A reminder to all Indiana DMR users, 

The following repeaters have been moved to the BrandMeister platform and will require your radio to be reprogrammed IF you plan on using all of the new content. 

KC9TKJ – Bloomington, Floyds Knobs, Morgantown, Nashville, Scipio

K9IKQ – Terre Haute

K9NZF – Lynn

W9AMT – Greenwood (Johnson County), Indy UHF, Indy VHF, Indy 900, Muncie

W9OG - Evansville

WX9HC - Danville

Some of the talkgroups thankfully are network agnostic and will continue to work if programming changes cannot be made immediately. The chart below outlines in great detail what those changes are. If you have any questions, please reach out to the trustee of your machine. Thank you.

Changes coming to some of the Hoosier DMR network

Greetings fellow hams and DMR enthusiasts,

Over the past few months, the Hoosier DMR trustees have had some discussions among ourselves and have given lots of thought to the future of our involvement with DMR and the future of the Hoosier DMR network. We’ve consulted many of the major DMR players and network administrators to gain their insight and have also sought input from the users of our systems as well to see what direction to take. We have evaluated the current connection and looked at what other cBridge based networks and DMR linking technologies have to offer and what they are doing to better enhance the overall DMR user experience. After careful consideration and many, many hours of discussion, some of us have come to the decision to take a different approach with the technology and will be transitioning our DMR repeaters to the BrandMeister network. The repeaters transitioning at the time of this communique are as follows:

KC9TKJ – Bloomington, Floyds Knobs, Morgantown,
Nashville, Scipio

K9IKQ – Terre Haute

K9NZF – Lynn

W9AMT – Greenwood (Johnson County), Indy UHF, Indy VHF, Indy 900, Muncie

WX9HC - Danville

The motivation behind this in not personal nor political in in way, those of us transitioning simply share the same feelings and agree that this transition is what’s necessary moving forward to retain and continue to grow interest in the DMR technology for amateur use. While we understand that this change may be inevitably hard at first, please know that this move will provide a new, more versatile offering to the Indiana DMR community as well as allow the repeater trustees each to manage content and operate our repeaters on a local level. The BrandMeister platform supremely supersedes anything a cBridge based connection can or ever will provide DMR users and DMR repeater trustees. 

BrandMeister is also manufacturer agnostic, meaning both Hytera and Motorola repeaters can interconnect and operate in the same environment and with the implementation of the MMDVM, it can support homebrew repeaters as well. Another exciting feature is the integration of  digital voice platforms like the DV4Mini and the OpenSPOT Shark RF. BrandMeister also offers integration of GPS equipped radios reporting to APRS.fi, the Hoseline and Hoseline Archive (http://hose.brandmeister.network/), an intensely versatile user dashboard (https://brandmeister.network/), and automatically generated coverage maps using technology from CloudRF.com make BrandMeister a platform that caters more to the amateur radio operator. 

So, what’s the transition look like for the users? What you see below is a base template we’ll be offering in an upcoming codeplug release. We are working diligently with some of the master codeplug builders in the state to have codeplugs available to post so that it’s a smooth transition as things go live. People can add or delete talkgroups as they wish or use it as it stands. BrandMeister makes it that the user is in control of the content they wish to use, unlike the cBridge that says, “Here’s what you get, take it or leave it”. When the network was developed and the cBridge was built, simplicity and uniformity were key to its success, but that was over 3 years ago. So much has changed in DMR since then, and will continue to change. Either we accept and adapt to that change or DMR will shrivel and die. It’s just like AM versus SSB for our forefathers in the hobby. Change is inevitable. Thankfully, because of the flexibility BrandMeister offers, only a few talkgroups need changed in subscriber units.

The talkgroups in GREEN below will remain functional in radios
that are currently programmed to the old Hoosier DMR matrix.

Talkgroups in RED will need reprogrammed/changed.

Slot 1

BrandMeister World Wide English - TG #91 – PTT (15 min TOT)

BrandMeister North America - TG #93 – PTT (15 min TOT)

The Bridge - TG #3100 – PTT (15 min TOT)

Midwest/Region 9 - TG#3169 – PTT (15 min TOT) moving to slot 1

TAC-310 - TG #310 – PTT (15 min TOT)

Brandmeister Parrot - Private Call #9990 (changing from group call 9998)

Local Slot 1 - TG #2 -Full Time (true local)

Slot 2

Indiana - TG #3118 - Full Time

Illinois - TG #3117 – PTT (15 minTOT)

Ohio - TG #3139 – PTT (15 min TOT)

Kentucky - TG #3121 – PTT (15 min TOT)

Michigan - TG #3126 – PTT (15 min TOT)

TAC-311 - TG #311 – PTT (15 min TOT)
Local Slot 2 - TG #2 - Full Time (tied to other local repeaters)¹

^{1 -} Locals can still be tied together in BrandMeister using the “Cluster” feature

As we close, we’d like to thank all the users and supporters who have made Hoosier DMR the global phenomenon that it has become and the standard in which many other networks use to build from. We feel that this move in no way changes that and we will continue to be a shining star within the DMR community. Change is inevitably hard and scary, but together we will push through this and continue to be a stellar DMR network.

And finally, a huge thank you to Steve Jones, W9SMJ, not only for allowing us to use his cBridge, but for his guidance and support of the DMR technology. If it were not for him and his involvement, DMR in Indiana would not be where it’s at today. We hope that choosing to move to this new platform in no way impedes our relationship with Steve. He is a great ally to have, not only for DMR, but as a fellow amateur radio operator.

Please forward this on to anyone you wish.

God speed to you all and 73 

April 2015 news

Big things happened this month. The biggest thing was Hoosier DMR became a network partner to DMR-MARC with the acquisition of our own c-bridge! Cool stuff!!!

We are pleased to welcome 3 new trustees and their repeaters to the Hoosier DMR family this month. Stuart KC9USH in Covington, Tim N9DKI in West Lafayette and Dewey KC9YCZ in Mishawaka. The Mishawaka machine was currently on the air, but connected to a different network. The Covington and Lafayette machines are coming very soon. Also, Rich N9GPY added a second repeater under his belt just north of the Plymouth area. It has great coverage and seems to be getting used a lot. Way to go Rich. 

We are also working on several potential sites to extend the Hoosier DMR coverage. Some of the sites include areas in and around Muncie, Richmond, Tipton, Trafalgar, Union City, Columbia City, Bedford, Salem, Seymour, and Jeffersonville, adding DMR to the Louisville Metro area.

Don't forget if you're traveling to the Dayton Hamvention, make sure to program your radio for the Hoosier DMR roadshow repeater. We will be set up in the west outdoor flea market in booth 2128. 

Until next month...

73!

. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am excited to announce that we have invested in a new C-Bridge for use by the Hoosier DMR organization. We were notified earlier this week that DMR-MARC was going to drop the TAC-310 and TAC-311 talkgroups from their C-Bridge we were operating through in Schaumburg and felt that this was a necessary move to accommodate to our user base to keep those talk-groups available.

After some discussions, we called BridgeCom Systems Wednesday morning and purchased the Hoosier DMR C-Bridge and had it programmed up and in operation the same afternoon. It is being hosted "on the cloud" in a very large data center in Indianapolis with top of line servers and redundant internet. You probably haven't even noticed any changes on your end! We have been operating on the new Hoosier DMR C-Bridge since approximately 3:00 Wednesday afternoon. The only change you will notice immediately is the fact that our traffic is visible in real time again on www.dmr.watch.

We were also able to secure the Indiana 3118 Statewide talkgroup to our c-bridge so the Tuesday night information net will continue!

We would like to eventually make each repeater’s local talkgroup a true local talkgroup. All other talkgroups will remain the same and there will be no unnecessary re-programming of user radios. The only programming users will need to do at this point is add the new talkgroups that are available if they wish. The new talkgroups that are available are as follows:

“The Parrot” is now available on Time Slot 1 Talkgroup 9998

DMR-MARC’s “UA English 1” is now available on Time Slot 1 Talkgroup 113

DMR-MARC’s “UA English 2” is now available on Time Slot 2 Talkgroup 123

We may also add a "zone" talkgroup for Indiana North, Central and South, to provide intra-comms within a specified zone, but that is still up in the air.

If any of you have questions about this change, please feel free to contact us. Communication among the repeater trustees and users is key and everyone’s feedback and input is valued. This is a team effort and we need to keep it that way to ensure we have the strongest DMR network possible.

We would like to thank each and every one of you for your patience during the recent growing pains that the network has seen. It’s sad to see that the Indiana DMR network got separated by some, but yet it’s even more encouraging to see that we are going stronger than ever! Now that Hoosier DMR doesn't have to rely on others for C-Bridge connectivity, we can rest assured that our network will remain stable and configured as efficiently as possible
.
Also, If you know of clubs or repeater trustees that would like to add DMR in their area, please let Steve or I know. We would be more than happy to help them get DMR off the ground in their area. With the addition of our own C-Bridge we can add as many new repeaters as needed! We even have enough room to add any of the Indiana DMR repeaters that would like to get back on board with the DMR-MARC/Hoosier DMR team.

73

Your Hoosier DMR admin team

December 2014 Update

Happy New Year! 

Big things happened this month on the DMR highway. First, help us welcome Indiana's newest DMR repeater trustee. Mr. Rich Sytsma, N9GPY will be placing his DMR repeater on the air in CULVER, INDIANA within the next week. The N9GPY DMR repeater will operate on 443.925 +5 with a color code of 1. Thisrepeater will be a part of the Northern Indiana zone connected to the WB9VLE Fort Wayne master. Welcome to DMR Rich and thank you for supporting the DMR effort in Indiana!

The folks up in South Bend/Mishawaka/Elkhart area have been bitten by the DMR bug thanks to Steve, N9KYB. They've requested a DMR demo at a club meeting in the near future and a QnA session to follow. 

Lastly, we will be rolling out an Information net on TG3118, on Tuesday nights at 8pm EST. There will be a formal traffic net with check-in's followed by a round table QnA session. 

Here's to a prosperous New Year! 

November 2014

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! We updated the page with some new repeater info and added an interactive map for you to see if your area is (or soon will be) covered with a DMR repeater. We welcome the addition of Marion to the Hoosier DMR family. Good job Kevin KB9CRA with the help of Randy WB9VLE on getting that machine on the air! 

There's rumor that CSI will be introducing a DMR repeater of their own mid 2015. With the low prices they currently have, a CSI DMR repeater (if compatible with Motorola's IPSC protocols) will only help increase the worlds DMR infrastructure. 

October 2014 update

A few noteworthy things have happened this month. 

• First to mention is that Bill Atkinson, NF9K, has joined the Indiana DMR family with the addition of an XPR8400 with a temporary home at his QTH near Eagle Creek reservoir. The info for his machine is as follows: 

441.025+, Color Code 1

Time Slot #1 - Group Call 1 = World Wide (PTT activated with 5 min inactivity timeout)

Time Slot #1 - Group Call 13= WW English

Time Slot #1 - Group Call 3 = N. AmericaTime Slot #1 - Group Call 310 = TAC-310

Time Slot #1 - Group Call 9999 = Audio Test (PTT Activated - 2 min inactivity timeout)

Time Slot #2- Group Call 3169 = Midwest Regional 

Time Slot #2 - Group Call 3118 = Indiana Statewide

Time Slot #2 - Group Call 2 = Local

• Secondly, Steve, N9KYB, has turned the Frankfort repeater into a master, with Galveston and Indianapolis becoming it peers, thus making Local TG2 now only simulcasting to that "node" or zone. This will allow for local rag chewing without tying up the entire network as it has in the past. 

• Lastly, Randy WB9VLE, has decided to eliminate the use of TG719, Eastern Indiana, as the local talkgroup and to migrate that traffic over to Local TG2 on his master and its peers. 

Please remember that TG3118 Indiana is still connected to all repeaters in the state on TS2 and still allows everyone to be able to talk to one another! 

73