MMDVM Services for PNWDigital Members

PNWDigital maintains our MMDVM servers as a secondary service for use by our members when repeaters are not available in their local area. In order to provide the best hotspot services we have created our own servers and host them on commercial hosting sites primarily. We have one open and public server, Peter, available and useful for testing your hotspot set-up and with a limited talkgroup deck and net support. All c-Bridges have at least 1 Single-Slot and 1 Dual-Slot server for redundancy should any c-Bridge go offline.

We have 11 dedicated servers for the general membership as well as for MMDVM repeaters and our net control stations. Each MMDVM server has a talkgroup deck (personality) made custom for the use of that server or its location. We also have several redundant servers in different data centers across Washington state. We have one server known as Peter, which is openly available to the Ham public, while all other MMDVM server are only available to our members.

Our MMDVM server known as Suzy is a bit unusual in that she has 2 servers active, Suzy and Suzy Alt. Suzy is the main or primary MMDVM server on PNW-E and Suzy Alt is on PNW-D. The Suzy’s are more like sisters rather than twins. Suzy Alt has an older, smaller talkgroup deck and is meant to be used as a back-up. Both Local 1 and Metro 2 are linked to both servers. You may wish to view the MMDVM Matrix to see how the TG’s are spread out across the MMDVM servers: pnwdigital.net/talkgroups-matrix/.

Members may request server access via our via our MM Server Access Request page or by Emailing pnw-mm-servers@pnwdigital.net and requesting the webform URL.  Please let us know that you are a member of PNWDigital.net, your call sign and Radio ID number.  The MMDVM team will respond to your request. If you leave our primary IO group, you would be considered no longer a member, so your use of our servers and networking should cease. If you continue to use PNWDigital resources without membership, you are likely to be locked of the network.

If you are provided MMDVM credentials, please to not share them.  Refer anyone, even a person who you know is a member, to our MMDVM specific IO sub-group page:  pnwdigital.net/mmdvm/ (this page).  All members are able to have access but first, must register to be able to use our servers.

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Terms of Use (start)

• You must be a current member of PNWDigital.net (member of our primary IO Group)
  • If not a member, you may use Peter under these same terms of use.
  • If you choose to not be a member (unsub from our primary IO group, then you must cease using our MMDVM servers and our networking services.
• You must use your own RID’s assigned to you by RadioID.Net
  • Do not use the “Plus 2” RID’s (more than the 7 decimal numbers in your RID issued by RadioID.net)
• You must use a DMR client radio in DMR mode into your hotspot
  • Transcoding is discouraged (we are a DMR network so use a DMR radio)
  • If you don’t have DMR, let us know that you want to use transcoding; reviewed case by case
• Do not use Talker Alias or Private Call
  • If you use BM or other services, disable these settings as PNWDigital does not support them
• Do not use our connection to connect, cross-connect or stream our traffic in either direction
  • Your connection is solely provided to you as an end-user directly communicating to our network as a primary user
    • If interested in non-end-user experimentation, contact tech@pnwdigital.net with your ideas
  • Analog audio is NEVER permitted on our networked repeaters or MMDVM servers (FM, Echolink, Asterisk, etc)

• The I-5 talkgroup (Wes and Demi) is for traveler’s aid, traffic issues, breakdowns, etc. It is not for QSO’s unless very short!!!
• Subjects related to religion or politics or other hot-button issues should not be discussed on the PNWDigital network.
• If you use any of our MMDVM servers (or repeaters), then you are agreeing to these terms of use listed above “Terms Of Use”

Terms of Use (end)

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Why have a ToU?

Our MMDVM servers support our member hotspots. They support user devices such network radio, blue DV and other user operated devices. This is a valuable adjunct to our network of repeaters located in the Pacific Northwest. We consider our repeaters to the primary devices and the most robust communication method short of a copper pair for that “Last Mile”. Hotspot connections are not as robust nor do they serve more than a single person normally, but they are none-the-less, a valuable addition to the overall network. We limit their use to members as we are not a national or international organization and we want our members in our region to have the best resource options short of a local repeater.

Since our early days of the server implementation we have had a number of “inentennial leaks” which essentially have made our servers public to the world. We have also had deal with our mistchef or misue by members and non-members. Each time that has occurred, we have had to change the credentials, change code, update scripts and Email templates, notify the server users of those changes and then the users needed to update the their own devices. Dealing with these folks who have “leaked”, is it’s own problems independent of the technical side and we wish to put this problem to bed. Simply put, if you are a member of PNWDigital and you want to use the MMDVM servers, you will normally be issued a key to use as your password. This key will only work with you assigned RID number.

The addition of the ToU (above) should crystalize the rules of use to our membership and remove any ambiguity that has led to server misuse. We are hopeful that this will help to clarify a member’s responsibility and reduce the animosity and grief that the tech team receives when we try to address the misuse or press members to gain compliance with our rules.

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Well do have one open or public MMDVM server available known as Peter. Peter has a limited talkgroup deck (personality) but does support our nets. It is meant to be a way for member or non-members to test their hotspot setups as well as to provide a minimal platform for non-members to access a few of our talkgroups that are not available on the Brandmeister side.

Server	Slots	Description
Peter	1	Open to the public server, small talkgroup deck —  Credentials: peter.pnwdigital.net, 55555, passwOrd  (Dashboard) (Callwatch) Settings: Openspots use Connector: Hotspot/MMDVM, Protocol: MMDVM, Do not use DMRPlus settings

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Historical and Backgroud Information

Bridget was our first MMDVM server portal deployed to access the PNWDigital network directly.  We chose to use “people” names to easily distinguish the new servers from our repeater city/site names.  We have since expanded our portals to include other talkgroup decks as well as in-state hosting of our servers by way of a single VM hosting multiple instances of the MMDVM servers.  Our effort now is to perfect and publish this multiplexing approach much the same was we did for W6SS’s single instance method.  We are also using groups.io to discuss and update or efforts.

The PNWDigital MMDVM project is a package of programs made up by many smart people who have developed the necessary moving parts.  Vance, W6SS created “ipscbuild“, which enabled most anyone to be able to deploy the Python programs without major experience with Linux and Python.  The goal has since been to stack up multiple “Bridgets” (MMDVM-IPSC services) onto a single low cost virtual machine provided by a major data center VPS hosting company.  And doing so in a way that the common man can duplicate it with little experience in Linux and Python.

Our multiple use or stacking of instances was created by Dylan KI7SBI with his implementation of Docker for the multiplexing.  Dylan’s first Dockerfile is what we call Suzy, which is our MMDVM server tailored for the east side users (of Washington).  We will ultimately publish the scripting and documentation much the same that W6SS has done with his ipscbuild script.

We also have a public portal (Peter) available for non-Members. Anyone is free to try it out or just use it to test out their MMDVM Client set-ups.  See our MMDVM Matrix to determine which talkgroups are available via Peter.  We have 2 servers for Peter, one in Bremerton and the other in Spokane.

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PNWDigital’s MMDVM servers are now private for our members use only.  We have deployed a public server called Peter for limited use by non-members.

Do NOT release any MMDVM server credentials OTA or otherwise.  Refer members to our Wiki for that information.  Non-members should only have access to Peter which is openly shared on the Web for it’s ability to demonstrate our project to interested groups as well as to provide some contact to PNW from the outside on talkgroups that are not otherwise available via Brandmeister.

All portals have DNS addresses available.  Please use them rather than the older IP addresses.  We will be moving the servers around the state and any moves made will be transparent to our users if users use the DNS addresses.

Be sure to put TG 9 in your Rx group for all channels in your zones for the MMDVM server annunciation when using an Openspot..

Be sure not to put your hotSpot on any repeater output or input/output frequency as it likely will result in looping and render the server useless and busy out a timeslot on the c-Bridge.  WWARA and our community codeplug now support suggested frequencies (and pairs) for power digital devices such as hotspots.

Your network access is not to be linked to other networks, services, providers of any kind. Access provided to your hotspot or other MMVM device is only to go to that personal device. No analog or FM linking, Echolink or cross-banding is allowed. Transcoding is generally to be avoided and normal DMR operation is strongly recommended as the best audio is generally via DMR on a DMR network.

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First Published: July 11, 2021 Last Updated: 9 months ago by Mike – NO7RF

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