FM hotspots for CB?

[ljh505]

Internet-connected FM hotspots in the CB service are a thing now in the Czech Republic, according to Simon the Wizard.

https://simonthewizard.com/2021/09/11/czech-republic-cb-hotspots/

Amazing news from Skipper Kittsee arrived via WhatsApp about the Zello + CB hotspots coming up in the Czech Republic. The project is the brainchild of Jirka OK1OCB who we’ve featured back in July! In Jirka's own words:
"The project started three months ago as a simple way to connect two towns together via CB radio. When my friends tried it, they offered me many other QTHs for my hotspots. So i was making a new pieces for many days and nights and today we have 41 hotspots in our reflector network."​

They've got their country covered. Map below. The Czech Republic has the land area of South Carolina with double the population, or 10 million people. Helps that they have 80 channels in their CB service (like Germany) to keep the hotspots separated. They also use PL tone enabled squelch.

System dashboard here:

http://cbradio.ok1ocb.cz/

Technical details in this MS-Word document:

https://simonthewizard.files.wordpress.com/2021/09/cb-hotspots.docx

 

[cralt]

I cant understand their words but it looks like they modded their anytone radios for PL.
http://ok1ocb.cz/bastleni/doplneni-ctcss-do-starsich-stanic/

Not having PL for something like this will be annoying. I was part of a simplex group here on 2M that set up a echolink node for guys who moved away. The old timers didnt want to use PL and my brothers old 2M all mode radio didn't even have the capability to so we ran it carrier squelch. Even on VHF there where noisy days that locked up the node. Eventually the guy hosting it got tired of constantly fiddling with it so it was cranked so tight you needed to hit it with S9+ to get in. On 27mhz this is going to be a much bigger problem when skip and the noise floor comes up.

 

[ljh505]

I cant understand their words but it looks like they modded their anytone radios for PL.
http://ok1ocb.cz/bastleni/doplneni-ctcss-do-starsich-stanic/

Yeah, the page is talking about adding CTCSS/PL to FM radios that don't have a factory tone encoder/decoder option. They made one custom tone board around an ATtiny 8-bit microcontroller
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATtiny_microcontroller_comparison_chart
and another around an Arduino, and hacked them into various European FM CB radios so people could use an "old junker" or "cheapo basic CB" as a hotspot access radio. FM has been a thing in Europe for 20 or 30 years, so there's lots of euro FM radios without CTCSS. They show toneboard installation in an Anysec CB-40, an ALLAMAT 295, and a DRAGON SS-485.

Reminds me of 2 meter ham radio in the 80s and early 90s when everyone wanted to keep using their ancient FM rig to access the local repeater after the repeater controllers all got upgraded with CTCSS or DPL, and aftermarket tone boards were a big thing.

I don't think you can buy a generic PL tone encoder/decoder board easily anymore --- they're all manufacturer/radio specific add-ons. Hence the Czechs homebrewed some around small microcontroller cores.

 

[BJ radionut]

CTCSS Encoder / Decoder Board - by Masters Communications

Tone Boards : Piexx Company, Computers & Electronics

WISCO International (Communications Specialists - Encoder-Decoder, CTCSS, DCS) (wiscointl.com)

 

[ljh505]

WISCO International (Communications Specialists)

Yep, that was it, the Communications Specialists SS-64 generic encoder board, programmed by DIP switches. Thanks for jogging the memory. It's out of production.

The FM CB radios are junkers at the $50 price point. Most of those boards BJ Radionut found are designed for the repeater builder or land-mobile fleet manager looking to add encode/decode to extend the life of a large hardware investment. They sell at the $50 to $75 price point, or 1x to 1.5x the cost of the cheap CB radio.

The encoder-only solution at the $20 to $25 price point for the hobbyist who wants to add encode-only to their radio so they can access the FM hotspot is gone. So the Arduino Nano at about $10 to $15 plus a handful of resistors and capacitors to make an RC filter to clean up the audio output of the Arduino as outlined in this PDF is attractive.

http://www.pa3guo.com/PA3GUO_Arduino_CTCSS_v1.2.pdf

[EDIT: there's always fleaBay, I guess, if you want to get your $18 to $25 DIP switch programmable tone encoder from either the UK or Athens, Greece.]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283476616165?hash=item420085e3e5:g:Nu8AAOxyuPtQ-BKq

https://www.ebay.com/itm/400863313915?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:1PoG5ijcJReygN_sB53pmyQ93&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=400863313915&targetid=1262906534562&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9030398&poi=&campaignid=12873833206&mkgroupid=123950846602&rlsatarget=pla-1262906534562&abcId=9300536&merchantid=115336256&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIt56Yne2w8wIVACGtBh2EHwe5EAQYAyABEgJglPD_BwE

 

[cralt]

Yep, that was it, the Communications Specialists SS-64 generic encoder board, programmed by DIP switches. Thanks for jogging the memory. It's out of production.

The FM CB radios are junkers at the $50 price point. Most of those boards BJ Radionut found are designed for the repeater builder or land-mobile fleet manager looking to add encode/decode to extend the life of a large hardware investment. They sell at the $50 to $75 price point, or 1x to 1.5x the cost of the cheap CB radio.

The encoder-only solution at the $20 to $25 price point for the hobbyist who wants to add encode-only to their radio so they can access the FM hotspot is gone. So the Arduino Nano at about $10 to $15 plus a handful of resistors and capacitors to make an RC filter to clean up the audio output of the Arduino as outlined in this PDF is attractive.

http://www.pa3guo.com/PA3GUO_Arduino_CTCSS_v1.2.pdf

[EDIT: there's always fleaBay, I guess, if you want to get your $18 to $25 DIP switch programmable tone encoder from the UK or Athens, Greece.]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/283476616165?hash=item420085e3e5:g:Nu8AAOxyuPtQ-BKq

https://www.ebay.com/itm/400863313915?chn=ps&_trkparms=ispr=1&amdata=enc:1PoG5ijcJReygN_sB53pmyQ93&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=400863313915&targetid=1262906534562&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=9030398&poi=&campaignid=12873833206&mkgroupid=123950846602&rlsatarget=pla-1262906534562&abcId=9300536&merchantid=115336256&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIt56Yne2w8wIVACGtBh2EHwe5EAQYAyABEgJglPD_BwE

He makes a decoder too.....LINK

President has PL/DPL CB in the pipeline LINK
Hopefully they bring it to the US and the price point on that is reasonable.

 

[ljh505]

If you have a General class ham ticket and want to play around with CTCSS/DPL and narrowband FM while waiting for President's FCC models, Stryker sells the tone board for the SR-94HPC (a.k.a. Anytone Apollo II) for $15. Requires removing a couple of surface mount silver-soldered resistors to tell the radio computer that the tone board is installed, before you plug in the tone board.

Part here:

https://strykerradios.com/store/ctcss-module-for-stryker-sr-94hpc-10-meter-radios/

Installation instructions:

https://support.strykerradios.com/hc/en-us/articles/115006469247

There's 200 kHz of spectrum from 29.000 to 29.200 MHz that was set aside in the band plan for converted AM CB radios back when converting 23 channel CB radios to ham was a thing in the 70s and 80s --- lots of 23 channel AM CBs junked for the new 40 channel SSB models. Twenty 10 kHz "channels" so to speak, so that's where people tend to mess around with channelized (non-VFO or 5 kHz step) CB-type radios on 10 meters.

 

[Rwb]

and several will rush out n buy new radios when it hits here. use them maybe 3 months n the new wears off. then (LISTEN) silence as it is now.
radios work fine if owners would use them.
no matter the band we should use what we got cause fcc seems to sell the bands off.
2 meters and 70 cm not much diffrent.
i hear upgrade your ticket. i got shortwave reciever thats great n not nuff activity to warrent me getting upgraded .
im not into contesting either.
my opinion but others might vary