RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

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w9lw
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 5:31 pm

RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

Post by w9lw » Tue Jun 30, 2020 6:06 pm

Greetings. I loaded my RD-5R with OpenRD5R this week. I'm very impressed. My thanks to all developers for their work on this.

Subjectively, the radio seems to receive our local, high-profile DMR repeater not as well as it did with stock firmware. I hear dropped packets that I don't remember noticing before. I know the problem isn't with the signal, because the same transmissions sound fine when simultaneously listening with a different DMR radio.

I searched the forum and was unable to find any existing message threads that discuss a similar issue. If there is such a thread, please accept my apologies for creating a new thread and please point me to the existing thread.

I am unable to measure the frequency of a transmitted DMR signal, but when I transmit on FM with OpenRD5R, my portable frequency counter indicates a frequency that's within .0001 MHz of the selected frequency.

I welcome suggestions regarding why my radio seems to receive the DMR repeater more poorly with OpenRD5R than it did with stock firmware.

Thank you.

73 and stay well,

Jay, W9LW

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

Post by VK3KYY » Tue Jun 30, 2020 10:24 pm

See the RD5R thread.

There is problems with newer RD5R radios not performing well which seems to be because of some new calibration parameters that are needed to be supported for these newer radios.

I presume Beofeng must have also changed the hardware aa little on these radios, perhaps cheaper lower quality components, and they are somehow correcting for this in their firmware.

w9lw
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 5:31 pm

Re: RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

Post by w9lw » Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:01 am

Thanks, VK3KYY, I'll search for the thread you mentioned. My radio is not very new. I don't remember when I bought it but I think it was at least two years ago. Its serial number is RD5R*A0131.

w9lw
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 5:31 pm

Re: RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

Post by w9lw » Wed Jul 01, 2020 2:11 am

VK3KYY:
I tried without success to find the thread you mentioned. Could you provide a link? A visual search was unsuccessful. i tried searching for the string "RD-5R" with the forum search tool but got the following response: "The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: rd 5r." What's the secret to finding stuff in this forum? ;)

VK3KYY
Posts: 7473
Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 3:25 am
Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

Post by VK3KYY » Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:01 am

Look in the Quicklinks -> Active topics

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=827

There is a load of stuff in that thread about the problems with the RD-5R.

Basically you get what you pay for, and I don't have time to track down ever problem on every version of a $50 radio.

w9lw
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2020 5:31 pm

Re: RD-5R DMR Receiver Issue

Post by w9lw » Wed Jul 01, 2020 12:36 pm

VK3KYY wrote:
Wed Jul 01, 2020 4:01 am
viewtopic.php?f=13&t=827
Thanks for the helpful link. I'll read through that thread as time permits.

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