UPDATED
17th Jan. 2024
Received the AllStar Node, after a day of setup and testing at my home, I took it to the Wednesday Club Rooms day to install it at the club. I did find that it would not connect to our limited wifi at the club rooms. The unit I am finding works better with a wired connection direct to a Router, so Peter kindly offered to drive to Centrecom to purchase a Router that I had selected the day before. A TPLink MR100 4G modem Router. The Router has two Ethernet ports which allows for the AllStar Hot Spot to connect. That looked to fix all..
Still having a few issues which I am working.
So when you are at the club, bring along your UHF FM Handheld and have a go at using the AllStar network. More updates to come.
UPDATED
11th Jan. 2024
Glenn has posted the fully built and tested Node to me.. I expect to see the device arrive around the 15th Jan.
Once I have tested it and worked out how it works I will do a demonstration at the club.
Glenn VK4NGA will be putting together a price list on build kits soon.
I have also uploaded to our website a PDF file on setup instructions for the built node. Glenn has done an amazing job.
Here is the link to access the folder.
UPDATED
5th Jan. 2024
Glenn VK4NGA has received my Raspberry PI board and is building my AllStar Node.
Hope to see it soon so I can test, try and Demo..
Cheers.
Craig.
vk3ncr
UPDATED
26th Dec. 2023
I have been speaking to Glenn VK4NGA, who is a very old friend of mine, and is the Digital Guru here in Australia.
Glenn has offered to assist the club in getting a AllStar Node up and running so that members at the club can use their own FM Radio via AllStar.
I have ordered a Raspberry PI 4 1Gig and have sent it on to Glenn. Glenn will assemble and set it up for me so I can demonstrate AllStar at the club. Once I have also gained an understanding of it.
Will keep you updated as things change.
NEW PROJECT FOR THE CLUB
How about another project for our radio shack or perhaps for members for home use.
An Allstar Node at our club rooms will allow a normal Amateur Radio running on 2M or 70cm FM, depending on the node we purchase for the club, to chat to other Amateurs around the would via the Allstar node. (running at the club rooms)
Perhaps, with Glenns help, we could extend the range of the clubs Node so that many of our club members can use the Clubs Node from their homes.
Love to hear your thoughts on this, so please make a comment below. Cheers. Craig vk3ncr
With Thanks to Glenn VK4NGA Visit Glenn's Website Here.
What Is AllStar?
AllStarLink is a network of Amateur Radio repeaters, remote base stations and home nodes accessible to each other via Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). AllStarLink can run on a dedicated computer (including the Raspberry Pi) that you host at your home or repeater site. It is based on the open source Asterisk PBX running our app_rpt application. App_rpt makes Asterisk a powerful system capable of controlling one or more radios
It provides linking of these radio “nodes” to other systems of similar construction anywhere in the world via VoIP.
AllStar is a busy network used worldwide.
Many older 2m/70cm repeaters across the world are now connected to AllStar meaning that if you have a node you can connect to them.
The great thing about having an AllStar node at your QTH is it is an FM node, so you don’t need a digital radio to access it. In fact you most likely already have a radio that you can use.
Any FM radio with CTCSS that operates in the ham bands can access your node or an AllStar enabled repeater.
Audio quality is generally extremely good because it’s FM so it doesn’t sound “digitised” like other digital voice modes.
An AllStar RF Node such as the DuraNode is similar to the traditional “hotspot” in that it runs on a Raspberry Pi with an RF hat, and is connected to the AllStarlink network via the internet.
The only difference is that the hat uses an FM radio chip, hence no need for a digital radio.
You can control your node 3 ways.
1) Via “Supermon” which is a dashboard that you can add into the node’s software and can come up on any web browser that on the same WiFi network as your node.
2) Via an App called Node Remote which is available on Android and iOS .
3) Via DTMF tones from your radio.
There are many repeater networks connected to each other using AllStar.
The VK3RBA Hub is a fine example of this.
VK Repeater Linked System – the information below is copied from the VK3RBA QRZ page:
VK3RBA70 FM 439.675MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Mt Buninyong (Ballarat)
VK3RSU70 FM 438.100MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Mt View (Glen Waverley)
VK3RWU70 FM 438.675MHz (5-MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Mt William (Grampians)
VK3RCU70 FM 438.350MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Mt Moliagul (Maryborough)
VK3RBH70 FM 438.175MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Geelong
VK3RUT2 FM 145.075MHz (Simplex Gateway) 118.8Hz Site: Warrnambool
VK3RGV70 FM 439.775MHz (-5MHz offset) 123.0 Site: Mt Wombat (Shepparton)
VK3RRU70 FM 438.525MHz (-5MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Merbein (Mildura)
VK3RBP70 FM 439.700MHz (-5MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Horsham
VK2RAY2 FM 147.225MHz (+600Khz) 118.8Hz Site: Albury NSW
VK2RWB70 FM 147.200MHz (+600Khz) 123.0Hz Site: Mt Gwynne NSW (Yarrawonga)
VK3RJW70 FM 438.500MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Werribee
VK3RSW70 FM 438.600MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Portland
VK3RMM70 FM 439.275MHz (-5MHz offset) 91.5Hz Site: Mt Macedon
VK3RBO 438.025 MHz (-5MHz offset) 91.5 Hz Site: Bendigo Use IRLP DTMF 9503
VK3RBU 438.475 MHz (-7MHz offset) 91.5 Hz Site: Mt Hollowback (Creswick & North) Use Allstar DTMF *88#
There are also many international Hubs. These are mostly large interconnected networks.
Hubnet UK:
Founded in May 2016 by Steve M0HOY with the mandate of increasing radio activity through coordinating the linking of Repeaters and Simplex Gateways across the UK that in recent years had fallen into disuse.
Heading into its 6th year in May 2023, HUBNet has pushed the boundaries of multimode Amateur Radio communications; with a great deal of work by Peter G7RPG and the support of many others, HUBNet has rapidly become the largest multimode AllStar communications platform based in the UK.
The East Coast Reflector network is another example.
I understand the feeling that it isnt radio and the internet comment, however it is a suggestion which may interest others, and extend their abillity to speak with someone locally or overseas. For those that are interested it is a great idea which is what the club should be about, exporing the options, and using the radio's to their full potential. I personally are not really interested at this stage, but who know with a little exposure to the unknown, it may wet my appatite, and give me something else to explore.
It ain't radio. It's radio -internet - radio.
Excellent Suggestion😎
sounds like a plan. I am all for it.