Operations

Once your hotspot is configured and connected, day-to-day use mostly happens away from the Configuration page — on the Dashboard itself and the per-mode Manager pages under Admin. This chapter covers the things you’ll do regularly, once, or that don’t have an obvious home elsewhere.

Linking and unlinking reflectors and talkgroups

Every mode has its own mechanism for changing what you’re connected to, and its own place to do it from. The table below is a quick reference — see the linked chapter for full details on each.

Mode	Dashboard control	Radio-side control
D-Star	Admin -> D-Star Manager	Radio Link Command or DTMF (see D-Star Zero to Hero)
YSF / DMR2YSF	Admin -> YSF Manager	Kerchunk TG 70xxxxx to link, TG 7000000 to unlink (see DMR2YSF)
P25	Admin -> P25 Manager	n/a
NXDN	Admin -> NXDN Manager	n/a
DMR (dynamic talkgroups)	Radio-initiated only	Private call to a network’s control range (see DMRGateway Rewrite Rules)

Important

A link made through the D-Star, YSF, P25, or NXDN Manager (or a radio-side command) is temporary. It reverts to whatever “Startup Host” you configured on the Configuration page the next time the hotspot restarts — including during your nightly automatic update window. If you want a link to persist across restarts, set it as the startup host on the Configuration page instead. DMR works differently — see the BrandMeister and TGIF Managers below, which don’t follow this rule the same way.

Managing DMR talkgroups without the Configuration page

DMR has its own set of on-the-fly tools, separate from the D-Star/YSF/P25/NXDN Manager pattern above, because BrandMeister and TGIF each expose their own network-side APIs for this.

BrandMeister Manager

Admin -> BrandMeister Manager (only enabled when BrandMeister is enabled and DMR mode is on) manages your BrandMeister static talkgroups directly through BrandMeister’s own API — this is a separate, persistent favorites list, not the DMRGateway configuration file, and not subject to the “reverts on restart” rule above.

• Add & Link — paste one or more talkgroup numbers (one per line), choose TS1 or TS2 (duplex hotspots only), and they’re added to your list and linked immediately.

• Each listed talkgroup has its own link/unlink toggle switch and a Delete link. Unlinking (via the toggle) keeps the talkgroup in your list for later; deleting removes it entirely.

• Enable All / Disable All / Delete All act on your whole static list at once.

• A separate Dynamic Talkgroups panel (read-only, auto-refreshing) shows talkgroups currently linked via last-heard activity rather than your static list, each with a countdown to when it’ll automatically drop. Drop QSO and Drop All Dynamic let you end those early.

TGIF Manager

Admin -> TGIF Manager (only enabled when TGIF is enabled and DMR mode is on) sends a single link or unlink command straight to TGIF’s own network API for one talkgroup on TS1 or TS2 at a time. Unlike BrandMeister Manager, it doesn’t keep a persistent favorites list on the WPSD side — it’s a one-off “link this now” / “unlink now” action, so treat each change as something you may need to re-issue rather than a saved setting.

DMR Network Manager

Admin -> DMR Network Manager (only available in DMRGateway mode, with DMR enabled) lets you instantly enable or disable any of your whole configured DMR networks — BrandMeister, TGIF, or any other DMR network entries you have set up — without a full Configuration page apply/restart cycle. This is the fast way to temporarily take a network out of the mix (say, TGIF) without touching anything else.

Note

Networks disabled here come back automatically on the next reboot, update, or maintenance cycle — this tool is for quick, temporary changes, not a substitute for actually disabling a network on the Configuration page if you want it off for good.

If you’re still using the legacy single-network XLX configuration (rather than the newer multi-network XLX setup), this page also shows an XLX Link Manager: pick a reflector and module and click Request Change to switch immediately, with a live status readout of what you’re currently linked to.

Static talkgroups, by network

“Static talkgroup” means a talkgroup you’re always monitoring, whether or not anyone’s currently talking on it — as opposed to a dynamic one you link to on demand. WPSD doesn’t handle this the same way for every DMR network, because it isn’t a single, unified feature — it’s three genuinely different mechanisms depending which network you’re on:

• BrandMeister — use BrandMeister Manager above. This is the only network where WPSD keeps a real, persistent static-TG list for you.

• TGIF — use TGIF Manager above, keeping in mind it’s a one-off link rather than a saved list.

• Every other DMR network (DMR+/FreeDMR/ADN/HBlink, SystemX/FreeSTAR, your Custom DMR Network, YSF2DMR) — there’s no dashboard list at all. Static talkgroups are set by hand, as part of that network’s Network Options field on the Configuration page (each network section has its own — look for a field literally labeled Network Options). The exact syntax for static talkgroups is defined by the network you’re connecting to, not by WPSD, so you’ll need to check with that network for what they expect. As a concrete example, DMRGateway Configuration File shows a working SystemX options string: Options="RelinkTime=30;UserLink=1;TS1_1=2350;" — the TS1_1=2350 portion is what statically monitors talkgroup 2350 on timeslot 1 for that particular network.

Pausing and resuming modes

Admin -> Instant Mode Manager lets you Pause or Resume an individual mode (DMR, D-Star, YSF, P25, or NXDN) on demand, without editing the Configuration page or waiting through a full apply/restart of everything.

Pausing a mode stops just that mode’s gateway service and marks it disabled — the rest of your hotspot keeps running normally. It’s the right tool when you want to temporarily silence one mode (for example, DMR, while you troubleshoot something else) without touching your saved configuration at all.

Note

While any mode is paused, WPSD’s services watchdog is also disabled for the whole hotspot, since it would otherwise try to “fix” your paused mode by restarting it. It comes back automatically once every paused mode is resumed. If several modes are paused, a Resume All button appears to bring everything back at once.

Tip

The Profile Manager will ask you to resume any paused modes before it lets you save, switch, or delete a profile — this is why, if that message ever shows up unexpectedly.

Location and APRS reporting

WPSD can report your hotspot’s position and status to the APRS-IS network. This is entirely optional and off by default.

Setting a fixed location

In the Node Location & Info Settings section of the Configuration page, enter your Latitude and Longitude in decimal degrees. This is the position WPSD will report if APRS is enabled below, and it’s also used for things like the WPSD public hotspot map.

Enabling APRS

Toggle APRS Gateway on in the same section. Doing this publishes your entered location on the APRS network under your callsign, so only enable it if you’re comfortable with that.

Once enabled, choose an APRS Host from the pool dropdown — this is the APRS-IS server your hotspot will report to.

Below that, you’ll find a separate Publish APRS Data checkbox for each mode you have enabled (DMR, YSF, D-Star, NXDN, IRCDDB). Each one independently controls whether that mode’s gateway sends APRS updates — you don’t have to enable all of them just because APRS is on.

Note

Live position reporting from a gpsd-connected GPS receiver (rather than the fixed Latitude/Longitude above) is not currently functional — the upstream gateways’ GPSD support is not working at this time. Use a fixed Latitude/Longitude for now.

Where to find live activity

The main Dashboard shows a Last Heard list of recent activity on your hotspot, and (hardware permitting) live Caller Details and Talkgroup Names for the station currently transmitting. These last two are disabled automatically on lower-powered single-board computers, since name/location lookups are resource-intensive — this isn’t a bug, it’s a deliberate hardware-based trade-off.

If you want to pull Last Heard data into your own tools or a website, see the WPSD API.