=  NOW 40 WPM  =  

OPERATING SYSTEM, FOLLOWED BY THE UPDATE OF THE MOTHERBOARD, AND
FINISHING WITH THE DISPLAY.  THE UPDATE OF THE OPERATING SYSTEM MUST
BE DONE WITH THE INCLUDED MICROSD CARD LOCATED INSIDE THE DVMEGA
CAST, BECAUSE ITS THE NANOPI COMPUTER OPERATING SYSTEM.  TO DO THIS,
YOU MUST FIRST OPEN THE ENCLOSURE AND EXTRACT THE MICROSD CARD,
WHICH IS LOCATED IN A CRAMPED PLACE AS SHOWN IN FIGURE 7.  YOU WILL
NEED TO CONNECT THE MICROSD CARD DIRECTLY INTO A COMPUTER TO
TRANSFER THE OPERATIN DISPLAY IS CRISP, ITS EASY TO USE, AND THE
EXPERIENCE IS COMPARABLE TO WHAT THE MAJOR MANUFACTURERS PRODUCE.
ANOTHER PLUS IS THAT IT MATCHES VERY WELL WITH THE OTHER EQUIPMENT
IN MY STATION.  AT FIRST GLANCE, I WAS PUZZLED THAT IT WAS A
COMPUTERIZED IP RADIO.  THE OPERATION OF SUCH RADIOS BASED ON
MINICOMPUTERS, SUCH AS HOTSPOTS, IS OFTEN VERY CAPRICIOUS.  STARTING
AND STOPPING THE DEVICE MUST FOLLOW A STRICT PROTOCOL TO PREVENT
CORRUPTION OF THE SOFTWARE LAYER.  TO THE CONTRARY OF MOST HOTSPOTS,
THE DESIGN TEAM INCLUDED A PWR BUTTON RIGHT ON THE MAIN SCREEN TO
TURN THE RADIO OFF.  THE POWER ON BUTTON IS ASSOCIATED WITH THE
ROTARY ENCODER KNOB, WHICH INCORPORATED A PUSHBUTTON FUNCTION.  THIS
PUSHBUTTON HAS TWO FUNCTIONS THE STARTUP OF THE RADIO WHEN THE RADIO
IS OFF, AND A MUTE FUNCTION ON THE LOUDSPEAKER WHEN THE RADIO IS ON.
RADIOID JUST LIKE ALL DIGITAL HOTSPOTS, BEFORE YOU START PROGRAMING
THE DVMEGA CAST, YOU MUST HAVE A REGISTERED RADIOID.  THIS IS
REQUIRED TO ACCESS MOST DIGITAL REFLECTORS IP REPEATERS, INCLUDING
DMR, D STAR, AND C4FM.  OBTAINING THIS RADIOID IS FREE OF CHARGE
FOLLOWING THE REGISTRATION OF YOUR CALL SIGN ON THE RADIOID WEBSITE
WWW.  RADIOID.  NET/ REGISTER.  THEN JUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS.
YOU WILL BE ASSIGNED A UNIQUE RADIOID LINKED TO YOUR CALL SIGN BASED
ON YOUR COUNTRY OF ORIGIN.  FOR EXAMPLE, MY CALL SIGN, VE2BQA, IS
ASSOCIATED WITH RADIOID 3022218.  ALL US STATIONS WITH A RADIOID
START WITH THE NUMBER 31, AND ALL CANADIAN STATIONS START WITH THE
NUMBER 30.  ONCE YOU HAVE OBTAINED YOUR RADIOID, YOU CAN START THE
FIRST CONFIGURATION.  INITIAL SETUP LIKE ANY ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEUR
RADIO OPERATOR, I WAS EAGER TO HOOK IT UP WITHOUT FULLY READING THE
DOCUMENTATION, THIS RESULTED IN ME HITTING MY NOSE ON A SPLASH
SCREEN WITH A SCROLL BAR READING STARTING SYSTEM.  AFTER WAITING A
FEW MINUTES, I REALIZED THAT MAYBE SOMETHING NEEDED TO BE DONE
BEFORE THE FIRST START.  SO I DOWNLOADED THE MANUAL, AND ON PAGE 6,
I NOTICED THAT I HAD TO CONNECT THE UNIT TO MY HOME NETWORK VIA THE
RJ45 WIRED CONNECTION FOR THE FIRST START.  THE USER MANUAL IS
AVAILABLE ON THE PRODUCT WEB PAGE DIRECTLY ON THE MANUFACTURERS
WEBSITE AT WWW. DVMEGA. NL/ DVMEGA.  THE RADIO REQUIRES ACCESS TO A
WIRED NETWORK FOR ITS FIRST INITIALIZATION TO ALLOW BASIC
CONFIGURATION WITH THEIR EMBEDDED PI STAR SOFTWARE.  YOUR NETWORK
SHOULD OFFER A DHCP SERVICE.  THIS FEATURE IS USUALLY ENABLED BY
DEFAULT IN YOUR HOME ROUTER.  THE DHCP ASSIGNS AN IP ADDRESS WITH
BASIC SETTINGS TO THE UNIT THAT JOINS THE NETWORK TO BE ABLE TO
COMMUNICATE WITH

=  END OF 40 WPM TEXT  =  QST DE W1AW  <
