TG 310 on Brandmeister Announcement

[bill4long]

Another is not being truthful to hotspot users who sound like crap

Being on a hotspot has absolutely nothing to do with whether someone "sounds like crap" or not if their RX Offset is tuned correctly. I'm on DMR all day long, and this is not common.

having a 20 minute qso full of repeats, with only 2 minutes worth of real content. But, that does leave about 18 minutes of conversation just to repeat the very next day!

What they talk about is their business.

We can also save resources in the same manner by being truthful to the cross-mode operations that also sound like CRAP.

Using cross-mode has absolutely nothing to do with whether someone "sounds like crap" or not.

 

[bill4long]

My disappointment with dmr is not really the technology or even the networks, but the lack of basic training in this area. Unless one understands the two points above as a starting point, dmr has turned away from a radio aspect into more of a phone-freaking hobby.

There are some networks out there that don't allow hotspots and/or don't have the ability for hotspots to connect to them. You might try looking in that direction.

 

[bill4long]

310 is only one talkgroup. There are hundreds of other talkgroups that you can try. But if you still want to monitor TAC310 there is still a way to do it. Change to DMR Plus and select one of the servers such as IPSC2-CANTRBO. Using that server you can have continuous access to TAC310 and not need to keep keying your mic to keep the talkgroup alive. However if you are interested in trying a busy talkgroup on Brandmeister, try World Wide 91. There is enough activity there that should keep you occupied. Often so much that you can't even disconnect because you can't get enough time between transmissions to be able to send the disconnect command.

Most people I know have started using 91 and/or 3100. The shakeup doesn't seem to have affected much of anything.

 

[kayn1n32008]

There are some networks out there that don't allow hotspots and/or don't have the ability for hotspots to connect to them. You might try looking in that direction.

This. This is exactly what a group of folks near me are doing. Private network, with out being connected to anything else.

 

[DaveNF2G]

There seem to be a lot of vanity repeaters on DMR. Nobody is supposed to use them, but the operator has the prestige of being a repeater owner.

 

[chilenet]

310 is only one talkgroup. There are hundreds of other talkgroups that you can try. But if you still want to monitor TAC310 there is still a way to do it. Change to DMR Plus and select one of the servers such as IPSC2-CANTRBO. Using that server you can have continuous access to TAC310 and not need to keep keying your mic to keep the talkgroup alive. However if you are interested in trying a busy talkgroup on Brandmeister, try World Wide 91. There is enough activity there that should keep you occupied. Often so much that you can't even disconnect because you can't get enough time between transmissions to be able to send the disconnect command.

Thank you. I think I'm over it now and on to 3100. I'll try 91 too! Thanks EdmontonFireRadio and bill4long

 

[WX4JCW]

TBH my DMR stuff has been unused for a while, maybe i will dust it off after the drama gets settled

 

[hitechRadio]

Someone kept saying that TAC310 was in part removed because of PA finals going out????

Sorry, but that is no ones fault but the repeater owner's for not using 100% duty cycle on DMR!

 

[bill4long]

TBH my DMR stuff has been unused for a while, maybe i will dust it off after the drama gets settled

The 310 drama is long gone.

 

[N4GIX]

Someone kept saying that TAC310 was in part removed because of PA finals going out????

Sorry, but that is no ones fault but the repeater owner's for not using 100% duty cycle on DMR!

A top of the line Motorola SLR5700 repeater is rated for 100% duty cycle. Even those have suffered from blown finals after several HOURS of continuous key down..

 

[hitechRadio]

A top of the line Motorola SLR5700 repeater is rated for 100% duty cycle. Even those have suffered from blown finals after several HOURS of continuous key down..

I find that highly unlikely.
We have SLR5700 repeaters in use commercially and are keyed 24/7 with no issues at full power.

We even have one XPR8400 running continuous with no issues. Although at about 75% of its rated full power.

Don't put blame on the users of TAC310. It was not the users of TAC310 or any other busy talk group that caused a repeater failure.
TAC310 did not go away due to repeater owners PA's blowing up (supposedly). TAC 310 went away because it is a TAC channel.
If designed correctly a 100% duty cycle transmitter will have no issues with being keyed 100% of the time. It almost sounds like the repeater owner is looking for someone to blame, when no one to blame but themselves.

 

[kayn1n32008]

A top of the line Motorola SLR5700 repeater is rated for 100% duty cycle. Even those have suffered from blown finals after several HOURS of continuous key down..

Even a SLR-5700 should only be used as an exciter(at what ever the minimum output it can do) to drive an external PA. Why would anyone want to run a repeater at its max out put is beyond me.

 

[N4GIX]

Don't put blame on the users of TAC310. It was not the users of TAC310 or any other busy talk group that caused a repeater failure.
TAC310 did not go away due to repeater owners PA's blowing up (supposedly). TAC 310 went away because it is a TAC channel.
If designed correctly a 100% duty cycle transmitter will have no issues with being keyed 100% of the time. It almost sounds like the repeater owner is looking for someone to blame, when no one to blame but themselves.

TAC310 hasn't "gone" anywhere. It's still available, albeit only as a dynamic PTTA group. The chief problem arose because too many C-Bridge owners had the various TAC and UA groups configured as full time TGs.

 

[n9cqc]

I know I'm late to this party but... New to DMR and just read through this thread to try and learn a few things. I learned two things. First, I never had any idea that any aspect of ham radio could be so emotional! Second, as a few posters mentioned, it is notoriously difficult to find good educational resources on DMR for the newcomer.

 

[bill4long]

I never had any idea that any aspect of ham radio could be so emotional!

Welcome to ham radio!

 

[bill4long]

it is notoriously difficult to find good educational resources on DMR for the newcomer.

It's good to make a ham friend who has trodden the path.

 

[bharvey2]

I know I'm late to this party but... New to DMR and just read through this thread to try and learn a few things. I learned two things. First, I never had any idea that any aspect of ham radio could be so emotional! Second, as a few posters mentioned, it is notoriously difficult to find good educational resources on DMR for the newcomer.

I wouldn't so much say that it is emotional just that some tend to be a bit "spirited" in opinion. That aside, what are you needing to know?

 

[w2xq]

I know I'm late to this party but... New to DMR and just read through this thread to try and learn a few things. I learned two things. First, I never had any idea that any aspect of ham radio could be so emotional! Second, as a few posters mentioned, it is notoriously difficult to find good educational resources on DMR for the newcomer.

Look at Amateur radio notes by KE0FHS for probably the best comprehensive DMR and digital resource on the web.

 

[jperuta]

So the TAC 310 Nets on Sunday doesn’t happen?

 

[Bailey1213]

There shouldn't be any "chatter" on TAC and similar dynamic talk groups. One must understand the hierarchical structure of the talk groups to grasp the principles involved. It really isn't overly complicated, but honestly it is not explained very well, IMHO.

Let's examine a case example to illustrate. We are monitoring one of the static talk groups such as "Midwest Regional" (MR) and make a contact with one of the other users. If we two folks continue to communicate on that talk group, then we are trying up the resources of every repeater that has that TG as a static group. "MR" encompasses a very large area of six states. While I don't have exact figures let's assume there are 200 repeaters connected full-time to "MR", which is a reasonable guesstimate.

That means that the two people talking are tying up the time slots of 200 repeaters just to have a QSO, meaning that 198 other repeaters are tied up repeating their conversation*! That is a HUGE waste of resources. Instead, they should arrange between themselves to QSY (change) to one of the multiple "dynamic TGs" such as TAC311. Once they do that, then they are only using the two repeaters in their respective areas.

* Note that they are effectively denying the users of the other 198 repeaters use of that time slot by their actions.

I've actually heard two folks using the same repeater in St. Louis, MO carry on a long QSO on the MR talk group tying up the ~200 repeaters for 20 minutes, when they should have simply switched to their repeater's LOCAL talk group!

Now consider the case of two folks using the Worldwide English TG. They are potentially keying up every repeater in the bloody world simultaneously! Again an exact number isn't available since that number changes hourly, but a reasonable guesstimate would be around 3,000... Wow, talk about a waste of resources!!!

Now all this was before the proliferation of "hot spots"... Take the same example of two folks conversing on the MR talk group, but both of them are using "hot spots." If they switch to one of the available dynamic TGs such as TAC310 then they won't be keying up any repeaters at all except for a few that may have had TAC310 activated and they hadn't yet timed out.

Hopefully all the above is clear enough, and explains why we should "use it, but not abuse it" with regards to static versus dynamic talk groups.

I am a new ham, and just got my dmr hot spot up and going. I was listening to a QSO about tac 310 and its usage. You comment explained it very well and now I understand. I wish things were explained in plane understandable words like this on other web sites so that new hams like me dont make other operators angry or use the system incorrectly by accident. Thanks for the post.