What, if anything, does DMR bring to the table?

[TNFrank]

Now that I have my Technician's License I can get into DMR if I want too. My question is, what benefits will I get by going DMR for someone basically looking to use my radios for EmComms?  I see Radtel has an RT-4D for $52 bucks which would be an inexpensive way to dip my toe into the DMR world and Baofeng has the 1701/1801 too but what can I do with DMR that I can't do with my Analog radios? Thanks in advance for any answers or advice. 

   

[SteveShannon]

3 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Now that I have my Technician's License I can get into DMR if I want too. My question is, what benefits will I get by going DMR for someone basically looking to use my radios for EmComms?  I see Radtel has an RT-4D for $52 bucks which would be an inexpensive way to dip my toe into the DMR world and Baofeng has the 1701/1801 too but what can I do with DMR that I can't do with my Analog radios? Thanks in advance for any answers or advice. 

   

There are thousands of talk groups for many different purposes.  Here is a list of the Tennessee talk groups on the Brandmeister network: https://www.radioreference.com/db/sid/9928

 

[TNFrank]

I was born in Tennessee but I actually live in Arizona. 

[WRYS709]

Consistent and reliable, non-emergency communication, all around the world. 

You can’t rely on the internet in a true emergency. 

[SteveShannon]

4 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I was born in Tennessee but I actually live in Arizona. 

Sorry, the TN confused me.  I should have realized that because of your other post where you talked about using AllStar in AZ.  
Anyway, every state has talk groups and every developed country has talk groups and there are continental and worldwide talk groups and you can get onto a repeater and activate almost any of these talk groups in order to talk to someone there.  If you want to talk to someone in Poland, activate a Poland-English talk group. It still relies on the internet of course.

[TNFrank]

Will the repeater linked with the talkgroup connect to the internet or will I need a hotspot to connect through my internet?

[Lscott]

16 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Now that I have my Technician's License I can get into DMR if I want too. My question is, what benefits will I get by going DMR for someone basically looking to use my radios for EmComms?  I see Radtel has an RT-4D for $52 bucks which would be an inexpensive way to dip my toe into the DMR world and Baofeng has the 1701/1801 too but what can I do with DMR that I can't do with my Analog radios? Thanks in advance for any answers or advice. 

   

Many DMR repeaters are linked. That increases coverage from local up to potentially world wide.

Also if you wanted to setup your own repeater some can be operated in “single frequency mode” which eliminates the necessity of using a duplexer. That can save you a lot of money while allowing the flexibility to change the frequency at will.

You can find mobile radios with this built in. Very handy when you need a repeater setup in a remote area for a group activity.

[radioruck]

I’m navigating this same question myself. I’m taking my tech exam later this week, but at the same time my regional emcomm group that had linked GMRS repeaters got a commercial license and are moving to DMR talk groups.

With the exception for the dependency on internet at the repeater sites, I think regional talk groups could be valuable for things like state-wide emergency information.

That said, it seems like there’s still a lot more organized efforts on analog. All of my local county ARES/RACES efforts are still in area analog repeaters, some of which are linked.

So I think the value of talk groups in an emergency depends on the severity (massive internet outages?) and the coordination of groups in your area.

[SteveShannon]

1 hour ago, TNFrank said:

Will the repeater linked with the talkgroup connect to the internet or will I need a hotspot to connect through my internet?

In the amateur radio world, a talk group is a virtual construct connected to a DMR network, such as Brandmeister, TGIF, etc, via the internet.  Every repeater can be connected to any talk group (depending on what the repeater operators allow).  Each repeater typically has two time slots so two talk groups may simultaneously be active on each repeater.  A talk group that’s active on one time slot of the repeater by default is said to be a static talk group but a person using that repeater and time slot may often connect the time slot to another talk group dynamically.  Dynamic talk groups typically time out and the repeater/time slot reconnects to its static talk group.

Using a hotspot is nearly identical to using a repeater except it’s in your house.  You set it up to link to one or more DMR networks (and/or YSF, DSTAR, etc, and you then configure which talk groups you want to be static. Also, unless you buy (or build) a duplex hotspot you only have one time slot. 

[TNFrank]

From what I've watched in videos the way timeslots are discribed sounds a lot like USB/LSB where a frequency band width is split to allow more traffic. 

[SteveShannon]

Just now, TNFrank said:

From what I've watched in videos the way timeslots are discribed sounds a lot like USB/LSB where a frequency band width is split to allow more traffic. 

It’s similar in that it allows bandwidth to be shared, but it does so by time-multiplexing the two signals so they occupy exactly the same bandwidth but they take turns doing so. So for this fraction of a second my signal on time slot 1 is received and transmitted and in the next fraction of a second the signal on time slot 2 is received and transmitted. This switching between time slots happens thousands of times each second.

[TNFrank]

30ms from what I've watched. Like I've said, my Autism makes me research thing ad nauseam to the point where my wife gets tired of me watching videos on a subject, LOL.

[TNFrank]

Ok, I caved and used the refund from the NanoVNA I returned and ordered the Radtel RT-4D DMR radio. That was one of the reasons I got my HAM license in the first place. Now I need to get a DMR I.D. number. 

[WRYS709]

25 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Ok, I caved and used the refund from the NanoVNA I returned and ordered the Radtel RT-4D DMR radio. That was one of the reasons I got my HAM license in the first place. Now I need to get a DMR I.D. number. 

Unfortunately you’ve picked one that is not capable of using the OpenGD77 firmware, which adds ease of use and more capable functions to the more inexpensive DMR radios. 

[TNFrank]

So what are the drawbacks of this radio over some others other than the OpenGD77 Firmware?