DMR Radio Show

Ham Radio 360: DMR with K1RJZ (Digital Mobile Radio)

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I’ve owned a DMR radio for about 6 months now.  I’ve not made one contact with it!  I even loaned it to a friend to see if he could unlock the magic, no dice.

While at Dayton, I met Rick Zach K1RJZ at the DMR-MARC booth early one morning and began asking questions about DMR.  I soon knew that I needed to have Rick on the show to help demystify this new-fangled radio technology and help get me on the air!

DMR or Digital Mobile Radio is one of the hottest things happening in the Ham Radio Hobby right now.  Commercial success of the mode has driven down the prices and made it accessible to the Amateur Radio hobbyist.  Join us to learn how this exciting mode is quickly becoming a game changer!

DMR-MARC is an all volunteer organization that has been tasked with keeping DMR in order for the community.  If you are interested in getting on the air with DMR, DMR-MARC should be one of your first stops!

“  Rick, K1RJZ got back to us with a mispronunciation that he’d like to correct.  The multi format DMR networking platform is pronounced BRANDmiester and not BANDmiester.  He knew the correct name, but it just  needs a correction “

 

Notes from Jeremy:

Tytera MD-380 Hacking:  https://github.com/travisgoodspeed/md380tools

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Things I wish I had known when programming the MD-380
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The radio has 16 “channels” but a LOT of Zones.  a Zone is a collection of channels.
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Every Channel can have a scan list and a RX list.  The Scan List is a list of channels that can be scanned if you tell the radio to scan while on that channel – useful if you want to scan both timeslots of the same repeater, for instance.
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RXLists are lists of all of the talkgroups associated with a timeslot on the repeater.  For instance, for my local K8BIG, I have two RXLists – KABIG-TS1 and K8BIG-TS2.  All groups that appear on Time Slot 1 are in TS1 and same for TS2.
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Worldwide, Worldwide English, and North America aren’t for rag chewing – think of these as calling channels.  Once contact is made, you can take your conversation over to one of the “tactical” talkgroups such as TAC-310 or TAC-311 (depending on whether or not your repeater has these talkgroups).  These talkgroups are only active when someone calls for them via Push to Talk.

 

Thanks for listening!

73 Y’all

K4CDN

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18 comments

  1. Thanks for another great podcast. I’ve been curious about DMR and figured that there wouldn’t be much going on with it here in New Hampshire. Thanks to you and your guest, now I have to go and buy another radio. 🙂

    73,
    Dave

    1. Funny how that works….I have mine on the charger to try and get back up and running-thanks for listening, Dave!

    2. NH is actually one of the hotter geographic areas for DMR technology.

      This is much like the Huntsville area embracing D-Star many yeas ago.

      I can’t emphasize that if you are a ham, try them all! D-Star, Fusion, DMR. If you need to, find a friend with each mode. This is not a religion, this is a technology hobby so go for it.

  3. Cale, Rick, thanks for an interesting and well thought out podcast. I’ve been wanting to try out DMR and this is just what I needed to get going. Cale, the podcast is really evolving and your guests and guest hosts are always top notch. Thanks very much for putting in the effort.

    1. Mike, thank you for listening and letting us know you like where we’re headed 🙂 73

  4. Wow! Sure would like to find that kind of info for the Connect Systems 700 and 701

    1. Well, seems we may be in the same boat! I have the CS700 that was sold to me programmed by someone who knew how to and was able to put in all that was needed for my Call and MARC #. That said, I’ve still had 0 contacts (tried for a while yesterday) with the 700. I may call CSI (as their Customer Service is Lauded) for some help soon! Anything I find, you can be assured I’ll share! thanks for listening! (and commenting) K4CDN

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  6. Thanks for a great podcast episode. DMR demystified. I ordered my MD-380 from MTC and am already on the air this weekend. (Now I’ll go back and continue to figure out D-star.)

      1. I just bought my son an MD380 from MTC. Showed up in two days, finally got to get to know the radio and software a bit better.

        But now to give to to my son, K1DRZ. DARN! ?

        1. Since you got your radio from MTC at the same time I did, does your MD-380 lose the date/time every time you set it then turn the unit off? Or is it just mine?
          Grant / KG4SDR

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  9. Hello
    The name of the network is Brandmeister.
    We are having a lot of fun since we connected to this network here in Switzerland!!

    1. Yes and Brandmiester was corrected in the show notes the day after the recording. The correction should still be up.

      In New England at least, the vast majority of the repeaters are NEDECN + DMR-MARC. There are a few BM repeaters, fine repeaters and network, but NEDECN has the vast majority with between 70 & 80 linked repeaters in all six New England states.

      Fortunately, I can access both networks from my home QTH.

      Rick, K1RJZ

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