Intro to DMR in Amateur Radio Anoka County Radio Club and Emergency Services, Inc. 01-Apr-2016 Shep Shepardson N0NMZ

Amateur Radio Digital Standards D-STAR from Icom – Digital Smart Technologies for Amateur Radio – Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) – 1st designed specifically for amateur radio Fusion C4FM protocol from Yaesu – 12.5 kHz C4FM Digital and 25 kHz FM

Commercial Digital Standards APCO 25 / P25 Public Safety – APCO Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials-International DMR Digital Mobile Radio – MotoTRBO™ is Motorola Solutions product name

Project 25 (P25 or APCO-25) Wikipedia is a suite of standards for digital radio communications for use by federal, state/province and local Public safety organizations in North America to enable them to communicate with other agencies and mutual aid response teams in emergencies

Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) Wikipedia is an open digital mobile radio standard defined in the European Telecommunications Standard Institute (ETSI)…2-slot standard and uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to effectively accommodate two simultaneous users in a single 12.5 kHz channel.

DMR Digital Mobile Radio 12.5 kHz Bandwidth Channels 2 Time Slots 6.25 kHz (called TS1 and TS2) – TS1 27.5ms frame + 2.5ms gap = 30ms – TS2 27.5ms frame + 2.5ms gap = 30ms – Therefore during transmit time: Subscriber radios Tx 27.5ms out of 60ms (46%) Repeaters Tx a continuous data stream (100%) Therefore 1 Repeater/Duplexer/AntennaSys supports 2 conversations simultaneously

Define: Talk Groups (TG) John Burningham W2XAB TGs are a way for groups of users to share a Time Slot (one-to-many) without distracting and disrupting other users of the Time Slot. Only one Talk Group can use a Time Slot at a time. If your radio is not programmed to listen to a Talk Group, you will not hear that Talk Group’s traffic.

Talk Groups Time Slot 1 TG1: WW (World Wide) TG3: NAm (North America) TG13: WWE (WW English) Time Slot 2 TG2: Local/Local2/LocalNet TG9: Local9 (this Rpt ONLY) TG3127: Mn Statewide TG3169: MidWest TG310: Tactual 310 PTT – Tactual 310 thru 319 – PTT “kerchuk” to activate TG

More Definitions Code Plug – Radio’s configuration file Color Codes (CC0-CC15) Not Optional – Functions like PLs for conventional Repeaters Zones – Grouping of channels Analog Simplex Minnesota DMR Repeaters Ohio DMR Repeaters

‘Networked’ Repeater Level Rules Repeater has to be Motorola (DMR-MARC) – feature compatibly issues Operate in Digital Mode ONLY – to be on the Network Need high speed Internet access

User Level Rules Subscriber radio any brand (multi Vendors) Upload a Codeplug into the radio – available from MnDMR or write your own – Parameters containing these values: ADD your Radio ID (DMR-MARC assigned) Automatic Registration Service (ARS) = Disabled Repeater Channels: – Admit Criteria = Color Code Free (polite mode) – In Call Criteria = Follow Admit Criteria Simplex Channels: – Admit Criteria = Always (impolite mode) – In Call Criteria = Always Radio is now ready to be on the air

Conventional vs DMR single machine operation Convention Repeater Freq: MHz PL: Hz DMR Repeater Freq: MHz Color Code: CC1 Time Slot: TS2 Talk Group: – Local (non-networked Rpt) – Local9 (networked Rpt)

DMR Simplex Frequencies 2 VHF (2m) DMR simplex frequencies 4 UHF (70cm) DMR simplex frequencies Program as TG99/CC1/TS1 Do Not use the National Simplex Calling freqs or MHz in digital mode (ONLY use in conventional mode)

Best Practices Calling Talk Groups: WW, WWE, NAm etc. – Limit conversation to 2 minutes § Station identification – Every 10 minutes and at transmission end The Radio Amateur’s Code – Considerate / Loyal / Progressive / Friendly / Balanced / Patriotic – Paul M. Segal W9EEA (1928)

Miscellaneous Info Not all DMR Subscriber radios operate in both digital mode and conventional mode – Ham conventional channels requires 25 kHz key – DMR radios are mono-band (VHF or UHF) DMR Repeater Network – > 95% UHF (70cm) – ~ 47 Countries – ~ 2,000 Repeaters – ~ 28,000 Radio IDs – ~ 11,630 miles between farthest East West nodes

Miscellaneous Minnesota Info 5 Repeaters, ~ 120 Radio IDs (< 24 months) – Metro: Minneapolis NH7CY Jason – Metro East: Oakdale N0YNT Matt – Metro Northwest: Dayton N0YNT Matt / KA0KMJ John – Metro South: Buck Hill/Burnsville N0AGI Nagi – Farther South: Faribault N0AGI Nagi

Websites w/more Info (MnDMR Enthusiasts)