We’ve been using the down time to catch up on some overdue tasks – particularly the product documentation. We move quickly to deploy new features and to update existing ones, the unfortunate side effect is that the documentation sometimes lags behind.

It’s a good time to review SMARTPHONE SOFTWARE, ADVANCED SETUP and MANAGING WIFI.

73 … Gerry.

The last shipments before the sojourn will be made on December 26th.

We will leave the store open and accept orders – but your order will NOT BE SHIPPED UNTIL AFTER JAN 27TH. Shipments will resume in the order that payment was received.

Please be aware of this because if you submit an order in that period and then want to cancel it – we will deduct the credit card transaction fees from the refund per our normal terms.

73 … Gerry.

• UX and process improvements for WiFi Management
• UX improvements in configuration routines
• Various bugfixes

73 … Gerry.

• Notifications will now use your Tags to identify your nodes and your connections. This feature will only work once you have re-sent your AllStar Setup to each of your nodes – this is how your nodes get updated with the Tags you use in your iOS and Android Mobile Apps. This feature is turned on by default – to turn it off go to “Your Nodes” > “Settings” and turn off “Use Tags in Notifications”.
• The “Play NWS” button will now only appear if you have enabled SkyDescribe in your “AllStar Setup” > “SkywarnPlus Options”
• You can now add the “/L” and “/R” suffixes to your CW ID – “Node Details” > “AllStar Setup” > “AllStar Server” > “CW ID suffix”. Our understanding is that these suffixes are no longer required by the FCC, but some folks like to add them anyway.
• When your connections are displayed in the mobile app, there is a new state “Connecting” as well as “Monitor” and “Tranceive”.

73 … Gerry.

This is a minor bug fix release to address issues with selecting values from lists such NWS Alert Types and SkyDescribe languages. Recommended for all all Android users.

73 … Gerry.

The AllStarLink team has released a new set of packages for the Version 3 Raspberry Pi Appliance Image. If you are running the new ASL3 image on your Pi 4 or Pi 5 based ClearNode you should get warned in the mobile app and offered the upgrade to Version “Asterisk 20.10.0+asl3-3.1.0-1.deb12”, We recommend all ASL3 users accept the upgrade.

During the upgrade the Red LED on top of your ClearNode will fast flash. This upgrade takes several minutes – be patient – don’t interrupt power – wait for the node to reboot.

(For those curious about the changes – we are going to leave the “legacyaudioscaling” set to the default “yes” for ClearNode, pending ongoing efforts at AllStarLink.org and more reports from the community.)

73 … Gerry.

A significant number of users seem not to be accepting automatic updates to the latest version of the ClearNode Mobile Apps (iOS and Android). The recent version 1.57 is mandatory since it deprecates some older APIs. This minor update to the RedNode API just warns folks that they have not yet updated their mobile apps and thus some of their commands are failing.

73 … Gerry.

• In app display that node is busy updating software
• Implemented setup sequence checking and data backup for WiFi Setup and USB Audio
• Play NWS Alerts via SkyDescribe, from app without using DTMF  commands, “Play NWS …” buttons will appear on the Node Details screen when appropriate.
• UI improvements and fixes
  

73 … Gerry.

We currently have a new high-power simplex package available in the store. Featuring the Yaesu Dual Band FTM-6000. Combined with our ClearRPT and a fully terminated 3′ cable – this is a quick, plug-n-play solution for your local area needs.

73 … Gerry.

Here’s what’s new:

• Fixed logrotate issues in ASL3
• Enabling CTCSS “reverseburst” setting for the SA-818 radios (for eliminating “squelch crash” in HTs that support this feature)
• Enabling “remotetx” setting in AllStar Setup (customize the local control tone when your HT keys down)
• Reorganize the internal SA-818 radio configuration process (you shouldn’t notice any difference)
• Configuration version warning for Voice Announcements and Radio Configurations (if you have a newer version on your phone than that saved on the node you get warned.)
• Some configuration routines were not updating the “asl” login password for ASL3 devices

73 … Gerry.