Important News for All DMR-MARC Users

Talk Group 3 on Time Slot 1 Details

DMR-MARC users, repeater trustees, and bridge partners:

DMR in general and DMR-MARC has been growing at a very brisk pace. We are getting around 15-20 people per week applying for subscriber IDs. We are constantly evolving to accommodate the increased traffic on our repeater systems. The DMR-MARC board of administrators, repeater trustees, and bridge partners have overwhelmingly approved a plan to make a slight modification to our bridging and talkgoups that has been in effect since 1 MAY 2012.

If a North American or South Pacific station wishes to make contact with any U.S. Canadian, Australian, or New Zealand station you are be required to use TALK GROUP ID 3. Talk group 1 is now only used only for intercontinental (i.e. USA to Germany, Canada to Switzerland, etc.) contacts on master repeaters outside North America. Talk group 1 is also used for our weekly Saturday net also. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO FIND A FRIEND AND GET YOUR RADIO REPROGRAMMED IF YOU DID NOT DO THIS ALREADY! You will not only miss entire calls, you will be causing major inconveniences to our worldwide partners if you do not get your radio reprogrammed. .

Our main DMR-MARC bridge has been modified to make this all work. When you key up on talk group 3 only the North American and South Pacific repeaters will key up. When you key up on talk group 1, all repeaters, including those in Europe, will key up. TALK GROUP 1 IS USED RARELY SINCE THIS CHANGE. You should not use it unless you intend to make a contact between Europe and North America/ANZ. (ANZ peers are on North American master repeaters so for all intensive purposes we consider them North American peers.)

This change should increase capacity on our system and make it more user friendly for the forseeable future. We ask that our bridge partners make the necessary changes on their systems to help make this a successful transition. Bridge partners will now have the choice of passing all worldwide traffic to their repeaters or just North American traffic. You will also have the opportunity to align your talk groups with what the DMR-MARC system uses.

Please help make this a smooth transition by helping those around you reprogram radios and talking about it so those not on this distribution chain can learn about the changes. You will also have the opportunity to upgrade firmware on old subscribers. I highly recommend using the latest firmware (R01.09.02). If you can't get the latest firmware, make sure it is AT LEAST R01.07.00 for a host of very important reasons including the ability to use the bridge, audio clarity, and RF quality. A radio with firmware older than R01.06.00 will not work properly on the system now by missing packets from the bridge.

Programming instructions are available HERE!

Mike, AA9VI