DMR Radio is in its infancy in Ireland at present. Northern Ireland has a two year head start on us but in the last year 2016 - 2017 the number of EI callsigns registered for DMR has increased from 33 to 94. From February to March negotiations took place which allowed us to establish a Brandmeister DMR server in Waterford. By June this server was fully functional. Since then the Southern Ireland Repeater Group have constructed a triple-mode Digital Repeater which is now up and running near Clashmore in West Waterford. This project has been running for a while and it is proposed to have another system on line covering Waterford City in the not too distant future.
The Clashmore Repeater, EI7CDD was built by the Southern Ireland Repeater Group and is operating on 439.650 MHz output with a shift of -9 MHz of 430.650 MHz input frequency.
This Repeater has been running without problems until Storm Ophelia hit the country and the power was lost for a week or two. Fortunately, no further damage was encountered to the equipment or antenna systems and there was little problem to get the system back on air once again.
EI7CCD will operate on DMR, System Fusion, D-Star and Analog FM. This is an extremely versatile machine and offers all modes. A machine such as this will undoubtedly give operators a chance to compare the different systems and see which mode suits them best. By having such a Repeater on air, it is possible to encourage more to take part in this aspect of the hobby. Sysop John Mc Carthy EI8JA.
The Galway City Gateway is a multimode Gateway running DMR and Yaesu Fusion and could operate P25 and D-Star. The system is currently under test in Galway and due to go on site in March 2018. To date it has operated 24/7 without problems. A few minor modifications have been made to ensure that the Raspberry Pi runs cool. A cooling fan has been placed below the GM350 as it was getting quite warm with constant use.
The Galway City Gateway is a multimode Gateway running DMR and Yaesu Fusion and could operate P25 and D-Star. The system is currently under test in Galway and due to go on site in March 2018. To date it has operated 24/7 without problems. A few minor modifications have been made to ensure that the Raspberry Pi runs cool. A cooling fan has been placed below the GM350 as it was getting quite warm with constant use.
The power output is in the area of about 12 - 15 watts at the most and this is be suitable for most stations wishing to try out the various modes in Galway.
This is the proposed coverage for the Digital Gateway on the 2 metre band. Whilst the practical side may be less, it still shows remarkable coverage around the City and beyond. Our aim was to include Headford, Tuam, Loughrea, the far side of Galway Bay, Gort and not forgetting the road to Spiddal. We will have accomplished this. There is plenty of opportunity for anyone to try out Digital Radio, in any mode, for the first time.
The Mayo Gateway also has excellentd coverage, despite the many ranges of hills around the area and will undoubtedly provide the opportunity for experimentation in the area. using digital radio.
There is excellent opportunity to cross over from one area to the other whilst en-route to or from the Castlebar area.
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It will be our intention to establish a DMR Repeater from the site of the Galway Gateway. The Repeater will operate on 70cms. We had a good offer of a Hytera 985 70cms DMR repeater which was kindly offered to us by John MI0AAZ for a price we could not refuse. Whilst we have an excellent Analog Repeater, situated at Knockroe, this DMR Repeater will link up the DMR users around the city and on the roads in and out of Galway City.
Being UHF, the coverage is not quite as good as the 2M gateway, but will allow Repeater coverage out to areas such as Headford, Tuam Loughrea, Gort, the other side of Galway Bay, and out to the general direction of Inverin. Even the Aran Islands are covered. This should link up the majority of local DMR mobile operators.
The Hytera 985 is shown below:
This repeater is capable of running 50 watts but we will run it at around 30 watts so as not to stress it too much. The timeout timer will be set to 3 minutes as most DMR systems seem to adopt this time. As can be seen, there are a set of Procom Filters built into the Repeater and these will handle the reduction of power adequately without drifting. Probbly one good reason to reduce the power down from maximum.
The fact that the duty cycle of the DMR transmission is 50% that of an Analog transmission, these cavity filters will be more than adequate for the job effectively only dissapating 15 watts of power. It is possible to double up as an Analog Repeater but this may be a bit of a waste of such a system.
Galway Radio Experimenter's Club will be installing a Yaesu Fusion Repeater in place of their existing 2 metre Analog Repeater. The coverage of this Repeater will equal that of the existing Analog Repeater and will connect up the System Fusion users in the Galway and Mayo Area. This coupled with Wires-X will result in excellent opportunities for experimentation in the use of this mode.
System Fusion can connect with other Wires-X Nodes all around the world. Initial tests have proven very effective and even made it possible to link up with former Club Member EI7GMB now SQ4HIW residing in his hometown in Poland. The Wires-X facility will allow connection for those travelling to other countries and keep in contact with felllowClub members here in Galway.
The last and final project in Galway is the Wires-X standalone gateway operating from EI5DD's QTH under the callsign of EI2SHD. This is really for experiemntal purposes and will allow experimentation with the general networking of Wires-X. It will be situated on 144.8125 MHz.
A Wires-X Gateway is simply a HRi200 Wires-X modem connected to a computer with appropriate software and connected to the FTM100 or even a FTM 400. The small box underneath the FTM100 is the cooling system for the rig in the event of long overs.
This system covers 25 miles radius around Galway City it is very robust and there is little that can go wrng with it apart from a powere outage.
Hopefully, by the new year, all systems will be up and running from their permanent sites. There some interesting times ahead in Galway and Mayo.
Limerick Radio Club have been running a System Fusion Repeater on 70cms, from Woodcock Hill, and a 2 metre Repeater Tountinna Mountain. Sadly neither are networked into the Wires-X system. This coupled with very little use of the System Fusion mode has done little to promote System Fusion in the catchment area. One needs the activity to promote activity.The repeaters used by Limerick are the DRX-1 Fusion systems which Automatically select operation between Digital or Analog depending on which mode they receive at the time.
The DRX-1 is firmware upgradable and relatively trouble free in operation. It is very easy to program and essentially plug and play as with most Fusion equipment.
Galway operators have transmitted through this excellent system on many occasions and its range is superb, covering right up as far as Westport Co. Mayo. Limerick Radio Club always had some prime sites to from which to operate their Repeaters.
There are plans afoot to network their Repeaters into Wires-X which will considerably enhance their operation. If all Fusion Repeaters were actually networked to CQ-IRL there would be seamless coverage on some routes around the country.
Many ask which mode will take off and become the Standard.
There is no standard mode, there are Digital modes and which one you pick is the standard that you wish to adopt. There are pros and cons to each mode but DMR is the cheapest but not necessarily the easiest to get up and running. One has to be proficient at Programming a Code Plug which often deters people. If one can program an Analog radio using Chirp or similar software, Code plugs should take little time to perfect.
Fusion is plug and play and more or less operable out of the box like Analog and hence the easiest.
D-Star has been around for some 12 years and undergone some changes in its time. It is one of the older modes and hence the more popular. It is not easy to get up and running straight out of the box. BUT ........ the others are catching up and are equally as good in many respects especially in voice quality. I would not attempt to get into an argument but my personal preference is Yaesu Fusion.
The choice is really down to your preference and the logical approach is to run with the majority use in your area or become a lone user. There will always be somebody in the area who can offer a hand with programming.
