BCFMCA

About Us

Repeater System


Membership Donate Now


Members Only

Emergency & ARES

Repeater Directory

Links

Contact Us

RAC Logo

 

 

British Columbia Frequency Modulation Communications Association


BCFMCA DMR / MotoTRBO System


The BCFMCA is proud to be able to offer the latest and greatest digital technology to amateur radio, welcome DMR / MotoTRBO.



What is DMR / MotoTRBO?

DMR stands for Digital Mobile Radio. DMR is an open source digital radio system that is primarily used by the land mobile radio (LMR) industry. Motorola has marketed their implementation of DMR under the name MotoTRBO.

DMR uses Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to accommodate two simultaneous data/voice streams on a single 12.5KHz channel. In other words, two groups of users are able to carry out separate conversations on a single, traditional pair of repeater frequencies. It is also possible for users to communicate on multiple talkgroups similar to trunked radio systems.

Repeater linking is also possible through Motorola's implementation of IP Site Connect (IPSC). Wherein users on one repeater in one location can communicate to another group of users in a completely different geographical location. This is accomplished via IP and the Internet.

More information on the DMR standard can be found here on the Digital Mobile Radio Association website.

Technical Details

In order to use a DMR / MotoTRBO repeater you will need a radio that supports the DMR standard. This radio needs to be configured with a unique radio ID (RID), repeater transmit/receive frequencies, repeater color code, time slot and talkgroup ID's.

An effort has been made to coordinate all amateur radio unique radio and repeater ID's. The DMR world wide amateur radio database and ID request form can be found here; The DMR World Wide Amateur Radio Database

DMR / MotoTRBO mobile and portable radios support the following features:

  • Group calling
  • Individual radio-to-radio calling
  • Talk group scanning functionality
  • Radio Check (i.e. see if another user has their radio turned on)
  • Radio-to-radio text messaging
  • APRS style GPS position tracking
  • Zero touch repeater-to-repeater roaming based on RSSI
  • Capable of operating on legacy analog repeaters/frequencies
  • Many more features and custom data applications
  • The BCFMCA DMR / MotoTRBO repeater

    The BCFMCA has a DMR / MotoTRBO repeater on the air. The repeater is located at our Mt Seymour site.

    The VE7RAG UHF DMR repeater is connected to the internet via the BC-TRBO network. The BC-TRBO network is also internetworked with the PNW, DMR-X, DMR-MARC and CAN-TRBO networks. This connection allows users of the BCFMCA DMR / MotoTRBO repeater to communicate with DMR / MotoTRBO users on other repeaters throughout the region, country and world.

    The PNW Network supports our affiliated IPSC network of MotoTRBO repeaters and their users in Idaho, Oregon and Washington. PNW is also affiliated with the BC-TRBO network in British Columbia Canada. As of May 2017, a new repeater was installed on Lookout Mountain in the Bellingham area. This repeater provides coverage throughout the southern slopes of Greater Vancouver, throughout Whatcom county and all the way south into Everett, WA. With the Lookout Mtn repeater finally in place, the PNW network now has nearly seamless I-5 / Highway 99 coverage from Vancouver, BC all the way down to south of Salem, OR. More info on the Interstate 5 Talkgroup coverage can be found on the PNW I-5 page.

    Live Network Status

    Updated every 5 minutes

    Click for full size

    Repeater Information

    Callsign VE7RAG
    Frequency 443.400MHz +5MHz offset
    DMR Color Code 1
    Make / Model Motorola XPR8400 UHF

    Updated talkgroup information can be found on the BC-TRBO website:
    https://www.bctrbo.net



    Updated 09 August 2016