Hello all,
Scott (WØSJE) and I are playing around with DMR and hotspot stuff a bit. We were able to do a private call between ourselves yesterday by creating each other as a digital contact in our radios. Then, you just go back in to view that contact and press the PTT and call them just like you would on an analog radio.
This is pretty cool, but it is only a 1-1, two radio conversation. I am working on getting us an actual talkgroup so that we can have multiple participants in a QSO. According to the Brandmeister page, how you do that is just to find one that is not in use and start using it. They want you to use it for a couple of months before formally requesting it, in order to ensure that it’s free and unused, and then you apply for it and they will name it.
As it stands now, I am using Brandmeister TG 31415 (yes, that’s the first 5 digits of pi, and yes I am that much of a nerd), and if it’s open, we would ask BM to name it WØNED. So I have created that TG in my radio, and a channel linking to it in my code plug, and I will be monitoring it as much as possible today and in the future. If it’s open, and we get it, we could possibly link that to our repeater in the future, and then anyone, anywhere would be able to get into our repeater if they had a hotspot. We have several members who would benefit from that.
The other thing that I did was to search the list of digital contacts, and add anyone associated with the club who has a DMR ID. Apologies if I missed anyone. I added them all to my friends list, and created them as talkgroups. A .csv file has been uploaded to the image file folder of the club’s shared drive with this data in it. Add these to your DMR TGs. Here is a screenshot of everyone I was able to find. If there are others, please let me know.
For those of you who do not yet have a DMR hotspot, here is a link to the DMR hotspot that I bought:
And here is the one that I would have bought, had I known about how the duplex model allows you to disconnect from or change talkgroups while listening to a busy channel or talkgroup:
The pi-star setup for the hotspot can be a little vexing initially, but it’s not as difficult as it seems, and Scott and I can walk you through it.
Stay tuned for more. This is pretty exciting stuff.
73,
Charley
K4NYN
