I have been spending time and a lot of Youtube(ing) getting a DMR base station to work. The rig is an Anytone AT-D578UVIII-Plus. This is a tri-band (includes 220). I connected it to my two band vertical and I THINK that I am hitting a couple of repeaters but it is not parroting audio back. I discovered that this is really not important for a base operation. Having your own local DMR hotspot is the best option.
So – I had a spare Raspberry Pi (3B) lying around and picked up a $45 hotspot board from Amazon to mate with it. This was a very easy build and with the help of a few more Youtube videos it is working well. The dashboard for the WPSD (a Pi-Star) variant is excellent.
The hotspot lets me access various talk groups. Most through Brandmeister (I haven’t set up others). Checked into a North American talkgroup (93) and there is a world-wide-check-in that meets on another talkgroup Saturdays. Lots of chatter there other times. It is amazing how clear voices are with all of the paths that are followed. (But then again, ZOOM does the same thing)
Both the dashboard on the PC – as well as the radio – indicates the details of who is talking. Anytone updates the entire DMR dBase daily which you can upload to your radio. How cool is this?
It is pretty remarkable – but not really what you call Ham Radio.
I assume that those dabbling with DMR can call me directly (3225288). I set up a channel for this (hopefully) as a talkgroup.
