Taking the #DMR pill and I have just solved my first mystery: "why isn't this radio showing up in the EditCP software?"
It turns out, and you guys will not believe this, but there was a Windows driver conflict that was making it connect as an audio device instead of a USB device. And then when I kept telling it to use different drivers, it just refused. So I just deleted the offending driver and it worked fine.
What pains me most about my main PC being offline is how much I miss Linux.
Ok, now the radio is reading/writing. On to the next step: going to YouTube and typing "DMR for beginners" and actually learning about it.
Just to follow up with my other issue on the #MD380
So it turns out at some point I installed a driver for the radio called 'Guillemot' and that ended up not being the right one, and it kept showing up as an audio device. Uninstalling the driver wasn't good enough, had to delete the folder from Program Files and Program Files x86. After that, it deferred to the driver I found on Reddit (I'll track that down in a sec) and works fine.
Does #CHIRP just have me spoiled or is there really no way to query various #DMR databases for repeaters/contacts? This looks tedious even with the stock TYT software.
I mean I'm not opposed to just throwing on a podcast and doing it over a lunch break, but I'm also wondering if I'm about to spend tomorrow coding a python utility to yank all this for me. (I mean, gotta learn API calls anyway, might as well, I suppose.)
Oooh, neat, the Kiwi emcomm org has an after-market manual for the #MD380
Found a great video talking through creating #DMR codeplugs for the #MD380 specifically using Editcp. The most valuable takeaway was buried about 35 minutes in: when you see the word 'Contacts', just imagine that says 'Talkgroups'.
And as a bonus, I've got a local repeater connected to the Brandmeister network, which means I should be able to access the #FediHams network over the air without a hotspot.
This #FreshHam is cookin'!
What appeared to be a very confusing radio mode actually turns out to be more of a bad case of "We don't know what to call stuff."
In case anyone else is searching around the #Fediverse for #DMR info on the #MD380, let me give you this handy translation guide.
Contacts - These are just DMR IDs that you give a name to and can correspond to either other users or talkgroups. You will likely mostly be using the latter.
Channels - This is what you'll use to program in repeaters. If they're analog, it's not that different than any other radio, just reference the CTCSS or PL tone.
If they're #DMR repeaters, you'll need to create an entry for each channel you want to use. Multiple channels can reference the same TG, so you only need to make one of those for each network you'll be using (Brandmeister, TGIF, etc).
Zones is where it gets weird on the #MD380 though. Kinda.
Zones - So here's the thing: zones are just memory banks. You can have 250 of them, each with 16 channels.
See that little center knob on the #MD380? That corresponds to the "channel" in a "zone". But if you think of each "zone" as a memory bank instead, that just gives you quick access to one of 16 channels in a memory bank.
Those could be analog repeaters or #DMR talkgroups on a digital repeater/hotspot.
In the end, this means you get 4000 quickly accessible "memory slots".
(I'm mostly typing all this out to sorta cement my understanding myself. Sorry if I'm spamming things, but thought it might hopefully help other people.)
So here's how I'm planning to set this up.
First, I'll have a simplex zone (Simplex 99) that just gives me all the digital and analog simplex freqs I'll be using. Easy enough.
Analog repeaters will get lumped into zones corresponding to home, work, whatever travelling I do.
Digital repeaters that support #DMR will get their own unique zone or zones, programmed with the talk groups that look interesting on the corresponding networks.
Luckily, there's a bit of a DMR scene here in Texas, and we've not only got our own statewide network (that apparently predates Brandmeister) but a few other repeaters that support the popular networks.
It seems to support what I was looking at for emcomm purposes: larger coverage via linked repeaters.
Which, well, I guess doesn't work if the grid goes down, but I'll still have analog repeaters nearby with e-power in that case, so can communicate statewide/regionally in the short term, and locally in the longer term. So that's long enough to get something set up to facilitate #mutualaid if, say, Texas freezes over and there's a power emergency endangering millions of (mostly poor or unhoused) people.
But what are the odds of that happening?
One of the fun things about programming a #DMR codeplug that isn't actually fun: finding a source of truth.
Repeaterbook says a nearby repeater isn't DMR at all, but it's listed on DMRTexas.net. It's also listed on Brandmeister and DMR-MARC.
Repeaterbook info is from 2017, so we can throw that out.
DMRTexas is from 2021, which is better. One of the local talk groups is listed in TS!, so I program that.
Brandmeister's 'Last Heard' shows it's active on DMR, but the above TG is TS1.
Repeater allows kerchunking on TS2 to access a given channel according to #DMRTexas, but TS2 is listed as a static local channel on #Brandmeister.
So I just programmed everything with both timeslots and figure I'll monkey around with it when I'm trying to broadcast and figure out which one is true, then submit a correction to DMRTexas if necessary.
On the bright side, this repeater is line-of-sight and within about a half mile of one of my favorite #discgolf courses, so I'll be able to ragchew next time I go throw, so long as I'm still able to hop onto a given #Brandmeister TG.
Still...I'm pretty happy with where I've progressed along the #DMR learning curve thus far.
Well. Walked outside while I was packing the kiddo up in the car, keyed the repeater and got a handshake. Brandmeister shows me hitting the repeater to access the #FediHams talkgroup.
Wonder if the repeater goes analog only at night or something? Very interesting.
Editing a codeplug is maybe the most tedious thing about #DMR. I suppose the good news is I'll only have to build it out further, getting all the stuff in there in the first place is kinda the hard part.
On the bright side, I've got all the analog repeaters within 100 miles of home programmed, and since I rarely go further than that, I can just add them as needed.
And now, onto the DMR repeaters/channels.
Here's the worst thing about editing a #DMR codeplug: realizing about 80% of the way through of your original plan that there's a smarter way to organize it and realizing you're going to have to give into the whimsy of doing that at some point.
But for now, the temporary solution is just gonna be throwing in the #DMR repeaters and talkgroups and having some fun with it.