G'Day Folks from VK4KHP

[VK3KYY]

G'Day Roger.
Many thanks for the reply.
I will try, VK4RAI again, i did update the code plug, and have a different response.
I can hit FM repeaters on the same site, so will try again from a different part of the house, if not I will try an external antenna.
A lot of sites had VK4RTQ listed as running DMR, but I haven't seen an active on air status for it. We have had a lot of severe electrical/hail storms through the South east over the last few months, so maybe damaged, or simply not installed yet..

Having fun learning about different aspects of this mode.

Its very difficult to know whether specific VK DMR+ repeaters are operational, but the best place to look is the link I posted, becuase that shows that they are active and connected, and if you transmit to the repeater you should see your own callsign appear on the status page.

Make sure you are on TG505 and Colour Code 1

[VK4KHP]

Good Morning Roger.
This morning I had the radio sitting on the coffee table with it set to VK4RAI TG505, and i noticed that the RX LED was green.
It was on TG5 and the a VK7 news broadcast was running.
so I can receive fine, tried various antennas and good signal from all antennas.

Now the TX, I am not sure what the TX LED should be doing during TX on the DM-1701, This flashes red around twice a second, I would have assumed it would be solid red during transmission ??. Not sure as it's the first DMR radio I have used..
I have tried for testing, using one of the hotspot simplex zones and it was solid red on TX, ( had an sdr receiver waterfall display watching), I then changed it to hotspot duplex and get the same signal as i have for the repeaters with Flashing LED twice a second or so.
I guess these bursts of signal are to establish the connection ??
this one has me a little puzzled, but learning heaps at the same time..
Many thanks...

[VK4KHP]

G'Day Roger.
Just looking at the online status, It appears I must have been connected to the repeater, so it may be down to signal in to the repeater ??

Will keep trying things until i can get a solid connection..

Cheers
Peter VK4KHP

[VK3KYY]

I checked with VK4JWT and he thinks you will be out of range of the DMR+ repeaters on the VK DMR network


But there is a Brandmeister network repeater which may be in range

Also, see this list

https://www.lyonscomputer.com.au/Digita ... .html#live

[VK4KHP]

G'Day Roger Thanks for checking with other amateurs.
I can receive the VK4RAI DMR repeater at good signal strength, I could walk around the house with radio and had no dropouts during the VK7 broadcast this morning on TG5, and also heard many VK3's over the course of the day.
The Brandmeister repeater is on 2meters and apparently only has an output of 1watt eirp, from the info i can find.
I have a 17element 2 meter yagi pointed in that general direction , and nothing heard.

The site Is two mountain ridges from me.
I have it hooked up to the Collinear and now have full signal, I had a listen to the locals on one of the talk groups, calling them back had no luck.
I threw a meter and dummy load on the transmitter and got roughly 2.5watts on digital, around 4.5 on FM on 70cm.
Will hook it up to HP8920A test set when I get a chance.
I know the repeater site, had digipeaters and repeaters running up there 20-25 years back. Have been able to get good signals into the repeaters on 100mW and less. I drive past that mountain ridge twice each day, Might stop some where with a good view of the tower and see what happens.
If not than it's a configuration issue or a faulty radio ???
attached is the picture of the path profile from my place to the repeater

path profile

Firefox_Screenshot_2024-02-18T08-53-27.958Z.png (74.23 KiB) Viewed 262 times

I am going to grab a couple of hours sleep, Hitting the road around 1am to go to work..
Cheers Peter. VK4KHP