OpenGD77

I've been running opengd77 hostpot on Mac for at least 1 week now, and so far I've been getting good range within 1 to 1.5Km. Around 2 Km, I get some audio breaks, but that's probably just the terrain (I live in a hilly area). I could probably get more distance without obstructions.

I also noticed that the power setting on MMDVM.ini is not followed. The radio in hotspot mode will follow whatever power setting is in radio mode upon launch of MMDVMHost.

Edited for typos (I was using my phone earlier).

Hi Angelo

The power setting is followed but not for 100%

We assume if the user has the power set to 100% that is most likely that the user has not change the default settings in PiStar

If you set to 50% you will get the nearest power level to 50% of 5W (I cant remember if it selects 2W or 3W)
If you set 99% I think you should get 5W or perhaps 4W

If you actually want 5W, you can set this on the radio and leave the setting at 100% in PiStar


Re: Range.

I tested at over 5km, not line of sight. I think 10km or more should be possible depending on your location and antenna etc.
2m may give more range than 70cm, but it depends on your local conditions. For me I have QRM on 2m and I get better results on 70cm.

Basically, if you can have a simplex QSO with someone using the same power e.g 1W or 5W, you should get the same range as the distance to that station.

Thanks, Roger.

MMDVMHost's .ini file somehow specifies the power as an integer--or at least that's how the logfiles state it to be. So for example, when I specify "1" the interface says "1 Watt". I do realize may be different from how MMDVM on Pi-Star interprets it. I've tried different values--5,4,3,2,1, and I just realized that the radio just follows its own power setting. For example, on the screenshot below, MMDVMHost says 2 watts, but radio says 5 watts. I wonder if it's the same on other platforms, e.g., with Pi-Star or with BlueDV.

Regarding use of 2m, I can try that out, just to compare range. But digital emissions on 2m are technically not legal here the Philippines, by virtue of a change in the spectrum allocation that took effect in June of 2019.

Hi,

4I1RAC wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2020 6:33 am

Thanks, Roger.

MMDVMHost's .ini file somehow specifies the power as an integer--or at least that's how the logfiles state it to be. So for example, when I specify "1" the interface says "1 Watt". I do realize may be different from how MMDVM on Pi-Star interprets it. I've tried different values--5,4,3,2,1, and I just realized that the radio just follows its own power setting. For example, on the screenshot below, MMDVMHost says 2 watts, but radio says 5 watts. I wonder if it's the same on other platforms, e.g., with Pi-Star or with BlueDV.

Regarding use of 2m, I can try that out, just to compare range. But digital emissions on 2m are technically not legal here the Philippines, by virtue of a change in the spectrum allocation that took effect in June of 2019.

The power you see here is the defined in [Info]::Power, and the one that sets the power of the hotspot is in [Modem]::RFLevel, as percentage.

Cheers.
---
Daniel

SUCCESS
Os: Catalina osx(hackintosh)
my usb modem name was /dev/tty.usbmodem14201
picture above proving. Will try later on OS Sierra and el capitain (proper mac hardware) when have time,

I already ran it on Catalina on real mac hardware and El Capitan on a hackintosh, 41IRAC has also got it working on various Macs using the binary I built

VK3KYY wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:14 am

I already ran it on Catalina on real mac hardware and El Capitan on a hackintosh, 41IRAC has also got it working on various Macs using the binary I built

I've been running it on High Sierra for around 4 months now without much hiccup. I've set MMDVMHost to launch at startup, so it pretty much restarts itself after a power failure, etc.

This is what I did to enable MMDVMHost to run at startup. As an alternative, you can create a shortcut and have it start at login. But I think using a service is a more elegant solution.

To run MMDVMHost as a service, use launchd:

1. Make sure your MMDVMHost binary is in ~/Applications and your MMDVM.ini is in /etc/

Also make sure that your log directory is writeable if you are logging (otherwise MMDVMHost will generate an error).

2. Create the property list:

# sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mmdvmhost.plist

Paste:
Note: Add an exclamation mark or ! before DOCTYPE above. The forum software gives me an error when I paste it as is!

Write out or save.

Now let's enable the service:

# sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mmdvmhost.plist

It should already be loaded and started.

To check if it's running:

# sudo launchctl list | grep com.mmdvmhost

The service should have a process ID (first number). If it's zero and there is a exit ID (second number), then something is wrong. Check the parameters in the first item above.

You can also check the log file for activity:

# tail -f /var/log/[Your log file folder and name here]

For example, for me for today:

# tail -f /var/log/mmdvm/MMDVM-2020-05-30.log

and so forth.

To stop the service:

# sudo launchctl stop com.mmdvmhost

To start again:

# sudo launchctl start com.mmdvmhost

I hope this helps.

Of course, an alternative is setting Daemon=1 in the MMDVM.ini file, and then enabling auto-startup of the MMDVMHost binary at login under the Users preference pane.