I'm not noticing a DMRs on my display, but will watch closer. Am noticing several users using simplex in the mode where the radio does catch a signal and records, but appears to be silent. If I listen on headphones or playback at high volume, I hear the parade of pulses. Sketchiest reception is with a small company using the freq for switching railcars. It's tough listening in a high RF environment, and even popping the freq into 'Tune' mode sometimes doesn't do the trick. Better performance programming it as a memory channel in DMR mode.
Have recently experimented with a large local theatre where I sometimes perform. Audio from the transmissions is varied in quality, but sometimes more clear a few blocks away than within a block. All transmissions show as timeslot 1, but each frequency has a unique color code and talkgroup ID. No indication of more than one talkgroup per frequency, so I'll also assume that only one timeslot is used. At a recent performance, I set all licensed freqs to DMR and let the radios record from inside the building. Reception was generally good using no attenuation. Found no new freqs or TGs active that I hadn't already discovered from the outside.
The biggest problem with simplex for me is that audio sounds muddier. This is true both in the quiet building and in the noisy railyard. Both users have two factors in common. First, they're all using body-mounted radios with external speaker mics. Theatre people have radios on the hip, rail guys have them on the chest. Second, both are in a downtown RF environment. Could also be that users are talking too far away, or off-angle from their mics.
73/Allen (N4JRI)
