eVerge™ & Amateur Radio Michael Lozano, KØNGA December 7, 2013

Agenda Concepts Software & Firmware Programming Basics ▫Contact List / RX Group List ▫Channel List ▫Channel Groups Other Settings ▫Buttons! Buttons! Buttons! ▫Frequently Used Features Differences from MotoTRBO

Concepts - eVerge™ Newer line of DMR radios from Vertex Standard Different that VXD series (rebranded Motorola) Commercial Radios Follow DMR standards Can be used on RMHAM and DMR-MARC TRBO networks

Important Note - Analog eVerge™ Radios are analog capable Software assumes commercial use Most Ham analog use is wideband, commercial now narrowband USA version of the software is narrowband only eVerge™ Radios can be programmed on Ham wideband analog channels using the international version of the software I’m not a lawyer; proceed accordingly

Software & Firmware Freely available from Vertex Standard (requires free account) Programming cable & radio adapter cable Programming cable has a comm port driver Firmware package includes update utility Sample configuration files available

Programming Basics Install cable driver (once) Plug in cable and note the comm port number Update firmware (when new, and occasionally after that) Install & run programming software Configure comm port Download & open appropriate sample configuration file Change Radio ID in Digital Common settings Download to the radio

Firmware Update

Contact List / RX Group List Contact List contains Talk Groups and User IDs ▫Must be configured in the Contact List to be used Tag (a label) limited to 8 characters RX Group List used to determine which Talk Groups are received on each channel ▫Typically 1 TG per RX Group for ham radio “Private” IDs used for Radio ID recognition ▫Private calls not used in ham radio

Contact List / RX Group List

Channel List - Digital TAG (limited to 8 characters) RX & TX frequencies Repeater Code Time Slot Contact No. (Talk Group) RX Group List (matches Contact Number)

Channel List - Analog W5 – Ham radio wideband TAG (limited to 8 characters) RX & TX frequencies Sub Audio – Decode & Encode ▫C- for CTCSS ▫D- for DCS

Channel Groups 16 channels per group Number of groups determined by radio model Scan settings per group entry; Group Scan per group Channels selected from the Channel List; TAG automatically populated Group name can be changed

Channel List / Channel Group

Buttons! Buttons! Buttons! Buttons have to be programmed before they will work Common – Key Function Number of programmable buttons different on each model Popular programmable features: ▫Channel Up/Down ▫Group Up/Down ▫Scan, Group Scan, Follow Me Scan, Dual Watch ▫Set ▫Talk Around

Key Function

Misc Mic Gain – typically needs to be boosted Talk Around – set per channel on the channel list RX Power Save – set per channel on the channel list Priority Channel 1 – global, effects some scan and button functions Priority Channel 2 – one per Channel Group, effects some scan and button fuctions Default Split – Set to -5, useful for building your own config files Talk Back – allows for talking while paused during scanning Dimmer Level – mobile radio only, turns on LCD light

Differences from MotoTRBO No roaming ▫But five (Count them! FIVE!) types of scanning Contact list limited to 128 entries ▫Not possible to include all RMHAM or DMR-MARC entries Display limited to 8 characters ▫Typical of Vertex Standard / Yaesu radios

For Help, Contact: Michael Lozano – KØNGA