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Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) Free PDF Guide
18 January 2016 | by 
For awhile now, I’ve been wanting to get a Tytera MD-380 or Connect Systems CS-750 (or CS-700) in order to learn more about how Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) really works.
To be honest, I’d been having a very hard time wrapping my head around the differences between analog FM and DMR. All of these (relatively) new terms for us old hams including tiers, talk groups, two-slot TDMA, zones, code plugs — they really didn’t make sense to me.
Last night I downloaded and read a free 28-page PDF guide called the Amateur Radio Guide to Digital Mobile Radio by John Burningham W2XAB available on the TRBO.org website. It made everything come together for me. If you’ve been interested in getting into DMR, download this and read it tonight. Well worth the hour it took!
The world of Digital Mobile Radio can be a little complicated, but it opens a whole new world once you understand it. Don’t let the future pass you by!
Thank you, John! What a service to the Amateur Radio community.
7 Responses to “Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) Free PDF Guide”
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I have a CS750, upgraded by the factory from CS700. It seems like a decent radio.
Even with W2XAB’s guide, the learning curve for programming seemed quite steep for me. I downloaded some “code plugs” (radio programming configuration files) for some other states and figured out how to make the code plug for the Metro Atlanta area. It took a while.
If more users shared their code plugs for the various radios in various regions, it would make it a lot easier for newbies to get into DMR.
Jeff n1kdo
I need program info on the Uniden BCT15X for the UK use.
I have a scanner frequency book for the UK , is that whaqt you are looking for.
Bob
Some trends seen here :
People buy a DMR and after 4 weeks they sell it again. They don’t like the sound of DMR, they have problems with the fact you need to have the TRX a lot of times connected to a computer, or they find programming a DMR TRX difficult.
Second trend…people work for months on DMR and all of a sudden they sell it all and come back to analogue.
Like D(eath)-Star it will go by…
The Popular Chinese Tytera MD380 hand-held DMR has recently been reverse engineered and may now become the target of modification for other proprietary digital modes such as D-Star, TETRA etc. See here:
http://hackaday.com/2016/01/19/shmoocon-2016-reverse-engineering-cheap-chinese-radio-firmware/
Ironically, the hacking of this Chinese radio will only lead to Tytera selling more radios! What’s even more ironic is the Tytera radio had to be reverse-engineered in the first-place. The Tytera radio is itself a copy of another radio, quite likely the Chinese Hytera DMR (notice the similarity in product names), see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hytera
And it doesn’t stop there… It is speculated the Hytera Chinese radios themselves are reverse-engineered copies of either the New Zealand-based Tait Communications DMR’s and/or ripped-off copies of Etherstack’s Intellectual-Property (IP) DMR stack.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tait_Communications
http://www.etherstack.com/
One thing that’s clear from all this – the recurring terms: Chinese, copy, etc.
But these terms would not be recurring in the first place if the original equipment manufacturers sold their products at affordable prices in the first place. Which leads one to understand the single term hovering over this whole debacle is – Greed.
The disappeance of DMR in these posts predicted in 20@6…….. how wrong they were.
I’m a newbie passed my tech 1-year 1/2 ago 88 yrs. oldddd. Not so good at learning the radio set up, any help I can get will be much appreciated. I’m trying for my general soon, had big health issue but OK now. Thank You