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public:radio:2025:gm4slv_allstar_2025

2025 Radio Topics

GM4SLV Allstar 2025

New explorations into Allstar and Bridging

Hardware

PlatformRapsberry Pi
InterfaceCM108 Soundcard - modified
RadioFT-1500M
Frequency144.9125MHz
Allstar Node 48148
Dashboards http://gm4slv.plus.com:42111/

DVSwitch Bridging

To investigate the bridging of Allstar analogue nodes and DMR I installed DVSwitch on the Allstar node.

Instructions here: ASL to DMR Bridge

The first part is easy, modifying a working Allstar node to add the private node and the USRP channel driver that will be used for the connection to the bridging.

My configs

/etc/asterisk/rpt.conf before bridging added

/etc/asterisk/rpt.conf after bridging added

/etc/asterisk/modules.conf after bridging added

/etc/asterisk/extensions.conf after bridging added

The next bit was more tricky on an old Debian Buster ASL Beta image that hadn't been updated/upgraded in a long time….

Installing DVswitch

Installing DVSwitch was a bit convoluted, as my old version of the ASL Beta 2.0.0 wasn't up to date… and needed some work to add necessary APT gpg keys, and adding the dvswitch repository.

apt-get update –allow-releaseinfo-change to accept the release name change

Adding DVSwitch repository keys

As root :

apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 0E98404D386FA1D9
 
apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv-keys 6ED0E7B82643E131
 
curl -s http://apt.allstarlink.org/repos/repo_signing.key | apt-key add - && apt update
 
wget http://dvswitch.org/buster
 
chmod +x buster
 
./buster
 
apt-get update
 
apt-get install dvswitch

Configuring DVSwitch

The changes were made to the existing asterisk configs, as per the pdf document, then DVSwitch was installed, and then the pdf document was followed again to make the necessary configs to:

/opt/Analog_Bridge/Analog_Bridge.ini

and

/opt/MMDVM_Bridge/MMDVM_Bridge.ini

everything seemed to work okay - although there I think one of the UDP ports was initially wrong for the USRP traffic in Analog_Bridge.ini and I had to double check by looking in

/etc/asterisk/rpt.conf

[1999]
rxchannel = USRP/127.0.0.1:34001:31001

and setting Analog_Bridge.ini to match:

[USRP]
address = 127.0.0.1              
txPort = 31001                        
rxPort = 34001  

Testing

I initially set the MMDVM_Bridge to connect to Brandmeister and Analog_Bridge to send traffic to TG2354429 (an ad hoc TG with my DMR ID).

in the asterisk CLI issue the command to link the main node 48148 with the internal private node 1999 to complete the bridge:

rpt cmd 2100 ilink 3 1999

transmit on the VHF FM input to the Gateway and listen on a DMR radio via my DMR hotspot connected to Brandmeister TG2354429 and the DMR radio sprang into life with my DMR ID….

transmit on the DMR radio, via the hotspot to Brandmeister and the VHF FM handheld carried the audio from the DMR radio.

I also tried setting MMDVM_Bridge to connect to DVS-Ph F and used the Options=TS2_1=842 to set TG842 as static. Setting Analog_Bridge to use TG 842 and once more the traffic was bi-directional Allstar ↔ DMR

So Far So Good

To boost the audio via the bridge FIXME

Analog_Bridge.ini to change from AUDIO_UNITY to AUDIO_USE_GAIN

[USRP]
address = 127.0.0.1                     
txPort = 31001                         
rxPort = 34001                       
usrpAudio = AUDIO_USE_GAIN            
usrpGain = 3                        
;usrpAGC = -20,10,100                 
tlvAudio = AUDIO_USE_GAIN                
tlvGain = 0.35                     

I set the various DVSwitch things to be enabled or disabled:

systemctl enable asterisk
systemctl enable analog_bridge
systemctl disable md380-emu
systemctl enable mmdvm_bridge

Later I found the other bridges available (P25, YSF, NXDN etc) were running, but not configured, so I used systemctl to disable them.

Allmon2 / supermon

I added the new node 1999 to allmon2 and supermon, so I can control/monitor the bridging via the web.

/var/www/html/allmon2/allmon.ini.php

[48148]
host=127.0.0.1:5038
user=admin
passwd=xxxx
nomenu=no
hideNodeURL=no
 
 
[1999]
host=127.0.0.1:5038
user=admin
passwd=XXXX
nomenu=no
hideNodeURL=no
 
[Grouped Nodes]
nodes=48148,1999
 
[lsNodes]
url = "/cgi-bin/lsnodes_web?node=48148"
;url = "/cgi-bin/lsnodes_web?node=481480"
menu = yes

/var/www/html/supermon/allmon.ini

[48148]
host = 127.0.0.1:5038
user = admin
passwd = XXXX
menu = yes
hideNodeURL = no
 
[1999]
host = 127.0.0.1:5038
user = admin
passwd = XXXX
menu = yes
hideNodeURL = no
 
[All Nodes]
nodes = 48148,1999
menu = yes

John Pumford-Green 03/06/25 17:55 BST

Further Information

public/radio/2025/gm4slv_allstar_2025.txt · Last modified: by john