Another toy, another mode...
The latest addition to the shack is a Connect Systems Inc CS7000-M17 Plus hand held radio. I got this because of interest in the M17 mode - see https://m17foundation.org/ generally for information.
The radio came from KB Cubed in the US (https://www.kbcubed.com/), not solely because the price had been reduced but also they were able to ship to the UK whereas other suppliers could not, or as far as I found anyway. It comes with a USB programming lead that attaches to the side once a cover is removed. However, as it came with the M17 mode already installed I have not yet needed this.
The radio, being the Plus model will also do DMR which means I may no longer need the MD380 but I have yet to try this out.
As there is no M17 activity around here I also needed a hotspot. I run the excellent pi-star package for DMR and POCSAG but there is a future issue - the main branch of the MMDVM software will no longer support M17 and once pi-star updates my hotspot would cease to function. As there is a WPSD branch with M17 retained I decided to set up a hotspot specifically for M17. The only Pi HAT I had would not support M17 so I ordered a Zumspot USB device which is working fine. Like my other Pi systems this is PoE powered via a HAT.
