Welcome to DMR

Someone once quipped to me that ham radio is a hobby of hobbies and nothing could be more true. So far, I’ve gained proficiency in soldering, scavenging, throwing lines into trees, and having as much fun as possible along the way. Now I can add “codeplug editor” to this list of skills.

My latest adventure is getting into the world of digital mobile radio. I bought my first DMR radio from Radioddity – a DB25-D Pro. I picked it up on a bundle deal and it arrived recently and I finally had a few days over spring break with which to get things set up.

I love so much about this radio – the form factor is unbeatable, being that it’s about the size of a HT. The screen is readable, it comes with a mounting plate, the microphone feels sturdy in the hand, and the sound quality is quite good both on TX and RX.

The programming software? Yeah, that’s a bit of a different story.

Now, I will fully admit right out the gate that I’m a Ready, Fire, Aim kind of guy when working on technology. I will jump in with both feet without much regard to how to get there. RTFM isn’t really in my vocabulary, though maybe it ought to be.

The stock CPS for this radio is…subpar. I knew this going into it, I didn’t appreciate how bad it was. None of the Youtube videos out there really delve into programming via CPS, they just magically make it happen. I found frustration, partly because the cable that shipped with the radio would update the firmware, but not link to the CPS. So into the drawer I went, and got a Baofeng cable I bought for my Quansheng UV-K5, and lo and behold, it would work with the CPS but not the firmware. Ah well.

I found out about an alternative CPS and installed that (on my Mac, no less) and started digesting the info about the Anytone codeplugs supplied by BCDMR. Three days, much coffee, and several emails and a phone call with VA7CQT (thanks, Doug!), I had a working codeplug that I got loaded into my radio. That same night, I got on to the tail end of the BC DMR Friday night net, and everything is seemingly hunky dory.

I may choose to do a CPS programming video in the future, but for now, I’m just going to kick back and enjoy using this radio!