So the Baofeng DM-32UV in the post above has reportedly been shipped from China via DHL (free shipping for what that's worth) and they are giving a delivery range of April 26th to May 6th.
But I decided if I was going to go down the DMR rabbit hole I needed something to play with now (not really but I am an impatient radio geek).
So I bought a Baofeng DM-1701.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.baofengradio.com/products/dm-1701?srsltid=AfmBOorFMbTDBKRB3jSqcCRMwcVDOP3gzzcSJYtngVc2CSsxLluzpRT6[/URL]
I have flashed the DM-1701 firmware to OpenGD77, which is praised as an improvement over the radio's stock firmware, and it also uses a much nicer programing application (CPS).
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.opengd77.com/index.php[/URL]
While we do have a relatively local 2 meter DMR repeater, I have also built a hotspot with a Raspberry Pi 3B+ (1GB) single board computer (SBC),
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-3-model-b-plus/[/URL]
Combined with a MMDVM_HS simplex hat. (that stands for multi mode digital voice modem).
www.amazon.com/dp/B07VW819NW/
The idea of the modem being I can use low power 70cm here at home for access talk groups around the world, without the need to connect the radio to my external Diamond V2000A antenna in order to hit the 2 meter repeater well. The hotspot is plugged into my LAN, sitting near my main router on top of a bookshelf, on the second story of the house. I have not yet built or bought a case for it, and may not depending on how I ultimately use it.
I have loaded WPSD onto the hotspot and configured it for DMR, although I could also use it for Yaesu System Fusion (C4FM) with my Yaesu radios, or D-Star if I had an Icom radio. The MMDVM supposedly supports that, and WPSD OS certainly does. In fact the WPSD will do cross-mode, but that is something to experiment with at another time.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://w0chp.radio/wpsd/[/URL]
I am still programing the radio so I have not yet made a contact through the hotspot, and the first will probably be to an echo server just to confirm it is working.
But the hotspot appears to be functioning properly, and I get no errors from the software.
I will probably replace the stubby antenna on the modem with a Comet SMA-24 that I have, as it is super light weigh and shouldn't tip over the modem or stress the connector, and it is 5/8 wave on 70cm which might allow me to access the modem from anywhere on my 4+ acre lot.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.cometantenna.com/product/comet-sma-24/[/URL]
But wait, there's more... Because it's possible the tariffs on China may well effect the price and availability of these MMDVM boards I ordered, and just today received, a duplex version of the same company's board. I may turn this one into my home one, and use the simplex one for mobile/portable use connected to my iPhone for network access
www.amazon.com/dp/B0878WF7HW/
I have a Raspberry Pi 4B on hand that I will use for this build
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.raspberrypi.com/products/raspberry-pi-4-model-b/[/URL]
and I might run Pi-Star OS for comparison to WPSD.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://www.pistar.uk/[/URL]
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