GigaParts sold out of Hytera ham radios, now offering special pricing on land mobile substitutes.

They have two time slots, which is required for Tier 2 radios.

 

DMR and D-STAR do much the same thing, as does Yaesu FUSION. All of them use the same AMBE vocoder, with minor variations.

I think we are going to see more cross-mode connections over time. Right now, there are D-STAR to DMR bridges active. D-STAR has the larger network at this time, but DMR and FUSION are both growing rapidly. Around here, D-STAR, DMR, and FUSION are all busy, and the analog repeaters are much too quiet.

Several devices out there promise to give you the ability to work all three of those modes, plus a couple others, using just one radio. None of these devices are really cheap, though. Wireless Holdings has a unit called the DVHome, and the $449 version of it contains two of the AMBE vocoder chips. That lets you go into the system using one protocol and come back out with another one connected to the Internet networks.

As for range, we have a new DMR repeater here on UHF. I use only a TYT HT, and I can get into the system from anywhere in about a 40 miles radius of town, and to the north, at least, there is another high level DMR machine I can use after I'm out of range. So with just the HT with an antenna in the car, I can be pretty solidly in the network all the way from here to the Twin Cities. I'd like to get a higher power mobile to eliminate the small dead spots I have now.

 

Its dual time slot.

 

So what your going to tell me then is that with all other conditions being equal. The UHF Dmr repeater that I have, that's located on the same tower as an analog VHF repeater really doesn't talk any further and that everything I've experienced in the past 3 years of other dmr repeaters being located and talking further than co located vhf repeaters is all in my mind? Wow!

Now how about dropping some references that date back to 1998?

Your volley!

 

A little behind the times sir.
TYT and Hytera are allowed and work fine. I don't see this hesitation you speak of.

 

Not exactly.

 

An interesting yet incorrect observation. You might want to read here http://www.etsi.org/technologies-clusters/technologies/digital-mobile-radio and here http://dmrassociation.org/dmr-standards.html

 

I understand the tiers, or tier structuring but tell me how this isnt the same as echolink

folks register for an account, they operate and chat in talk groups

these talk groups dont seem any different to me than echolink did back in the early 2000's

conversations I've heard appear the same in all aspects

anyone can hack a dmr account and be on the air illegally, the lists are published for all to see

anyone with the smarts could grab one of these dmr Id#'s, program it into their radio and communicate without every being properly licensed

at least echolink had hams submit a copy of their fcc license and the password was validated through the server before being allowed on the air

 

I think you answered your own question. Uhf vs VHf, different repeaters, antenna gain, power, terrain, antenna agl, pattern.... Something in there accounts for the difference. It's not your imagination, it's your lack of investigation.

 

EGZAKERY

 

Yes

 

What I do know:

I love my Kenwood TH-F6a. I adore it. I have it in the car right now hooked to my diamond antenna NMO mount on the trunk. But, for distance, the DMR radio wins and big time. Let me give you the specs and you make your mind up.

UHF analog Repeater is a two-year-old Kenwood 850 with a PA doing 100 watts. Its antenna is also new with new hardline and it's sitting at 280' ASL.

The UHF DMR is sitting at an identical height of 280' ASL, one mile to the west. It's brand new as well and pumping out 75 watts.

I can sit at the north side of my town at the McDonalds with both of my HT's (TYT 380 DMR and TH-F6a) in my hand and I will not get into the repeater with the TH-F6a and the 380 will be crystal clear. Making it more remarkable to me, is the fact that the TYT-380 is running a stubby rubber ducky which is about 2.5" in height and the TH-F6a is working with an 11" Comet HT-224 antenna. There's nothing wrong with the analog repeater. In fact, the difference between the new UHF analog and the old one is night and day. I used to blame it on UHF in general, because we had an excellent VHF repeater too. But, we replaced both analog repeaters, VHF and UHF, within a year. The repeater was the problem and the new one works very well.

Look, I talk on analog most of the time, I like the sound of it and I like the challenge of it; that being said there is a challenge to it.

Now, if you put that TH-F6a in the car and just use the Comet antenna and ride around the town with the repeater, there are a lot (a majority) of places it seems you can't get out of the car. I can run the TYT 380 with a 6" antenna in my car from as far as 9 miles from the repeater.

There is a difference. There is a verifiable difference in the way those two technologies work.

 

It still is amazing. You can look at all of the repeaters on "repeater book" in the state of NC and I bet we might just outnumber a lot of states, if not them all. And most of ours are used. I'm much more of a HF guy, but our club uses ours very regularly and there are some serious "Flame Thrower" repeaters out here like in Raleigh, New Bern, Dillon (SC, but on the line) and Charlotte that cover large swaths of multiple states.

 

AA1PR, please explain in more detail. I thought DMR is just another digital communications protocol, and one that's experiencing rapid growth with the recent introduction of numerous models by various manufacturers including Yaesu. I have yet to purchase a digital radio for 2 meters, but with the recent introduction of a reasonably priced DMR radio by Yaesu I've started looking. Please advise, and thanks (wd8dsb).

 

Yes its a digital protocol if you will, however the communications are no different than echolink, dstar, fusion and normal repeaters ops etc
they all use internet to maintain connections and that was my point, there is no rf linking involved
I dont mind dmr, its not my favorite by any means
that is my point, there is no technical discussions, its all gibberish non sense conversations