I"m sorry if this topic has been covered before. The search engine on this site rejects everything I try to search with as "too common". Really really crappy search function ...
My Kenwood TH-D74a 's "Gateway CQ" function won't link with a "second repeater". It displays the "not linked" icon whenever I try. The function works perfectly with the exact same settings (and target repeater) using my local D-Star repeater. So it's not the settings or the capability of the target repeater or the D74a. Something goes wrong in the ZumSpot. I can find nothing on this on the web.
I did run into someone else trying to figure this out on 030C many months back. They had also spent a lot of time trying to find anyone who knew enough about the workings of the ZumSpot to explain this. He ended up being directed to an "expert" at the Anaheim HRO who said the problem was in the Pi-Star software, that it couldn't properly interpret a special character used by the D74a for this function. He said "they" were aware of it and would fix it in an upcoming firmware update. As recently as yesterday, it's still not working with my updated ZumSpot.
Does anyone know anything about this ? Can anyone direct me to the "they" responsible for Pi-Star firmware ?
Thank You,
Russ KR6W
ZumSpot TH-D74a "Gateway CQ" Doesn't Work
Re: ZumSpot TH-D74a "Gateway CQ" Doesn't Work
Hi KE7FNS,
Thanks for the response.
I think the trick here is going to be to luck into someone with the appropriate experience who started specifically with the D74 and ZumSpot. The D74 itself works perfectly so unless they're trying this D74 specific mode WITH a ZumSpot, they won't see it. Thanks for the link but even searching for just D74 there didn't turn up anything either. As I said, I don't know who "they" are supposed to be. That's why I posted here. But clearly that forum isn't it.
I can't speak to what the ham who talked to the guy at HRO said, I'm just reporting it. The guy said he knew exactly what the problem was, sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and described it as I reported it.
It's not that big a deal - I can do the same things (besides "Gateway CQ", two other functions called "Callsign Designation" and "Call Within Zone" don't work either but work perfectly with my local D-Star repeater) by just entering the addresses directly, it's just irritating that the built-in features don't work.
Anyway, thanks for the response.
Russ KR6W
Thanks for the response.
I think the trick here is going to be to luck into someone with the appropriate experience who started specifically with the D74 and ZumSpot. The D74 itself works perfectly so unless they're trying this D74 specific mode WITH a ZumSpot, they won't see it. Thanks for the link but even searching for just D74 there didn't turn up anything either. As I said, I don't know who "they" are supposed to be. That's why I posted here. But clearly that forum isn't it.
I can't speak to what the ham who talked to the guy at HRO said, I'm just reporting it. The guy said he knew exactly what the problem was, sounded like he knew what he was talking about, and described it as I reported it.
It's not that big a deal - I can do the same things (besides "Gateway CQ", two other functions called "Callsign Designation" and "Call Within Zone" don't work either but work perfectly with my local D-Star repeater) by just entering the addresses directly, it's just irritating that the built-in features don't work.
Anyway, thanks for the response.
Russ KR6W
Re: ZumSpot TH-D74a "Gateway CQ" Doesn't Work
Hi KE7FNS,
Thanks for the reply.
No, I don't think my expectations are too high, I think there's a bug in the code. I just don't know WHAT code and I can't find the right person/people to talk too. As I said, the radio works perfectly with real stations. It's not doing anything proprietary that they don't understand. All of these hotspots are advertised as performing exactly as D-Star gateways at D-Star repeaters and this one doesn't. I've run into a few people who have this problem with the ZumSpot (and a few more over the last few days) but no one who has it with any other hotspot.
Anyway, I'll keep looking.
Thanks,
Russ KR6W
Thanks for the reply.
No, I don't think my expectations are too high, I think there's a bug in the code. I just don't know WHAT code and I can't find the right person/people to talk too. As I said, the radio works perfectly with real stations. It's not doing anything proprietary that they don't understand. All of these hotspots are advertised as performing exactly as D-Star gateways at D-Star repeaters and this one doesn't. I've run into a few people who have this problem with the ZumSpot (and a few more over the last few days) but no one who has it with any other hotspot.
Anyway, I'll keep looking.
Thanks,
Russ KR6W
Re: ZumSpot TH-D74a "Gateway CQ" Doesn't Work
Hi KE7FNS,
I'm sorry you obviously find my issue so frustrating. May I suggest you not respond anymore ? There would certainly be nothing lost for me.
As for it not being an issue with pi-star itself, and not posting on this forum, whether you like it or not I'm far from convinced based on merely what you say and I'll post wherever I choose, including here. I'm still hoping to find someone who actually has something useful to contribute.
Please feel free to simply ignore my post now. Wouldn't that be easier for you ? For my part, I'll stop reading your responses if you decide otherwise.
Thanks,
Russ KR6W
I'm sorry you obviously find my issue so frustrating. May I suggest you not respond anymore ? There would certainly be nothing lost for me.
As for it not being an issue with pi-star itself, and not posting on this forum, whether you like it or not I'm far from convinced based on merely what you say and I'll post wherever I choose, including here. I'm still hoping to find someone who actually has something useful to contribute.
Please feel free to simply ignore my post now. Wouldn't that be easier for you ? For my part, I'll stop reading your responses if you decide otherwise.
Thanks,
Russ KR6W
Re: ZumSpot TH-D74a "Gateway CQ" Doesn't Work
I wanted to provide the resolution to this in case anyone else happens to look here for an answer to this issue. Some kind and helpful responses on another forum finally provided the answer.
It turns out there is at least one standard D-Star message format that most if not all of the D-star radios use that the ZUMspot doesn't recognize. In this case, they're initiating "callsign routing" by placing an "/" in front of the URCALL callsign which the ZUMspot doesn't know how to deal with. The report the ham I mentioned received from an employee at the Anaheim HRO (who is no longer there unfortunately) was correct. Other D-Star interfaces - some (most, all?) repeaters which are not based on pi-star do know how to deal with it and work fine. That's why I was able to use it successfully with my local repeater.
So the bottom line is, as of the s/w, f/w in use as of 9/8/20, use a real repeater if you want these menu items to work. According to the Anaheim HRO guy, accommodating this function is in works for the ZUMspot too but that was a year ago and it hasn't been incorporated yet.
Of course, you can always just program the function brute force and that works fine with the ZUMspot, it's just less convenient.
Hope that helps with anyone who finds their way here looking for an answer to this question !
Thanks,
Russ KR6W
It turns out there is at least one standard D-Star message format that most if not all of the D-star radios use that the ZUMspot doesn't recognize. In this case, they're initiating "callsign routing" by placing an "/" in front of the URCALL callsign which the ZUMspot doesn't know how to deal with. The report the ham I mentioned received from an employee at the Anaheim HRO (who is no longer there unfortunately) was correct. Other D-Star interfaces - some (most, all?) repeaters which are not based on pi-star do know how to deal with it and work fine. That's why I was able to use it successfully with my local repeater.
So the bottom line is, as of the s/w, f/w in use as of 9/8/20, use a real repeater if you want these menu items to work. According to the Anaheim HRO guy, accommodating this function is in works for the ZUMspot too but that was a year ago and it hasn't been incorporated yet.
Of course, you can always just program the function brute force and that works fine with the ZUMspot, it's just less convenient.
Hope that helps with anyone who finds their way here looking for an answer to this question !
Thanks,
Russ KR6W
Re: ZumSpot TH-D74a "Gateway CQ" Doesn't Work
One more thing on this. Another mysterious function on the D74 that involves this character is "Individual". In this case, the radio doesn't insert the character initially and a second kind of callsign routing occurs where your call reaches the repeater that station was last heard on. There's no linking, but if that person is still listening on that repeater they'll hear you. HOWEVER, in general they'll have to manually enter you in their "URCALL" to respond. Also, you'll be barging in on whatever might be going on without being able to hear it. So "Individual" is apparently seldom used for that purpose. It IS very useful to store pretty much everything however (repeaters, reflectors, those with commands, ...). It can store up to 200 entries so it's often used as a "DR memory bank" since all those things can be loaded directly into "URCALL" using it without having to type them in over and over.
If you insert the "/" character before a callsign it's supposed to route you to a specific repeater. Wherever the real problem lies, apparently all pi-star based hotspots have the issue of not being able to interpret the character so this will always just fail with them. It's pretty disappointing because they're all advertised as basically functioning exactly the same as the gateway on a regular D-Star repeater and they don't. Oddly, the OpenSPOT doesn't have the "Gateway CQ" issue but it won't work with callsign routing (either kind I'm told). Still, its clearly a much better option than pi-star based hotspots though more expensive.
If you insert the "/" character before a callsign it's supposed to route you to a specific repeater. Wherever the real problem lies, apparently all pi-star based hotspots have the issue of not being able to interpret the character so this will always just fail with them. It's pretty disappointing because they're all advertised as basically functioning exactly the same as the gateway on a regular D-Star repeater and they don't. Oddly, the OpenSPOT doesn't have the "Gateway CQ" issue but it won't work with callsign routing (either kind I'm told). Still, its clearly a much better option than pi-star based hotspots though more expensive.