I am not going to discuss the politics of why there are so many networks, but it is clear that many people cannot come to terms with the fact that they exist. As a tech mind, albeit in a small way i find it both interesting and frustrating that the users of the various networks cannot get along.
There are many but have experimented with the following
1. Brandmeister
2. TGIF
3. FreeDMR
Moving from network to network, I have heard the following commentaries from both sides of the fence.
“I don’t go on the other network, I don’t like it.”, “the quality of the audio isn’t the same”, “I don’t like to do what I’m told and what talk groups to use”,”I can’t go to my own talk group and give it a name.”, “The server keeps going down”, “I can’t get a bridge to the other network”. “I’m not allowed to bridge to another network”…… and the list goes on.
You the user, have the right to go on to the network of your choice, subject to the available nodes. If you can’t, then get your own hot-spot or build your own repeater. The quality is typical of DMR, it is either typically DMR or it’s poor, and more often or not, it’s your own node that is the problem, or the proximity to it. For any network there has to be a protocol or there is anarchy. There is a center of activity and there is a method to move to a chat channel. If you like to have a private chat or a group channel, why do you have to give it a name, like you want your own domain and control something. I have a talk-group like that and it’s called 41033…No naming required, or you can use your own ID, or that of a repeater, all perfectly acceptable.
All servers have issues, and some more than others. They are not necessarily under our total control and subject to the wiles and vagaries of the internet and the data centers in which they are held.
Bridging networks introduces other issues that are far too technical to describe individually, but needless to say I have to ask the question “If you have access to a network in one domain by existing means, why do you have to complicate it by connecting two domains together?” I already know the answer. You just want control! You want to jealousy guard your own little empire, that has so little activity, you want to bridge back to where the main players are so giving your members a little more action than they have at the moment. Don’t play politics, play radio!
I'm just not keen on someone upstream deciding for me how to run my repeater. Brandmeister does when they want to, make life unpleasant for hotspots/repeaters that didn't want to follow an arbitrary set of rules as well as having one of the nastiest set of volunteers as admins in user support. DMR-MARC did, for a long time. If you didn't run a Mother /V\ repeater, and use their C-Bridge, you weren't getting on their network. Many of their repeater owners supposedly also actively blocked non-Motorola radios (although I'm not sure how you would do that). Hopefully it doesn't come to that.
Now having played first with HBLINK3 and built a server, HBLINK3, can be useful for independent and specialized groups, such as Radio Amateur Emergency Networks. The potential abuse exists where talk groups of different networks could be linked together if they appear in the same Bridge, on the same Master, and appear in the same context. The only permissible use for HBLINK3 on BrandMeister is by using OpenBridge, but only with permission of the networks involved, a permission that is not granted lightly. Unless you know what you are doing, leave it alone. Having tried it, I turned mine off – Permanently – I see no use for it.
Finally – if you want a choice of Networks and you have access to an MMDVM Hotspot, or you are an MMDVM Repeater keeper, then the way to go is the use of DMR-Gateway. Details for this are found in Github under G4KLX under the section for DMR-Gateway, with the Talk groups Rewrite Functions. The Gateway is best configured in Pi-Star Version 4.1.1 when run from a Raspberry Pi.
I disagree that imposing standards is "against everything in ham spirit". Think bandplans and this is AMATEUR RADIO. It's all about experimentation, and individual efforts. All of these repeaters are privately owned, some by individual hams, others by clubs, or groups. In my case, I linked to Brandmeister, then somebody at BM decides to start telling me how to operate my repeater/hotspot/bridge, and what timeslot a talkgroup must be on, hence the birth of another splinter group and another network. I control my repeater, but I'm not about to allow some group of other amateurs tell me how to run it as long as I am not creating any technical issues that to intentionally and why would anyone?
here comes firstly FreeDMR network, one of the most pleasant helpful HAM's I have come across and then the TGIF network. Wonderful HAMs indeed at both sides. With their support and help, I now run my own splinter network within Pakistan ;)
2mAnalog-->ASL-->DVSwitch------>FDMR
|__>Echolink |__>TGIF
Few downside thoughts on DMR:
On paper DMR sounds great, or you watched a youtube video of some guy in Canada easily starting up a crystal clear QSO with some fella in France, that's awesome! The reality is actually more like spending $200+ to be dropped off in the middle of the woods without a compass or any sense of direction. There's no clear advantage or goal for new users interested in DMR unless they have friends or a local club that are active on DMR and they have talkgroups they know they want to access before even getting started. In an event of an emergency and/or a force majeure event disabling all IP network locally or globally, the reliance/dependency on the internet link of repeater/hotspot is one of the biggest drawback as it would leave the repeater in a local mode only and hotspots disconnected from anything.
Because of the above etc, I hesitate to recommend DMR when someone asks me about it. A friend sometime back came to me wanting me to program his new TYT and hotspot because he wanted to get in to DMR, but after seeing how much of a pain it can be he has pretty much lost interest before even playing on his new gear, not to mention the fact he has no idea what talkgroups he'd even want programmed to use over his hotspot.
some of you would definitely misread my intent here, I want to clarify that I'm not a DMR hater nor am I trying to get others to hate DMR. I think I've made it sufficiently clear that I've programmed plenty of DMR gear, I am a current DMR user, and that I simply wanted to share my experience and thoughts on it so far and have a discussion about the things I think are stifling its growth and keeping it from being a much better and easier to use mode.
73's
