Dropping a Phoenix Talkgroup on a Hotspot (DMR Part 3a)

This is a quick addendum to Part 3, which has been amended to include TG400.

When operating on the Phoenix network using a hotspot, sooner or later you will have the frustrating experience of opening a user-activated talkgroup that is in use by a QSO... which you than can't manage to release so that you can listen to a different talkgroup.

Unlike other networks, the Pi-Star dashboard does not have a "drop" option for Phoenix talkgroups. In fact, there are three ways to disconnect:

1. Wait 15 minutes without transmitting on that talkgroup. It will time out. You can monitor the timeout on the Phoenix F dashboard - it is the number in parentheses after the talkgroup number.

2. Reboot the Pi-Star! Drastic, but it works.

3. Make a group call to TG400 (yes, 400). I found this out from this useful post on the Pi-Star forum: What is the correct method to drop a TG on Phoenix? - forum.pistar.uk

So, to add TG400 to your codeplug:

  1. Create a Digital Contact with a Group Call to TG400 (called "TG400 Disconnect")
  2. Create a Channel corresponding to the Contact (also called "TG400 Disconnect")
  3. Add the Channel to a Zone
  4. Save and upload the Code Plug
Now when you need to drop any user-activated talkgroups, you can "kerchunk" on the TG400 Disconnect channel. Unfortunately it is quite difficult to do this, as your rig won't let you double with any active traffic so you have to jump into the gap between overs... assuming the active QSO leaves a gap! This can take several tries, but it does work.


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