WA1OKB/R - MMDVM DMR Repeater and DAPNET POCSAG transmitter
This is all being built and run on a budget out of my personal funds for the benefit of the amateur radio community in the area.
Any assistance, financial, technical, or otherwise, is greatly appreciated.
Any assistance, financial, technical, or otherwise, is greatly appreciated.
Location: Oakland Beach, Warwick, RI USA
Downlink: 442.550 MHz
Uplink: 447.550 MHz
DMR Color Code: 01
Click here for Pi-Star Live Repeater Dashboard
D-Star, Fusion, P25, M17 : I haven't activated these modes on the repeater yet, but they are available if there's a call for them. Just let me know.
I've generally stuck with the customary practice of putting national talkgroups on TS1, and local/regional talkgroups on TS2
We are on six DMR Networks, Brandmeister, DMR+/NEDECN, TGIF Network, FreeDMR, FreeSTAR, and the XLX Reflector Network . With multiple DMR Networks, there is always some overlap in talkgroup numbers, as such, we have to use a prefix system to distinquish between the individual networks. Below explains the various prefixes that we use.
Brandmeister has the most talk groups, and is the primary network, as such, Brandmeister does not use any prefix and talkgroups can be accessed directly by the talk group number. You can activate a talkgroup or change talk groups by simply keying up in the selected talkgroup. BrandMeister will automatically disconnect dynamic talkgroups after 15 minutes of non-use, as such, it is proper etiquette to disconnect from the talkgroup when you are finished by keying up in talkgroup 4000, especially for very busy talkgroup, but if you forget or move out of range, it will time out on its own eventually. Our "local" talkgroup is 9 or 311609 which is our DMR Repeater ID. The advantage of using 311609 for local is you can access this repeater as local from anywhere on the Brandmeister network, so a group call to 311609 from a Brandmeister repeater anywhere in the world will route to and key up this repeater, so if you're on vacation in the Bahamas, you can talk to your friends in range of this Rhode Island repeater on talkgroup 311609. Brandmeister supports D-APRS, and APRS to SMS messaging as well.
The list of Brandmeister talkgroups available are listed here: https://brandmeister.network/?page=talkgroups
All other networks use 7 digit talk group numbers, with a different number prefix to specify the network.
DMR+/NEDECN talkgroups, use 7 digits with a prefix of 8. i.e. Talk group 91 becomes 8000091, 3144 becomes 8003144, etc. The list of DMR-MARC/NEDECN talkgroups available on the IPSC2 link are listed here: https://nedecn.org/talk-groups/
FreeDMR Network, we use 7 digits with a prefix of 7, so FreeDMR 110 becomes 6000110, talk group 99797 becomes 60099797, etc We have static linked the Rhode Island talk group (6003144) on timeslot 2, you may dynamically link to any other talkgroups using the 7 digit with a prefix of 6 method. The FreeDMR Network talkgroups available are listed here. https://www.freedmr.uk/index.php/world-wide-talk-groups/
TGIF Network, we use 7 digits with a prefix of 5, so TGIF Talkgroup 110 becomes 5000110, talk group 99797 becomes 5099797, etc We do not currently carry any static TGIF network talkgroup, you may dynamically link to any using this method.
The TGIF Network talkgroups available are listed here: http://tgif.network/talkgroups.phpFreeSTAR Network, we again use 7 digits with a prefix of 4, so FreeSTAR 31963 becomes 4031963. We have static linked the New Engand DMR talk group (4031963) on timeslot 2. According to the FreeSTAR Network website, "FreeSTAR was developed in early 2021 in the UK. An Amateur Radio network designed to manage & merge Digital / Analogue connections & technologies." and says to have interconnectivity to the Allstar and EchoLink analog networks, although your guess is as good as mine as to how that all works. The FreeSTAR Network talkgroups available are listed here: https://freestar.network/systemx-dmr/#talkgroups
XLX Reflectors: Connectivity to XLX Reflectors is on TG6 on Timeslot 2 (the currently linked reflector is on our repeater live dashboard at http://repeater.wa1okb.radio on the left hand side, at the bottom of the DMR Master info block.) To link to an XLX reflector, you want to be on TG6, then initiate a private call to 68### where ### is the reflector you want to connect to... so XLX005 would be 68005 and press and release your PTT button (kerchunk). you'll then get a voice response in TG6 confirming you're linked. Many of the reflectors provide multi-mode transcoding, meaning you can communicate with people on Fusion, NXDN, or D-Star with your DMR radio, but not all XLX reflectors support DMR, so check the list. The list of XLX reflectors is available at https://w0chp.net/xlx-reflectors/. Be sure to disconnect by a private call to TG64000 when finished.
DAPNET: We also serve as a node on the Decentralized Amateur Paging Network. Yes, flashback to the 1990's with an old school alpha-numeric pager. This works with POCSAG compatible pagers on 439.9875 Mhz frequency, such as these from https://www.bi7jta.org/shop (clones of this pager are also available on eBay, they work great, I'm using one) just make sure you get one that is POCSAG compatible and that it is programmed to 439.9875 Mhz, then you can sign up for a free RIC (capcode) to activate the pager at https://hampager.de (non-commercial use only, as this is operating on ham radio frequencies) When sending a page, the system waits until the repeater is idle, then very briefly switches its transmit frequency, sends the page, then switches back to the primary repeater frequency. This is an INTERNATIONAL network, so you basically have a worldwide pager (any Pi-Star based MMDVM hotspot can be configured as a DAPNET pager transmitter)
Timeslot 1
timeslot 2
Talkgroup Number
9 or 311609
9990 or 310997
3109
3123
3125
3133
3199
31601
31652
Talkgroup Name
Local
Parrot (Private Call)
Connecticut
Maine
Massachusetts
New Hampshire
US Hurricane Net
USA - Area 1
RVing Hams
Talkgroup Number
3144
31441
31444
Talkgroup Name
Rhode Island
Rhode Island Chat
Rhode Island Digital Link
Talkgroup Number
80759
88801
Talkgroup Name
SKYWARN
New England TAC1
Talkgroup Number
83144
83181
88802
Talkgroup Name
Rhode Island
New England Wide
New England TAC2
Talkgroup Number
50000130
Talkgroup Name
SKYWARN
Talkgroup Number
50003144
Talkgroup Name
Rhode Island
Talkgroup Number
Talkgroup Name
Talkgroup Number
70003144
Talkgroup Name
Rhode Island
Talkgroup Number
Talkgroup Name
Talkgroup Number
40031963
Talkgroup Name
New England DMR
Talkgroup Number
Talkgroup Name
Talkgroup Number
6
Talkgroup Name