Need help with GD-77 DMR programming

[bryan_herbert]

Having been a scanner owner for decades I'm familiar with digital modes, talkgroups, and all that, but this is my first DMR transceiver and have to admit I'm a bit stumped. Am I correct in believing with the GD-77 you set up a repeater on a channel and can only assign one talkgroup to it? Then go to the next channel and repeat? There's no way to set up a repeater on the channel and set up a list of talkgroups to associate with that repeater?

There are over a dozen DMR repeaters here in Las Vegas and the radio wont let me use the same channel names on different repeaters which limits me to programming one DMR repeater. Or am I going about this all wrong?

 

[N4GIX]

Talk Groups (TGS) are common for all repeaters you plan to program, so you can simply assign any of the TGs a particular repeater has available.

Where you may run into an issue is when two different networks such as DMR-Marc and Brandmeister share a TG name, but have a different TG number.

In such cases I simply append BM to the TG name to make it unique. For example:

World Wide...............1
World Wide BM.........91
World Wide Eng........13
WW Eng BM..............913
North America...........3
North America BM.....93

You must also program each repeater's TG separately with the correct xmit and receive frequency, Color Code, and TG.

There are many different ways that you can set up Zones, but I usually stick to the scheme of each Zone list be arranged for one repeater. For example Gary U is a Zone for the Gary Indiana UHF repeater, and Gary V is a Zone for the Gary Indiana VHF repeater.

 

[popnokick]

In your CPS / programming software for your radio you will need to make a separate entry for each talk group that you want to use on a repeater. The freq will be the same for each TG you want to use on that repeater... only the Contact (TG) changes each time. And yes, this does seem repetitive. However, you'll find that once you set up one channel and talkgroup (contact) for a repeater.... your programming software for your radio will let you right click, copy, create a new channel.... and paste the contents into the new channel. Then all you need to do is re-label the channel and change the Contact (TG).

 

[bryan_herbert]

Uuuugh, I was afraid of that, such a waste of channel space. Any idea why I cant use the same channel name on different repeaters? Could it be a bug? Ive never run into this issue with other radios.

In your CPS / programming software for your radio you will need to make a separate entry for each talk group that you want to use on a repeater. The freq will be the same for each TG you want to use on that repeater... only the Contact (TG) changes each time. And yes, this does seem repetitive. However, you'll find that once you set up one channel and talkgroup (contact) for a repeater.... your programming software for your radio will let you right click, copy, create a new channel.... and paste the contents into the new channel. Then all you need to do is re-label the channel and change the Contact (TG).

 

[chief21]

If you're talking about the Channel Alias, I would think that you would want the Alias to suggest both the repeater name or location, as well as the talkgroup. Otherwise, you won't know which TG you're using.

I try to maintain a combination of both... such as "Hilldale_T310" for Hilldale Tac310, or "Smvl_WW" for Smallville WorldWide.

 

[jaspence]

DMR names

Most DMR transceivers require unique names for each entry. I have created code plugs for at least seven different makes of radio, and only one gave the option of reusing a name. As stated, naming carefully is best to prevent confusion when you have several repeaters and dozens of TGs.

 

[N4GIX]

Uuuugh, I was afraid of that, such a waste of channel space.

That is why there are so many channels available.