So I have had my license (General KI7YQW) coming up on 4 years. Got into the 2m/70cm stuff pretty well, played around with "EchoLink" a little and then decided to buy some AnyTone DMR radios to take it to the next level.

I was just starting to learn DMR when life stuff happened and it went to the back burner. Now that I am retired and have time on my hands, decided I need to sort this all out and devote the time to learn it now that I have it.

In addition to the AnyTone DMR, my Yaesu radios (FT-991A, FTM-400XDR, FT-70D, and VX-6) will work with Yaesu's digital "Fusion" system. I routinely hear talk from all over the country as well as England and Wales on a local (to me) repeater at 147.120.Have yet to figure out how the info to get into that repeater or to set up "Wires" on the radios to be able to participate.

I also have an Icom IC-7100 that is D-Star capable but I have never read anything about D-Star.


On a bit of whim, I decided to buy a MMDVM "Hotpot" to use with the digital stuff. Just got it configured yesterday to start up and connect to my wi-fi. Next step doing a second SD card for the unit so it can be set up to use my phone as an access point when out and about. Then I will start figuring out how to use it with my DMR or a Yaesu radio to reach out far and wide.


One of the interests I had when I decided to pursue the hobby was long distance communications. My FT-991A and IC-7100 have HF/50m capabilities but as of yet I don't have an antenna for those bands that will do anything. Seems digital systems might yield better results.



Would love to hear if anyone else is venturing down these Ham roads. What are you using, how is it working, and who(where) are you talking too?

Tech here, so 2m/70cm is accessible to me and those are wide-open playgrounds for things like DMR or DSTAR (also, playing with digital modes on 10m, meteor scatter, code on 20m, etc.) I've been on D-Star for a few years. Repeaters around here are well-supported and there's good coverage.

I've had some decent chats internationally via linking/gateways. Locally? Those well-supported repeaters are basically silent. But there's lots of tinkering & experimenting going on; example, with plugins or hotspots on my laptop I can make contacts when traveling without any of my actual gear. And, the huge variety of reflectors and routing options makes the whole system fairly resilient.

Extra class license here.

I prefer Fusion. I’ve used D-Star but prefer Fusion which is more popular in my area. It’s just a personal preference though in the end.

Have fun with it. No reason you can’t try them all!

I have a Yaesu FT3DR. In my locale, one repeater on 70cm with Fusion-X is available that I can reach. On that repeater there are a myriad of electronic rooms labeled by their location. I enjoy the ability to connect across cultures with only a handheld transceiver. The C4FM Fusion-X system appears to have broad support, and since you have a plethora of Yaesu equipment it might be good to standardize on it.

AE4CH

Started looking at DMR again over the holiday. Had played with the MD380 a few years ago and sold it.
No repeaters to speak of around me

I got DroidStar going with BrandMeister and did the TG91 World net check in on Saturday.

I ordered an aliexpress hotspot.
probably will order an anytone soon.


I also got bored and started looking over the General questions over the weekend.
Test is scheduled for Thursday.

I've been on DMR for almost 10 years now. It's my favorite digital mode, with P25 a distant second. I have 3 hotspots at the house (DMR-MARC, Brandmeister, and P25). I don't get on the air as much as I would like, but I usually listen at my desk to the local repeater talkgroups.

quote:

One of the interests I had when I decided to pursue the hobby was long distance communications. My FT-991A and IC-7100 have HF/50m capabilities but as of yet I don't have an antenna for those bands that will do anything. Seems digital systems might yield better results.

I have looked into DSTAR but so far have not pursued it. I am glad amatuer radio has these modes but I personally did not find them that interesting at this time but that could change and it is rather inexpensive to get into these days and it is a good way to stay in touch with hams that no longer live locally that we may want to keep in contact with via ham radio when other modes are currently not working. Those who are mobile or travel a lot can also benefit from these modes for longer distance commmunications from their vehicles and hotel rooms or such. We have come a long ways from packet radio days that I did use back then.

Curious why you have not put up an HF antenna yet? I have not been very active in years but latley I have been hearing a lot more activity on the HF bands as the current solar cycle is on the upswing.

I had to install a new garage door opener and with the left over wire I had I made a 17 meter dipole to connect to my 10/15/20/40 Alpha Delta EE parallel dipole I had in the attic. I attached the two halves of the dipole as an inverted V connected to the feed point of the existing dipole. It works great with 1:1 SWR and I get very strong signals all over the US from here in the midwest and DX in South America and Europe and logged some contacts.

There are a few groups of experts on the solar cyccles and some are saying this will be another poor year as far as radio propagation while NASA is saying current solar cycle could be one of the best on record. Either way I am prepared with my modest antenna setup.

The optimistic solar cycle forecast:
https://qrper.com/2021/08/revi...ooks-most-promising/

Good luck and have fun with your pursuits in amateur radio.