Why Digital Mobile Radio for Preppers? DMR Series 

I think you'll enjoy the next video. I personally set for myself very small objectives when going about programming it. I found BridgeCom Systems' RU-vid videos on each topic very useful. For example, these were some of the questions that I attempted to tackle and answer when I first explored programming my D878 UVII Plus. 1. How do I unlock the keypad? 2. Where do I obtain the programming software? 3. How do I obtain a DMR ID? (it turns outs I did not need one since I am not connecting mine to the Internet). 4. How do I program an analog frequency for simplex use? 5. How do I program an analog repeater? 6. How do I configure APRS? .... 20. How do I program a digital simplex channel? ... As part of the process, I also asked myself.. 1. What is a codeplug? 2. What is a zone? 2. What is color code? 4. What is time slot? .... I'll walk you and the community through all these answers in the next two videos. Don't worry, I'll use plain English.

@@TheTechPrepper Subscribed just for this. Thank you.

@@norrinradd8952 Welcome to the channel. More on the way.

Just got my 878 yesterday, this is going to be good!

this is the best explanation I've ever seen of my frustration with DMR. I am currently a technician studying for general and I have no idea how DMR works because every time I find a video on it it's like you said, it's mostly people who just trying to show how smart they are rather than trying to teach you anything

THIS. Gaston is the anti-Gatekeeper IMHO. Context. Philosophy of Use. Decision Criteria. Alternative Evaluation. Alternative Selection. Optimise later. That’s how all successful projects and procurements are executed.

I got into radios 24 years ago and just now getting back into it. I always remembered the "Hams" as being "suit and tie" radio geeks. They're absolutely still like that I'm recognizing.

And Western Australia 🇦🇺 🇺🇸..!!!

Thanks. I'm having a blast with it, so I think you guys will enjoy it.

Please make contacts in Klingon. 😂

The purpose of the Amateur Radio Service, per the FCC, is to advance the art and science of radio communication. It's meant to reach a wide audience, not to be someone's private chat line: there are other services for that, just as there are for broadcasting music (which also is prohibited on ham radio).

⁠@@darylnd show me on the doll where the new technology hurt you. Pretty sure the tech prepper is reaching a wide audience via amateur radio content this platform. Also finding a way to avoid the traditional rag chewing content or misuse of the bands that the low cost radios have been causing, DMR is a great option. If I’m doing a contest, or activating a POTA/SOTA. I’d rather not have someone interfering with me. But since I’m not reaching that larger audience maybe I’m a “bad ham”. DMR also allows you to get out in the world with things like hot spots, if that so tickles your pickle. You have use of the bands as you see fit as long as you follow the rules. So if Im camping and decide to use DMR simplex with my buddies who are also licensed and nobody else is being interfered with, that is totally fine that I don’t want to “reach a larger audience” Get off your cross sir, we need the wood. He also said he is getting his commercial allocations for using encryption. So maybe you didn’t watch the full video. 🤷‍♂️

@@darylndThe FCC can shove it. The First Amendment very clearly establishes my Right to Free Speech and if I feel that Free Speech should be encrypted, so be it.

​@@rifleshooterchannel208I like the cut of your jib.

Glad it was helpful!

Great to hear! Those are great radios to learn on as they come a great price point. The nice thing about the MOTOTRBO line is their over-the-air IP networking. The trick is going through the hoops to get the Customer Programming Software (CPS) and some cases dealing with an inflated price point for some of the accessories. Take care.

Stay tuned. More good stuff coming.

That's the plan!

Glad you enjoy it!

Programming the XPR6550 is about 3 videos out.

is the motorola cps free or still have to pay for it?@@TheTechPrepper

You're welcome. 900 MHz is a great option. There is a ton of 900 MHz gear on the secondary market for not a lot of money. The trick is going through process to obtain and learn the Custom Programming Software (CPS).

Glad you think so. Stay tuned. It's another tool to add to the toolbox.

That's why I avoided it for the last two years. I have no interest in connecting my radio to the Internet. I hope you enjoy the rest of the series.

I am working on the repeater system now.

I've only tried analog APRS and I was not impressed. The amount of programming was excessive and man it's a pain to use from the user perspective. There are some serious usability bugs especially when you use it in a high volume packet area. It's nearly unusable on of the nets that I participate in where there are 500 operators checking in during the course of the day.

Cheers from across the pond!

Hope you enjoy it! I've jumped to really advanced bits on Motorola side. I can't wait to share it.

Boofwang UV5G Plus can do group. 999 channels.

Good luck with that. If you file all the paperwork yourself you can actually obtain the commercial license for around $500 USD. The license is good for 10 years, so you can look at it as a 50 bucks per year. The only part outside of the FCC fee is paying a frequency coordinator in your area to help you find a available frequencies in your area.

The largest safe and loyal audience possible I think… ?

It's great to hear that you're looking forward to the roadmap. I'm new to the Motorola radios, so I had to lookup the XPR5580e. That looks like the 800/900 MHz. The MOTOTRBO working that I am doing applies to that radio! I hope to catch you on Monday's member stream as we'll dive more into this.

@@TheTechPrepper That Motorola is in the 900mhz band and can operate on 33cm ham. I'm also new to Motorola so there's a lot to learn. As an FYI I also have a "new to me" used Motorola GR1225 UHF (444-474 MHz) Repeater that I picked up at a ham radio swap meet so I've dived into the Motorola deep end. It's sink or swim, lol.

@@czmg22 It can feel that way. I'm all for swimming. While the barrier to entry into Motorola is high, it's worth the pain. Happy Friday.

The process was pretty painless. It's the topic of a future video. It required a little bit of money, but not bad when you consider that your license is good for 10 years and that you can legally run encryption now.

@@TheTechPrepper that would be awesome to see that video be made. I want to get that setup asap.

Why would you want to do that ?

@@goosecouple why wouldn't i?

@@goosecouplelegally running encrypted comms.

XTS, XPR, and the Holy Grail APX

That's what I have mine for (and barter.) It's the only reason why I pick up a pair every once in awhile along with extra antennas for it.

You're dead on. I actually switched to handing out inexpensive MURS radios from Retevis with no front panel and 5-channels. You can get upwards of 5 units per $100 USD. Simple is what I want for the neighbors.

Can you point to online resources to do further discovery on this option?

I think it's a simple chip install/swap to decode those transmissions? Am I correct?

Nope. Decoding digital frequency hopping with encoded private groups for voice or text is next to impossible without the algorithms and long term monitoring

@egillis214 but is it hardware or software that encrypts the digital voice? I'm pretty sure it's both that work in conjunction with each other.

It can all be done without internet,it is cheaper and easier with it.

Excellent. I'm really enjoying the utility for local simplex. I have no intention of getting a hotspot and connecting it to the Internet. Stay tuned!

I just want to make sure we're clear, you don't NEED networking or repeaters for dmr. That's some nonsense the Feng gang was pushing to scare folks away from quality comms

Yeah id imagine a digirig works for many radios

There were a few points I think Gaston was making that fall under this label, but one of them was the fact that a relatively large number of people have been able to acquire analog radios that operate in the GMRS, FRS, MURS, and Ham bands. With this fact, his point was that achieving obscurity from these people is possible by using a digital mode which is far less common. So its not about who makes the radio internals in this case, but is instead about the mode of operation being a less common mode - in his case DMR simplex. The Baofeng DM-5r could fit into this category, since it supports a digital mode. However, if you dig deeper there are multiple reasons to avoid this particular radio. A Baofeng DM-1701 would be a better choice at $100, but the used Motorola 6550 shown at $120 would be a vastly better choice for the use case described.

Yes. Here's the video that you are looking for: Panasonic FZ-M1 Toughpad - SHTF Gear Series ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-J3Rn-mCMfU0.html However, I'm now also running the iKey keyboard with it. An update video is needed.

That's a good point. I actually found an interesting feature in the Motorola MOTOTRBO radios that allows for networking the radio over RF using IP networking. With this feature, I'm able to do something interesting things with some custom software. I'll do a demo a few videos out.

@@TheTechPrepper oh no doubt. to be clear, i meant all the same capabilities as the 878.

Actually, you can legally obtain Motorola CPS free of charge now right down to the 25 KHz entitlement. All you need to do is register for an account with Motorola. The process can take a few weeks.

Making the jump from analog to digital is not too bad if you understand the basics concepts that you described. There's also a simple logical approach to configuring the radio in the customer programming software. I'll cover this in the next video. It will be from the perspective of someone how just went through this initial learning process. Thanks.

This is a completely different tool for different applications. I carry both the VX-6R and one of the XPRs (6550 or 7550) as my EDC.

Yes, the XPR 7550 works well. I picked a pair of 7550e UHF models to test. I'm trying to test those with the Bluetooth network interface.

Welcome back, Kieth. This topic likely requires a video. There are a couple of EMPs scenarios. The recent solar storm, even at G5, turned out to be non issue as it only really impacts infrastructure with long running wires or metal that acts as electrical inductors. This includes long electrical lines, transmission lines, pipelines and railroads. As a precaution, I just disconnected my radios from the antenna and the electrical AC main. My understanding is that the grid operators are the ones that need to handle these events, but downstream users, like us, are only likely to experience secondary impacts like a powe outage. As for an EMP caused by a low altitude nuclear blast, that is a different story. I tend to be a realist and don't go overboard. Here's what I do: 1. I reserve my older radio gear, electronics, solar charge controllers, and batteries with a BMS as candidates for EMP protection. I call this my tier two gear. 2. I remove anything that can act as an inductor like the HT antennas and remove them. I also remove the battery. 3. These components go into individual EMP bags. 4. Lastly, I put all of those into a larger EMP duffle bag. It's not perfect, but according to the literature it should be effective. There's just not enough juice for the squeeze to build a giant Faraday cage. Take a look at the empdoctor on RU-vid. I plan on trying some Faraday fabric for protecting the generators. Doing this on the vehicles is too much of a daily headache. I hope this helps.

@@TheTechPrepper Thanks for the reply. Good ideas. I will check empdoctor out. I will also continue to watch. KF5MBR

I'll cover this in a future video and walk you through the process that I went through. Personally, mine is shared-use of 5 UHF frequencies, covers 28 km, and covers everyone in my business or anyone doing work with the business. I'm also tied to specific emission types that allow for digital voice and data encryption.

Excellent recommendation. Thank you for jumping in.

I am a ham and I just purchased three of these for testing purposes. They are excellent and have great features, besides keeping your comms safe from the Baofeng army.

I covered this on the member live stream. The easiest path is just to contact an LMR dealer in your area and have them handle it for you for one fee and per your requirements. That's what I did as I have no time.

@@TheTechPrepperThanks! Just sub’d to your YT channel, as I’m getting back into doing HAM stuff, learning how to USE the tools to supplement my outdoors time and a business I’ve had for a few years that relies on outdoors, stealth & comms. 878 on the charger now! FW update later, then programming channels & zones (AHAM). Will have to research DMR programming (I do believe you have a video on that 😁).

I have not made a decision. I am evaluating the AnyTone D578 and couple of the mobile units.

The current 3.01N firmware for the D878 UV II Plus uses a hardcoded value for initialization vector (IV). If you sniff enough cipher traffic, you can determine the plain text without needing the key. This is beyond most user's ability, but it is, in fact, insecure and broken, IMHO. I'm also very new to DMR and Motorola, but I'm fortunate that I'm on vacation and have been able to dedicate a lot of time to learning DMR. It also helps that I'm a software engineer, so I don't mind a bit reverse engineering and reading specs to figure this stuff out.

@@TheTechPrepper the current firmware should be 3.02. Just like old WEP with the IV issue I suppose. I wonder if it is fixed. There were some other dumb issues with using AES and the sub channel being on causing all kinds of transmission issues and delays in transmit. I disable sub channel when using AES because of it. I mostly run the Hytera for better support and easy AES use without issues. Moto really sucks for anything other than large gov users.

@@jhalscott Thanks for the additional details. Wait until you see what I built using ARS, LRRP and TMS for the MotoTRBO radios. It may change your mind.

@@TheTechPrepper I want to believe, but Motorola is super difficult to use for the consumer, or even most businesses, which is why we primarily use Hytera. It took me years to build a system where I could actually get proper support and software etc. from Moto. The future is open protocols layered on top of SDRs which is why Anytone and it's various OEM variants for Radioddity, BFTech, etc. are rapidly growing. Motorola is good for centrally setting up large gov services, but overly complex and difficult for the 99% plus of this community. T-Rex Arms had a series of DMR and radio videos and they essentially abandoned Moto for the same reasons.

Absolutely. I dedicate a small Windows partition on my Toughpad for the purpose of using various programming software for programming my radios.

Yes, DStar is more obscure, but there is no support for encryption. Also, there are some very powerful features in Motorola DMR implementation. I'm moving towards the MotoTRBO line.

I run encryption with my business license. I ran these tests with RTL-SDR and DSD++.

I do not believe that the MOTOTRBO line supports mesh networking, but I am still new to the LMR and Motorola scene.

@@TheTechPrepper Sweet, Thanks. I'm trying to get into radios/HAM and want to learn where I can spend the few pennies I have wisely. I greatly appreciate your videos and channel!

CPS2 if free from MOL. Just need to get a radio and cable. Outside of that the only thing you need to worry about is Entitlements for various options you may want

It's much higher than ham radio, but doable if you're up for some extra work. Motorola is now making the Customer Programming Software (CPS) available free of charge. A few people in my group have gone through the process of registering for an account, obtaining CPS and even getting things like the 25 KHz entitlement so that they can use these radios for analog use. Be warned, it's a process and not for everyone. Again, I'm in this to find the best tool for the job.

Yes. I owned one last year but gave it away when I hit 10K subscribers. I was not ready for DMR at that point.

@@TheTechPrepper Based upon what you have learned since would you consider it now?

@@bradl2636 I would have to re-evaluate it. The rugged factor is huge for me, so it pains me that I sold it. Unfortunately, for this year, I have decided to stick with the gear that I have, so I will not have time re-evaluate it. I already made a very large investment in time and money on the 878.

@@TheTechPrepper I’m only recently aware of the Ailunce and 878 so will follow your journey. The Ailunce seems very “Motorola-like” if that makes sense? I assume both units would be fine for private business license frequency use?

There's is a broader strategy. I don't plan on using voice. I a proof-of-concept of out-of-band AES-256 cryptography built on top of the MotoTRBO. This is just for the first video. You can't do over-the-air networking with any of the amateur radio digital protocols.

@@TheTechPrepper - I should have withheld my comment until watching the entire video series. 😀 You'd alluded to that in previous videos. Looking forward to seeing where this goes. It's been quite a journey so far, and now it's heading away from Hamster Station, and that's fine by me. It *really* bugs me that we can't have secure private communications but our government can. My town was one of the many that got the DHS block grant to upgrade their COM systems and now they're all using mil-spec spread spectrum digital encryption... including the garbage trucks.

@@Liberty4Ever No worries. I typically have a very deliberate plan with my gear selections. It's hard to cram the entire vision into one video. Stay tuned. I looked at both C4FM and DStar, but when I saw some of the LMR applications for DMR, I felt that DMR would serve both the amateur radio and commercial needs at the same time.

Yes and no. They refuse to allow AES 256 on the XPR series to push end users to other Moto radios. Outside of US, AES is available 🤷🏻‍♂️

@@otakurj unless things changed when i worked for Motorola it was things change tho but i know the ones we had was

If anyone needs software let me know Iv got tons and im not like most ppl that will say go google it