Kenwood TH-D74a Question

rus5

I use a Kenwood TH-D74a for D-star. I also have a ZUMspot hotspot. The D74 works great with my local D-star repeater but it has two functions that only work with the real repeater and don't work with the ZUMspot: "Gateway CQ" and "Individual". There are several people reporting this problem and one report that the problem lies in the pi-star firmware. However there is ZERO technical support for it and it's proven basically impossible for any of us to obtain any useful information about this.

So, the D74 works PERFECTLY with real repeaters, it's just that these two functions don't work with the ZUMspot. I can perform the same operations manually just fine even with the ZUMspot. It's those two MENU OPTIONS that don't work with the ZUMspot.

Does anyone have experience using those specific functions with a TH-D74a on the openSPOT3 ? Do they work?
Thanks, Russ KR6W

Tyrbiter

I don't have a D74 or indeed a local DStar repeater, but maybe there is something in these videos from K9WLW that will help. Not sure if he uses PiStar hotspots as well as openSPOTs.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2zfYLYQR-UbyRU0LCERRgQ/videos

One thing I do know is that the Icom DStar radios in DR mode only work properly if you have a duplex shift enabled, doesn't matter if + or - but an offset of 0MHz is used.

I don't agree about the support for Pi-Star being non-existent, but the main developers have not been heavily active recently. If you can point out exactly what is not working, and perhaps give manual pages for the D74 to show what the features you're referring to are then maybe I can help a bit more.

rus5

Hi Tyrbiter,

Thanks for the response.

You say there is support for the ZUMspot ? Can you please tell me WHO supports it and how I can reach them ?

You asked me to "... point out exactly what is not working ...". I don't know how to do that more exactly than I already did when I said, "...two functions that only work with the real repeater and don't work with the ZUMspot: "Gateway CQ" and "Individual"."

"Gateway CQ" and "Individual" don't work.

As to where they're covered in the manual, "Gateway CQ" is covered on page 16-4 (the manual calls it "Gateway CALL'; the function in the menu is called "Gateway CQ") and "Individual" is covered on the same page under "Callsign Designation" (the function in the menu is called "Individual").

Thanks for the video links, they look interesting, but the problem isn't that I don't know how to use the functions. They're already explained adequately in the manual and as I said, they work perfectly with real repeaters. The problem is they don't work with the ZUMspot.

The problem is with the ZUMspot, not the radio.

My question is, has anyone used those D74 functions with an openSPOT3 ? As much as I appreciate you trying to help, if you don't have a D74 you can't help.

Thanks!
Russ KR6W

Tyrbiter

OK, so a couple of questions.

Are you using DV or DR mode? I'm assuming DR mode but I am not sure.

When you are making a Gateway CQ call using the Zumspot, is the stored DV memory you have in your FROM entry set to duplex or simplex mode? I'm assuming that the Zumspot has a half-duplex radio HAT which is operating on the same Tx and Rx frequency.

rus5

Hi,

Thanks again for the response. I appreciate you trying to help !

But again, I'm just asking if anyone has successfully used those menu options with an openSPOT3.

We could spend a lot of time familiarizing you with the D74 and ZUMspot but it won't help with the problem and will just be a waste of both of our time. I know how to use both. I'm not having an issue operating them and I'm not asking for help with them. Several people are reporting the same issue and HRO has indicated there's a firmware problem that's being worked. But it's been a year since they said that, several updates have occurred but no progress has been made and I'm ready to give up waiting.

I just want to know if anyone is seeing those options work with the openSPOT3.

Thanks,
Russ KR6W

Tyrbiter

Well, my suggestion is to try again with a FROM entry that points at a Zumspot setup that has a duplex mode enabled but with a frequency offset of zero.

As for the openSPOT3, there are people using it with TH-D74s but I will say that there have been reports of some problems with getting their setups to work, the causes have been various as far as I remember. It can definitely work!

I happily use an OS3 using an ID-31plus, it's set up as recommended by K9WLW and I have not had any problems with those settings.

There are plenty of PiStar users with working DStar setups of various kinds, but I don't have an encyclopaedic knowledge of the settings in use nor exactly what hardware is in use.

If you're finding it hard going then maybe the OS3 would give you a better experience. It's a very clever beast, I'm happy with mine.

Tyrbiter

One more thought, do you have the newest fw in the D74?

N1IG

rus5

Thanks N1IG !! That's EXACTLY what I was looking for - thank you for responding !

Also, HUGE thanks to Tyrbyter ! It turns out one of the videos you recemmended actually explains what's going on as an aside while explaining something else and confirms N1IG's report that the openSPOT doesn't have the problem. Apparently both the Icom and Kenwood radios use an old message format with a special character ("/") which the pi-star doesn't know what to do with. This is consistent with a report I received from a ham quite awhile ago who talked with someone at the Anaheim HRO who said the pi-star folks were aware of it and were going to update their f/w to accommodate it.

Yes, I AM running the latest f/w on everything (three places in the ZUMspot and the D74 as well) but none of them fix this. BUT the smart folks who created the openSPOT were aware of it and accommodate it in their firmware so the function works fine with the openSPOT.

That's what I wanted to know - thanks !!
Russ KR6W

Tyrbiter

Interesting, I am glad you have identified the problem.

Out of interest, which video exactly explained this?

Also, MMDVM_HS firmware repo, from Andy CA6JAU, is here:

https://github.com/juribeparada

You could probably get in contact or at least write up an issue and see what happens.

rus5

Hi Tyrbiter,

It actually turned out there are two. I started with this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXV25VAhIM8&t=620s

because "Gateway CQ" was specifically in the title. It's actually targeted for Icom radios which also have this command and the exact same problem. This one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owP8V97ryO0&t=658s

covers it specifically for the Kenwood Th-D74.

Again, thanks for the lead on these videos. Almost every video I've seen on D-Star or the D74 end up just explaining basic D-Star YET again. There must be a thousand videos that cover EXACTlY the same very basic material and leave everything else out. I haven't seen any that just walk though the menu items and explain them and they inevitably skip over everything that actually need explaining. These videos don't cover all the menu items either but he manages to focus on a lot of what the other's don't. They are very VERY slow and very VERY repetitive but still quite valuable.

Thanks for the MMDVM tip. If I hadn't run into this video, I would have pursued that but I'm just going to get an openSPOT and be done with it at this point.

Thanks again - you cracked the case ! FINALLY !!
Russ KR6W

N1IG

https://amateurradionotes.com/th-d74.htm

https://amateurradionotes.com/d-star-toc.htm#quicklinks

Tyrbiter

https://amateurradionotes.com/th-d74.htm

https://amateurradionotes.com/d-star-toc.htm#quicklinks Very useful links, I hadn't looked at Toshen's notes aimed at DStar before.

N1JWW

I am tail gating this thread but I have the Open Spot 3 and was wanting to order the Kenwood TH-D74A (States). So are there any issues with compatibility issues between the two? I know this thread originally was referring to the Zumspot, which I don't have nor have any knowledge of?

Thanks,

Jeff W Waldrop N1JWW

Tyrbiter

The D74 is compatible with the OS3 in that plenty of people are successfully using them together.

The D74 is compatible with the PiStar as long as it is set up to use DR mode for reflector and gateway mode, this is the recommended method in all cases actually.