MMDVM Hotspot not working with your wireless carrier.. step inside

hp468

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Thought I'd post this up in case anyone here was interested in running a mobile hotspot or having issues with theirs.

Recently picked up another hotspot for dmr/dstar mobile use. The plan was to use it in the truck while on the road or on vacation, linked up to an iphone hotspot and using a laptop to toggle between networks/modes in the pi-star dashboard.

Verizon apparently didn't think much of my plan, mmdvm connects to the phone but the phone wouldn't assign an ip address for the hotspot or allow traffic. Not an IT guy but I believe they are blocking ports on the phones hotspots to keep traffic down.

So what do we do to fix it? Switched my VPN on and it immediately connected up and worked flawlessly. If your having the same problems give a VPN a try, yea it costs a little bit of money but you can use it on your phone and home network.
 
The phone functions as a wifi hotspot which the mmdvm connects to in order to access the TGIF/brandmiester network.

I should have been more specific in my wording.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
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Since Verizon is a wireless cell provider it’s doubtful they will allow you to use a modem behind the phone.

According to Verizon your basically using your phone for voip via a cheaper provider.. not going to happen.

If it’s possible see if the modem will change ports. Use a non-sip-standard port and Verizon shouldn’t really know.
 
Yeah. I don't know what any of this means.

Thanks for helping others, though.
 
Since Verizon is a wireless cell provider it’s doubtful they will allow you to use a modem behind the phone.

According to Verizon your basically using your phone for voip via a cheaper provider.. not going to happen.

If it’s possible see if the modem will change ports. Use a non-sip-standard port and Verizon shouldn’t really know.

Works perfectly with the VPN turned on , has a range of around 75-100' from my truck with the windows up. I'll see about changing ports around for sake of experimenting.

A few people in our club have had trouble using their phones in this manor as well, figured folks here could benefit from my troubles lol.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Yeah. I don't know what any of this means.

Thanks for helping others, though.

Here's your crash course. This thread refers to the digital (DMR, P25, D-star, System Fusion, NXDN, etc) radio hotspots.

MMDVM is a multi-mode digital voice modem. This coupled with a raspberry pi (of what ever flavor) and a pi-star image loaded basically provides you a gateway to access a number of digital amateur radio networks from any where you have access to the internet. The modem (or hotspot as we call it) is set to tx and rx on a simplex freq. Your DMR/D-star/what ever other digital HT transmits and receives audio to and from the hotspot, basically ham radio over VOIP.

Radio Tx ------> mmdvm modem -------> iphone hotspot------> DMR network

DMR network -------> Iphone hotspot ------> mmdvm modem -------> Radio Rx

For my purposes, I use them on the TGIF and Brandmiester networks. I'll include a link to the each network webpage, you can see the list of their talk groups.

http://tgif.network/talkgroups.php

https://brandmeister.network/?page=talkgroups

There are a number of DMR repeaters setup within the state (none local to me) but the hotspot gives you free reign to use what ever talkgroup you desire, when you want to use it.

There are a number of commercially available hotspots, Nanospot, Zumspot, sharkRF open spot and a few others if you want to check them out.
 
I've used an original Shark OpenSpot with a GLi AR-150 travel router on my Verizon phone WiFi for three years with no issues.

My setup will automatically connect to up to 10 configured WiFi access points, so I have home, work, phone and car WiFi all pre-configured. Whichever is on, it just connects. I use the OpenSpot mostly on DMR (also Fusion and D-Star). I generally leave my hot spot in my car that has ATT WiFi built-in. Other than Fusion on my Yaesu mobile FTM400xdr radio, I never use digital radio without a hot spot.

For the most part I have abandon Brandmeister and use TGIF. TGIF is primarily repeater-less, so a hot spot is necessary. That said, I am not using digital radio much these days.
 
Thanks for all the info. This is going to be a future purchase for me. I miss hearing the Hytera network in Charlotte, I could hit it on an HT easy. I would talk to some guys in Vegas and Montana fairly regularly.
 
I've used an original Shark OpenSpot with a GLi AR-150 travel router on my Verizon phone WiFi for three years with no issues.

My setup will automatically connect to up to 10 configured WiFi access points, so I have home, work, phone and car WiFi all pre-configured. Whichever is on, it just connects. I use the OpenSpot mostly on DMR (also Fusion and D-Star). I generally leave my hot spot in my car that has ATT WiFi built-in. Other than Fusion on my Yaesu mobile FTM400xdr radio, I never use digital radio without a hot spot.

For the most part I have abandon Brandmeister and use TGIF. TGIF is primarily repeater-less, so a hot spot is necessary. That said, I am not using digital radio much these days.

Can't tell you why it gave me the issues but it was a no go without running the vpn. Perhaps your plan is one of the old REAL unlimited plans, rather than the throttled down "unlimited" plans they peddle now or maybe the travel router masks the hotspot and verizon doesn't know what it is.

Same here on the multiple networks, added all my networks to the dashboard and it toggles between home/iphone wifi with no issues.

Quite honestly I find the audio quality of DMR to be painful to listen to for long periods of time but wanted to have the option to use it while on the road if needed. I do like the fact that Carolina 440 network is linked up. I have some plans in the future with linking some local stuff to a TGIF tg but its going to take a little while to get it done.
 
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