Radtel RT-4D is up and working.

[SteveShannon]

7 hours ago, TNFrank said:

Ok, I'll give that a try. It does seem in the CPS that the repeater ID should go in that box but I'll try the talkgroup ID and see if it works. Did everything else look ok other than that. 

I think so.  Of course this is a radio I haven't programmed before, so it's entirely possible I'm missing something, but for 3104 you have the correct Time Slot.  For the repeater you have the correct Color Code and for the repeater you have the right frequency.  

I don't have the repeater DMR IDs programmed in any of my code plugs except maybe in a field in OpenGD77.  In all of them I use the Talk Group ID. Like I said, it's counter-intuitive.  You're connecting through the repeater, not to it. You’re telling the repeater which TG you want.

[SteveShannon]

I did find something else that looks like a mistake.  In the Notes for the repeater it says the ID is 313402, but in the actual live data down below it says it is 310402 and that's a live link to RadioID that looks correct.  I think the Notes section in RepeaterBook is incorrect where it says 313402.  All of the AZ DMR IDs start with 3104...

313402 is a repeater in New Jersey if you look it up: https://radioid.net/database/view/dmr/repeater?id=313402

This is the one in AZ: https://radioid.net/database/view/dmr/repeater?id=310402

I've gotta go to bed before I turn into a pumpkin.

 

[TNFrank]

I downloaded a codeplug from Miklor for the RT-4D and compared it to my codeplug. I made some adjustments to my codeplug and I still can't reach the repeater. When I keyed the HT next to my desktop computer I heard something like it WAS sending out a signal but I just don't think these little radios are powerful enough to make the 16 miles to the repeater in digital. In Analog yes, they reach it. I guess I need to do a power test on the radio and compare analog to digital and that would also confirm that a signal was getting out in digital mode. 

[WRYS709]

I downloaded the Radtel RT-4D CPS DMR programming software so I could look at your analoge codeplug as well as the Miklor sample codeplug…

SO UGLY!

And thats in Windoze on my Mac; I can’t imagine it in Linux!! Good luck!

Have you driven closer the the repeater to see if your RT-4D works in DMR?

[TNFrank]

I just did a power output test on the radio. The DMR Repeater I have programmed was giving .5W to 2.5W jumping around and not consistent. I think that's the main issue, not enough "azz" to hit the nearby repeaters that my analog radios(even the little UV-5r) can easily hit from my backyard. It's getting returned and I'll use the funds along with the money from the DM-1701 to buy a better radio. 

Also, WINE works pretty good on my Linux install. Like I've mentioned before, I run all the other CPS programs along with CHIRP NEXT in WINE without issues.  

[tweiss3]

11 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I just did a power output test on the radio. The DMR Repeater I have programmed was giving .5W to 2.5W jumping around and not consistent. I think that's the main issue, not enough "azz" to hit the nearby repeaters that my analog radios(even the little UV-5r) can easily hit from my backyard. It's getting returned and I'll use the funds along with the money from the DM-1701 to buy a better radio. 

Also, WINE works pretty good on my Linux install. Like I've mentioned before, I run all the other CPS programs along with CHIRP NEXT in WINE without issues.  

You CANNOT use a standard watt meter to verify power output on DMR (or any TDMA mode). It doesn't show up accurately because it pulses every 30ms for each timeslot. Also, if it's overloaded by surrounding RF, it will bonk. DMR (in a repeater scenario) sends a ping to the repeater, and if it doesn't "hear back" from the repeater after I think 3 attempts or so, it says out of range.

[Lscott]

5 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

I just did a power output test on the radio. The DMR Repeater I have programmed was giving .5W to 2.5W jumping around and not consistent. I think that's the main issue, not enough "azz" to hit the nearby repeaters that my analog radios(even the little UV-5r) can easily hit from my backyard. It's getting returned and I'll use the funds along with the money from the DM-1701 to buy a better radio. 

Also, WINE works pretty good on my Linux install. Like I've mentioned before, I run all the other CPS programs along with CHIRP NEXT in WINE without issues.  

Remember DMR uses TDMA when working through a repeater in digital mode, Time Division Multiple Access, in other words the output is pulsing on and off approximately every 30 milliseconds. Your typical average responding power meter will likely read about 40 percent of a true FM radio output. So, a reading of 2.5 watts wouldn't be unusual. The 0.5 watt reading the meter might have caught the radio part way through a transmit pulse, which wouldn't surprise me with one of those electronic SWR/watt-meters types.

[TNFrank]

All that being said the absolute high was 3.3 watts on digital mode.  I'm looking at 3 other radios between $100 and $150 that claim 10 watts. even if they only output half of that it'll be better than the 3.3 watts I'm getting from this radio. 

[Lscott]

2 hours ago, TNFrank said:

Also, WINE works pretty good on my Linux install. Like I've mentioned before, I run all the other CPS programs along with CHIRP NEXT in WINE without issues.  

My experience with Wine is it works sort of OK so long as the app isn't doing really weird stuff behind Window's back, like undocumented functions, or depending on bugs in various Window's functions always doing the same thing etc. BTW that's one of the biggest headaches with Wine, and the ReactOS Project, is duplicating all the bugs in various parts of Windows so existing apps work as expected. It's another reason why later versions of Windows breaks old app's, Microsoft just didn't bother duplicating the older version's bugs in some cases.  

[Lscott]

31 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

All that being said the absolute high was 3.3 watts on digital mode.  I'm looking at 3 other radios between $100 and $150 that claim 10 watts. even if they only output half of that it'll be better than the 3.3 watts I'm getting from this radio. 

If you want "CHEAP" but a good quality radio look at this one. It's a "Type-2" UHF radio with a band split of 400-470 MHz. The seller privately sent me a photo of the Kenwood tags without the other ones stuck on top of them, like you see in the AD, so I verified the FCC ID of K44475500. Covers all of the Ham band and you can use it in FM mode on GMRS too. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/267383407451?_skw=kenwood+dmr+radios&itmmeta=01K4DNYSK8VG0D44XQ4VBAKFQ7&hash=item3e414b035b:g:cQMAAeSwTDpoercB&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1cjUvNiekyv67x3Pun95fxmvfQaGHlVZBC5MpGFZBOOrwa25XAEL2ZcbEvb%2BwGjTRgJBsaTqPa0fqAKfM6lXLrl2czT7iF3%2FxpqmSYRH8GTl7XnCJQFzr2z%2BjaYmlgJF6s5DohBVA8hAPSKODzBFKr1l9Ijbp0Y%2FgU43W1fFHDrY1Ooug1UHejG6jqwEly5qneA%2ByyjGxiD6BFvvDgJ91WUEASOVqdkoJwuDTv8Y6w69CQfPSw4OYHF4uBxY6tqs%2FdFT596uuYUzCMG3IcCfNMeZNiygMsW5cOBb%2F6LXoFh1Q%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR-iZ-7WjZg&pfm=0

It's a Kenwood radio. For the price you can experiment with it. You'll likely have to get a KSC-35S charger base, typically used about $20 to $25, I have several in my collection. The Boafeng programming cable and speaker mic's that use the two-pin plug will work. I use a cheap Boafeng programming cable on my Kenwood radios all the time. Two main con's are no front panel programming and no display. But for DMR you're likely going to do all your programming on a computer anyway. I have the software and a sample code plug if you're interested.

TK-D240V_D340U Brochure 1.pdf

TK-D340K2_GMRS_Analog_DMR_Example.dat

KPG-166D_v2.33.rar

[TNFrank]

Here's an excellent video I found showing how to set up a DMR radio.

I was looking at the Retevis RT3S. It's 2M/70cm(so I can probably do MURS and GMRS too) and it's supposed to be 10 watts. The price isn't too Bad either.

 

[SteveShannon]

2 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

Here's an excellent video I found showing how to set up a DMR radio.

I was looking at the Retevis RT3S. It's 2M/70cm(so I can probably do MURS and GMRS too) and it's supposed to be 10 watts. The price isn't too Bad either.

 

The RT-3S is exactly the same radio as the TYT MD UV380 that I have. Just a different name plate. As such it’s a candidate for OpenUV380 (~OpenGD77)

[TNFrank]

So it would be a decent budget DMR then?

[SteveShannon]

11 minutes ago, TNFrank said:

So it would be a decent budget DMR then?

Not nearly as inexpensive as some others but for about $90 it seems pretty good to me. A friend of mine claims it has the best analog sound of any of my radios. 
I’ve worked on three of them. The first one I used RT Systems to build a codeplug. That worked well. Then I installed OpenUV380 on it for the speech features and traded it to a blind friend for his stock model. I have left it stock and use RT Systems to edit the codeplug. That’s my second one.
The third was one a friend brought to me after he borked it trying to update the firmware. I installed the OpenUV380 system on it (which requires loading the factory firmware anyway) and built him a codeplug and he seems happy. 
I like it.