Topics

1 History

2 DMR Radio ID

3 Talk Groups

4 Networks – Canada

5 Hotspots (Pi-Star, Openspot)

6 DMRGateway

7 Where to Buy

8 DMR Growth

DMR Canada History

History Lesson (2017)

CAN-TRBO (hosting the DMR-MARC Network in Canada) has been operational since early 2013 and its goal is to provide connectivity for the Canadian MotoTRBO *Motorola) digital repeaters to the World wide DMR-MARC network. The connectivity is provided from Montreal using a very stable 50 mbps, high bandwidth connection to Canada’s leading Internet provider.

CAN-TRBO (DMR-MARC Network) went on to establish linked repeaters all across Canada. A network known as “The Golden Horseshoe” of four repeaters on TG8 was established linking the western edge of Lake Ontario with repeaters in Oshawa, Toronto, Hamilton, and Niagara Falls. Unfortunately this Network was taken down due to malicious interference.

CAN-TRBO eventually linked repeaters across Canada using TG3020 to TG3029 where TG3023(Ontario), 3022(Quebec), 3027(BC) etc.

2015 Brandmeister comes to Canada

Milestone: Dec 2015 Brandmeister Network is born

The Brandmeister server was launched in Canada in November 2015 and linked to the DMR-MARC network with two talk Groups 302 Canada and 9, and later 3023(Ontario)

DMR+

The DMR-MARC network system was all repeaters(No hotspots at that time). DMR+ came online that linked to DMR-MARC and allowed hotspots but was limited. Brandmeister on the other hand welcomed the hotspots and grew rapidly in popularity.
Currently TG3023(Ontario) is bridged from TGIF to DMR+ which is also bridged across to DMR-MARC and Brandmeister. TG3023 is static in Ontario and on demand in all other provinces. ie: A ham can keyup 3023 in BC and trigger all DMR-MARC repeaters across Ontario on TG3023

Currently TG302(Canada) is linked to DMR+ and DMR-MARC but not Brandmeister
TG302 is static across all the Provinces such that a keyup on TG302 on TGIF will keyup all repeaters across Canada that support TG302

What Is A DMR Radio ID?

A Radio ID is a unique number assigned to you (and your callsign) by the RadioID.net Team. Like a telephone number or IP address, your Radio ID identifies you as a unique radio user on the various DMR networks and repeaters around the world. Because DMR is digital, we have so much more that we can do with the RF flowing to and from our radios. For example, because of Radio IDs we can see and display the callsign of the person talking to us on the radio face by the use of the RadioID.net Database. Every time you PTT your DMR radio, your Radio ID gets transmitted to the DMR network and everyone can see who you are. Pretty cool, right? BUT DON’T FORGET.. YOU MUST STILL ID BY VOICE TO BE LEGAL! Even though your callsign shows up in the network logs and on other users radios does not mean you are identifying yourself a licensed ham. You must ID like you do on analog.

So why else is this so cool? Identifying every radio and repeater uniquely with an ID enables the very essence of DMR networking to function. i.e making private calls to each other, organizing specific talkgroups for countries, states, regions, cities, clubs, special interest groups etc.

It’s totally free to get your Radio ID and you NEED ONE if you are going to have a DMR radio and use it. Is it the law? No. But you aren’t going to enjoy using DMR unless you have one, so do yourself a favor and get registered with RadioID.net as soon as you buy a DMR Radio.

Talk Groups

Talk Groups (TG) are a way for groups of users to share a time slot, without distracting and disrupting other users of the time slot. It should be noted that only one Talk Group can be using a time slot at any one time. If your radio is not programmed to listen to a Talk Group, you will not hear that Talk Group’s traffic.

The Brandmeister network is very similar to DMR-MARC, but the talk groups and reflectors are organized some what differently. For example, Talkgroup 3129 on the MARC network might not be the same as Talkgroup 3129 on the Brandmeister network.

The DMR standard also supports private calls (one-to-one), encryption, and data. Private calls are not allowed by most of the amateur networks and many consider private calls not amateur friendly. Private calls tie up a large number of repeater time slots across the network. Encryption is not legal on amateur radio in the USA but is allowed in Canada! Data and text messaging is supported on some networks. The TGIF Network now supports private calls.

A DMR talkgroup is simply a way of grouping many Radio IDs into a single digital contact. Or put another way, a talkgroup is a method of organizing radio traffic specific to the DMR users that all want to talk about a specific topic and not be bothered by other radio traffic.

Talkgroups can exist for many purposes. You can have talkgroups for countries, states, counties, regions, cities, special interest groups etc. Just about any group of DMR users could have a talkgroup assigned to them if they wished to organize traffic that they can all monitor and take part in, without having to talk to each other one by one.

Talkgroups are also specific to individual DMR networks, BUT they all generally follow the same numbering scheme. So you need to make sure that you know what the various talkgroups are, for each of the DMR networks that you may use.

Be sure to manage your Talkgroups separately if you use more that one DMR network! some talkgroups are cross-connected between systems, like 302 Canada-Wide, 3023 Ontario Wide, and the TAC 310, 311, and 312 talkgroups.

What is a Static Talkgroup?
A static talkgroup is one that is permanently activated on a particular timeslot by the repeater sysop. This type of static assignment passes ALL traffic from the DMR network over the air on the timeslot it is assigned to.

For example, if a province wide talkgroup is assigned to the local repeater on timeslot 1, anytime someone keys that talkgroup anywhere in the network, regardless of where they are, the audio will be re-transmitted locally.

In simple terms, this networks many repeaters together full-time for that particular talkgroup.
http://ipsc2.can-trbo.ca/ipsc/

Care must be taken when selecting a talkgroup for your QSO, you may inadvertently be tying up scores of repeaters when there is a more appropriate talkgroup that could be used, such as a user activated On Demand talkgroup.

What is an On Demand Talkgroup?
On Demand talkgroups assignments are used for temporary activation on a time slot on a particular repeater. This type of talkgroup functions for a set amount of time AFTER a local repeater user activates it by transmitting on a repeater using that talkgroup in their radio. When the timer expires, and no local user has keyed up again for a set amount of time, on the timeslot, and the talkgroup will be released by the repeater is again open only to the talkgroups that remain static.

For example, if you are travelling in Ontario and wish to talk to a friend back home in New Brunswick, you could key up the New Brunswick talkgroup(3029) on an Ontario repeater that allows On Demand talkgroups and make a call on repeaters at home that have the New Brunswick talkgroup set as static. When you are done with your conversation, the dynamic timer will expire and the Ontario repeater will go back to normal.

Example

Location: BC – Nanaimo Site Name: Nanaimo User Radio RX Freq MHz: 440.825 User Radio TX Freq MHz: 445.825 CC: 1 Zonename: BC:Nanaimo;BCN Abbr:BCN RID:302058

Talk Group Deck

DESCRIPTION	TG ID	TS	RULE
BC 1	3027	1	FT/3
BC 2	103027	2	FT/3
Canada 2	302	2	FT/3
I-5 1	3168	1	FT/3
N.America 2	3163	2	P15/3
Ontario 2	3023	2	P15/3
Parrot 1	9998	1	P15/3
PNW 1	3187	1	FT/3
PNW 2	103187	2	P15/3
PNW Rgnl 2	31771	2	P15/3
TAC 310-2	310	2	P15/3
Washington 1	3153	1	P15/3
Washington 2	103153	2	P15/3
Worldwide 2	3161	2	P15/3
WW English 2	13	2	P15/3

	‘RULE’ LEGEND
FT/3	Standard Full-time TG with 3 minute HO’s (hold-off timers) on all same slot TG’s. (times may vary)
P15/3	PTT (Push-to-Talk or Part-Time-Talkgroup) for 15 minutes of On-Time with partial 3 minute HO’s (hold-off timers may vary)
P2/0	2 minutes of On-time with no HO’s (hold-off timers may vary)
Spl/Var	Special case/Variable HO timing

DMR Repeater Map

Current YSF Repeaters – Southern Ontario
Network Map – Hotspots and Repeaters
https://www.levinecentral.com/repeaters/google_mapping_canada.php

DMR Networks

Brandmeister Network

The Brandmeister Network was born from several worldwide hams and software engineers who joined together to create a digital repeater network consisting of master servers and peer repeaters all over the world. The network has over 1300 repeaters and more than 3000 hotspots across the globe and it’s growing every day!

Brandmeister is tailored to the Motorola TRBO technology and allows for DMR repeaters to connect worldwide via the internet and link systems together by utilizing organized Talkgroups.

The Brandmeister Network offers several neat features for amateur radio enthusiasts to take advantage of:

• Private Call
• Talkgroups
• APRS
• SMS Text Messaging
• D-Star Gateway
• Echolink Gateway
• Autopatch Call Gateway
• Roaming via Hytera Equipment
• and more…

TGIF Network

The TGIF Network was started in October, 2018 By Robert K4WZV and Mitch EA7KDO(Silent Key Feb 2024).

They started the TGIF Network with just one talkgroup which became 31665, and about 5 Amateur Radio Operators joined the Network, at this time the system was running on a Raspberry pi.

Later on, Ty (KG5RKI) came on board to help improve the hblink code it was currently running on, and move it to a cloud server, then later rewrote the backend to make what was called Callmgr. Michael (K5MRE) and Andy (G7LRR) also joined the team and created many of the features we enjoy on the website and plenty more behind the scene.

Over the course of the next year, the network quickly grew from just a few hundred registered users to just under 1,500. As of 2024-03-16 TGIF has 14,000 registered users and 1,700 Talkgroups. Each registered user is allowed to request, obtain, and administer their own talk group(s). All registered users are assigned a 16 digit security code. http://tgif.network

The main/original talkgroup is TG 31665, and is sometimes referred to as the ‘Mothership’ by many, and due to attempts at interference, has been locked down to registered users only.

All Amateur Radio Operators are welcome to join and try out what the network offers.

The Network is still growing rapidly. Last year, Pi-Star and Shark RF Openspot added the TGIF Network to their list of networks.

The new server in operation now, is state of the art, with many options not available on any other server world wide. It has unparalleled security options where each talkgroup owner(anyone can request a TG) can lock the tg to registered users only, block users that are causing issues, allow users RX only access and lock the tg to users already logged in.,

TGIF Last Heard Page – Green band indicates user is talking on the TG in Orange
https://tgif.network/lastheard.php

User Station Detail

User Self Care

Users Talk Group Controls

Users have the capability to handle security of their talk group

All Amateur Radio Operators are welcome to join and try out what the network offers. Unregistered users, referred to as legacy users, have access to all other tg’s that are not locked to registered users by their respective owners,

The TGIF Network hosts a net every Friday night at 20:30 EST which contains a buy and sell session and a technical discussion. These nets are recorded and are available on the TGIF Forum at
https://tgifnetwork.createaforum.com/friday-night-net-recordings/

Basically a DMR radio can converse directly with a hotspot, which is, in turn connected to a server. Alternatively a radio can connect to a repeater which may or may not have a connection to a DMR Server.

Encryption

47 A person who operates radio apparatus in the amateur radio service may only
(a) communicate with a radio station that operates in the amateur radio service;
(b) use a code or cipher that is not secret;

“In Canada, from what Industry Canada (now called ISED) has said, it is legal to use encryption on the amateur frequencies as long as you use a key that is published.”
If you don’t make the key available to everyone, you can’t encrypt.

It has been said that locking a service to registered users(ie:Brandmeister and TGIF) is a form of encryption. This has been negated with the information that both systems have a registration service available to all hams.

Digital Modes

The most popular Digital modes are DMR, YSF, NXDN, P25, D-STAR, with N17 a new player on the block.

The DMR standard operates within the existing 12.5 kHz channel spacing used in land mobile frequency bands globally, but achieves two voice channels through two-slot TDMA technology built around a 30 ms structure. The modulation is 4-state FSK, which creates four possible symbols over the air at a rate of 4,800 symbols/s, corresponding to 9,600 bit/s. After overhead, forward error correction, and splitting into two channels, there is 2,450 bit/s left for a single voice channel using DMR, compared to 4,400 bit/s using P25 and 64,000 bit/s with traditional telephone circuits.

For some people, who don’t live within range of a digital voice repeater, a hotspot goes beyond being fun to being a critical key to accessing digital voice systems, a gift that opens doors to the whole wide world.

Overall, this is an exciting area of amateur radio that is evolving and progressing rapidly with some excellent work being done by some very innovative hams.

Here’s a simplified diagram of what it looks like when you connect via your hotspot to a BrandMeister-hosted multiprotocol talkgroup, which enables people using different modes to talk with each other:

Openspot 3/4

The openSPOT3/4 is a battery powered, portable, standalone digital radio internet gateway (hotspot) designed mainly for amateur radio. You can talk with others on digital radio networks by using an openSPOT, Wi-Fi internet access, and your digital transceiver.
The openspot3 has 5 profiles where the openspo4 has 10 profiles, all selected by tg 900x

Compatible digital radio protocols and networks

• DMR (BrandMeister, DMRplus, DMR-MARC, Phoenix, XLX, TGIF and others)
• D-STAR® (DCS, REF/DPlus, XRF/DExtra, XLX)
• System Fusion®/C4FM (FCS, YSFReflector, XLX)
• NXDN® (NXDNReflector)
• P25 (P25Reflector)
• POCSAG (DAPNET)
• APRS® messaging and location data forwarding (APRS-IS)
  Supports cross modes with built-in hardware transcoding (example: talk with your D-STAR® radio on DMR, and with your DMR radio on D-STAR® networks).

Pi-Star MMDVM Hotspot

DMR Gateway-6 by VE3RD (8 Digit Mode)

The DMRGateway allows a pi-star hotspot to be connected to several servers at the same time allowing a user to dial up any talk group on any connected server by just turning his channel selector, or using the radio’s ad-hoc feature.

DMRGateway-6 by VE3RD (Raw Mode)Basically the networks are selected by trying to connect to a TG 9001 to 9005
This will lock the Network and then connecting to 31665 connect to that tg on the selected server ie:

[DMR Network 4]
Enabled=1
Name=TGIF_Network
Address=tgif.network
TGRewrite0=2,1,2,1,999999
2=RF Time Slot 2
1=Starting at Talk Group 1
2=Network Time Slot 2
999999 – Range of Talk Groups starting at the previous indicated TG

DMRGayeway-6 will work on two other modes, that I refer to as 7 Digit (Similar to the original Pi-Star DMRGateway) and 14 digit mode

There are 6 networks + D-Star available in the DMRGateway
Network 1 – BM
Network 2 – DMR+ IPSC2
Network 3 – Cross modes and HBLINK
Network 4 – Open – TGIF
Network 5 – Open – MNET
Network 6 – Open – Quadnet
Typically I only have net 2, 4 and 5 turned on

Note: Pi-star Simplex hotspots will only work on Time Slot 2
Note: Pi-Star Duplex hotspots will allow both Time Slots
Note: Openspot hotspots will allow both Time Slots

Where to Buy http://tgifspot.com

These hotspots are all thoroughly tested and setup for you. If you provide the requested information they will be plug and play when they arrive. They have excellent support by the vendor Robert K4WZV. But before you contact him, contact me Phil VE3RD. I can probably fix and problems other than hardware.

Link to TGIF Spot 3.5″ Selected Screen Images

Extra VE3ZRD Screens on TGIF Forum

Registered Wires-X Nodes as of 1 March 2024

Wires-X Nodes
North America	18907
Europe	8245
Japan	5764
Asia	2100
Total	53916

Registered DMR ID’s as of 6 Sept 2024 https://radioid.net/

Summary and Opinions

1) DMR is, by far ,the fastest growing digital mode.( 2024-09-06)

2) DMR via hotspot provides the best versatility of all digital modes with its Multiple TGs, and DMRGateway

3) The TGIF Server provides more DMR Talk Groups(reflectors) than any other server or mode.

4) The TGIF Server provides more Security for Talk Groups than any other mode or server.

5) There are more YSF repeaters in Ontario, especially Niagara than DMR Repeaters, since, what I refer to as the TROUBLES.

6) A DMR repeater can handle two simultaneous conversations, (TS1 and TS2)

7) DMR Hotspots require the internet, and may have problems for portable users, during emergency conditions, if cell phone service goes down. The new Satellite Internet Systems will overcome this issue, as will visiting local hardline WiFi sites, like Tim Horton’s, McDonalds etc. Some of the ~16,000 users on TGIF are using the Starlink Satellite system.

8) DMR via hotspot (provided that internet is available) has the potential to provide a real versatile wide area emergency services communication system, with multiple channels(Talk Groups). ie Province Wide, Country Wide, North America or World Wide.
Think of DMR via hotspot as a multi channel Trunking system.
ie: A hotspot could allow a radio to switch channels with the turn of a dial between 3027 All BC DMR Repeaters, 3023 All Ontario DMR Repeaters, 3021 All Nova Scotia DMR Repeaters on either Brandmeister or IPSC2 (DMR-Marc)

9) Local Repeaters and Simplex will never be replaced for Local Communications. although DMR via hotspot would be a good addition to the tool box.