Using Raspberry Pi to program GM300, Maxtrac and others

Hello everyone,

I wanted to share with you a great way I found to reprogram older Motorola radios using a Raspberry Pi computer and a FTDI based USB to serial cable.  As most of you know the usual route to reprogramming these 1990's radios is to have a very slow computer with serial ports that runs DOS, which are getting harder to find as time goes by.

However the friends over at Hamvoip have integrated a Dosbox emulator inside their Raspberry Pi VoIP image that out of the box have all the necessary software to reprogram the following radios: Maxtrac, GM300, Maratrac, X9000.

A simple update of the Raspberry Pi image adds support for the following radios as well: GP300, HT1000, HT50, HT600, MT1000, P110, P200, QUANTAR, RADM100, Spectra.

The way it works it that the Raspberry Pi handles the DOS software and the physical interface with the radio and you use a modern computer to access the Raspberry Pi via an X11 session to do the actual programming. You could theoretically install the Raspberry Pi at the repeater site and reprogram the radios from the internet.

I am currently using it for reprogramming Maxtrac radios and all I needed was a FTDI USB to Serial cable and a motorola programming cable which I ordered here for $8 USD:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/RIB-Less-Programming-Program-Cable-for-Motorola-GM300-GM340-GM339-GM380/32436412551.html?

The startup documentation is here:
https://hamvoip.org/hamradio/motorola_programming/

Youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0ia0NbdoxU

Here is the setup I have running at home:

73s from Charles VE2FXO

VE2RMP Facebook page

Greetings to all,

I just created a page for the RMP group to give the club more visibility on Facebook.
That page will have all the necessary contact information, plus a link to the RMP web site.
I also plan to upload some Field Day pictures and other information on it as time goes by.

Here is the link to the page:

https://www.facebook.com/VE2RMP/


73s de VE2FXO

KB5RAB system image for Raspberry Pi 3

Good day to all,

I will be trying out a few operating system images with the Raspberry Pi 3 in the next few days.

The first custom made image I will try out is the one by KB5RAB, which has a bunch of amateur software pre-installed on it, including the MD-380 Tools package.

Here is the link to get the image, a 16 gig SD card is required for imaging it properly:
https://spaces.hightail.com/space/se06G/files

Filename is: KB5RAB_8gb_YSF_pixel_031817.zip

Here below are the release notes for this version of the image, along with everything that is included.
The Image supports DMR, DSTAR and Fusion and each mode can be enabled as desired.

Based off W1MSG Pi 3 Jessie Image. and includes the following: Now includes PIXEL Desktop.

• MMDVMHost software by G4KLX https://github.com/g4klx/MMDVMHost
• ircDDBgateway (DStar Gateway software) https://github.com/dl5di/OpenDV/wik...
• MMDVMHost-Dashboard Web dashboard by DG9VH https://github.com/dg9vh/MMDVMHost-...
• MD380Tools Software for creating and loading MD380/390 custom firmware from KK4VCZ travisgoodspeed https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/...
• YSFGateway software by G4KLX https://github.com/g4klx/YSFClients...
• BlueDV Linux software by PA7LIM (Beta Version 09352 ) http://www.pa7lim.nl/bluedv-linux/
• Updated DV4mini software 3/2017 (works with latest 1.77 firmware) and DV4MF2 panel version 12
• Brandmeister XTG Dialer for Dv4Mini by K2DLS http://www.k2dls.net/blog/2017/01/1...
• Various desktop shortcuts for easy usage of key functions as well as readme files for documentation of features and operations. Shortcuts are now also included in a Ham Radio section added to the Pi menu. Readme file and a pdf with sample mmdvmhost.ini settings in zip file with image.

MMDVMHost runs as a service and is set to auto start. Bluetooth disabled to allow DVMEGA to work on Pi GPIO pins and internal WIFI to function on a Pi3 . All log files needed from MMDVMHost, ircDDBgateway and YSFGateway to allow the dashboard to function are written to RAM disk.

Image may be updated periodically to contain the latest versions of the added software. I will keep the current link to the image in this file on BM3148 Facebook group.

Motorola MTR2000 UHF Repeater Dstar Project

Hello Everyone

        Wanted to let all of you know that soon The VE2RMP Radio Group will have a new D-star repeater on 448.625- to replace the MSF-5000 Motorola D-star repeater.

       The MTR2000 is a much improved unit  and is a everything in one package repeater. Before I go any further I have to say a big thank you to Claude VE2YI our president for supplying the repeater.

       Well I brought the repeater home and installed the programming software on an old dell P4 running windows XP. I made up my own programming cable using a db -9 connector at one end and a RJ-45 at the other. It only uses 3 Wires and is very easy to get the information on the internet. I then of course used a USB to serial adaptor as it is very hard to find computers today with a serial port unless it has been added.

                                                                                                                                                                                   Here is cable I built for programming.

Once this was done you take off the front plate of the repeater to expose the MIC-RSS plugs.

       This where the programming cables goes.

        Now that this is done the fun begins with the software.  There are many things in the software to change and there are so many utilities for alignment and verification. I found

a lot of information on the internet and some I just used common sense as I have been around Claude for quite some time helping him at the repeater sites so there many things you pick up without realizing it.

            Once this is done the only thing left is to take an old mouse cable with the 6 pin din plug on one end and wire it up to the dvptr-1 board.

Pin 1 = Output Audio from the DVRPTR-1 Board

Pin 2 = Ground

Pin 3 = PTT

Pin 4 = input from the FM Demodulator ( Audio coming out of MRT2000)

Once you have indentified these wires then the MTR2000 has a 96 Pin plug in the back  3 rows of 32 . Each pin has a function and again all this information can be found on the internet. I then took stiff wire and soldered small pieces to the 4 wires in question and inserted them into the correct pins on the back.

The computer and software used is a small Beagle Bone Black running an image from Ramish VA3UV who offers his help and support whenever needed. The software work very well and allows for Identifier of the repeater and scheduling  for automatically connecting to reflectors for nets at specific times.

Here is a photo of the DVRPTR-1 Board and the Beagle Bone black Underneath.

The repeater at the moment is operating at my house as VE2YUU  on 442.050 Plus for testing and Hopefully in the next 2 to 3 weeks will be placed up at Ridgewood  as VA2RMP  frequency   448.625 minus.

Here is the MTR2000 with the cover back and on the air.  The repeater is linked to XRF005B  so come on and test it I will be listening.

This has been a fun project and I want to thank Claude VE2YI for supplying the repeater and Ramish for all his support over the years when I have had questions and needed assistance.

Hopefully the next project will be with a MTR2000 and a MMDVM Board and a Raspberry PI-3  this will make a repeater that will do  D-Star - Fusion (C4FM)  - DMR and P25

Take Care and 73 from Cliff VE2YU

Time Slot Two

Talk Group	Description	Activate
2	Local/Montreal Region	Always On
8	Regional (Future)	Always On
9	Reflector (Local for Now)	Always On
3020	Newfoundland / PEI	User Activated
3021	Nova Scotia	User Activated
3022	Quebec	User Activated
3023	Ontario	User Activated

3024	Manitoba	User Activated
3025	Saskatchewan	User Activated
3026	Alberta	User Activated
3027	British Columbia	User Activated
3028	NWT/Yukon/Nunavut	User Activated
3029	New Brunswick	User Activated

Time Slot One

Talk Group	Description	Activate
1	Worldwide	Always On
3	North America	Always On
11	Worldwide French	Always On
13	Worldwide English	Always On
111	French	User Activated
113	English	User Activated
121	French 2	User Activated
123	English 2	User Activated
131	DMRplus Canada French 4581	User Activated
133	DMRplus USA 4639	User Activated
302	Canada Wide	User Activated
310	TAC 310	User Activated
311	TAC 311	User Activated
312	TAC 312	User Activated
3022	DMRQ Belairnet to BM	User Activated
3100	DCI Bridge 3100	User Activated
8951	DCI TAC 1	User Activated
9998	Parrot(DMRX)	User Activated
9999	Parrot(MARC)	User Activated
31361	BM Upstate New York	User Activated
31363	BM Adirondacks	User Activated

Icom IC-7300 review

Icom IC-7300 is the first direct sampling SDR (software defined radio) available from one of the "big three" japanese manufacturers. This helps it bring a whole new level of performance at an accesible price point, a much more flexible configuration and a set of features only seen in top-of-the line equipment. Real-time panadapter or fully customizable filters are just the tip of the iceberg.

 Sure, amateur equipment has been using for a long time various levels of digital signal processing (DSP), but usually this was done in the last part of the receive chain, where it mostly impacted audio quality and not receiver performance. Moving to a direct-sampling SDR architecture means the signal coming from the antenna is directly transposed to the digital domain and instead of all the previously familiar receiver stages (such as mixers, filters, demodulators etc) we are using mathematical formulas applied to the data stream. The advantage of this approach is it eliminates all problems related to real-world hardware receivers (noise, distorsion, losses, imperfections, limitations etc) and opens up a new world on how you can use or visualize RF signals. Goodbye unwanted mixing products, AGC non-linearity, IF chain IMD or filter blow-by. You want a 200Hz to 2250Hz SSB filter ? Just go into the menu, customize it to that value and see how that carrier at 2260Hz simply doesn't get trough; yes, filter width and shape is just a matter of settings, leaving it all to mathematics to carry it out. Basically, the only part that limits the receiver performance is the Analog-Digital Converter (ADC) that samples the RF signal, and those are already very good.