Just wondering if anybody on here has ventured into C4FM (Yaseu's System Fusion radio - a form of FSK digtial radio based upon P25).


Our local amateur radio club recently installed a new 70cm repeater that's dual analog and C4FM. I've seen several Yaesu radios that can do C4FM but they're on the pricey side. Just wondering if anybody has experience with them and can recommend a particular radio, or avoid one.

*** Diamond Dave ***

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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: Diamond Dave to All on Sun Feb 27 2022 05:16 pm

Our local amateur radio club recently installed a new 70cm repeater that's dual analog and C4FM. I've seen several Yaesu radios that can do C4FM but they're on the pricey side. Just wondering if anybody has experience with them and can recommend a particular radio, or avoid one.

That's the only digital voice mode I don't have personal experience with. The FT-70 is a nice radio if it suits your purposes power-wise.

But if you have any digital mode radio already you may be able to bridge to Fusion with Pi-star. https://www.pistar.uk/

Going through digital repeaters is the worst. No one lasts long doing that before they setup their own hotspot.


- Andre

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On 02-27-22 17:16, Diamond Dave wrote to All <=-

Our local amateur radio club recently installed a new 70cm repeater
that's dual analog and C4FM. I've seen several Yaesu radios that can do C4FM but they're on the pricey side. Just wondering if anybody has experience with them and can recommend a particular radio, or avoid
one.

The FT-70D is a basic Fusion radio that's not too expensive. Might be a good option to get your feet wet.


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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: Diamond Dave to All on Sun Feb 27 2022 05:16 pm

Just wondering if anybody on here has ventured into C4FM (Yaseu's System Fusion radio - a form of FSK digtial radio based upon P25).

Our local amateur radio club recently installed a new 70cm repeater that's dual analog and C4FM. I've seen several Yaesu radios that can do C4FM but they're on the pricey side. Just wondering if anybody has experience with them and can recommend a particular radio, or avoid one.

I have a Yaseu FT-3DR, which is the predecessor to the FT-5DR. It's a great little HT that does C4FM/YSF & Wires-X.

I have a hotspot, even though there's a few C4FM repeaters in my area, as Yaesu swooped in some years back and gave huge discounts on repeater gear that had C4FM capabilities, likely in an effort to get local club members to buy C4FM capable radios. It seemed to have worked.

We have a monthly digital net on one of the repeaters with our club, and I do hear a few different people using the digital repeaters, linking them to nets on the other side of the country from time to time.

That said, I rarely use the HT ever since I got my IC-705 (which is D-STAR, so not compatable with those repeaters in digital mode). I have a digital hotspot on a raspberry pi that I use from time to time, but I still have issues trying to find an active room/reflector/channel/whatevertheycallit.


If other local hams have C4FM as their preferred digital mode for the area, a C4FM radio will probably serve you well. the FT-3DR is everything I could ever want in an HT (as long as you upgrade the antenna, get a signalstick at https://signalstuff.com).

DaiTengu

... Never let your feet run faster than your shoes.

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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: DaiTengu to Diamond Dave on Fri Mar 11 2022 03:39 pm

That said, I rarely use the HT ever since I got my IC-705 (which is D-STAR, so not compatable with those repeaters in digital
mode). I have a digital hotspot on a raspberry pi that I use from time to time, but I still have issues trying to find an
active room/reflector/channel/whatevertheycallit.

What do you think of the IC-705?

Regarding an active hotspot, try out HubNet -- various reflectors plug into it. Seems to get a decent amount of traffic!

Mewcenary.

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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: Mewcenary to DaiTengu on Sun Mar 13 2022 10:10 pm

What do you think of the IC-705?

I like it. I have an IC-7300, so it's just a ultra-portable version of that, with VHF/UHF. I use it as my mobile most of the time. Then I just unplug it and carry it into my shack, where I plug it back in.

I'm stuck in the headspace that "10W just isn't enough", though, and it's only 5W when running on the internal battery.

Regarding an active hotspot, try out HubNet -- various reflectors plug into it. Seems to get a decent amount of traffic!

I'll have to give that a try. Thanks!


KD9QHQ

DaiTengu

... Predestination was doomed from the start.

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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: Diamond Dave to All on Sun Feb 27 2022 05:16 pm

they're on the pricey side. Just wondering if anybody has experience with them and can recommend a particular radio, or avoid one.

Personally, I've yet to own a Yaesu that I didn't like. I have not tried the FT60 or FT70, but they are probably great for getting on Fusion for the first time, especially if you're not _that_ into radios. But, the FT3DR is definitely my favorite HT right now. It has a BRIGHT color screen that stays on all the time (you can set it to shut off, but I haven't), a SUPER fast-locking GPS, fast memory scanning, and AMAZING battery life compared to my previous Yaesu HTs (which include the VX-1R, 5R, 7R, and 8DR). I very stupidly didn't buy one when it was $300 on sale, and ended up paying close to $400. Well, now they have the FT5DR which is _exactly_ the same thing in a slightly different shell for $459 on sale. Sheesh. I'm not saying go buy this, but if you like radios and you do buy it, you probably wouldn't be disappointed. This is assuming you want a HT.

For a mobile, I personally like the FTM-300DR. It doesn't have a touch screen like the 400, but it _does_ have Bluetooth (as does the FT3/FT5) which works surprisingly well with the Yaesu BT earpiece that is $30 on sale, and it has two real VFOs so you can do cross-band repeat. The annoying thing is that it will repeat Fusion out to analog, but if you try to respond with analog it will only repeat analog and won't send back out to Fusion. Hopefully that made sense :D

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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: DaiTengu to Diamond Dave on Fri Mar 11 2022 03:39 pm

That said, I rarely use the HT ever since I got my IC-705 (which is D-STAR, so not compatable with those repeaters in digital mode). I have a digital hotspot on a raspberry pi that I use from time to time, but I still have issues trying to find an active room/reflector/channel/whatevertheycallit.

So do you use your PiStar with D-Star right now? I'm not sure if I ever got mine to succesfully work... probably because I don't know anyone else with D-Star and a PiStar :). I've used D-Star pretty much just over simplex. There is at least one D-Star repeater near me but nobody ever talks on it. I'd like to get more familiar with using it with the hotspot.

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On 03-26-22 11:03, Phigan wrote to DaiTengu <=-

So do you use your PiStar with D-Star right now? I'm not sure if I ever got mine to succesfully work... probably because I don't know anyone
else with D-Star and a PiStar :). I've used D-Star pretty much just
over simplex. There is at least one D-Star repeater near me but nobody ever talks on it. I'd like to get more familiar with using it with the hotspot.

I use D-STAR and a couple of different hotspots, including a Pistar one. :) Works fine.


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Re: C4FM (System Fusion) radios
By: Phigan to DaiTengu on Sat Mar 26 2022 11:03 am

That said, I rarely use the HT ever since I got my IC-705 (which is
D-STAR, so not compatable with those repeaters in digital mode). I
have a digital hotspot on a raspberry pi that I use from time to time,
but I still have issues trying to find an active
room/reflector/channel/whatevertheycallit.

So do you use your PiStar with D-Star right now? I'm not sure if I ever got mine to succesfully work... probably because I don't know anyone else with D-Star and a PiStar :). I've used D-Star pretty much just over simplex. There is at least one D-Star repeater near me but nobody ever talks on it. I'd like to get more familiar with using it with the hotspot.

Yeah, I have it working. I've tuned into a digital net on d-star once, but I had to spend about 20 minutes getting things sorted ahead of time just so I wasn't futzing with it during the net.

I'm kind of rooting for M17, An open source protocol that's easy to implement and doesn't require special hardware would be amazing

DaiTengu

... The things most people want to know are usually none of their business.

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