Digital repeater activity in your area

[Golay]

Reading different post and comments in this forum and others compels me to post this.

Before you decide on whether to get a D-Star or Fusion or DMR radio, make sure people are actually talking on the repeaters you see listed.
It's easy for someone to get a repeater listing. It's a little more work to actually put up a repeater.
And even more effort for trustees to actually monitor their own machine and have a chat with anyone that brings it up.

So before you make the leap of faith with you wallet, get a cheap ol' analog scanner and program in all the digital repeaters listed in your area.
Sure you're not going to hear what they are talking about. But you will know if folks are actually using the machines.

Here in the Detroit area, probably 50% of the digital repeaters listed in our MARC directory are deader than last year's birds nest.
Of the ones that are actually up and running, their courtesy tones should be crickets. All kidding aside.

 

[jazzboypro]

In my area there is activity on DMR, D-star and Fusion. NXDN and P25 is almost non existent, if i remember correctly we have 1 P25 repeater and 2 NXDN repeaters (could be the other way around) Those repeaters are too far from me to hit them with a handheld (unless i use a hotspot) , i would need to invest in a commercial radio i guess and i don't think it's worth it at the moment

 

[SA4MDN]

None, tis why i use a OpenSpot and ZumSpot

 

[jazzboypro]

I have the OpenSpot3 but from what i've been reading NXDN is not fully supported when using cross mode and P25 requires a P25 radio and i don't have one.

 

[jaspence]

Still some daily nets in my area on conventional repeaters, but little on the DMR.

 

[N4DES]

DMR around me is pretty active with a local talk-group that is valid on 4 repeaters (one of them I own) spread out in the County (north, south, central and west). No nets or anything scheduled, just good ol QSO's from the locals. Next is Florida State-Wide with an occasional QSO here and there, but there is almost always someone listening that will answer a hail. (All of these repeaters are on MARC and I scan the talkgroups in my shack)

P25 has its place with a number of local amateurs using it on 900 MHz and VHF.

I don't own any Fusion or D-Star gear, but the closest D-Star repeater to me moved to DMR years ago and I'm not aware of any full time Fusion repeaters around me.

 

[N4KVE]

I second the above post. There’s several other systems not mentioned. Two are stand alone systems that have nothing to do with Brandmeister, or D-Marc. Only one TG per TS. They are linked to other repeaters in Florida owned by the same guy. Rick, AC4XQ owns one system, & Eric, KF4LZA owns the other. No hot spots, no packing 10 TG’s in a TS, its great. Bob, W2GGI also has several DMR repeaters between Palm Beach, & Miami, and they are on Brandmeister, so multiple TG’s on each TS. LZA also has multiple P25 repeaters on UHF, & 900, & I’m there too. Not much else really, we’re fortunate there’s lots of repeaters here in SE Florida.

 

[cptinsano918]

Digital amateur radio becomes infinitely more fun when you buy your own hotspot.

 

[AK9R]

Yes, please, buy your own hotspot. Then, take down the DV repeaters because they will become superfluous when everybody has their own hotspot.

 

[kg4icg]

Have a Openspot 4 pro, Numerous YSF, DMR and some DStar repeaters, not much on P25 or NXDN. So yes can xmode on to NXDN and P25 if need be with the FT5D on the Openspot 4 pro

 

[cptinsano918]

Yes, please, buy your own hotspot. Then, take down the DV repeaters because they will become superfluous when everybody has their own hotspot.

I wish there were more dv repeaters but sometimes you have to work with what you have. The other option for most people would be staying off of digital completely.

 

[alcahuete]

Yes, please, buy your own hotspot. Then, take down the DV repeaters because they will become superfluous when everybody has their own hotspot.

Unfortunately, a lot of repeater owners don't carry the talkgroups you might want to use. Way easier to just use a hotspot and whatever talkgroups you want.

Also, the thing I noticed with digital repeaters is that people just get on the worldwide/large area talkgroups, which basically makes the repeater useless for local communication...kinda the purpose of repeaters in the first place. Some DMR repeater owners do it right and keep local on one timeslot and everything else on another, but some don't care, and both timeslots are literally tied up with wide area talkgroups. So personally, I would much rather see people use hotspots for the linked stuff, and keep the repeaters open for local comms.

 

[kk9h]

I live in the northern suburban area of Chicago and my club has two digital mode repeaters that get quite a bit of use. Our 70 cm D-Star system is at 500 ft. and has a very wide coverage area. We also have a dual mode FM/System Fusion repeater at 245 ft. which is also the area Skywarn repeater. Both are connected to their respective networks. Of course, hot spots are popular too and do a nice job for many digital modes along with these but when driving or walking around, these two repeaters also provide excellent digital mode access.

 

[xmo]

"Yes, please, buy your own hotspot. Then, take down the DV repeaters because they will become superfluous when everybody has their own hotspot"

Not only that, but now you can get a radio-less hotspot and do away with ALL that messy RF stuff. Amateur radio-less. Whoopie!

 

[xmo]

Wow. It appears that there is at least one guy still talking through a repeater!

 

[pandel]

I guess the next big suggestion will be to change the name of the hobby from Amatuer Radio, to Amateur Computer. Personally, I like RF.

 

[K3HY]

I guess the next big suggestion will be to change the name of the hobby from Amatuer Radio, to Amateur Computer. Personally, I like RF.

Very similar to going to a ham fest decades ago and over 95% of the tables had ham gear, then each year computer vendors started taking over more and more of the spaces that had ham gear.

 

[xmo]

Amateur radio's new name can be amateur communicators.

The FCC can create a new license class "communicator" - short for internet communicator. The license exam will require extensive knowledge of today's communicator stuff like ISPs, VPNs, DHCP, gateway, router, IPCONFIG, all the good stuff.

Call signs will be like "WN9ABC", 'N' used to mean 'Novice' Now it will mean 'Network'

License privileges will include the use of radio-less nodes to connect to Yaesu rooms, DMR talkgroups, D-Star reflectors, and so-on where other communicators with legacy RF based call signs are making their transition to modern methods of communicating.

All existing legacy RF based license classes will be 'grandfathered' full communicator class operating privileges.

Then all that vacant spectrum can be sold - except for HF. Newington will stand firm on that. Users who wish to continue using their legacy licenses will be granted lifetime use of "Antique Radio"

For those who don't wish to be tied to the physical location of their radio-less node, long range Bluetooth and cellphone apps will provide network extension.

 

[ArtU]

Reading different post and comments in this forum and others compels me to post this.

Before you decide on whether to get a D-Star or Fusion or DMR radio, make sure people are actually talking on the repeaters you see listed.
It's easy for someone to get a repeater listing. It's a little more work to actually put up a repeater.
And even more effort for trustees to actually monitor their own machine and have a chat with anyone that brings it up.

So before you make the leap of faith with you wallet, get a cheap ol' analog scanner and program in all the digital repeaters listed in your area.
Sure you're not going to hear what they are talking about. But you will know if folks are actually using the machines.

Here in the Detroit area, probably 50% of the digital repeaters listed in our MARC directory are deader than last year's birds nest.
Of the ones that are actually up and running, their courtesy tones should be crickets. All kidding aside.

My Moto XPR 8400 DMR repeater will transmit about every min when connected to a site connect network ; Like DCI or Brandmister. so just hearing my DMR repeater send the sync signals to clients about every min; that would not really work as mine was in a shed and low profile.

Fusion and D-Star do not do that.

 

[ArtU]

I have the OpenSpot3 but from what i've been reading NXDN is not fully supported when using cross mode and P25 requires a P25 radio and i don't have one.

Use Fusion Voice Wide to cross mode to P25; they are the same but the headers , the underlying voice data is the same