Week 5 – PiStar Setup Part 2 of 2

In this post I will explain how to update, upgrade, and configure the basic settings for Pi-Star. I will also explain how to register your amateur radio callsign for DSTAR and DMR use.

Part 1 of this post: https://n3tdm.tdmorris.com/week-4-setup-part-1/

First of all, for this project you MUST be a licensed Amateur Radio Operator. In the USA, that means passing a licensing exam and being assigned a callsign from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). For licensing information check out the American Radio Relay League.

Register your Callsign for Dstar

1. Follow the instructions to register your own callsign found here: http://www.dstargateway.org/D-Star_Registration.html
2. After you receive your confirmation email, go to this page to learn how to assign terminal ID’s to your callsign (STEP 1 only). Terminal ID’s are just what they sound like, it’s an identifier for your individual station. If you’re just using one radio, you can typically set a terminal ID of a single space, however we’re setting up a repeater, so you would need the space terminal ID and whatever module you’re using B for 70CM or C for 2M frequencies.
3. My terminal ID’s look like the following: 
4. Here is more information on Terminal ID’s: https://wb1gof.dstargateway.org/DStarTerminalIDs.html
5. After you’ve registered for DSTAR you need to get a CCS7 ID for DMR.

Get a ccs7 id number for DMR / DSTAR

1. Head over to this site and fill out the form selecting the option for a private callsign and NOT a repeater. I’m going to be setting up a private repeater for experimentation so it won’t be running 24/7.
2. Once your request is processed, you’ll receive an email containing your CCS7 ID number. Put that in a safe place.

Setup and Configure wifi

In order to configure this, because I had no way of getting the IP address from a headless Raspberry Pi, I connected a crossover cat5e cable between the Pi and a PC so I could connect into it and make adjustments.

That said, I want to first explain how I setup the enterprise WiFi for the Pi to work on Pitt’s wireless network.

1. 1. I followed the instructions located here: https://gist.github.com/chatchavan/3c58511e3d48f478b0c2
   2. First open a new tab in your browser and go to
      Windows: http://pistar/admin/expert/ssh_access.php
      macOS: http://pistar.local/admin/expert/ssh_access.php
   3. Enter “pi-star” without the quotes for the username and press enter.
   4. Enter “raspberry” for the password without quotes and press enter.
   5. You should be greeted with a screen spelling out PI-STAR.
   6. Now type

      sudo nano /etc/networking/interfaces

   7. You should see the following screen:
   8. Use the arrow keys to navigate the page and move down to the section that says

      allow-hotplug wlan1
      iface wlan1 inet manual
              wpa-conf /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf

   9. Erase the section above and enter the following:

      auto wlan1
      allow-hotplug wlan1
      iface wlan1 inet dhcp
      	pre-up wpa_supplicant -B -Dwext -i wlan1 -c/etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf
      	post-down killall -q wpa_supplicant

   10. Press CTRL+o and press enter, then press CTRL+x to exit the nano editor.
   11. Then go to the Configuration page of your Pi, then to the Expert tab, then click “WiFi” in the “Full Edit” line of editors.
   12. You should see a list of networks (probably just one) after a header of sorts
   13. Make sure the country code following “country=” matches your country code. In the USA it’s “country=US” without quotes.
   14. For the enterprise wifi you need to make a new network in this config file. For WIRELESS-PITTNET at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford, I used the following settings. In this editor I set up the following network:
   15. Go back to your SSH access page in your browser and do the follow steps.
   16. Enter the following substituting YOUR_PASSWORD with your university email password leave the single quotes around your password. and press enter.

       echo -n 'YOUR_PASSWORD' | iconv -t utf16le | openssl md4

   17. Next copy the resulting random letters and numbers into the WiFi editor in the other tab after the colon where it says “password=hash:”
   18. Now go back to your SSH editor and clear your history by typing:

       history -c

   19. Press “Apply Changes” at the bottom of the page beneath the wifi editor.
   20. If you followed these steps correctly your pi should connect to WIRELESS-PITTNET.

Configure Pi-star

1. In your browser go the main page of your Pi-Star dashboard at:
   Windows: http://pi-star/
   macOS: http://pi-star.local/
2. You should see the following page:
3. Start by selecting MMDVMHost and Duplex (repeaters) or Simplex (personal hotspots), then click apply changes.
4. After the services are restarted, you should see the following page:
5. I started the configuration process without the actual interface board, keep that in mind. I did not activate any services yet, however I set the hostname, the node callsign, the RX/TX Frequencies, the GPS coordinates, the town (in the format of “city”, “grid locator”, the country, the URL (this can be either a manual URL of the dashboard for the repeater or automatic and will default the QRZ page for the node callsign), the node type (public – anyone can use it / private – only the node callsign can use it), the time zone, and the dashboard language_country code.
6. You can also setup the firewall if you wish. Private makes it only work within your local network, public will make it work from outside your network provided the correct ports are forwarded on the router.
7. I left Auto AP on because if the Pi doesn’t/can’t make a network connection, it will create a wifi hotspot of it’s own so you can connect to it and configure the network settings.
8. I left UPNP turned off. If your router also has UPNP, you can turn this feature on and Pi-Star will configure your router’s firewall to open the necessary ports.

I found a neat little circuit board on eBay that works with MMDVMHost software and is a mini personal repeater on a single board. I thought this would be a great way to demonstrate a repeater without having to bring in multiple radios, a power supply, the computer, etc. So I’m going to use the MMDVM_HS_Dual_Hat. The board on eBay is a cheaper Chinese “clone” of the original board which is pictured below.

Author: Tyler Morris

I am a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford. I earned a B.S. in Computer Information Systems & Technology with a minor in Digital Graphic Design in Dec. of 2018. My focus is on computer repair and web design. I also earned my extra class amateur radio (ham radio) license in 2008. I currently spend my time helping other hams setup DSTAR/Digital repeaters, maintaining a local DSTAR hotspot, taking photographs, occasionally volunteering on committees at Pitt-Bradford, and keeping goldfish and koi. View all posts by Tyler Morris