PNWdigital supports our members who use hotspots by providing our own internal MMDVM servers. This enables us to provide more robust service for our hotspot users for the situations where they do not have access to our area repeaters.
We have 10 dedicated servers for the general membership as well as for MMDVM repeaters and our net control stations. Each server has talkgroup 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 available to the public, while all other MMDVM server are only available to our members.
Members may request server access by Emailing pnw-mm-servers@dev.pnwdigital.org. 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 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: www.dev.pnwdigital.org/mmdvm/ (this page). All members are able to have access but first, must register to be able to use our servers.
| Server | Slots | Description |
| Bridget | 1 | Primary server for network wide use (dashboard) |
| Demi | 2 | 2-slot server, located Vancouver WA, connecting to Bremerton c-Bridge (dashboard) |
| Emma | 2 | EmComm only server, located Vancouver WA, connecting to Bremerton c-Bridge (dashboard) |
| Ned | 2 | NCS operators use only with manager customized for net control (dashboard) |
| Peter | 1 | Open to the public server — Credentials: peter.dev.pnwdigital.org, 55555, passwOrd (dashboard) |
| Rexx | 2 | 2-slot server, located in Oregon City, connecting to Kennewick c-Bridge (dashboard) |
| Suzy | 1 | East and West Servers for areas East of the Cascades, (dashboard) |
| Wes | 1 | East and West Servers for areas West of the Cascades, (dashboard) |
Settings: Openspots use Connector: Hotspot/MMDVM, Protocol: MMDVM, Do not use DMRPlus settings
Historical 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.
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.
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.
Typical client devices used on PNWDigital are the “spots”; open, ZUM and Nano or just Google: this for wider MMDVM information.
First Published: September 9, 2021 Last Updated: 1 year ago by Mike – NO7RF
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