Digital Radio

Which do I choose?

D-Star / Fusion / DMR

A few months back a survey was conducted to find out just which mode seems to be the most popular right now. Popular being who's using what digital mode the most.

The survey showed the following:

D-Star - 11%

Fusion - 28%

DMR - 61%

Now I realize that this survey is not very scientific, but I feel that it does show that DMR seems to be the up and coming new digital mode that's worth looking at. There were over 250 responses to this survey and 30 of them were from digital repeater owners.

What I have discovered through this poll is that buy/owning a digital radio is a lot like buying a car. Some only like Ford's and others like Chevy's.. Is one better than the other? That really depends on who's doing the buying and what the needs of the person are! So with that in mind, please don't misinterpret this survey as being conclusive. It isn't. It's just a fun way of finding out who's using what right now.

I use DMR. I purchased a Tytera MD-380 radio and it uses what is called a "codeplug" to plug into all the repeaters. This is where the settings for each repeater are located. This codeplug is created by someone and can be "cloned" to any amount of other like radios. It's not proprietary so exchanging it between friends is ok. Firmware updates are also free for you as well.

Now because I travel all over the state I was finding that there are a lot of DMR repeaters around that if I only had them programmed in I could use them as I travel.. So, I went to a friend of mine with this problem and he resolved it for me by creating a codeplug with all of the DMR repeaters in Ohio programmed into it. Thanks Andy.. This codeplug can be used to program any of the very popular Tytera MD-380's or MD-390 digital UHF radios. 

For those of you who are looking for a great use for DMR, there are several nets around the country that you can freely join in on.

We also have a statewide net in Ohio that meets the 1st and 3rd Wednesday at 8:30pm local. There's also a statewide net in Kentucky that meets every Thursday at 8pm local and in Indiana that meets at 8pm local Tuesday's on the Indiana statewide talkgroup.

Want a copy of the codeplug that I use?  Send me an email and I'll send it over to you..  n8sy@n8sy.com  Please note.. This codeplug is for the Tytera MD-380 / MD-390 only.

>>  NOTE: <<

I also want to let you all know that you must have a registration number to plug into the codeplug prior to uploading this codeplug to your radio..

If you don't have a registration number, you can obtain one through this link..

http://dmr-marc.net/cgi-bin/trbo-database/register.cgi 

*Remember to add your DMR ID to this plug before you add this codeplug to your radio.* 

Special Note:

TYT/Tytera did release new firmware. This is *NEWER* firmware than what came out in June. They also released an updated CPS to program code plugs to your radio. 

It is important that you update with the correct firmware for your radio. The vendor has been using a different vocoder, so the software OS number may be different on certain radios. Below is a link to the Canadian DMR group that seems to be TYT's preferred delivery method for new software updates. They document how to read firmware on radio for the correct download. 

 Registration is free:

 http://www.va3xpr.net/programming-software-firmware/