliance operator.” “Appliance operator” is sometimes a pejorative; saying that someone in the hobby just operates radio as an appliance, they don’t build their own gear or know what they’re doing. I believe that everyone has to start somewhere and any one person can’t know everything. Enjoy amateur radio however you choose. Everyone’s welcome.

Everyone has to start somewhere and any one person can’t know everything. Enjoy amateur radio however you choose. Everyone’s welcome

I have my hotspot transmitting on 446.500 MHz and receiving 5MHz lower (441.500 MHz). Using the FT5D’s built-in Wires-X features I can connect to talk groups around the world. I mostly hang out on the New England network (linked above) but sometimes participate in HRCC digital nets or pop onto European networks for fun.

How do you use digital radio?

Are there any other networks or talk groups I’m missing out on? Do you use digital amateur radio? If so, what are your thoughts?