Radioddity GD-77 programming software copies this format pretty closely (although very poorly right now), and this video helped me understand a great deal about how to use that software. Thanks for posting, very clear and organized.
Always thankful for the user-instructor who invests in a lot of time making a video so that DMR novices like me save both time AND frustration. Analog radio programming is sure of little value when tackling DMR radio programming.
BRAVO!, a short thank you for the time you've taken to teach others the knowledge you have gained. I must say, it has been very helpful in my quest to tackle this thing called DMR. see you on the air...
Excellent video , I have recently purchased a DMR radio and I am working towards getting on the air with this radio. Thanks for your help, enjoyed your video so much I subbed you as well. Thanks again and have a blessed week. Dale
what was it you said about the code plug at 25:18 ... "push out this code plug" I'm a little confused about what the code plug actually is... is it something you download? or is it simply the name for the information / programming you put into the radio during this video??
The term codeplug comes from the early days of commercial radios (I am told) where the configuration was loaded into a physical device that you then plugged into the radio. Today, the term is use to refer to the configuration file you create for the radio, then upload or "push" to the radi. This file can be saved and shared with other people just like any other file. RMHAM has sample codeplugs available for download on our website for various DMR radios. They can be used as-is or as a foundation for your own custom/personal radio configuration. They can be found on the Sample Codeplugs page of the site: www.rmham.org/wordpress/sample-codeplugs
Experiencing a steep learning curve with DMR. Whole new vocabulary with many similar and sometimes it seems interchangeable terms. This video helped a lot, and I will need to listen to it a time or two more. I know I am making progress, but I'm not there yet. Just received 2 of the new RD-5R Baofeng radios. They seem to work fine and the programming parallels what I see documented on other radios. But there don't seem to be any publicly available code plugs out there yet and rolling your own to a newbie is not trivial!
Thank you for a great video. I am still waiting for my first DMR set to arrive, and very slowly getting to grips with all this. Presumably, with the scan group "All Dig Channels", If you don't use all 16 channels in the Zone, you can create a channel, name it "Scan All Dig Ch" and assign the scan group to that? So presumably you could also create a Zone just for scanning and have 16 channels each with a scan group containing 16 channels, which would give you 16 banks of 16 scanable channels accessible on a single knob?
Uh... Yes. On most radios, the scan list and the members of the zone don't have to be the same. This, of course, differs radio to radio (I'm looking at you, Vertex Standard). The selection of scan list is per-channel, so you can get really crazy with this. I always recommend using a scheme that makes sense to you.
How can you add a list of simplex channels to the radio? I managed to program repeaters using this video which I thank you for but I would like to use the simplex channels too.
Simplex channels are programmed exactly the same way, only the send and receive frequencies are the same. Following the DMR standard, you still have to specify a talk group and a time slot on the channel. We tend to default to All Call and time slot 1.
Thank you for the video. What about when you have multiple DMR repeaters when traveling, and correctly adding the Rx and Tx group lists to the channels?
I don't see that as any different. Just keep adding group calls and RX lists as needed. For me, depending on how many channels are involved, I'll just add the channels into their own zone and select that zone when I arrive where I'm going.
DMR is light years behind D-Star and many ways such as the need to Kurchunk any board you would like to join when you are not on a repeater which causes interference with others using the system.
This only is required on user-activated talk groups. Static talk groups don't have this requirement. Also remember that DMR is a commercial radio standard. It was never designed or intended for Amateur Radio use, and I can imagine they never thought dynamic talk groups would be a thing. :)
I am not an expert on the repeater side of things. You might be able to rig something up, but it won't be the same as a real DMR repeater. Obviously a setup like that won't support 2 repeater slots, and you wouldn't be able to us IP Site Connect to link it with other true repeaters. On top of that, most of the setups I know of that do this use analog connections between radios, so you'd be translating from Digital to Analog and back to Digital, which would result in some loss of audio quality. Again, this is just off the top of my head. I know enough about repeaters to program a radio. I don't set them up or maintain them myself.
Many thanks for that, it all makes sense on TX and wouldn't be much use on amateur repeaters for transmitting to. I don't have a repeater in range but wondered if adding 'All Call' to the RX group list would then receive all traffic on that time slot and be a better solution to scanning all programmed talk groups (my MD-380 is slow to scan)? For simplex, is it better to use TG9 for TX and RX, or 'All Call' in case some has their radio set to TG2 or TG99 or whatever? I'm mindful of the need to ensure you TX on whatever TG is being received but haven't had a chance to play properly yet. I found this a very useful video and discussion, I know I can just download a codeplug and get on with it, but I like to understand how things work, so look forward to future videos. Thanks, Bob G4XCA.
+Bob Valder This is one of those areas where Commercial protocols like DMR differ greatly from analog Amateur Radio repeater setups. The way the DMR protocol is set up, it's very difficult to find a way to operate that supports the "scan the frequencies with open channels to discover frequencies in use" experience of analog radio. It's really meant to be used between two people or a person an a system (repeater) that both have all configuration information up front. In that respect, the weight is actually on the person doing the transmitting rather than the one listening to be discoverable; in that sense, All Call would arguably be the better choice. But again, the transmitting radio would have to be set up this way; there's no real way as the receiver to set up to listen for whatever may be transmitting. I'm big on standardization. DMR-MARC has a "simplex call" frequency set up, so you might have luck setting that channel up and listening, as long as the other DMR users in your area are aware of it. DMR is still an emerging technology in Amateur Radio, and one that I'm glad to see continuing to grow.
+Amateur Radio DMR Programming Thanks again, all useful stuff. I'm sure it will all settle down in time and discussions such as this helps to get a better understanding of what's under the hood. Looking forward to more videos if you feel so inclined. 73 Bob G4XCA
+Bob Valder All Call is used in commercial applications to call all Talk Groups on a given Time Slot/Repeater Slot (you can't all call on both Time Slots at the same time). Some repeaters can simplify their configuration by simply using all call on each time slot instead of Talk Groups, but using Talk Groups is considered best practice. It can also be used to make simple DMR simplex channels. When you set All Call as your transmit contact, you can set the receive group to none, as all call will always open the speaker on your radio in simplex, and from repeaters if the repeater allows it to pass.
Technically, no. And, as DMR-MARC won't issue you a Radio ID without a callsign, you wouldn't be able to get one anyway. Anyone can buy a DMR or Analog ham radio and listen to traffic. You DO need a license to transmit, though.
Yup. DMR was designed for commercial systems. It's an excellent radio technology, but the way it programs was very much geared towards the commercial market.
Can someone help me with an error? when programming my Raioddity DG-55 and After I write all data to the radio and I press the talk button I get this message on the screen ( BS failed)
Unfortunately you'll need to find a Motorola dealer or someone with access to the software to provide you a licensed copy. They don't typically provide the software to end users, and they charge for it.
If there is something special about adding analog channels, a video on that would be pretty awesome as well. Keep up the fun videos and have a blessed day. Dale KI5ARH
The only special thing about analog channels in DMR radios is to make sure you know if the repeater is wideband or narrowband, and program the channel accordingly. Also, most of the transmit admit settings don't work well with repeaters that have repeater tails; we don't use any of these on analog channels locally.
There should be an option on each channel to set "Receive Only". In the Connect System software, this is a checkbox labeled "Rx Only". Checking the box prevents the radio from transmitting on that channel.
We recommend getting one from DMR-MARC. It's required if you plan to use their network anyway. The link is: www.dmr-marc.net/cgi-bin/trbo-database/register.cgi
I am not a lawyer, but as I understand it, the FCC gives permission for certain transmission types on certain frequencies. DMR was recently granted permission to transmit on Amateur Radio frequencies, which is what this video is for; I haven't seen anything that suggests it is legal to transmit DMR over GMRS frequencies. You need an Amateur Radio license to transmit on Amateur Radio frequencies. Take a look at this link: www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training
Thanks! Your voice reminds me of Sal, founder of Khan Academy. It makes for pleasant listening. General operator's license since 2007, but no radio until 2017. A DMR TYT MD-380G. Darn menu buttons don't work and I can't select 'scan'. Several others with MD-380 have the same problem and we can't unlock our keypads. 73's, KC0BMC member of Denver's DRC.
Radioddity GD-77 programming software copies this format pretty closely (although very poorly right now), and this video helped me understand a great deal about how to use that software. Thanks for posting, very clear and organized.
Always thankful for the user-instructor who invests in a lot of time making a video so that DMR novices like me save both time AND frustration. Analog radio programming is sure of little value when tackling DMR radio programming.
It's a different world, to be sure. But I like learning new things. DMR got me into Ham Radio. :)
DMR got me back into Ham radio.
BRAVO!, a short thank you for the time you've taken to teach others the knowledge you have gained. I must say, it has been very helpful in my quest to tackle this thing called DMR. see you on the air...
This one video has helped me tremendously in learning programming DMR. Thanks!
Excellent video! Just learning DMR and this answered a lot of questions that I had. Thank you for sharing.
Excellent video , I have recently purchased a DMR radio and I am working towards getting on the air with this radio. Thanks for your help, enjoyed your video so much I subbed you as well.
Thanks again and have a blessed week.
Dale
This video is so helpful to program my DMR radio. Thanks you are awesome!
Thank you so much for a great video, helped me with all the gaps in my programming knowledge, of which there were many..
what was it you said about the code plug at 25:18 ... "push out this code plug" I'm a little confused about what the code plug actually is... is it something you download? or is it simply the name for the information / programming you put into the radio during this video??
The term codeplug comes from the early days of commercial radios (I am told) where the configuration was loaded into a physical device that you then plugged into the radio. Today, the term is use to refer to the configuration file you create for the radio, then upload or "push" to the radi. This file can be saved and shared with other people just like any other file.
RMHAM has sample codeplugs available for download on our website for various DMR radios. They can be used as-is or as a foundation for your own custom/personal radio configuration. They can be found on the Sample Codeplugs page of the site: www.rmham.org/wordpress/sample-codeplugs
Experiencing a steep learning curve with DMR. Whole new vocabulary with many similar and sometimes it seems interchangeable terms. This video helped a lot, and I will need to listen to it a time or two more. I know I am making progress, but I'm not there yet. Just received 2 of the new RD-5R Baofeng radios. They seem to work fine and the programming parallels what I see documented on other radios. But there don't seem to be any publicly available code plugs out there yet and rolling your own to a newbie is not trivial!
Very true. It's the reason I posted this video. :)
The best I have seen. Thanks
Great Job Mike!
Good job, waiting and wanting more!
Thank you for a great video. I am still waiting for my first DMR set to arrive, and very slowly getting to grips with all this. Presumably, with the scan group "All Dig Channels", If you don't use all 16 channels in the Zone, you can create a channel, name it "Scan All Dig Ch" and assign the scan group to that? So presumably you could also create a Zone just for scanning and have 16 channels each with a scan group containing 16 channels, which would give you 16 banks of 16 scanable channels accessible on a single knob?
Uh... Yes.
On most radios, the scan list and the members of the zone don't have to be the same. This, of course, differs radio to radio (I'm looking at you, Vertex Standard). The selection of scan list is per-channel, so you can get really crazy with this. I always recommend using a scheme that makes sense to you.
Great video and thanks for sharing. Just received a MD390 and have my ID, now just need to work on the programming the codeplugs. 73, KC1ERO
How can you add a list of simplex channels to the radio? I managed to program repeaters using this video which I thank you for but I would like to use the simplex channels too.
Simplex channels are programmed exactly the same way, only the send and receive frequencies are the same. Following the DMR standard, you still have to specify a talk group and a time slot on the channel. We tend to default to All Call and time slot 1.
Thank you for the video. What about when you have multiple DMR repeaters when traveling, and correctly adding the Rx and Tx group lists to the channels?
I don't see that as any different. Just keep adding group calls and RX lists as needed. For me, depending on how many channels are involved, I'll just add the channels into their own zone and select that zone when I arrive where I'm going.
DMR is light years behind D-Star and many ways such as the need to Kurchunk any board you would like to join when you are not on a repeater which causes interference with others using the system.
This only is required on user-activated talk groups. Static talk groups don't have this requirement. Also remember that DMR is a commercial radio standard. It was never designed or intended for Amateur Radio use, and I can imagine they never thought dynamic talk groups would be a thing. :)
hallo i have two mototrbo dm3601 base stations and i need make digital repeater with duplexer use this radios its posible or not?
I am not an expert on the repeater side of things. You might be able to rig something up, but it won't be the same as a real DMR repeater. Obviously a setup like that won't support 2 repeater slots, and you wouldn't be able to us IP Site Connect to link it with other true repeaters. On top of that, most of the setups I know of that do this use analog connections between radios, so you'd be translating from Digital to Analog and back to Digital, which would result in some loss of audio quality.
Again, this is just off the top of my head. I know enough about repeaters to program a radio. I don't set them up or maintain them myself.
+Amateur Radio DMR Programming thnx a lot for contact thnx you
Many thanks for that, it all makes sense on TX and wouldn't be much use on amateur repeaters for transmitting to. I don't have a repeater in range but wondered if adding 'All Call' to the RX group list would then receive all traffic on that time slot and be a better solution to scanning all programmed talk groups (my MD-380 is slow to scan)? For simplex, is it better to use TG9 for TX and RX, or 'All Call' in case some has their radio set to TG2 or TG99 or whatever? I'm mindful of the need to ensure you TX on whatever TG is being received but haven't had a chance to play properly yet. I found this a very useful video and discussion, I know I can just download a codeplug and get on with it, but I like to understand how things work, so look forward to future videos. Thanks, Bob G4XCA.
+Bob Valder This is one of those areas where Commercial protocols like DMR differ greatly from analog Amateur Radio repeater setups. The way the DMR protocol is set up, it's very difficult to find a way to operate that supports the "scan the frequencies with open channels to discover frequencies in use" experience of analog radio. It's really meant to be used between two people or a person an a system (repeater) that both have all configuration information up front. In that respect, the weight is actually on the person doing the transmitting rather than the one listening to be discoverable; in that sense, All Call would arguably be the better choice. But again, the transmitting radio would have to be set up this way; there's no real way as the receiver to set up to listen for whatever may be transmitting.
I'm big on standardization. DMR-MARC has a "simplex call" frequency set up, so you might have luck setting that channel up and listening, as long as the other DMR users in your area are aware of it. DMR is still an emerging technology in Amateur Radio, and one that I'm glad to see continuing to grow.
+Amateur Radio DMR Programming
Thanks again, all useful stuff.
I'm sure it will all settle down in time and discussions such as this helps to get a better understanding of what's under the hood.
Looking forward to more videos if you feel so inclined. 73 Bob G4XCA
Any videos for programming a SLR 5700 repeater for Brandmeister System - N9GI
Nope. Repeaters aren't my thing. Have you checked the Brandmeister Wiki?
WOW - just my Quantum qp 2100 Monday and now I can use it. every else has a CS700 and I can't read their plugs.
TX
Can you discuss the 'All Call' contact type and where and how you would use it please?
+Bob Valder All Call is used in commercial applications to call all Talk Groups on a given Time Slot/Repeater Slot (you can't all call on both Time Slots at the same time). Some repeaters can simplify their configuration by simply using all call on each time slot instead of Talk Groups, but using Talk Groups is considered best practice. It can also be used to make simple DMR simplex channels.
When you set All Call as your transmit contact, you can set the receive group to none, as all call will always open the speaker on your radio in simplex, and from repeaters if the repeater allows it to pass.
Hi! Do i need a DMR ID and License to listen to DMR/ANALOG as a NEW un-licensed HAM ? Thanks !
Technically, no. And, as DMR-MARC won't issue you a Radio ID without a callsign, you wouldn't be able to get one anyway. Anyone can buy a DMR or Analog ham radio and listen to traffic. You DO need a license to transmit, though.
Sir, thank you for your video. And, you were extremely correct ... exceedingly confusing!
Yup. DMR was designed for commercial systems. It's an excellent radio technology, but the way it programs was very much geared towards the commercial market.
Thanks so much for posting, this was very helpful. We have a place in Silverthorne, is the Breckenridge DMR repeater up and running?
Yes, it is. You can check the status of the repeaters on the RMHAM website at this link: www.rmham.org/wordpress/mototrbo-radio-site-information
Amateur Radio DMR Programming Thanks Mike!
Can someone help me with an error? when programming my Raioddity DG-55 and After I write all data to the radio and I press the talk button I get this message on the screen ( BS failed)
I would suggest finding a local ham in your area that can look at your radio and codeplug and help you troubleshoot your issue.
what a great expaining all video ! Tnx for all youre information and sharing it with us! that's hamspirit! :)
73 PD8B
Good Morning, this is a nice video.
Please, what can I do to have the MOTORTBO software for Motorola DP4801
Unfortunately you'll need to find a Motorola dealer or someone with access to the software to provide you a licensed copy. They don't typically provide the software to end users, and they charge for it.
If there is something special about adding analog channels, a video on that would be pretty awesome as well. Keep up the fun videos and have a blessed day.
Dale
KI5ARH
The only special thing about analog channels in DMR radios is to make sure you know if the repeater is wideband or narrowband, and program the channel accordingly. Also, most of the transmit admit settings don't work well with repeaters that have repeater tails; we don't use any of these on analog channels locally.
took a little bit but I think I got it!! thank you
What do I do when I want to program in a repeater for listen only?
There should be an option on each channel to set "Receive Only". In the Connect System software, this is a checkbox labeled "Rx Only". Checking the box prevents the radio from transmitting on that channel.
Programming a DMR is certainly not easy. However, you just made it easier. Great job with the video. K1WLJ
Thank you :)
Great Job
You show how to put in the Radio ID, but never tell us where this number comes from. Does someone issue the number to us?
We recommend getting one from DMR-MARC. It's required if you plan to use their network anyway. The link is: www.dmr-marc.net/cgi-bin/trbo-database/register.cgi
I was wondering the same thing. So glad you asked!
This is now handled by RadioID.Net (www.radioid.net). Follow the "Register" link at the top.
Who can use the DRM radio? what license do you need? Can someone with a GMRS license?
I am not a lawyer, but as I understand it, the FCC gives permission for certain transmission types on certain frequencies. DMR was recently granted permission to transmit on Amateur Radio frequencies, which is what this video is for; I haven't seen anything that suggests it is legal to transmit DMR over GMRS frequencies. You need an Amateur Radio license to transmit on Amateur Radio frequencies. Take a look at this link: www.arrl.org/licensing-education-training
Thanks! Your voice reminds me of Sal, founder of Khan Academy. It makes for pleasant listening. General operator's license since 2007, but no radio until 2017. A DMR TYT MD-380G. Darn menu buttons don't work and I can't select 'scan'. Several others with MD-380 have the same problem and we can't unlock our keypads. 73's, KC0BMC member of Denver's DRC.
Boa tarde, faz um vídeo em português!!!!
If I spoke Portuguese, I might do so.