How to set up for a Yaesu FTM-400xdr

Peter W2IRT

Hi all.
After three days with my new OpenSpot3 I am having no luck whatsoever getting my OS3 to work in digital mode with my FTM-400xdr. This is a brand new radio and brand new hotspot, and I have never once been able to make or receive any sort of Yaesu digital contact. I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. There are no YSF repeaters near me, so a mobile hotspot is my only option.

Here's what I have so far:
RF frequency in the radio and on the hotspot are set up correctly (same frequency). Yaesu radio is set to auto mode or to DN. I have connected to the US-North-America (10200) server in C4FM mode in the OS3 Connectors panel. On the radio I will hear only extremely short bursts of digital traffic every few seconds. Maybe 1/10th of a second at most. The OS3 is transmitting continuously.

I'm editing this to add that the OS3 does work in DMR mode, and I've been using it with my Anytone 878 handheld in various DMR groups. I even had it working extremely briefly cross-mode between the YSF and DMR, with absolutely horrible "bubbly" audio. It's just pure Yaesu mode that is not working.

I have yet to find any online resource or video that specifically deals with the OS3 and the FTM-400xdr, and I just don't know what to do at this point. I will gladly pay anybody for their time to go one-on-one with me to set this up. I've got a long road trip ahead of me and I'd really like to get this working before I leave in a week's time. I don't know whether I have a defective radio, a defective hotspot, or, more likely, I'm just not able to parse the user manual. Please and thanks!

HA2NON

Make sure the Half Deviation setting is turned off in your transceiver, and use plain C4FM modem mode on the openSPOT. If there's no such setting in your transceiver's menu, then you have to use C4FM Half Deviation modem mode, and run C4FM Half Deviation AutoCal on the openSPOT (or manually change the RX offset on the Modem page for the lowest BER). Test the connection between your transceiver and the openSPOT using the built-in local echo service. http://manuals.sharkrf.com/openspot3/en/control-calls.html#local-echo-service

Peter W2IRT

I think the config file had gotten corrupted somehow. I deleted the YSF profile I had set up, re-created it and it's working well now. Thank you.

I am using the America Link room, but I'm wondering if there are other rooms that have a lot of traffic on them, or is that pretty much the main group. Like I said, I'm coming from the DMR side of things with lots of active talkgroups and I'm not sure how YSF works.

As for the second part if this, when I was going through the DMR gateway feature of my OS3 using my FTM-400 my audio (and the audio of other users) was broken and not very clear. When I switched over to using a DMR radio on a different hotspot I sounded perfect. Same network, same router. Are there known audio problems going between YSF and DMR or are there some setting in OS3 that I should use to fine-tune the audio?

HA2NON

Test the connection between your transceiver and the openSPOT using the built-in local echo service. http://manuals.sharkrf.com/openspot3/en/control-calls.html#local-echo-service
If you hear back yourself perfectly, then test the server's echo service (if it's supported on the server).