Today’s printables.com is brought to you by… ME! I made a thing! This is for mounting my Yaesu FTM-400(xdr) head unit above my monitor. It’s about the simplest way I could think of to do this. Of course I’m designing a more complicated version that is also compatible with the 100 and 500.

The newest firmware was released for the Vero VGC VR-N76. Anyone not using .7.11 you can “officially” upgrade by using the app that connects to you HT.

Maxpedition makes the Fatboy. I put a 10 Amp LiFePO4 battery in the largest pocket, connected it to a WestMountain Radio 40 AMP backup power system up front. The Radioddity DB25-D is connected to the backup power system. Plug a charger in to the backup power system when needed. Foldable antenna.

For any that use the code plug software that came with the Radioddity GD-88, DB-25D, or DB-40D and live in Colorado or any area covered by RMHam here’s a code plug for you. If you instead use CPEditor from MM7DBT you will want this code plug. The code plug supports all three radios from Radioddity.

My Great-Grandmother gave me an old Realistic short-wave radio that my Grandfather used to listen to. The kind that had tubes in the final of the receiver. At night I’d listen to it. The warm glow of tubes, the incandescent amber light that lit up the face of the radio, the smooth audio. Exulansis!

If you own a GD-88 you may think you want a TD-BL-1. You would guess that his provides a bluetooth serial connection (9600 baud). And you’d be right, except… If you plan to use this you HAVE to use it with their software. It is not going to provide access to the 9600 baud serial port as a com port. This means several things: If you want to use it with a PC, you MUST get an account for online use. Won’t work offline unless you’re using Android/iOS. And then only after setting up access (on-line). That’s right, a process that has NO NEED of on-line capability… requires an internet connection at least once. Next, if you think you are going to use it with ANYTHING but THEIR software, you are wrong. It ONLY works for programming specific radios (analog BaoFengs and clones). I didn’t see any DMR radios listed.

Hot Radios BAOFENG BF-F8–HP Pro(For Web), 5RM(AR-5RM), GM-15 Pro, UV-17R(UV-21R), K5PLUS, UV-5RH, UV-5RX, UV-17Pro GPS, UV-25 || BF-F8–HP(Alter ver, Alter ver(Tri-power))

For BAOFENG UV-5R,AR-152, UV-82,UV-S9 UV-82L, UV-5X(UV-5G), UV-5RA, UV-5RE, BF-F8GP, BF-F8TD, BF-F8, BF-F8+, GT-3, UV-5XP(Beta), GT-5R(Beta), BF-888s, BF-88A(Beta), BF-88ST(Beta), BF-888S-PLUS(Beta),UV-13,UV-13 Pro, UV-9R Pro, UV-5RE+, UV+Plus. AlterVer(For the NOT on list radios, beta)

TID TD-V2, TD-M8, TD-M8s

For Tway UV-5R Pro, UV-82 Pro(Beta)

For Rddtiy UV-5G, GA-510, UV-5R EX(Beta), GA-5S(Beta), UV-82X3(Beta), GM-30(Beta)

For RT RT5R(Beta), RT5 (Beta), H-777, RT22FRS, RT22

Others QUANSHENG UV-K5, UV-K6; Talkpod A36plus, A-5R(Beta), Rh5R(Beta), KT-980HP(Beta), Ti-F8+(Beta), KD-C1(Beta), ZT-X6(Beta), LT-316(Beta), PX-888S(Beta), AR-5(Beta), Radtel RT-470 /RT-470L, Anysecu UV-A37, Hiroyasu HI-8811, MML JC-8810base

TIDRADIO UV-5R, UV-82, UV-5R Pro, F6, F9GP, 777S, 777Pro 777, 66, TD-H6, GM-5R, TD-H5

One of the first “accessories” I like to get for a handheld is a spare battery. This proved difficult to find for the VERO VR-N76. There aren’t any batteries available on the companies website. Amazon didn’t have any either. Obviously you have to look for the battery under a different product name (I speak fluent sarcasm). You can got to Btech’s website and find a battery available under the UV-Pro (exact same radio but without the wonderful fruit color assortment).

I promised we’d get to color codes. One of the features of DMR is the use of color codes to identify different user groups or individuals within a talkgroup. The color code consists of 4 bits, which can represent up to 16 colors. In practice, however, only a limited number of colors is used to avoid confusion. We save the confusion for calling it a “color” when it’s represented by a number. Repeaters use color codes “Rx CC” in the same way they use CTCSS and DCS tones. This prevents the repeater from keying up on every detection of the frequency the repeater receives on. A repeater can transmit a “Tx CC” so that your handheld only keys when the signal comes from the repeater.

The great thing about the VGC VR-N76 is its dependability. It’s an analog radio with a built in 1200 baud TNC, bluetooth, and USB-C chargeable batteries. The problem with it is it has 6 banks of 32 memory slots, and you CAN NOT use more than one bank at a time for BOTH VFO’s. Why is this an issue? If you have a bank of VHF repeaters, and a bank of UHF repeaters, you can select from memory in one bank OR the other. “So save some of each in a bank.” Sure… as long as you are okay with using up a bank for just that. If you are using the HT app to program and control your radio, you can go into the channel configuration “edit channel” and deselect Pre/De-emphasis. This will allow you to use an external 9600 baud TNC with the radio if you want to. The connector on the side of the radio is NOT a K1 connector! It is an M1 connector. You can get a K1 to M1 adapter here.

GD…..88 After updating the firmawre to the latest version (dated June) my GPS stopped working. This means APRS/DPRS doesn’t work either. If you go into Appendix->GPS->GPS Serial Data you’ll want to make sure all the boxes are checked. You have to check this in BOTH VFO’s. The setting is PER VFO. Once that’s done go to Appendix->GPS->GroupInfo->GPS Location->Select. Then when the GPS location screen pops up, push the down button. If you see ONLY GL satellites listed (instead of GL AND GP), you are suffering from the GPS bug. The fix… is to wait for Radioddity to post a new firmware. Considering it takes four months to post a fiirmware, we should see a fix for this in March or April of 2025.

I REALLY WANT to love the GD-88. It is… I woke up this morning to no receive audio. I tested on another DMR repeater. No audio. I tested on an FM repeater. No audio. I checked other sounds the radio makes (like power on). No audio. I plug in a hand speaker/mic… AUDIO! Well in the speaker mic anyway. Huh… Turns out there is a setting on the radio to only use an external speaker. And it got switched on between me signing off last night, and turning the radio on this morning.

Open the user.csv in Excel. Insert a column between CALLSIGN and FIRST NAME. Call the column FIRST NAME. In the new empty column you created under FIRST NAME, put this =CONCAT(D2," “,E2) What this does is take the first name out of the old first name column, add a space, then the last name, and put it in the cell the formula was placed in. Now copy that formula into every empty cell in the column under the created FIRST NAME column. You now have a column called FIRST NAME with the first and last name in it. Copy all the names in this column (select all of the names in the column and CTRL-C to copy them). Then paste them back in as a value. When you right click in the column and select paste be sure to select the paste version (the clipboard) that says VALUE. Delete the two original name columns. Save the file and install it in your GD-88 (in the CPS software under contacts->Ham contacts->fill 128 bytes switch at the top->Import). It’ll take an hour, but you’ll now have your database populated with all the first AND last names provided. This video shows the process at 22:30.

Two years ago Radioddity released the GD-88. HAD IT BEEN READY for release it would have been hot competition for the Anytone 878. But, it was severely…. undercooked? It had some pretty major bugs. In the ensuing two years bugs have been squashed and it lacks a highly important feature. Bluetooth. The GD-99 must 100% do all the features the GD-88 came with on release AND have Bluetooth audio AND data. It should have all the satellite functionality from the OpenGD77 software. Radioddity could have programming software available for Android and iOS. Until then GD-88 users wait for GPS and APRS bugs to be squashed so these features work again.

In DMR there are two types of contacts to consider. There is the contact database that you can download. This is a list of call signs, names, and locations. You can also create your own contacts by using a name and DMR ID. You can then associate a name with a zone like “ARES team” or “Cycling event.” You associate a frequency, bandwidth, time slot, and color code with the contact so communication happens. So what’s a color code?

Let’s talk about ONE PART of DMR. Zones. Zones are just an organizational structure. You can name them anything you want, the name is local to YOUR device. Your zone name doesn’t have to match anyone else’s. A zone is just a collection or a group of people, places, and things. Next up, contacts.

If you are keeping track of how useful the GD-88 is… It does satellite (true cross band), APRS, SSTV and WinLink (with the BTech APRS-K1 Pro cable), DMR, dual mode (digital to analog and/or analog to digital), single frequency repeater (two timeslots, one frequency), and… what else is there?

Now that RadioMail for iPadOS has a built in 1200 Baud TNC you can connect to your GD-88 using a BTech APRS-K1 Pro and WinMail using the HT.

If you have an FT100D you can add an SCU-58 cable, plug it in to your WIN11 PC, and using Wires-X software connect to digital or analog rooms. The FT2D can connect to the 100D wirelessly using (LOW1), turn on attenuation for that VFO, and set to half deviation. Antenna is a Diamond SRH770S.

Interested in trying out WinLink on an iPad Pro? You’ll need RadioMail from the app store and a Vero VGC VR-N76 in your choice of colors. Bluetooth connection from the VR-N76 to the iPad, RadioMail sees the built in TNC, and you’re off to the races.

The 11th through the 17th of November the ISS passed over transmitting SSTV images. I used the following: handheld antenna (an arrow antenna), HT (Radioddity GD-88), and BTech APRS-K1 Pro cable (connecting GD-88 to iPad Pro running SSTV from BlackCat software) to receive and decode SSTV images.