The programming cable for my #Cotre #CO04D showed up the other day, a holiday project.

The programming cable I have has a #CH340 chip in it, and my Windows machine is a "Windows on Arm" system (sigh), so I have to track down and figure out how to install the proper serial drivers. (Or, I need to borrow a proper x64 Windows machine to program it, that might be way easier.)

My reference info still comes from https://jhart99.com/better-cheap-dmr/ (who reports that a CH340 based setup worked for him)

The programming cable for my Cotre CO04D showed up today, so I have a holiday project.

This is a (not very good) very cheap ($17) UHF DMR/FM radio with a small number of programmable channels.

Task 1 is to get it to talk to my Pi-Star DMR hotspot, and get into #Fedihams . I'll also set up a few analog channels and try the top of the parking structure to hit a local UHF repeater ( #N8LBV 443.05+ PL107.2 )

A writeup from jhart99 :

https://jhart99.com/better-cheap-dmr/

#cotre #co04d

Hacking on #hamradio , today's device under test is a very cheap $17 Cotre #CO04D DMR/FM UHF radio (more like a walkie-talkie, but still). Waiting on a programming cable so that I can get it to transmit in the 70cm amateur band instead of whatever the heck it's preprogrammed for.

The little thing looks like a Nokia candy bar phone with a stubby antenna and a big "transmit" button where the display would be.

Is it an awful radio? Almost certainly yes. Can I make it work? Also yes.

Recording using GQRX 2.15.9, Nooelec NESDR Mini 2, Nagoya UT-72 mag mount antenna, Cotre CO04D radio tuned to factory "channel 9" (analog).

The nominal frequency is 464.189 MHz, which I don't believe for a moment is the real frequency of either the radio or the SDR. But it's somewhere near 464.

I also transmitted on "channel 1", which had the distinctive DMR pulsed signal on the waterfall display.

Some noise before and after the recording.

[ #cotre #co04d #sdr ]

My very inexpensive ($17) DMR radio showed up in the mail. It's a Cotre CO04D, which uses an #Auctus A6 radio SoC as its brains.

cc @N2DYI

What hasn't shown up yet is the corresponding programming cable for it. I have an SDR which should tune to the 70cm band to see what the preprogrammed channels are while I wait for the cable to arrive.

jhart99's writeup:

https://jhart99.com/better-cheap-dmr/

which includes how to hack your own cable.

[ #dmr #cotre #co04d ]