Updating my Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots as of 15th October 2026

 I just updated my Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots as of 15th October 2026

Pi-Star version upgraded from 4.3.8 to 4.3.9

Dashboard upgraded from 20260911 to 20261008 (8th October 2026)

upgraded the five hotspots seamlessly and no issues.

Updating my Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots as of 14th September 2026

 Updated my Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots as of 14th September 2026

Done the latest upgrade to my Pi-Star RPi MMDVM hotspots

Pi-Star version upgraded from 4.3.7 to 4.3.8

Dashboard upgraded from 20260623 to 20260911 (11th September)

running on Kernel 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-v6

Both P25 and DMR hotspots running fine, nil issues.

This time better than 4.3.7 install, as when I created image for 4.3.7,

is that it didnt work, got the RED coloured tabs instead of GREEN, plus

it didnt recognise my radios talking to it, but issues fixed once 

I forced Update and it downloaded fixes, to make the hotspots work again.

Current monitoring VK-DMR IPSC3, FreeDMR AU, ZL IPSC2, P25 TG10400 and 

TG10700 and of course Brandmeister.

Ham Radio Ireland

Ham Radio Ireland

spotted comments from Richard VK2SKY, 

what caught my attention was mention of the Galway VHF Group, some of my ancestors came from Loughrea, Galway,  Michael Connolly and wife Maria Griffin, emigrated with their family to Australia, settling in Terranora, south of Sydney, during the potato famine.

so here is blog for the group back in Ireland

Galway VHF Group

access to their online newsletters

Ham Radio Ireland ~ Galway VHF Group

and their Facebook page

(20+) Ham Radio Ireland | Facebook

Updating my Pi-Star MMDVM hotspots as of July 2026

 Updating my Pi-Star MMDVM Hotspots as of  July 2026.

I had to upgrade the Kernel to get the latest image installed.

now Kernel is 6.12.75+rpt-rpi-v6

Pi-Star  version is 4.3.7

Dashboard is 20260501  (1st May 2026)

Once installed I found the  DMR and P25 tabs were not coming up and 

showing RED instead of GREEN so I ran the Update function on each Hotspot, 

while watching I noticed some fixes go in and also a later Dashboard 

which is 20260623, now everything starts up and get the GREEN indicator

and I started receiving traffic from DMR and P25 sources respectively.

I configured the first DMR Hotspot for the new VK-DMR IPSC3 network, 

but after a day or two I noticed I not hearing much activity, just TG505 

traffic, which confirmed from monitoring the VK-DMR IPSC Heard List.

Then I configured another of my Hotspots against the VK-DMR IPSC2 network, 

since then I now receiving the normal TG's that I had configured as STATIC 

on IPSC2. 

Currently I can monitor traffic from IPSC3 and IPSC2 Networks simultaneously.

I also configured two of my Hotspots for P25 TG10400 and TG10700 talkgroups.

9cm microwave band Test Beacon from VK1

 

Dimitrios Tsifakis via groups.io <dtsifakis=gmail.com@groups.io>	Jun 14, 2026, 11:12 AM
to VK-Microwave

Hi all,

This beacon is mainly of interest to the ACT members.

The 9 cm beacon is finally on air! The nominal frequency is 3398.8 MHz, the beacon power output was measured to be +15 dBm past the final filter. Out of this power I expect about +10 dBm to make it to the HPOL antenna. The beacon transmits 12 WPM morse code that includes the callsign (VK1SV/B) and the approximate location (QF44).

Its stability should be superior to previous beacons I have put on air, however there might be a small offset from the nominal 3398.8 MHz operating frequency. Using an (uncalibrated) SDR, I see it at 3398.80045 MHz (450 Hz higher than the nominal freq). YMMV.

This may be a beacon that can only be heard from mountaintops, but in any case, reception reports, positive or negative, are always welcome.

73, Dimitris

PS, I have obtained a 10 W 3.4 GHz amplifier from aliexpress but haven't powered it up yet. It cost me about $40 from memory. This could be used to bring the beacon to a watt or so of output power in the future. A discussion including some measured data about this amplifier can be found here: https://www.eevblog.com/forum/rf-microwave/10w-rf-amplifier-3400-3800-mhz-from-aliexpress-reverse-engineering/

VK2XB- Indy - truck mobile missing from APRS

 When I occasionally  look around on APRS, I often spot Indy VK2XB mobile somewhere in his big rig (semi-trailer truck), but I havent had time to look around for past 6months, except for my own travelling between new home  in Yass Valley and back to Sydney and have been doing that each week for a few months.

Anyway, back to VK2XB,  I had a look on APRS to see where he travelling and I noticed he hasnt been on APRS since January. I thought, oh I hope nothing bad happened. I did some searches and spotted an article in March on Brisbane Radio Society but not much else. 

Indy's Home Page  
VK2XB Amateur Radio

VK-DMR Network Loop example

 Here is example of a 'network loop' within the VK-DMR Network,  you can see one hotspot latching onto any nodes that have their Node defined as Public instead of Private, you can see this in the Pi-Star configuration when setting up DMR mode. Unfortunately I was rebuilding my MMVDM node with latest Pi-Star image and it so happens the Public vs Private settings was set to default of Public, hence my node latched on VK3MJR's hotspot and would not let go, even though I then changed my Node to Private, so it was too late, its stuck.

From the VK DMR hotspot dashboard I could see where my node suddenly was, along with several other people's hotspot. All I can do is power down the hotspot for some time and hopefully it will get released by VK3MJR's node. Will see if I can contact owner and get him to fix his hotspot configuration.

Sunday 6metre FM Nets

 Whilst listening  to the Westlakes ARC Net and broadcast on VK-DMR TG3802 talkgroup starting at 8.30am local and broadcast starting at 9am local, the callback mentioned the 6metre net starting  at 10am which it did, as I could hear it on the VK2RSN repeater 53.625 MHz

Then tonight I heard the Blue Mountain ARC 6metre start at 8pm on VK2RBM repeater 53.875 MHz 

Good to see some groups making good use of 6metre repeaters

Linux Mint upgraded to 22.3

 recently I did the upgrade of my old ASUS laptop from Linux Mint 22.2 to 22.3 successfully.
The upgrade tools get easier to use each time.
As I said in the past, if you got an old PC or Laptop that is too old and slow for MS Windows, then recycle it and install a flavour of Linux on it for a new fast, lease of life.

Interference across 6metre band in Frenchs Forest area,

 Interference across 6metre band in Frenchs Forest, NSW area

Over last couple months the interference has become worse across 6metre band, more noticeable, whilst scanning the 6metre FM repeater segment, I did a sweep from 46-60 Mhz  and found there is wide band signal covering 52.500 to 57 MHz, the signal strength varies from s5 to s9 across that segment.
I suspect it radiating from Northern Beaches Hospital, possibly some piece of medical scanning equipment.
If scan across  the band with a narrow band receiver, it just seems like white noise, but the signal strength meter shows there is something there. 

This happened a few years ago and I tracked it to the hospital.and suddenly it went away.

UPDATE: 19 Feb 2026
I spent some time doing  better sweep, due to hearing some sort of buzz sound opening the mute on a repeater output frequency. Superimposed on that buzz sound is a click at approximately 1 per second rate, noted in the morning, afternoon and night at times when I checked. I swept from 46 to 60 MHz, these are the frequencies I noted the buzz sound on.
 these following frequencies were weak s0 but clearly audible :
50.030  50.060 51.280 51.870 52.140
these following frequencies were strong ie. s5 to s9 :
52.440  53.080  53.640  53.690  54.240  54.280  54.840  55.500  56.050  56.090
these following frequencies were weak s0 but clearly audible :
57.270  57.310  57.900  58.470  59.110  59.680  59.720

Overall, the raised S-meter was from 52.500 to 57 MHz,  where as the narrow bandwidth buzz sound is heard from  50MHz to 60MHz