When you use your WPSD hotspot to connect to a YSF reflector, a DCS room, a DMR network, or a P25 talkgroup, you are picking from a list. That list – the names, IDs, addresses, and ports your hotspot uses to make those connections – comes from hostfiles.

What Is a Hostfile?

Hostfiles are plain-text data files, one per mode, that your WPSD device downloads automatically and stores locally. They are the backbone of every reflector and network list you see in your hotspot’s menus and dashboard. Without them, your hotspot would have nowhere to connect.

What Do Hostfiles Contain?

Different modes use different hostfile formats, but they all serve the same purpose: mapping a human-readable name or numeric ID to a network address so your hotspot knows where to connect.

The ID files (DMR ID, NXDN ID) are what allow your hotspot and linked systems to display a callsign next to an incoming transmission rather than just a raw number.

Talkgroup list files (for DMR, P25, and NXDN) are equally important: they map numeric talkgroup IDs to human-readable names. Without them, your dashboard would show a bare number like 3100 instead of BrandMeister Worldwide. WPSD downloads and updates these automatically alongside the other hostfiles, so your dashboard always displays meaningful talkgroup names rather than raw numbers.

Where Do Hostfiles Come From?

The canonical source of truth for digital voice hostfiles is DVRef, founded by Steve Miller (KC1AWV) and co-developed by KC1AWV and me (W0CHP). DVRef aggregates reflector and network information submitted by operators worldwide and is the registry that WPSD, Pi-Star, DVSwitch, and many other platforms draw from. Core DVRef team members include W0CHP (WPSD), Andy Taylor (MW0MWZ, Pi-Star), and Steve Zingman (N4IRS) and his brother Mike (N4IRR) (both of DVSwitch) – so the data flowing into your device ultimately traces back to a common authoritative source. Other prominent software that relies on DVRef data includes BlueDV, DroidStar, and SharkRF OpenSpot and M1KE devices.

RefCheck.Radio is a partner to DVRef, developed and hosted by me, W0CHP. DVRef uses the RefCheck.Radio API to perform live up/down validation of reflectors at registration time – so the moment a new reflector is added to DVRef, its reachability is confirmed. RefCheck.Radio also provides the ongoing hostfile scrubbing described in this document, as well as a public portal where anyone can see which reflectors are currently unreachable.

WPSD fetches its hostfiles from hostfiles.w0chp.net, the WPSD Hostfile Server. That server pulls from DVRef and RefCheck.Radio, processes the data, and publishes the final scrubbed files that your device downloads.

How WPSD Uses Hostfiles

Your WPSD device checks for updated hostfiles once per hour, but it will only download a new copy if its local files are more than 4 hours old. In practice, this means your device refreshes its hostfiles roughly every 4 hours.

Most other hotspot software updates hostfiles only once every 24 hours. WPSD’s 4-hour cycle is a deliberate differentiator – it means newly-added reflectors appear in your lists sooner, and reflectors that have gone offline are removed faster.

When new files are downloaded, WPSD updates its internal lists automatically. The next time you open a mode’s reflector selector, the updated list is what you see.

What Is Hostfile Scrubbing?

In an ideal world, every reflector listed in a hostfile would be online and reachable. In reality, reflectors go offline – operators retire them, servers crash, home internet connections fail – and no one removes them from the registry. The result is hostfiles full of dead entries that waste your time and clutter your menus.

Hostfile scrubbing solves this. Before the WPSD Hostfile Server publishes files to your device, it pulls scrubbed versions from RefCheck.Radio – a service that continuously polls every reflector in every hostfile to verify it is actually reachable. Reflectors that do not respond are removed before the file reaches your device.

The result: shorter lists, but ones where every entry actually works.

Which Modes Are Scrubbed?

YSF – Live Connection Counts

YSF hostfiles include a field for connected-user count. Historically this was always 000 because it was never populated with real data. It now reflects the actual number of users connected to each reflector at the time it was last checked, giving you a live sense of activity before you connect.

How Often Does Everything Update? The Full Pipeline

Your hostfiles travel through a three-stage pipeline before reaching your device, and each stage runs on its own schedule:

flowchart LR
    A["RefCheck.Radio
Polls every reflector
for availability

Every 30 minutes"]
    B["WPSD Hostfile Server
Pulls from RefCheck,
builds & publishes
scrubbed hostfiles

Every 4h at :37"]
    C["Your WPSD Device
Checks hourly;
downloads only if
local copy is >4h old

~Every 4-5 hours"]
    A -->|"every 4h at :37"| B
    B -->|"within ~1h of publication"| C
  

What this means in practice:

• When the WPSD Hostfile Server runs at :37, it is pulling availability data from RefCheck.Radio that is at most ~7 minutes old – the previous RefCheck sync ran at :30.
• Your device picks up each new set of published files within roughly an hour of them being available on the server.
• Worst case: the hostfiles on your device reflect availability data that is approximately 5 hours old. This has always been well within the norm for hostfile distribution – and remember, most other hotspot software only refreshes once every 24 hours.

Forcing an Immediate Update

If you need fresher data right now – say, a reflector you use has just come back online – you can force your WPSD device to re-download hostfiles immediately without waiting for the next automatic cycle:

Admin –> Advanced –> Tools –> Update Hosts Files

Keep in mind that forcing an update on your device only helps if the WPSD Hostfile Server has already published a new set of files since your last download. The server runs on its own 4-hour schedule regardless.

If you need to check whether a specific reflector is reachable right now, use the live validator at refcheck.radio – it performs an on-demand check without waiting for any scheduled cycle.

Why Did a Reflector I Use Disappear?

If a reflector that was previously in your list is no longer there, it failed its availability check and was removed from the published hostfile. Common reasons include:

• The operator took it offline for maintenance
• The operator has permanently shut it down
• The server hosting it crashed or lost internet connectivity
• A transient network issue occurred during the check window

In most cases, if the reflector comes back online, it will automatically reappear in the next published hostfile – no action needed on your end. If you believe a removal is in error, contact the reflector operator directly to confirm it is running and reachable from the internet.

Nothing Else You Need to Do

No configuration changes are required on your WPSD device. Everything described here happens automatically in the background. Your device will continue to fetch updated hostfiles on its normal schedule, and those files will now be cleaner and more accurate than before.

Hostfile scrubbing and availability checking powered by RefCheck.Radio – W0CHP.