Chertsey Radio club testing new DMR hand held

[m0jfp]

Hi All,
I'd like to share that Chertsey Radio Club has been working very hard with a manufacturer in China to produce a hand held DMR radio.
The project name is Trilogy, and we are testing on both Phoenix and BM repeaters over the next couple of weeks.
We have 2 sample models at this time and will be asking for reports on either big radio or small radio (both hand held)

The aim of the project is to produce a decent quality radio, fully programmed for your local repeaters and with your DMR ID.
Updates as the networks change or by request, return back for updates or purchase a programming cable
The radio will arrive to you ready to use.
The cost of the radio shall be as cheap and accessible to all and we aim to get this in under the £100 mark.

Units arrived late last week and we will be testing and updating our page at http://chertseyradioclub.blogspot.co.uk ... age_6.html

Initial reports:
easy to use programming software, audio is as good as Hytera, look and feel of radio is good, screen quality is very clear / easy to read.



If you are interested in helping to test or want to know more please get in contact with me.

Best 73 and thanks for reading

James / M0JFP / WO2I

[Mick M5AED]

The VHF/UHF FM bands are very underused now days. To make sure the few users will never hear each other we now split people up with DMR, Fusion and D Star ! What a clever idea, technology for the sake of it. My FT991 has Fusion and I have used it twice having first made contact on analogue FM. Fusion sounds like an unnatural compressed form of FM, not very pleasant at all. I can imagine a newcomer simply not bothering to spend money on FM due to being uncertain as to which system to buy and the limited number of contacts. With the wide open space on analogue on FM and room for everyone what is the point of this digital stuff ?

[fuzzbutton]

I don't really get it, what will this radio offer that you can't already get from (for example) the MD380?

[m0jfp]

Hi Mick,

I could not agree more, I really love HF and proper real radio don't get me wrong.
However if you want to chat with your mates or have a guaranteed clear connection (please don't say use a mobile phone!)
The digital modes are the way forward. It seems all the analogue repeaters now are dead on the air. I did enjoy using those in the past for local rag chews and whilst mobile.

The advantages of digital modes, repeaters are liked up using Skype like chat rooms over the internet, this means you can talk to any of the UK, European or even world wide DMR / Dstar or fusion repeaters.
The quality of the voice, although as you say is compressed is, once you get used to it, very good. To add to the value the digital is split into 2 signals known as time slots, so 1 repeater (one pair of frequencies) can now entertain 2 simultaneous conversations. So that's another advantage.

Now this project *TRILOGY* by Chertsey radio club is looking to help get people on to DMR, by providing a cost effective radio, we will do all the programming and ship it ready to use by you.
All you do is choose the repeater and the channel you want to talk on and key up (or just listen)

The aim to provide a fully functional unit at close to cost price (under £100) means you could try out the mode without putting a hole in your wallet, knowing you have support form a club who has worked hard with the manufacturer and will provide help and support just for the sake of the hobby.

I hope you can understand we think DMR is a good companion to Ham radio, but will not be a replacement, nor was it intended to be, for a HF of side band or pure FM contact.

I wish you a great day

Best regards and 73

James

The VHF/UHF FM bands are very underused now days. To make sure the few users will never hear each other we now split people up with DMR, Fusion and D Star ! What a clever idea, technology for the sake of it. My FT991 has Fusion and I have used it twice having first made contact on analogue FM. Fusion sounds like an unnatural compressed form of FM, not very pleasant at all. I can imagine a newcomer simply not bothering to spend money on FM due to being uncertain as to which system to buy and the limited number of contacts. With the wide open space on analogue on FM and room for everyone what is the point of this digital stuff ?

[m0jfp]

The price point should be much less than the MD380, given we are also offering the unit fully programmed with your choice of repeater and with your dmr id ready to go, that should have some appeal.
Also the fact that we have worked with the manufacturer to get the product fit for use on the ham radio network show be of some confort.

The radios are IMHO better quality than the MD380 and retevis clone. They look a lot more like the Hytera and the screen is much better too.

But again, look at what we try to achieve in the project goals:
1: cheap, but good quality radio, tested by us for use on ham network
2: program and set up radio ready to use out the box
3: supply updates and code plugs as needed (also return post if needed)

Its not a contest, its just trying to allow more people to try and use dmr and just don't have time to write code plugs, and fiddle, the chance to plug and play without burning a hole in your wallet.

Thanks for the comments and feedback

Wishing you a great day

best 73

James.

I don't really get it, what will this radio offer that you can't already get from (for example) the MD380?

[m0lsx]

My FT991 has Fusion and I have used it twice having first made contact on analogue FM. Fusion sounds like an unnatural compressed form of FM, not very pleasant at all.

I don't know for sure about Fusion, but I believe it is, (like Death Star,) a digitised FM. None of the digital voice modes are really offering anything different to each other than a brand name & for that matter nothing that can't be achieved by Echolink.
Sadly it feels like if it's not via a repeater whilst using a black box then it's beyond the type of amateur who operates on VHF.
I sometimes wonder if the average 2 meter user realises that simplex is even a possibility.

[m0jfp]

Everyone is made fully aware in the training classes from Foundation, Intermediate and Advanced.
But is is just convenience, ease of use and its the *new toy* is a Swiss army knife of a million different aspects to the hobby.

Its a sad fact that few people have time to scan up and down the FM bands to find a contact, there are not many people there listening or calling.
The analogue repeater network sits calling out its beacon on the hour with no users...

At least the more recent DMR repeaters have some traffic, have the possibility of linking up to the rest of the UK, Europe of world.

Take it as another mode to try, if you like it great, if its useful great. If its not your cup of tea.. chuck it away... its that simple.

Amateur radio is as deep as it is wide with so many different paths to explore and experiment with, digital will keep some people interested, but is not for others.

As a club we just wanted to help those interested get on as simply and quickly as possible and also get some more traffic on.

The UK DMR network is a fantastic feet of engineering and collaboration and is a solid communications platform which we really should use and take advantage of (IMHO)

best 73

James.

[tegsy1]

Hi james, interesting reading regarding your project,I think many people will purchase this as everything is done for them,I would be interested in trying out your product if you wish.

[fuzzbutton]

The price point should be much less than the MD380, given we are also offering the unit fully programmed with your choice of repeater and with your dmr id ready to go, that should have some appeal.

The radios are IMHO better quality than the MD380 and retevis clone. They look a lot more like the Hytera and the screen is much better too.

OK, that sounds good. Personally I like to write my own codeplugs and I'm happy with the quality and price of the MD380, but I can see that not having to faff about with codeplugs (at least to start with) would appeal to some people, and if it's going to be cheaper and better quality then that can only be a good thing! I'll look forward to seeing one

[Darkstar]

I had a DMR radio for quite a while and was never really keen on it, I have sold it as I can see the writing on the wall. First we had dmr-marc, worked fine then we had phoenix not really any different just swapped TG's around then we get Brandmeister more chopping and changing. Then you get a group of repeaters that decide to be insular and not part of the network, now you have make contact on a TG then move to a user activated TG of which there are 2. As the user number increases so will the bottlenecking of users wanting to chat but finding the allowed talkgroups full as each has only 2 slots, this will lead to arguments and dummy spitting and eventually RIP DMR. With the same happening on the Hytera network.