Zumspot USB Hotspot

I tried some of the inexpensive MMDVM hotspots available on Amazon and must say I was truly disappointed. The first one would not power on so I returned it. I was able to get the second one to at least power on.

These units are based on the Raspberry PI Zero with the MMDVM board attached to it. To program it, you have to use the Pi-star interface. Without going into great detail, let’s just say I got it programmed and working.

These devices are not for the faint of heart as they come with almost no documentation on how to get it working. I was able to find some Youtube videos that were of tremendous help (Thank you Eric, KJ4YZI). One of the things that were not mentioned in the videos is that you should NEVER just pull the plug to shut the unit off. You need to go into Pi-star to shut it down. To just pull the plug risks corrupting the memory card on the Pi-zero thus crashing the system. The biggest drawback is that you can’t remove the memory card from these Pi’s so there is no way to reprogram the card. Even if you turn it off properly, you still take the risk of a blip in your power and inadvertently improperly shutting off the unit.

Needless to say, this one also went back to Amazon which left me searching for a new hotspot.

So I went to the Ham Radio Outlet website (hamradio.com) and came across the ZUMspot USB device. It’s $119.95 but you can catch it on sale for $109.95. It does not require a Raspberry Pi and instead plugs into a USB port on your Desktop, Laptop or tablet making it very portable.

You will need an app called BlueDV (available at www.pa7lim.nl/bluedv) to get it working. It’s a free app available for Windows, Linux, Ios and Android). It installs easily and is very easy to configure.

In the setup menu (menu –>setup) you will need to enter your callsign, your DMR ID, the frequency on which to transmit/receive and choose a brandmeister DMR Master Server. I use the US 3108 server but you can pick one that is closer to you. On my desktop and laptop the com port is automatically detected and can be set from the pulldown menu on the configure screen. If it comes up with several available ports you can either select one until you get it to connect or you can go into the system menu on Windows and check under devices to obtain the com port.

Once this is all set up, slide the serial and DMR buttons on the right. If you have everything configured properly, the Firmware information should come up on the screen.

To test it, key up your transmitter (make sure you’re transmitting on low power) and the bar above RX should light up green. I test it on TG 91 the worldwide channel. This channel is very busy so you should almost immediately start receiving transmissions. Call signs or DMR Id’s will start populating the box on the right. the right TX light should come on red indcating that the hot spot is transmitting back to your HT.

I love the portability of this device. I can take it to work and plug it into the desktop there or use it on my laptop. It can be used with a cellphone but I have not explored that option yet.

I cannot say enough good things about the ZUMspot USB Hotspot. It has exceeded my expectations and does everything I need it to do.

Jim, NB3P