Tag: XLX020

Need A Radio Check?

Next time you think about interrupting a digital voice QSO for a radio check, think again and connect to XLX020 Module S.

There, you’ll find our DV Bot. Key up on the module and try something like “This is <Insert Callsign>. May I have a radio check please?” No doubt, this will lead you down an amusing rabbit hole.

The DV Bot is a voice to text interface to ChatGPT, the much talked about artificial intelligence backend. Yes, AI does digital voice!  Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments.

73 de K2IE

IMRS Active on NJ2DG Fusion Repeater

An IMRS connection to the XLX020 reflector has been activated on the NJ2DG Fusion repeater in Martinsville, NJ. All XLX020 modules are now accessible via the repeater.

To select a module, simply transmit with the DGID set to any of (10 .. 35). DGID 10 is XLX020 Module A, DGID 11 is XLX020 Module B, etc. Module D (CNJHAM) uses DGID 13.

Unlike DMR, there is no initial keyup required to connect to the chosen module. This is about as easy as it gets, once you learn how to change the transmit DGID on your radio.

Wires-X is still available via DGID 50 with an inactivity timer of 10 minutes. The IMRS connected modules do not have an inactivity timer.

The NJ2DG Fusion repeater in Martinsville is on 441.400 MHz (+5).

73 de K2IE

Update: Crisis Averted

Thanks to LX1IQ for getting us restored as the rightful owner of XLX020! Also thanks to SA7SVR for agreeing to voluntarily move his XLX to a different number. I have suggested to LX1IQ that we do some analysis to see if a faulty system clock situation did indeed break our registration.

(Original Post)

We’re in a bit of a crisis situation at XLX020. Sometime last night we appear to have lost our XLX registration to ANOTHER XLX020 located in Sweden. While I’m not totally clear on why this happened, we did have a problem at our cloud provider this week. That problem somehow involved the system clock and created unusual timestamps on a bunch of critical files, including a file that tracks registration phone-home calls. Our cloud provider ended up migrating us on an emergency basis to a different physical host but we didn’t become aware of the clock/filestamp issue until today.

Note the file listing below with the dates “Oct 31 2223”!

$ ls -l | grep 2223
-rw-r-----  1 root  adm              7385678 Oct 31  2223 auth.log.1
-rw-rw----  1 root  utmp            13949952 Oct 31  2223 btmp.1
-rw-r-----  1 root  adm             46307238 Oct 31  2223 daemon.log.1
-rw-r-----  1 root  adm              4878047 Oct 31  2223 fail2ban.log.1
-rw-r-----  1 root  adm              1362469 Oct 31  2223 messages.1
drwxr-xr-x  2 drats drats               4096 Oct 31  2223 ratflector
-rw-r-----  1 root  adm             47846088 Oct 31  2223 syslog.1
-rw-r-----  1 root  adm              1322013 Oct 31  2223 user.log.1


Today, I noticed fewer connections on the XLX020 dashboard and started to investigate. Looking at the official XLX Reflectorlist I saw that there is now a reflector in Sweden which has taken our place in the 020 slot. It seems to have been implemented just today by SA7SVR

So right now, we’re in a bit of a limbo situation. I have reached out to SA7SVR as well as the XLX admin team in Luxembourg to see if we can get this remedied and get our registration back. I’m hoping that everyone will be amenable and sympathetic to the situation we were put in.

It also shows the underlying weakness in the XLX registration system. If a system problem, which has not yet been fully diagnosed or understood can lead to the revocation of a longstanding and popular XLX number, that is disturbing.

I’ll keep you updated.

73 de K2IE

The Big List – Connecting to CNJHAM/XLX020D

Last Updated 28 July 2021

D-Star Callsign RouteCNJHAM via Quadnet
D-Star ReflectorsXLX020D
XRF020D
REF020D		XLX020D preferred
XLX DMRXLX020Module D
PC 64004 (Pi-Star)
XLX YSFXLX020DModule D
Wires-X *04004
D-Star RepeatersNJ2DG-A
NJ2DG-C		Fulltime
Brandmeister DMRTG 31340CNJHAM
TGIF DMRTG 31340CNJHAM
NJ-TRBO DMRTS1/TG 31340
PTT 10 minute timeout
Martinsville, NJ
 447.075
Montanna Mtn, NJ
 444.29375
Wayne, NJ
 439.7875
Perth Amboy, NJ
 440.75 (CC9) Fulltime
Hoboken, NJ
 448.275 (CC3)
Elizabeth, NJ
 449.925 (CC 3)
Fusion YSFYSF 44977US CNJHAM
DTMF 44977
Wires-XCNJHAMDTMF 28255
Fusion RepeatersDGID 50Martinsville, NJ
 441.4
P25TG 31340Pi-Star
NXDNTG 31340Pi-Star

020 Project Dashboards

XLX020http://xlx020.k2ie.net
REF020http://ref020.dstargateway.org

The Rules

Please wait one second after pressing PTT before speaking and wait one second after speaking to release PTT. This will ensure that there is no clipping of your first or last words.

All users of the 020 Network connections are required to have both a DMR ID and to be registered on the D-Star Gateway. It doesn’t matter if you don’t own a radio of that protocol. We are a multiprotocol system and by registering on both DMR and D-Star you are doing what needs to be done to be heard across all network connections.

73 de K2IE

Icom Terminal Mode on XLX020

There’s an exciting new development in the XLX reflector world. XLX reflectors now officially support Icom Terminal Mode. If you’re not familiar with terminal mode, it allows you to communicate with the DSTAR world via the internet from your radio. No separate hotspot or dongle is required and since RF is not used, no antenna either.

Terminal mode is supported by the newer Icom radios, including the IC-9700, ID-4100, and the Plus model HTs. If you have a radio that supports terminal mode and want to give it a try, set the host to xlx020.k2ie.net.

Thanks to Marius (YO2LOJ) for cooking up the code and submitting it to the xlxd project. It is great to see that the open source model is helping to advance digital amateur communications.

73 de K2IE

Pi-Star, XLX, and YSF

If you thought that the big amateur radio news of the day is that Andy Taylor has pushed Pi-Star 4.1.0 to general release, I’ll have some other news for you in a moment. But first things first.

If you’re already running a 4.1.0 RC (release candidate), please logon to your pi-star device via ssh and issue the following commands:

sudo pistar-update
sudo pistar-upgrade

If you’re running a pre-4.1.0 system, you’ll need to:

  • Backup your configuration
  • Download the 4.1.0 image from the Pi-Star website
  • Unzip the downloaded file
  • Burn the .img file to an SD card
  • Copy the zip (don’t unzip) of your configuration backup to the SD card
  • Boot the new image

The bigger news today is that Andy has pushed the new G4KLX YSFGateway code into the Pi-Star image. This means that you can now directly connect to XLX020 and change reflector modules from your Fusion radio using Wires-X Passthrough commands.

You’ll have to enable the WiresX Passthrough slider on the Yaesu System Fusion Configuration section of the Pi-Star web gui. If you have an FT-70DR or another radio with an upper case only display, enable the UPPERCASE Hostfiles slider in the same section.

The process may vary a bit between radio models. The general idea is that you first initiate a Wires-X sequence to connect to XLX020. Next, you exit Wires-X mode and initiate another Wires-X sequence to connect to the module of your choice. If you just want to talk on module A, the 2nd connect is not necessary as you’ll default to module A.

Some radios, such as my FT-70DR, do not pull down a room list and you have to manually enter the module number. In that case, use 04001 for module A, 04002 for module B, and so on.

Have fun with this great new feature that makes the most of Pi-Star, XLX, and Yaesu Fusion.

73 de K2IE

020 in 2020: An Update on the 020 Project Multiprotocol Digital Network

You may know it as CNJHAM, because that is how it all started. CNJHAM was first implemented as a lone StarNet smart group. CNJHAM then begat XLX020. Hardware transcoding was soon implemented and followed by links to Brandmeister DMR and YSF Fusion. In this new year, we’ve added Wires-X (for connection from Fusion repeaters) as well as P25 connections.

CNJHAM/XLX020A can be reached via the following methods:

D-Star Callsign RouteCNJHAM via Quadnet
D-Star ReflectorsXLX020A, XRF020A, REF020DXLX020A preferred
D-Star RepeatersNJ2DG-A
NJ2DG-C
W2RJR-B		Fulltime
Brandmeister DMRTG 31340CNJHAM
Fusion YSFYSF 44977US CNJHAM
DTMF 44977
Wires-XCNJHAMDTMF 28255
P25TG 31340Pi-Star
NXDNTG 31340Pi-Star
XLX DMRXLX020AEnable DMRGateway in Pi-Star
XLX YSFXLX020ASome Pi-Star config required

Jersey StrongWhatever the protocol, CNJHAM is Jersey Strong!

73 de K2IE

The “020” Reflectors

D-Star users have long known about REF020. Reflector 20, as many call it, is one of the original D-Plus Reflectors. A number of repeaters in the New Jersey/New York/Pennsylvania region link to it, including powerhouse K3PDR in Philadelphia and NJ2DG in Martinsville, NJ. It was recently relocated to the cloud by its operator (Scott KB2EAR) when when the site where the server was housed became unavailable. Historically, the busy channel tends to be REF020A.

During the weeks that Reflector 20 was down, I started exploring D-Star smart groups as a way to get together on the air with some of the folks that I talk to regularly. Smart Group CNJHAM was created on the QuadNet array.

Smart Groups can be a bit confusing on repeaters if you don’t know what group is being used as you come into range. My friend Ray <W2RJR> is playing with a low profile Pi-Star based repeater so we decided that repeater use would be simpler if it could connect to a reflector. Then the only destination route needed is CQCQCQ. So XRF020 was born.

Initially, there were challenges getting XRF020 getting listed in the right directories. You see, there is supposed to be one XRF directory that is authoritative, but not all gateway systems seem to pull data from the same place. Pi-Star uses one list, OpenSpot another, and DV4mini yet another. OpenSpot listed XRF020 right away. DV4mini uses the XLX list and you could have an XRF and XLX using the same number, which is “interesting”. Pi-Star took weeks to list XRF020 until I went to the “top guy”. Then it was handled immediately. Once I learned that XLX reflectors self-register, XLX020 was born.

CNJHAM - Our Central New Jersey smart group conference
REF020 - The original D-Plus Reflector 20 operated by KB2EAR
XRF020 - An XRF Reflector that speaks D-Plus and DCS as well as DExtra
XLX020 - A multiprotocol reflector that bridges digital modes

Here is the lay of our digital land.

Smart Group CNJHAM is where a few of us in the Central NJ area meet up daily. It is more or less our local digital intercom, but you are welcome to stop by and say hello. You can also say hello via XRF020A and XLX020A, as well as REF020D. They are all linked. The NJ2DG-C repeater is linked to REF020D, so you can get in that way too.

         CNJHAM <==> XRF020A <==> XLX020A <==> DMR/YSF
                        |
                     REF020D

If you’re an REF020 user, then you’ll want to know that REF020A is linked fulltime to XLX020C. You can connect to the XLX side of things via DMR, D-Star, or YSF. You can also get in via PA7LIM’s Peanut.

             REF020A <==> XLX020C <==> DMR/YSF/Peanut

See you in 020 land.

73