Barry, are there any reasonably accessible mobile/base stations DMR radios?

-----Original Message-----
From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Barry
Sent: Sunday, October 18, 2015 9:43 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: DMR radio

Greetings to all,

I recently posted a query about DMR, or Digital Mobile Radio.

 

I am now on air in this mode and can tell you all a little about it.

 

The DMR Mark Network is a network of VHF and UHF repeaters which presently extends to 44 countries. The repeaters tend to be linked both to regional and international networks. This means that you can have international contacts on a mobile or hand held radio, provided you can access a repeater.

 

Quite a few companies make DMR radios; perhaps Motorola is the best known. I just bought a Chinese radio called a Tyte or Tytera MD380. This is a hand held radio, max output 5 Watts. There is a VHF version and a UHF version. I bought the UHF because all DMR repeaters in Australia are on the 438 or 439 MHz band. The radio cost me about $160 US from Ebay. You can get them also from 409shop.net and I'm sure many other places.

 

A few points. The radio works on DMR and analog FM. It contains 1,000 programmable channels. To use this radio you must download the free software from the Tytera website. The software is reasonably accessable with JAWS, once you get the hang of it. You must program the radio with the software before you can use it.

 

Before you can operate DMR, you must apply for a DMR registration number from the DMR Mark website. It took about 6 hours for mine to arrive.

 

The radio has easy to feel buttons and knobs. There are two large buttons, one above and one below the PTT button. The functions of these can be programmed with the software. On top of the radio is a on/off and volume knob, and a channel knob. The channels don't loop, so you can easily work out where you are. Each bank of channels, in DMR they're called "Zones", has
16 channels in it. If you are able to access more than one repeater, you might want to put each one on a separate zone. Each repeater frequency offers two channels which can operate simultaneously. These are referred to as "timeslot 1" and "timeslot 2". Generally, 1 is for international and 2 is for local contacts.

 

I recommend you buy a radio with programming cable included. You can buy them cheaply, but it's simpler if you get the radio and cable together.

 

The first step to take is to see whether you have a local DMR repeater. I would then either join the Tyt-tytera MD380 yahoogroup, and/or any of the DMR groups on Yahoo, Facebook or elsewhere. Look for something called a "codeplug" for your local area. This is a file which someone else has created, which contains the settings you need for the repeater/s in your area. If you find one, it is simple to load into the software. Just add your unique DMR number in the the appropriate box and send the file to your radio. One of the functions which I programmed to one of those large buttons was "select zone", so that I could scroll between zones without having to worry about the menu.

 

You will see that some people like to add contacts to their radios. I don't see any point in this unless you have vision. If you have contacts programmed, when a station in your list transmits, you'll see their ID and callsign on your screen.

 

Once programmed, the radio is a sinch to use.

 

I hope to have encouraged at least some of you to give DMR a try.

 

Cheers,

Barry VK6SP.