‰ NOW 40 WPM ‰ THAN BEING STRICTLY ON OR OFF AS IT IS IN THE RSP1. THIS IS A HELPFUL ADDITION, AND I NOTICED THE BENEFITS IMMEDIATELY. I LIVE IN AN AREA WITH STRONG RF SOURCES, AND BEING ABLE TO SELECT THE PREAMPLIFICATION LEVELS WAS IDEAL. THE MOST VISIBLE DIFFERENCES ARE THE ANTENNA PORTS. WHILE THE RSP1 FEATURES A SINGLE FEMALE SMA ANTENNA PORT, THE RSP2 OFFERS THREE PORTS TWO FEMALE SMAS FOR 1R5 MHZ THROUGH 2 GHZ, AND ONE HIGH IMPEDANCE BALANCED PORT FOR LONG WIRE ANTENNAS FOR 1 KHZ THROUGH DMR MODE IN THIS MODE, YOU HAVE THREE CONNECTORS HOMEBREW/MMDVM BM BRANDMEISTER, DMR PLUS, AND TS REPEAT. YOU ALSO HAVE A VERY EFFICIENT AND USEFUL FEATURE FOR DMR, CALLED AUTOCALIBRATION, THAT ALLOWS YOU TO HAVE A GOOD SYNCHRONIZED TRANSMISSION OVER THE REFLECTORS. FOR C4FM CROSS MODE, SELECT A DMR CONNECTOR, BUT CHANGE THE MODEM SUB MODE TO C4FM ON THE MODEM PAGE. D STAR MODE ON D STAR, YOU HAVE TWO CONNECTORS, DCS/XLX AND REF/XRF DPLUS/ DEXTRA. THIS DEVICE HAS THE CAPABILITY TO CONNECT DIRECTLY TO D STAR REPEATERS AND GATEWAYS A CLEAR ADVANTAGE WHEN YOUR LOCAL CLUB IS USING DIFFERENT SETUP, SUCH AS THE ONE WE HAVE WITH THE VE2VPS NETWORK HERE IN THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC. C4FM YAESU SYSTEM FUSION THERE ARE TWO CONNECTORS AVAILABLE FOR THIS MODE, FCS AND YSF. NOTE THAT C4FM HAS TWO DIFFERENT VOICE MODES, DN FOR DIGITAL NARROW AND VW FOR DIGITAL VOICE WIDE. EVEN IF THE VW MODE CAN WORK WITH REFLECTORS, IT IS RECOMMENDED TO ALWAYS USE DN WITH ANY HOTSPOT. NOTE THAT ONLY DN WILL WORK WITH THE OPENSPOT DMR/C4FM CROSS MODE. FOR DMR CROSS MODE, SELECT A C4FM CONNECTOR, BUT CHANGE THE MODEM SUB MODE TO DMR ON THE MODEM PAGE. SPECIAL FEATURES DMR/C4FM CROSS MODE IS JUST ONE OF MANY SPECIAL OPENSPOT FEATURES. ANOTHER COOL FEATURE IS THE ABILITY TO INTERCONNECT TWO OPENSPOTS DIRECTLY IN POINT TO POINT USING THEIR IP ADDRESS. IT IS CALLED THE SHARKRF IP CONNECTOR ONE UNIT ACTS AS THE SERVER AND THE OTHER THE CLIENT. THIS OPTION IS AVAILABLE FOR ALL THE SUPPORTED DIGITAL MODES, AND YOU CAN STILL DO CROSS MODE BETWEEN DMR AND C4FM. IF YOU WANT TO CONNECT MORE THAN TWO OPENSPOTS, SHARKRF PROVIDES AN OPEN SOURCE SERVER APPLICATION. MULTIPLE OPENSPOTS CAN CONNECT TO THIS SERVER APPLICATION THERE IS NO CLIENT LIMIT, SO YOU CAN OPERATE YOUR OWN MULTI CLIENT SERVER. LETS SAY YOU HAVE ONE PREFERRED DMR REFLECTOR, TWO IN D STAR, AND ANOTHER IN C4FM. YOU CAN PREPROGRAM UP TO FIVE PROFILES. AFTER PROGRAMMING THE PROFILES, YOURE ABLE TO RECALL DIRECTLY FROM YOUR RADIO A COMBINATION OF MODE, FREQUENCY, AND REFLECTOR SETTINGS. YOU ALSO HAVE A VOICE ANNOUNCEMENTS FEATURE THAT IS VERY USEFUL TO CONFIRM A PROFILE CHANGE THROUGH YOUR RADIO. WHEN ADVANCED MODE IS SELECTED, YOU HAVE A LOT MORE CONFIGURATION POSSIBILITIES IN EACH PAGE. UNFORTUNATELY, THE LIST IS TOO LONG TO BE DESCRIBED COMPLETELY IN THIS ARTICLE, BUT THE ONLINE MANUAL IS QUITE DETAILED. CONCLUSION I RECEIVED MY OPENSPOT IN AUGUST 2016 AND HAVE BEEN USING IT EVER SINCE. SHARKRF PROVIDES VERY GOOD SUPPORT AND FREQUENT SOFTWARE UPGRADES THAT IMPROVE THE ‰ END OF 40 WPM TEXT ‰ QST DE W1AW ƒ