TYT MD 380/390 Programming Tutorial

[KM4WLV]

Good afternoon everyone!

I got my TYT MD390 w/GPS about 2 weeks ago and I've been pretty happy with it. And as I do with every radio I get I sat down and dove into loading it up with all the channels/talkgroups I'd use, but I also test/try out the different features to see if there's any benefit in using them. Some folks aren't as familiar with programming radios, or struggle with understanding the difference between channels vs talkgroups, CTCSS/PL vs DPL, etc. You get the idea. And I've seen folks that get frustrated with it and wind up either returning or selling the radio out of frustration because they think they just can't get it, and here and there (and I'm sure some of you have seen) when someone comes into the forums either here or on other sites and asks for help they get chastised because they don't understand, including me when I asked somewhere about how to program a Monitor All talkgroup. I'm well versed in programming, that's just something I had never needed before.

So enough rambling, lol, on to my point. I searched here and via Google and didn't see any real detailed or step by step in programming this model portable. I've even sat down with a couple guys from my club to help them learn how to program these. I'm in the process of making out a step by step guide including screen shots/pics with each step. I'd like to do that here as well. I'd like to post it in the Wiki but wanted opinions on putting it in a thread here so not only could folks could see the instructions, but also give everyone a sort of "one stop shop" in case they have questions as well. So what do you guys think about this? I just thought as popular as these portables are it may help some folks out. Remember, we were all new to this at one point as well. If I do this my plan is to go part by part...... Conventional Programming, Talkgroup programming, Feature Options/Programming, and so on.

**To the Mods, if folks seem interested do you think we could set this up as a sticky?**

 

[chief21]

A good idea. And lots of work, for sure. This would likely be very helpful to many new DMR users.

But - please! - please! - be sure that any information you present is correct. I've seen plenty of youtube DMR presentations, made with good intentions - I'm sure, that can be very confusing and are often less than accurate.

Best of luck,

John

 

[KM4WLV]

A good idea. And lots of work, for sure. This would likely be very helpful to many new DMR users.

But - please! - please! - be sure that any information you present is correct. I've seen plenty of youtube DMR presentations, made with good intentions - I'm sure, that can be very confusing and are often less than accurate.

Best of luck,

John

Thanks for the encouragement John. I've made tutorials like this in the past and they've worked very well. I'm the Chief of the Red Cross in Rowan County (NC) and I did one for our folks that have XTS5000's issued to them. Before Red Cross I was the Battalion Chief of my FD and was over our training division but my career ended in 2012 because of a back injury. I see you're in NC also. Enough rambling, lol I'm not going to do a Youtube video, but I will be doing a step by step guide on how to program both the analog and DMR sides, different features, etc. You get the idea. I'll be doing screenshots at each step,so yes, it's going to take some work so hopefully everyone will be patient with me while I work on it. Like I said in the original post hopefully it can be added to the Wiki and the idea for doing in the thread here is to give folks a place to ask questions & where if need be we can walk them back through everything.

I've started working on it & each post from me in the thread will cover one subject. Basically starting the tutorial from the moment you unbox it until you're on the air. It'll most likely be this weekend before I start posting stuff. BUT, in the mean time if anyone reading this has questions, suggestions, etc please don't hesitate to ask or share them. Thanks again for the encouragement!!