ALS3: Enable COR LED in HotSpotRadio UHF Duplex Repeater

I purchased a HotSpot Radio USB UHF Duplex repeater a little while ago. It works great and as I get to know it, I like it more and more. If you are looking for a great AllStarLink node I highly recommend it. For a great review and information on how to set it up for ALS3, check out the HAM Radio Crusader’s video here. While the USB Duplex Repeater has always worked very well with ALS3 it has always bugged me that the COR LED on it (the receive LED) was not working. This blog is an article on how to get that enabled.

The orange light in the above image is the COR light and that is the one we will get working.

Editing the Files in ALS3

Connect to your ALS3 server and then log into the Web Admin portal. Find the Terminal in the menu on the left side and click on it. This logs you into the servers shell CLI. We will all the configuration in the shell.

Edit the /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf

Scroll down to the stanza for your node. This will look have your node number inside square brackets. It’s usually located towards the end of the file. For an example, my node number is 633131 so my stanza I am looking for would start with [633131](node-main). We will be adding in a line that will have your node number in it. It will be events=events<your node number>. For mine, I include the following line (make sure to use your node number):

events=events633131

Then right above the stanza for your node, add in a new stanza as follows (remember to change the 633131 to your node number):

[events633131]
cop,62,GPIO4:1 = c|t|RPT_RXKEYED
cop,62,GPIO4:0 = c|f|RPT_RXKEYED

Make sure to type it in exactly as shown with the same case and change the 633131 to your own node number.

Where you are done, the two stanzas your edited should look similar to this (except you will have a different node number)

Save the /etc/asterisk/rpt.conf file now and exit out of it.

Edit the /etc/asterisk/simpleusb.conf file.

sudo nano /etc/asterisk/simpleusb.conf

Right at the end of the file should be your stanza for your node. Again look for square brackets with your node number in them. We are going to add in one more line to control the GPIO pin. Add in the following line at the end of your node stanza:

gpio4 = out0

Your whole stanza should now look something similar to this (note it will have your node number instead of 633131):

Save the /etc/asterisk/simpleusb.conf file and restart your node. You should now see the orange COR light working as your nodes receiver sees a signal.