Super Cheap Chinese DMR Radios, Experience?

[WRYS709]

You sure it’s really DMR? 

i’ll take a look at the CPS programming software. Are their any sample codeplugs available?

[wrci350]

1 hour ago, fe2o3 said:

The "big deal" is that a Booofwang programming cable WILL work.  PERIOD!  The cables with chips in them are interchangeable.  The only thing you need to have is the proper driver for you PC and OS.  Many CCRs use fake chips anyhow so, again, you have to have the proper driver even if you have to use an old driver.

No need to shout, really.

Have you successfully programmed the Cotre ‎‎CO01D with a K-type cable that uses a chip other than the CH-340? 

If so, then that is different than the model that I purchased (‎CO06D).

I always thought that all those cables were interchangeable too.  Even though the Amazon listing called out that particular cable, when I ordered the radio I didn't bother ordering it, since I already had several other K-type cables that were known good and working.  Much to my surprise and annoyance, none of those cables would work with the CO06D.  And yes, I had the proper driver, and could program a different radio with the same cable plugged into the same USB port on the same computer.

You don't know me, you don't know my level of technical expertise and experience programming radios, and you weren't here when I tried using other cables to program a Cotre CO06D.  I offered that information hoping that I would save someone from the annoyance I experienced.  If you think I'm wrong about a particular cable being needed I'm obviously not going to change your mind.

[WRYS709]

My K-1 cable has the FTDI chip, so I will be programming with that cable, so @wrci350: you are saying it should not work?

[WRYS709]

1 hour ago, wrci350 said:

You don't know me, you don't know my level of technical expertise and experience programming radios, and you weren't here when I tried using other cables to program a Cotre CO06D. 

Do you have any recapping experience with Amiga of Rochester?

[WRQI583]

This radio is no good for traditional Ham operators. The traditional Ham operator needs beyond full keypad configuration capability in all radios they operate or they are no good to them.

This radio is good for Hams who dont mind the commercial side of radio and just need some cheap comms for something, for businesses that just need communications,  for schools, and for the general old person who just needs to communicate and are not needing the radio to be versatile to be able to communicate upside down and inside out transmitting inverted on a flux capacitor in an emergency situation. It's cheap, it communicates short range, and if it breaks..... oh well.... buy another one. These actually remind me of the BF888 radios if you added digital to them, and for just some cheap short range comms, the bf888 radios work fine. I know businesses that use them and I own a couple myself. So, for some cheap short range comms, these would do the trick.

I know it comes up with just about every radio out there: the haters who are dead set against it bashing the product and the lovers praising the product.
While there are some radios that I think both sides will admit are total garbage, Most radios are good for what you need them for. You have two groups out there and they are the Ham operators and the general public. Ham operators need to be able to just about reprogram every single electronic component inside the radio from the key pad while the general public just needs to talk and doesn't care what the radio looks like or how it works, as long as it sends their voice out and allows them to hear the voice they need to hear. So when it comes to what radio is good and what one is bad? Pay attention to when both sides say a radio is awesome or if it is garbage. Just a thought to keep in mind when it comes to reviews on products.

[WRYS709]

22 hours ago, fe2o3 said:

A regular USB to Booofwang  K connector.

https://jhart99.com/co01d-programming

Here is what that link's software and sample codeplug looks like:

 

[MozartMan]

Please, educate me on these DMR walkie-talkies.

Do you need HAM, GMRS (already have), or any kind of license to operate these DMR HTs?

[SteveShannon]

57 minutes ago, MozartMan said:

Please, educate me on these DMR walkie-talkies.

Do you need HAM, GMRS (already have), or any kind of license to operate these DMR HTs?

DMR is allowed on commercial radios and ham radio bands, but not GMRS or FRS (except for some experimental sites).

So, you would need to use these radios on an appropriate service.  Also, except for amateur radio radios usually must receive FCC certification.  I don't know if these radios are certified for any service.  I would be skeptical.

[BoxCar]

The Cotres are not approved for service in any band.

[MarkInTampa]

I've got a couple of TYT MD-380's UHF DMR/Analog radios I've been pretty happy with. Not super cheap but not to bad, around $100 new. Part 90 certified and covers 400-480MHz, DMR, Analog (wide and narrow band), superhet receiver and aftermarket firmware if you want. They have been around for quite awhile and are pretty well known. I bought mine because a couple of guys were using them on a local GMRS repeater (analog of course) and the audio quality was outstanding and wanted something to play with on 70cm DMR. The biggest issue was figuring out the DMR code plug, nothing like a analog radio. That was a year or two ago, now for the same money you can get dual band DMR HT's but don't use a HT enough to try one out.

[WRUI365]

I myself have 2 moto xpr uhf model radios which I use on gmrs and ham, xpr7550e covers 403-512mhz and dmr  and analog xpr5550e covers 403-470mhz.

[Lscott]

6 hours ago, BoxCar said:

The Cotres are not approved for service in any band.

The few photos I’ve seen don’t show the required FCC ID tag for the radio to be legally imported to the US. That was another question I had about these radios.

[Lscott]

3 hours ago, WRUI365 said:

I myself have 2 moto xpr uhf model radios which I use on gmrs and ham, xpr7550e covers 403-512mhz and dmr  and analog xpr5550e covers 403-470mhz.

I’m mainly a Kenwood guy but I do have a few Motorola XPR6550’s.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/261-e451d5e2-f358-40dd-95a1-af106f7e8584jpeg/?context=new

 

[WRYS709]

On 1/19/2024 at 11:56 AM, Lscott said:

When you get it and programmed let us know what you think about the radio.

OK: It came in yesterday and using my FTDI USB K-1 cable, it programs pretty easily on both digital and analog.

And it seems to work fine in analog simplex and repeaters and digital simplex (perhaps, as I only purchased one, but one can hear the "picket fencing" from its transmission digital simplex when one listens on an analog receiver), but digital DMR repeaters seems to be problematic so far.

But later today I will initiate  some more experimentation on both digital simplex and digital DMR repeater.

[Lscott]

5 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

OK: It came in yesterday and using my FTDI USB K-1 cable, it programs pretty easily on both digital and analog.

And it seems to work fine in analog simplex and repeaters and digital simplex (perhaps, as I only purchased one, but one can hear the "picket fencing" from its transmission digital simplex when one listens on an analog receiver), but digital DMR repeaters seems to be problematic so far.

But later today I will initiate  some more experimentation on both digital simplex and digital DMR repeater.

Thanks for the update.

[WRYS709]

47 minutes ago, Lscott said:

Thanks for the update.

And in the meantime, I found this interesting review of the COTRE line of HTs.

They recommend getting, if at all, the C006D, which unfortunately is currently out of stock at Amazon.

But there is a treasure trove of information in this article and documents linked at the end, so I will also be reviewing this information later on, too.

UPDATE: I see you linked this article in one of your earliest posts on this thread: have you found a source for the C006D?

[WRYS709]

The author of that article (NO7RF) answered these questions by email: 

1) Have you found a source for the C006D? 
 

A: No sourcing on the 6D (currently).

 

2) Have you found a suitable adapter for the SMA-R antenna jack on the radio, to connect to other antennas? 
 

A: I thought those were fixed 3MM screw, no ground

 

3) Can these units work with Brandmeister DMR repeaters?

 

A: They work fine on BM, repeaters and hotspots

 

[Lscott]

If the antenna port is one of those funky screw stud type my interest is sort of gone. It’s the same deal with the Motorola XPR-7550E HT. Super radio. The stud antenna port killed my interest in one. Also there is no decent adapter either that isn’t a mess to use. I’ve seen one but you have to run a ground strap from it to the chassis. 
 

I use my HT’s mobile and while out traveling. So having a way to use an external antenna is a primary requirement for me.
 

 

[WRYS709]

4 hours ago, Lscott said:

If the antenna port is one of those funky screw stud type my interest is sort of gone.

 

 

[Lscott]

Bummer. 
 

I have an old Kenwood HT, TK-370, with a stud type antenna port. At least that one has a ground ring for the coax shield insulated from the center stud recess on the port. I still had to grind down the stud on the adapter so the ground ring would make contact with the ground ring on the radio's antenna port. The adapter would allow the use of a standard BNC type connection.

[WRYS709]

15 hours ago, Lscott said:

Bummer. 
 

I have an old Kenwood HT, TK-370, with a stud type antenna port. At least that one has a ground ring for the coax shield insulated from the center stud recess on the port. I still had to grind down the stud on the adapter so the ground ring would make contact with the ground ring on the radio's antenna port. The adapter would allow the use of a standard BNC type connection.

Yes, the notes from the PNW group indicate that this is a groundless connector, too!

For inexpensive DMR, it is still hard to beat the Radioddity RD-5R a/k/a Baofeng DM-5R: uses all the same accessories, including batteries, of the UV-5R, 5 watts, analog too including GMRS, MURS, 2 meters and 70 cms; full Tier-2, standard SMA jack, and now works with the "OpenGD77" firmware project.

[Lscott]

2 minutes ago, WRYS709 said:

Yes, the notes from the PNW group indicate that this is a groundless connector, too!

For inexpensive DMR, it is still hard to beat the Radioddity RD-5R a/k/a Baofeng DM-5R: uses all the same accessories, including batteries, of the UV-5R, 5 watts, analog too including GMRS, MURS, 2 meters and 70 cms; full Tier-2 and now works with the "OpenGD77" firmware project.

Some of those early Baofeng's were not Teir-2 compliant. They spammed both time slots on the repeater and were banned by DMR repeater owners to use on their machines. 

[WRYS709]

8 hours ago, Lscott said:

Some of those early Baofeng's were not Teir-2 compliant. They spammed both time slots on the repeater and were banned by DMR repeater owners to use on their machines. 

Those early RD-5R are merely a footnote to DMR history now.  They have been successfully flushed out of the distribution chain now so that purchasing either the Radioddity RD-5R or the newer Baofeng DM-5R or even their 1701 and newer 1702 are reliable Tier-2 units now.

More importantly, back to our $13 DMR HT:

I programmed it for 5 DMR channels through a local DMR repeater and 3 analog repeaters and sent it out for testing on a local HAM Analog/DMR repeater and here is the results:

It worked perfectly on the first 4 DMR channels through the repeater with Talkgroups: PAPA, WorldWide, Cal and SoCAL.  The fifth Talkgroup, TAC310, failed.  It also worked fine on the 1st Analog repeater chosen, but it did not have geographical range to the two other repeaters.

Good reports were given on signal and audio quality in return on all attempts.

It turns out I programmed the wrong Color Code on the Channel for TAC310.

We did not try DMR simplex.

Does it have disadvantages: yes, of course: only 2 watts high power, a non-standard antenna jack and no display, so the operator must keep a cheat-sheet of which channels are what.

I am going to search for a source for the better, but more expensive C006D model, especially since it seems that Amazon has raised the price of the C001D since I purchased it for less than $14!

I am also going to work on an adapter for using an external antenna to the non-standard antenna jack.

But for quick and inexpensive ability to access DMR, it is hard to beat for the price. 

Although I have no experience with Hotspots, it seems that its use with a Hotspot would eliminate both 2 watts and non-standard antenna jack as being a problem.

[SteveShannon]

6 hours ago, WRYS709 said:

Those early RD-5R are merely a footnote to DMR history now.  They have been successfully flushed out of the distribution chain now so that purchasing either the Radioddity RD-5R or the newer Baofeng DM-5R or even their 1701 and newer 1702 are reliable Tier-2 units now.

More importantly, back to our $13 DMR HT:

I programmed it for 5 DMR channels through a local DMR repeater and 3 analog repeaters and sent it out for testing on a local HAM Analog/DMR repeater and here is the results:

It worked perfectly on the first 4 DMR channels through the repeater with Talkgroups: PAPA, WorldWide, Cal and SoCAL.  The fifth Talkgroup, TAC310, failed.  It also worked fine on the 1st Analog repeater chosen, but it did not have geographical range to the two other repeaters.

Good reports were given on signal and audio quality in return on all attempts.

It turns out I programmed the wrong Color Code on the Channel for TAC310.

We did not try DMR simplex.

Does it have disadvantages: yes, of course: only 2 watts high power, a non-standard antenna jack and no display, so the operator must keep a cheat-sheet of which channels are what.

I am going to search for a source for the better, but more expensive C006D model, especially since it seems that Amazon has raised the price of the C001D since I purchased it for less than $14!

I am also going to work on an adapter for using an external antenna to the non-standard antenna jack.

But for quick and inexpensive ability to access DMR, it is hard to beat for the price. 

Although I have no experience with Hotspots, it seems that its use with a Hotspot would eliminate both 2 watts and non-standard antenna jack as being a problem.

Ive been helping a blind, partially deaf, ham by programming his DMR radio so he can use it.  It’s an Alinco DJ-MD5, which has room two thousand channels.  Unfortunately, it has no voice prompts and very few audible cues.  However, channels can be selected by entering a four digit channel number. So the method we came up with is to duplicate the channel list for every repeater, but minimize the number of zones because zones cannot be randomly selected from the front panel..

So, for instance, the channels for each individual repeater all start with the first two digits, such as “10” and all of the channels for all of the Brandmeister linked repeaters are the same last two digits.  So, Brandmeister talkgroup #93 is channel 1093 for one repeater, 1193 for another, and so on up through whatever the practical limit is (not to exceed 9993).  In that way my friend only has to learn the 20 or 30 different repeater digit pairs and up to 99 channel numbers.

But that’s harder than it needs to be because of the inability of the manufacturer to imagine how their interface affects a blind person.  Ideally a person could select a repeater randomly by entering its unique number and then select a Brandmeister talkgroup randomly by entering its number.

So, after that long explanation, how does this displayless DMR radio allow a user to select channels?  How does a person know which channel they’re on?

[Lscott]

2 hours ago, Sshannon said:

So, after that long explanation, how does this displayless DMR radio allow a user to select channels?  How does a person know which channel they’re on?

Likely the same way I have to do it for my TK-D340U radios.

https://forums.mygmrs.com/gallery/image/291-tk-d340u-front-and-back-2jpg/?context=new

The radio has 32 channels total split 16 between two zones. I printed out a cheat-sheet I created in Excel. It does have voice announcements, but only for changing zones and channels. Not really much help.