New Node Set Up

[FrostyFruits]

Lets start out with my setup so this might not work for you.

My repeater is a Bridgecom BCR-40DU, I purchased the URIx, 25 pin cable, and Micro SD from the myGMRS store.

Make sure your not using a Raspberry Pi 4, trust me it doesn't work. I ended up getting a Raspberry Pi 3B+. 

After installing the micro sd card into the pi make sure you connect an ethernet cable, log in, change password like instructed, then set up wifi if you want by following instructions in the quick start guide that came with the micro sd card, don't forget to log into your router and set up port forwarding.

 

Your gonna wanna go into your simpleusb.conf file and change a few things.

 

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/simpleusb.conf

 

carrierfrom = usbinvert  ; no,usb,usbinvert
                                         ; no - no carrier detection at all
                                         ; usb - from the COR line on the USB sound fob (Active high)
                                          ; usbinvert - from the inverted COR line on the USB sound fob (Active low)

ctcssfrom =  usb     ; no,usb,usbinvert
                                  ; no - CTCSS decoding, system will be carrier squelch
                                  ; usb - CTCSS decoding using input from USB sound fob (Active high)
                                  ; usbinvert - from the inverted CTCSS line on the USB sound fob (Active low)
 

duplex = 1              ; Duplex 0,1
                               ; 0 - half duplex
                               ; 1 - full duplex
 

When your done making the changes hit ctrl + o followed by enter then ctrl + x  followed by enter.

I wasn't able to use DTMF tones to connect to different nodes so I found a command in one of the forum pages to connect through ssh.

 

sudo asterisk -rx "rpt fun 24219 *3172"

 

24219 is my node so insert your node number, *3172 will connect me to node 172, *3xxxxx will connect you to your node of choice, xxxxx being the node number.

 

If your gonna use the Pi as your repeater controller then your gonna have to modify your rpt.conf file.

 

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf

 

hangtime = 1000                ; squelch tail hang time (in ms) (optional, default 5 seconds, 5000 ms)
althangtime = 2000            ; longer squelch tail
totime = 180000                 ; transmit time-out time (in ms) (optional, default 3 minutes 180000 ms)

idrecording = |ixxxxxxx            ; cording or morse string see http://ohnosec.org/drupal/node/87
;idtalkover = |ixxxxxxx              ; Talkover ID (optional) default is none see http://ohnosec.org/drupal/node/129
                                                   ; See Telemetry section Example: idrecording = rpt/nodenames/24219
idtime = 900000            

 

When your done making the changes hit ctrl + o followed by enter then ctrl + x  followed by enter.

Change the xxxxxxx to your callsign make sure you keep the |i or it won't identify. 

 

After your done making all the changes make sure to restart asterisk by using:

 

sudo service asterisk restart

 

These are all the changes I did to make everything work with my system. Once I get voice ID working I'll do an update.

I hope this helps someone. It took me quite a few days of playing around trying to figure this out.

 

Joe

WROE856

[FrostyFruits]

Here are some custom courtesy tones I found while googling different things.

Courtesy tones can be found in /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf  scroll down till you see [telemetry] you'll see a list of courtesy tones labeled  ct1-ct8. Add whatever you want from the list below after ct8 and change the x to the next in line. ex: ct9, ct10, ct11, ct12....

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf

(courtesy of W2YMM) -

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(330,0,50,2048)(495,0,50,2048)(660,0,50,2048) ; YELLOW JACKET

ctX=|t(800,0,100,2048)(800,0,100,2048)(540,0,100,2048) ; SHOOTING STAR

ctX=|t(500,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(750,0,100,2048) ; COMET

ctX=|t(750,0,125,2048)(808,0,80,2048)(880,1200,80,2048) ; STARDUST

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(660,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048)(385,0,50,2048) ; HORNET

ctX=|t(1000,0,20,2048)(800,0,20,2048)(600,0,20,2048) ; TUMBLE WEED

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(660,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(385,0,100,2048) ; WASP

ctX=|t(1500,0,20,2048)(1250,0,20,2048)(1000,0,20,2048)(750,0,20,2048)(500,0,20,2048)(2550,0,20,2048); CHIRPCHOMP

ctX=|t(1000,800,50,2048)(800,0,50,2048)(600,0,50,2048)(1500,0,50,2048) ; MOONBOUNCE

ctX=|t(500,700,100,2048) ; UONK

ctX=|t(1000,0,100,2048) ; BEEP

ctX=|t(440,0,100,2048) ; BOOP

ctX=|t(840,500,100,2048) ; BLOOP

ctX=|t(1000,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048) ; DESCENDING

ctX=|t(500,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(1000,0,50,2048) ; ASCENDING

ctX=|t(1760,0,30,2048)(0,0,30,0)(1760,0,30,2048)(0,0,30,0)(1760,0,30,2048) ; NEXTEL

ctX=|t(2450,0,200,2048) ; NASA OVER1

ctX=|t(2500,0,100,2048) ; NASA OVER2

ctX=|t(2175,0,200,2048)(1950,0,175,2048) ; MOTOROLA TONE REMOTE 1

ctX=|t(2175,0,75,2048)(1950,0,50,2048) ; MOTOROLA TONE REMOTE SHORT

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(660,880,100,2048) ; PIANO CHORD

 

Look for    unlinkedct = ct2      and change    ct2   to whatever you want

 

unlinkedct = ct9            ; Send a this courtesy tone when the user unkeys if the node is not connected to any other nodes. (optional, default is none)

 

When I'm not connected to a node (unlinkedct) I have ChirpChomp as my courtesy tone set as ct9.  

ct9=|t(1500,0,20,2048)(1250,0,20,2048)(1000,0,20,2048)(750,0,20,2048)(500,0,20,2048)(2550,0,20,2048); CHIRPCHOMP

 

You can also make your own tones following the guide in rpt.conf

; As far as what the numbers mean,
; (000,000,010,000)
;   |       |        |      |-------amplitude
;   |       |        |-------------duration
;   |       |-------------------Tone 2
;   |-------------------------Tone 1

; So, with 0,0,10,0 That says No Tone1, No Tone2, 10ms duration, 0 Amplitude.
; Use it for a delay.  Fine tuning for how long before telemetry is sent, in conjunction with the telemdelay parameter)
; The numbers, like 350,440,10,2048 are 350Hz, 440Hz, 10ms delay, amplitude of 2048.

If you use Tone 1 and Tone 2 in the same ( ) they will play at the same time not 2 different tones. So you need to put each tone in it's own set of ( ). ex (tone1,tone2,150,2048) will play both tones at same time making 1 tone, (tone1,0,150,2048)(tone2,0,150,2048) will make 2 different tones.

DO NOT put spaces between the , and number!

Change duration in ms to how long you want each tone to be played.

Change amplitude to how loud you want the tone.

When your done making the changes hit ctrl + o followed by enter then ctrl + x  followed by enter.

After your done making all the changes make sure to restart asterisk by using:

 

sudo service asterisk restart

[FrostyFruits]

Voice Id

Either make an audible file with your voice or a text to speech app.

I used https://freetts.com/#ads. After downloading the mp3 file I went to https://audio.online-convert.com/convert-to-wav to convert to wav.

Name your file anything you want. I went with myid1.wav.

Use WinSCP to move myid1.wav to /home/repeater/myid1.wav

You have to convert to ulaw. It will NOT work with a .wav file, I've tried multiple times.

Open up putty and convert myid1.wav to myid.ulaw by using the command:

 

sox -V myid1.wav -r 8000 -c 1 -t ul myid.ulaw

 

Next your gonna wanna go into rpt.conf

 

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf

 

Scroll down and change idrecording = 

 

idrecording = /home/repeater/myid

 

When your done making the changes hit ctrl + o followed by enter then ctrl + x  followed by enter.

After your done making all the changes make sure to restart asterisk by using:

 

sudo service asterisk restart

[JeepCrawler98]

On 3/19/2022 at 4:23 PM, FrostyFruits said:

You have to convert to ulaw. It will NOT work with a .wav file, I've tried multiple times.

WAV files work fine, so long as you resample to a 8Khz sampling rate with a single channel (mono) in an audio editing program (such as Audacity); the industry standard 44/48Khz sampling rates don't work.

I usually run the WAV route as I fire up audacity anyways to normalize the audio levels with normal radio traffic and apply an aggressive 300Hz HPF and 3Khz LPF to keep things inside of the audible passband of 300-3000Hz (which keeps the PL sub audible band and harmonics clean, since Asterisk can generate audio well below and above the audio band we care about). Exporting an 8Khz mono WAV file from there just saves a conversion step since you're already editing everything.

Edited March 21, 2022 by JeepCrawler98

[FrostyFruits]

2 hours ago, JeepCrawler98 said:

WAV files work fine, so long as you resample to a 8Khz sampling rate with a single channel (mono) in an audio editing program (such as Audacity); the industry standard 44/48Khz sampling rates don't work.

I usually run the WAV route as I fire up audacity anyways to normalize the audio levels with normal radio traffic and apply an aggressive 300Hz HPF and 3Khz LPF to keep things inside of the audible passband of 300-3000Hz (which keeps the PL sub audible band and harmonics clean, since Asterisk can generate audio well below and above the audio band we care about). Exporting an 8Khz mono WAV file from there just saves a conversion step since you're already editing everything.

I'll give this a try, I know when I used the website to convert to wav I changed it to 8khz, I tried it mono and stereo and couldn't get it to work. Maybe the website wasn't converting it correctly. I'll try it with Audacity next time. 

There's some other things I'm trying to figure out how to add to my repeater. I'm learning as I go.

Thanks!

[alexd51]

On 3/12/2022 at 8:37 PM, FrostyFruits said:

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(330,0,50,2048)(495,0,50,2048)(660,0,50,2048) ; YELLOW JACKET

ctX=|t(800,0,100,2048)(800,0,100,2048)(540,0,100,2048) ; SHOOTING STAR

ctX=|t(500,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(750,0,100,2048) ; COMET

ctX=|t(750,0,125,2048)(808,0,80,2048)(880,1200,80,2048) ; STARDUST

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(660,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048)(385,0,50,2048) ; HORNET

ctX=|t(1000,0,20,2048)(800,0,20,2048)(600,0,20,2048) ; TUMBLE WEED

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(660,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(385,0,100,2048) ; WASP

ctX=|t(1500,0,20,2048)(1250,0,20,2048)(1000,0,20,2048)(750,0,20,2048)(500,0,20,2048)(2550,0,20,2048); CHIRPCHOMP

ctX=|t(1000,800,50,2048)(800,0,50,2048)(600,0,50,2048)(1500,0,50,2048) ; MOONBOUNCE

ctX=|t(500,700,100,2048) ; UONK

ctX=|t(1000,0,100,2048) ; BEEP

ctX=|t(440,0,100,2048) ; BOOP

ctX=|t(840,500,100,2048) ; BLOOP

ctX=|t(1000,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048) ; DESCENDING

ctX=|t(500,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(1000,0,50,2048) ; ASCENDING

ctX=|t(1760,0,30,2048)(0,0,30,0)(1760,0,30,2048)(0,0,30,0)(1760,0,30,2048) ; NEXTEL

ctX=|t(2450,0,200,2048) or ctX=|t(2500,0,100,2048) ; NASA OVER

ctX=|t(2175,0,200,2048)(1950,0,175,2048) ; MOTOROLA TONE REMOTE 1

ctX=|t(2175,0,75,2048)(1950,0,50,2048) ; MOTOROLA TONE REMOTE SHORT

ctX=|t(0,0,640,0)(660,880,100,2048) ; PIANO CHORD

I guess those are included in the mygmrs .IMG file. i looked in other image files but those are not in it.
Thank you for all this information, you have given me a lot of info i didn't know.

[FrostyFruits]

On 3/27/2022 at 6:34 PM, alexd51 said:

I guess those are included in the mygmrs .IMG file. i looked in other image files but those are not in it.
Thank you for all this information, you have given me a lot of info i didn't know.

Glad this helped.

These tones were not included. I happened to stumble onto them while searching for other things on some website or maybe a wiki page, I forget exactly where but I did put the persons call sign for credit.

If you open your rpt.conf file and scroll down you'll see ct1-ct8 already there. That's all that's included. Just add a tone you want under it.

[FrostyFruits]

If your looking for a custom voice for your repeater go check out 

 

FakeYou.com

 

There's a lot of voices to pick from. Make sure you listen to it before you download, they don't always sound good. Then scroll back up to Voice Id on how to use it.

[alexd51]

On 4/1/2022 at 6:29 PM, FrostyFruits said:

If your looking for a custom voice for your repeater go check out 

 

FakeYou.com

 

There's a lot of voices to pick from. Make sure you listen to it before you download, they don't always sound good. Then scroll back up to Voice Id on how to use it.

I have different announcements already. and on the tones part i can add the ct1 to ct8 but if i add ct9 or any other it will be silent because those tones were taken out of the image file. But using one i can copy and paste on the other one.
I have 4 nodes running right now but this one has been the most difficult one to set up.

[FrostyFruits]

On 4/24/2022 at 4:29 PM, alexd51 said:

I have different announcements already. and on the tones part i can add the ct1 to ct8 but if i add ct9 or any other it will be silent because those tones were taken out of the image file. But using one i can copy and paste on the other one.
I have 4 nodes running right now but this one has been the most difficult one to set up.

They work perfectly fine for me. They weren't in an image file when I found them. They were in a pdf from someone with the call sign W2YMM. I even found a few more tones. Make sure your using sudo to modify the rpt.conf file. After you save the file you have to restart asterisk. This is my list, I just use the ct# where needed

unlinkedct = ct9            ; Send a this courtesy tone when the user unkeys if the node is not connected to any other nodes. (optional, default is none)
linkunkeyct = ct12            ; sent when a transmission received over the link unkeys
remotetx = ct14                  ; local courtesy tone when linked Trancieve mode

 

ct1 = |t(350,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(660,0,100,2048)
ct2 = |t(660,880,150,2048)  
ct3 = |t(440,0,150,4096) 
ct4 = |t(550,0,150,2048)
ct5 = |t(660,0,150,2048)
ct6 = |t(880,0,150,2048)
ct7 = |t(660,440,150,2048)
ct8 = |t(700,1100,150,2048)
ct9 = |t(1500,0,50,4096)(1250,0,50,4096)(1000,0,50,4096)(750,0,50,4096)(500,0,50,4096)(2550,0,50,4096);CHIRPCHOMP
ct10 = |t(1000,800,50,2048)(800,0,50,2048)(600,0,50,2048)(1500,0,50,2048);MOONBOUNCE
ct11 = |t(0,0,640,0)(330,0,50,2048)(495,0,50,2048)(660,0,50,2048) ; YELLOW JACKET
ct12 = |t(800,0,100,2048)(800,0,100,2048)(540,0,100,2048) ; SHOOTING STAR
ct13 = |t(500,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(750,0,100,2048) ; COMET
ct14 = |t(750,0,125,2048)(808,0,80,2048)(880,1200,80,2048) ; STARDUST
ct15 = |t(0,0,640,0)(660,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048)(385,0,50,2048) ; HORNET
ct16 = |t(1000,0,20,2048)(800,0,20,2048)(600,0,20,2048) ; TUMBLE WEED
ct17 = |t(0,0,640,0)(660,0,100,2048)(500,0,100,2048)(385,0,100,2048) ; WASP
ct18 = |t(500,700,100,2048) ; UONK
ct19 = |t(1000,0,100,2048) ; BEEP
ct20 = |t(440,0,100,2048) ; BOOP
ct21 = |t(840,500,100,2048) ; BLOOP
ct22 = |t(1000,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048) ; DESCENDING
ct23 = |t(500,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(1000,0,50,2048) ; ASCENDING
ct24 = |t(1760,0,30,2048)(0,0,30,0)(1760,0,30,2048)(0,0,30,0)(1760,0,30,2048) ; NEXTEL
ct25 = |t(2450,0,200,2048) ;NASA OVER1
ct26 = |t(2175,0,200,2048)(1950,0,175,2048) ; MOTOROLA TONE REMOTE 1
ct27 = |t(2175,0,75,2048)(1950,0,50,2048) ; MOTOROLA TONE REMOTE SHORT
ct28 = |t(0,0,640,0)(660,880,100,2048) ; PIANO CHORD
ct29 = |t(2500,0,100,2048) ; NASA OVER2
ct30 = |t(800,440,50,2048)(440,220,50,2048)  ; PIANO DOOR BELL
ct31 = |t(540,0,050,2048)(540,0,050,2048)(880,0,050,2048)  ; MOTH
ct32 = |t(540,0,100,2048)(540,0,100,2048)(880,0,100,2048)  ; BUTTERFLY
ct33 = |t(1000,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(500,0,50,2048)  ; SNOWSHOE RABBIT
ct34 = |t(500,0,50,2048)(750,0,50,2048)(1000,0,50,2048)  ; JACKRABBIT
ct35 = |t(480,1200,40,2048)(0,0,40,0)(480,1200,40,2048)   ; FUNCTION COMPLETE 1
ct36 = |t(900,0,60,2048)(0,0,60,0)(900,0,60,2048)   ; FUNCTION COMPLETE 2
ct37 = |t(440,500,200,2048)(440,350,200,2048)  ; DUNCE CAP
ct38 = |t(800,0,75,2048)(400,50,50,2048)  ; DOORBELL
ct39 = |t(1000,1200,120,2048)(1200,1400,80,2048)(600,800,100,2048)  ; FIRE FLY
ct40 = |t(0,0,640,0)(330,0,100,2048)(495,0,100,2048)(660,0,100,2048)  ; BUMBLE BEE

 

Feel free to copy and paste it to your file to see if it works. 

[WRWT893]

Hi all,

linkunkeyct=ct8 I think this is for other network nodes when they unkey.  Is there a way to set the local node to play different tone when me unkeyed?

Thank you so much!