ZUMspot Nextion

Ah, the awesome ZUMspot, a digital voice door open to the world! How fantastic it is to talk all around the world with no static and no noise, like everyone is in the same room! Very cool! Between all the modes of digital voice, I have to say my favorite is YSF C4FM for its exceptional voice quality. My second favorite is DMR, but this requires getting used to the frequent "R2D2" picket fence sound.

The thing about the ZUMspot - and many other hotspots - is there is no display. It has the Pi-Star on-board html software, but to see the station information requires using a second device. But since this technology is fairly new, it is evolving very quickly. This is a good thing.

Riding along with this forward momentum, I'm now exploring computer programming for Raspberry Pi, and designing programs for the Nextion display. As it goes, I now have an awesome 3.2 inch Nextion touch display programmed and connected via USB to my ZUMspot. OMGoodness! It is, yes, AWESOME!

Next? Maybe program links to QRZ on the call sign...

Yaesu FT-991A with GPS

I'm not sure why, but the Yaesu FT-991A does not come with a built-in GPS unit. So if you want that data included in digital QSO's, you will need to connect your own external GPS antenna. Now comes the Garmin GPS18x PC, a fully compatible NMEA GPS, WAAS enabled antenna that connects to the FT-991A's GPS/CAT DB9 serial port. Power is supplied by a 12 volt plug into my Yaesu FP-1030A power supply.

Setup is pretty simple with radio menu 028 set to GPS1, which is the the default setting. Plug it in, and turn it on. Wait, slow down. Did you get that?

Now when you key up on a C4FM repeater - as well as with a few other functions - your location/distance is also transmitted/received for the other stations. And if it makes your day, you get the cool little green GPS satellite icon showing up on the FT-991A touchscreen. Nice!

Update: Oct 2020 

With a Powerwerx PowerPole-to-cigar lighter adapter, I plugged this into my RIGrunner 4007U because I kept hitting the plug sticking out the front of the power supply. This GPS is working great!

Here Spot!

As I said previously, my home, mobile, and HT radios are all Yaesu with but one exception, that being a recent purchase of a Tytera MD-390 HT for DMR.

For several years now, I have been gaining interest in VoIP and digital comms in general. A Yaesu HRI-200 WIRES-X node might be pretty cool, but to my understanding, I would have to dedicate a Windows computer and a Yaesu C4FM radio like my FTM-400XDR. That is a bit more investment than I am willing to commit to given I don't even know if I will like it, so I began searching out other VoIP solutions.

After a bit of research, I decided to purchase the ZUMspot RPi kit which includes the ZUMspot-RPi UHF board rev. 0.4, Raspberry Pi Zero Wireless, and a micro SD card programmed with the Pi-Star software image. I also bought a layered case to keep it all safe.

After getting it assembled into the case, and setting up the WiFi and software, my first impression  was, "This thing is awesome!" Talk about easy to set up, this was so quick and simple. And how does it work? Fantastic!

One of the first "rooms" I connected to was the FCS00290, America Link WIRES-X. Immediately I hear clear, crisp, full-quieting digital voice from fellow HAMs in Australia, Japan, England, and Wales. Very cool! The one problem I had, though, was feeling as though I was cheating or something. Having a QSO on the internet just isn't the same as a QSO using only my own equipment, but man, it sure is interesting. Effortless QSOs with people all over the world. Who'd a thought!

And the ZUMspot is smaller than a 1 inch cut-off from a piece of 2x4 stud! Totally awesome!

More later...