More information from Connect Systems

Based on the feedback I have seen on this Yahoo group, there are many of you who cannot read or comprehend. While I won’t embarrass those members because they seem to be working for our competitors, I do not care if some others point out those people.

First let me dispel some items that are not true.

1. Some people are complaining about needing a JTAG for programming the radio. There is no JTAG in the radio so how someone made that leap is beyond me. 
2. Some people think it is going to take a rocket scientist to update the radio. It is not going to be difficult for the average competent HAM to update. You will have to short two points inside the radio while you are turning on the radio and then load some programs through the USB connector
3. Some people are saying that the new low cost radios are going to have all the features that is missing from the CS700  and be bug free. That is surprising because they are all based on the current firmware that we are abandoning.
   

More information from Connect Systems

UPGRADING CS700 TO CS700A
AND
UPGRADING CS700 TO CS750

To upgrade from a CS700 to a CS700A requires the following steps:

1. Get a copy of the tuning parameters.
2. Take the radio apart to get to the PCB
3. Short two points on the PCB and turn on Power
4. Load New Driver
5. Load New Firmware
6. Convert new tuning parameters to new turning parameters
7. Use service Monitor to tune certain parameters if necessary
8. Initialize code plug

There are three issues with having the customers do this themselves.
(1) If you make a mistake you might brick the radio and could take at least 4 hours to recover.
(2) If you short the wrong spot on the radio you might damage the radio.
(3) We have no way of protecting our intellectual property from being copied by other manufacturers.

Connect Systems decided that because we cannot have the customers do the upgrading themselves because of the above reasons, we would charge a nominal fee of only $20 including shipping within United States to upgrade an old CS700 to the new CS700A. For customers outside the United States, we will charge $15 plus shipping. For those customers it would be advantageous to ship multiple radios at the same time.

To Convert the CS700 to a CS750 requires the changing of a memory chip. This means unsoldering an existing IC and soldering in a new IC. Then you following the above 8 instructions. For that the price is $60 including shipping. For customers outside the United States, we will charge $55 plus shipping. For those customers it would be advantageous to ship multiple radios at the same time.

To upgrade your radio call (818) 889-0503 after the Dayton Hamvention for a RMA number. With the RMA number, you must include the radio, your return shipping address, and a check or credit card number to cover the cost of upgrade.
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CS700A

The CS700A is the old CS700 Hardware with some new firmware. Among some of the features in the first version of the CS700A is programmable Mike Gain and Nuisance Channel Delete. Future updates will have some of the other features I promised a long time ago. If you are happy with the CS700 you have now, there is no compelling reason to upgrade your radio. The outside of the radio is still marked CS700.
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CS750

The Original CS700 was designed for the commercial markets and as such did not have certain features that was desired by the Amateur market. The CS750 is the first DMR compatible radio to be designed specificially for the Amateur market. In the commercial market, having one thousand contacts is probably more than you will ever need. There is nearly 10,000 contacts available just in the DMR-MARC network and all those contacts and more can be stored in the CS750. The Papa Amateur Club has nearly 1000 channels covering its repeaters up and down the California coast. Our radios will have more than 1000 channels. The Amateurs have a need to add channels while away from their computers. The CS750 will have keypad programming. Some of the other features that the Amateur Community has asked for will be in there such as Nuisance Delete and Mic Gain. More features will be added as we get feedback from the Amateur Community. The price for this radio is $239 if ordered directly from Connect Systems. The price is $229 if your order 10 or more at the same time. You will also save on shipping cost per radio. Some of the features described will not be available on the first release but will be added by a simple upload of new firmware. To order please call (818) 889 0503

How to update Contacts in the CS-700 codeplug

Here's the writeup I did for our club as an intro, in case it works for anyone else.

Radio ID Database

Every DMR ham has a Radio ID assigned to them by DMR-MARC, which is where this database comes from.

(Request link is here: http://www.dmr-marc.net/request_subscriberID.html) This same Radio ID can be programmed into all your radios, since only one will Tx at a time. 

It’s maintained by a team of guys that do a great job with really fast turnaround on updates and new registration.  The whole database is here:

http://www.n6dva.org/trbo-database/trbo_users_view.php

Filter the Listing

Go to Filters and set up:

Connect Systems CS700 DMR Portable Radio Review

The Connect Systems (CSI) CS700 portable radio is a low cost, high value Digital Mobile Radio (aka DMR) radio that has recently been released to the ham radio community. Overall, this is a great single band UHF DMR radio for ham radio use on the 70cm band and will make a great radio for anyone interested in getting started with DMR. At the time of this review, the pricing for a new CS700 directly from CSI was $180USD, which includes a 1-year warranty.

Price: $180USD
Author’s Rating: Excellent

(4 out of 5)

CS-700 Codeplug - Example

The PAPA CS-700 Codeplug is set up to get the PAPA System member on the air quickly. It is based on the CAL DMR CS-700 Codeplug with contributions and input from PAPA members (N9QE, KJ6RAY, KK6AL and WA6JFK), and has the following changes for improved PAPA System functionality:

• Mt. Lukens / Palm Springs / Mt. Woodson / Mt. Palomar / Santiago / Sunset Ridge DMR repeater Home Zones
• "PAPA Regional" talkgroup 7272
• "San Diego Regional" talkgroup 92101 (Mt. Palomar and Woodson)
• "Worldwide Spanish" talkgroup 14 and "Worldwide French" talkgroup 11 (Santiago only)
• Digital Contact list includes California and Nevada DMR users.
• Revised button definitions
• Most networked UHF DMR repeaters in California, Arizona and Nevada.
• "Local" channel uses a Digital RX Group Call so when the local channel is selected, you will hear (and be able to reply to) traffic on the Local and California Regional (SoCal, CenCal, NorCal) talkgroups for that repeater.
• Zones for the BAYCOM, SF TRBO, Nevada, Arizona and San Diego repeaters have actual talkgroups in use
• 5 custom scan lists (detailed below)
• PAPA analog repeaters
• "Placeholder" channels, Digital RX Groups, Scan Lists and Zones for your own customization

PAPA CS-700 Codeplug

CS700 MotoTrbo DMR - Scan list modification

The past week I have been reading over and over the Motorola Planning Guide (500 some pages) and been playing around to improve my scanlist to speed it up and other features on my radio.

First I thought I would just reduce the number of channels in my scan list, down to 7 TG plus one simplex. That was a bit better but at the cost of not scanning 8 not so busy TG.

No big deal, by the looks on Netwatch and CAN-TBRO last heard, they are rarely used, or rarely UA in Ontario.  ( test, DCI,MIT,NB,QC,MB,AB,BC )

So Monday eve while having dinner at a restaurant and reading again that planning guide on my iPad since this was bugging me and was telling Victor and Walter about my testing minutes before my dinner.   Then Bingo !! there it was in the guide.. use groups in the scanlist instead of channels.. So when I went home Monday eve I tried it and so far so good.   The results were Fast ! the only 3 items in my scan list. TS1, TS2 and one digital simplex; it could be 2 items but I like to have a simplex included.

Create the following Rx Group lists
TS1 with WW, EN, NA, CDN, DCI, MIT, TAC310, Test
TS2 with QC, ON, MB, AB, BC, NB, Local

Edited all the channels for the Toronto repeater or more for your testing..( Raglan, Hamilton..)
so for every channel that is on TimeSlot 1 it's RX Group is TS1 and every channel on TimeSlot 2 it's RX Group is TS2. 

Next step is to modify your scan list for that repeater....
Remove all channels in that scan list, except one channel from TS1 & one from TS2 and a digital simplex if you care.
So your scan list can have NA, Local channels for that repeater and Simplex channel.

Since NA listens to all TG on TS1 and Local listens to all TG on TS2 you will be covered for all TG just by scanning those two channels and faster than scanning 15-16 channels.

So for past three days it has worked fine; scanning is fast and even when the unit is not scanning I know and hear when the TS I am sitting on is busy, without having to key up and get the "repeater busy" tone. So now I just wait for the other TG on same TS to finish their QSO or a break to key up my TG on that TS. Or even sometimes it saved me from keying up my TG because now I knew the person I was trying to reach was on different TG same TS without scanning.

Programming Software for the Connect System CS700

This video is a quick preview of the new beta Programming Software for the Connect System CS700. Topics covered are:

- Things that haven't changed.
- Things that have changed that matter to Amateur Radio
- Contextual Help

CS700 Programming for Amateur Radio

This is a quick and dirty video that explains how to program the Connect Systems CS700 radio for use in Amateur Radio.

Connect Systems CS700 Canada contact phone number

Connect Systems CS-700 - Canada contact ::

Justin Coates

519 816 2841

justingcoates@gmail.com 

http://www.connectsystems.com/Canadian_orders.pdf

The price I quote for example to a resident of Ontario would be:

$220 for the radio

$28.60 (13% Sales Tax)

$15 shipping (my actual cost)

Total: $263.60 CDN

http://www.connectsystems.com/

CS700 Antenna Recommendation

With my CS700, I've been using the Larsen SPWH23450 whip antenna, with good result. Here are the details:

Larsen SPWH23450
Antenna Connector Option: SMA FEMALE-SFU TYPE
Actual Frequency: 425-475 MHz

There is also a stubby version:

Larsen SPHS23450
Antenna Connector Option: SMA FEMALE-SFU TYPE
Actual Frequency: 432-468 MHz

While not listed at The Antenna Farm, either of the antennas can probably be special ordered for around $20 each, plus shipping. http://www.theantennafarm.com

Review Connect Systems CS700 DMR Handheld

Let me start with a confession: personally I don’t care much about digital modes. That doesn’t mean that I don’t keep track of the latest technologies, and (hopefully) this short review is proof of that.

DMR-logoI’m not going to explain in detail what DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) is, as there are many sources on the Internet that will do a much better job than I could.

For your convenience I uploaded a DMR primer, the link can be found at the end of this article. What I would like to do here is give you a basic idea of what you can expect, and – just as important – what not.
What you can expect

    Talk around the world by using repeaters. The functionality isn’t much different from D-Star.
    Optimal use of frequency space (time slots). DMR uses 2 time slots, which makes it possible to have one frequency harbor two QSO’s at the same time without interference.
    Extensive encryption options to prevent eavesdropping (illegal for ham use). Unless you know one key (basic privacy) or two keys (extended privacy) other people can’t listen in.
    On-screen call sign recognition. In order for this to work you need to update the subscriber ID list regularly. This will also open up the option to use ‘call routing’ (calling a specific station regardless of his/her location in the world). You can get your own subscriber ID here.
    Sending and receiving text messages. Think of it as SMS on a cell phone. You can compose messages on the fly, or program a number of preset messages.

What you shouldn’t expect

    A technology tailored to ham radio use. It’s not. DMR was conceived with commercial purposes in mind. You won’t find any dual-band radios, for example. If you want to have a mature, ham oriented digital system, go for D-Star instead.
    Great audio quality. Seven out of ten times I wasn’t able to recognize familiar voices, not even from people I talk to on a daily basis. Most people sounded like they just had a root canal, with a truckload of anesthetics preventing them from forming words properly. It’s a bit less poor than D-Star, but opinions vary wildly.
    100% compatibility between various brands. There are some minor differences between Vertex/Motorola, Hytera and this CS700, but making QSO’s will always work.
    Plug & Play out of the box experience. If you open the box the radio is nothing more than a clumsy paperweight. You need to program it.
    Using these things to the max without some basic computer knowledge. If you hate computers, DMR is not for you. The number of screens to-be-filled-in in order to make a so-called ‘code plug’ will initially make your head spin. Fortunately you can almost always download a ready-to-use code plug made by someone else.

PAPA CS-700 Codeplug

The most notable changes are the Zones for the PAPA DMR repeaters. The new Zone layout places the more popular TG channels in the lower channel positions for easy movement between talkgroups.

Custom Scan Lists: There are 4 custom scan lists as detailed below.

"Local DMR": Scans the Local, SoCal, SoCal 1 & 2 and PAPA regional TG on the Lukens DMR repeater. Selected by scanning from the "Lukens- Local" channel.
"Local A/D": Scans Local, SoCal, SoCal 1 & 2, and PAPA regional TG on the Lukens DMR repeater as well as PAPA 3, 4 and 8. Selected by scanning from the "Lukens- PAPA" channel.
"Home ALL": Scans all talkgroups on the Lukens DMR repeater. Selected by scanning from the "Lukens- SoCal" channel.
"PAPA DMR": Scans the Local, SoCal, SoCal 1 & 2 and PAPA regional TG on all three PAPA DMR repeaters. You will only hear traffic from the repeater you are in range of... sort of a "poor man's roaming". Selected by scanning from the "Lukens- SoCal1" channel on all PAPA DMR repeaters.

Here is the layout: