Sydney DMR and P25 repeaters

[citabria]

Hi Guys,

I have been a long time P25 users in the HAM bands now, and I am starting to play around with a MD380 DMR radio as well. Is anyone else playing around with digital modes on HAM radio?

Cheers,
Matt

[JAFO]

WICEN put out a Expression of Interest back around November 2019 from memory, asking members if they would be interested in doing a group purchase of DMR Radio's.

Don't know what the take up was, or if it was for the HAM Bands or WICEN's own Commercial Network or a 3rd Party Network Provider.

[JAFO]

WICEN as part of the COVID-19 Prep's, are required to report Members Status on a Daily Bases. WICEN is doing so by a runing a Call-in Net at 09:00 & 21:00hrs daily, with the WICEN VKDMR Network, Talkgroup 3810 monitored at 09:00 for the Call-in. https://nsw.wicen.org.au/

Having been off air for 2 years, I'm not up on the WICEN VKDMR Network or DMR/P25 Digital Amateur Systems in general at all. Last I knew . . . 'F' Callsigns were not permitted to use Digital, but looks like that restriction had been lifted, so I'm in catch up mode.

Kev might know more.

[Longreach]

Grant,

Just go and apply for your radio id via www.radioid.net and it'll come through in the next few days. Since the F calls have been allowed access the digital modes have gone nuts.

Good to see

Cheers
Matt
VK2MRC

[JAFO]

Thanks Matt,

will have a look

[JAFO]

Matt,

Was interesting reading and watching some YouTube of the Amateur Radio DMR material yesterday at work.

Can understand why DMR Networks have popped up everywhere, unlike Internet Linking, DMR Protocol provides heaps more flexibility.

And by the looks of it, the many hated Chinese Radio Manafatures are the ones running with the DMR consept, as I was unable to find one original mainstream radio manufacturer cattering for the Amateur Radio DMR market, Icom, Yasue only supporting their own D-star and Fission Digital systems.

Plenty of Handheld DMR Units to look at, just need to wait for a Half Decent looking Remote Head DMR Dual Band Radio to come available now.

Grant.

[JAFO]

Grant,

Just go and apply for your radio id via http://www.radioid.net and it'll come through in the next few days. Since the F calls have been allowed access the digital modes have gone nuts.

Good to see

Cheers
Matt
VK2MRC

Matt, sorry mate been a while. About a month ago I ended up getting an Alliance UH-1 handheld.

Got it all programmed up . . . . and nothing . . . unable to key any repeaters from my home location. So off for a drive up to Hawkesburry Lookout, with a little height advantage and twinkling here and there got the Alliance UH-1 working on Dural, Chatswood and Terrey Hills . . . tried out the Parrot TG and had good audio playback on each of the DMR Repeaters. About a week later went for a drive over to Southerland, and got it working on Engadine and got it working other there as well, and ended up listened to two DX operators have a nice chat for 5min or so.

After chatting with Kev, he suggested as a work around the issue of not being able to key any of the DMR Repeaters from my home location, to look at a WiFi DMR Hotspot, Have looked into what the Hotspots are and how much they are and cost is ok, but I have heard 'F' callsigns may not be able to register on the Hotspot Server System due to the registration process only allowing 6 digit callsigns in the registration process, and not 7 Digit''s as the 'F' Callsigns are, heard this is a problem with other manufactures with Icom and Yaesu Digital Platforms too and one reason why there is a push to change 'F' Callsigns to 6 digit callsigns rather then the current 7 digit callsigns.

So at the moment, I'm researching the DMR Hotspots and also pondering on the idea of updating my Icom IC-208H to a Analoge/DMR Dual Band Mobile Radio. The Hotspot would come into it's own travelling around, given what Mobile Phone coverage is these days it would give you National wide DMR Coverage somewhat . . . gee's . . . DMR Coverage even out Mungindi.

Grant

[Longreach]

Hi Grant,

Yes would most definitely suggest a hotspot or 2. I'm running 3 of them, 1 in the car and 2 at home but on P25.
We have a DMR repeater in Goulburn here so no need to have the hotspots on DMR.
Best ones I've found so far is the Pi 3B+ with the MMDVM HS-Dual Hat. The original one with the 3 euro callsigns on it, not the Chinese knock-off. Very reliable and super stable.
Try to avoid the simplex hotspots, I've found they just put garbage all over the UHF band making your scanners unusable while it Tx's. And that's all types even a good one in the ZumSpot.
Any probs though or help just flick us an email, my call at iinet.

Cheers
Matt
VK2MRC