SPECIAL EDITION: 10,000+ Digital Repeaters - October 2021 Global Digital Repeater Roundup

Major Digital Milestone Reached!

In May 2021, HVDN reported that we were creeping ever closer to that 10,000 digital repeater mark and as of our October survey of repeaterbook.com data this important date in amateur radio history is here with 10,035 digital amateur radio repeaters now tracked.  

Here is the latest data based on our semi annual collection efforts since 2016, but no data was collected in 2017.

Our first near casualty of  the digital evolution

Someone will really need to look hard at repeaterbook.com data to ensure accuracy of these D-Star tabulations since it appears that 21 less D-Star repeaters exist in October 2021 compared to May 2021.

It is pretty well documented by now thanks to HVDN and pretty much any radio amateur today that DMR is by far the most popular digital voice mode today with an impressive 155.35% increase over the last 5 years.  

Still don't believe you, my local 2m FM repeater is just fine! 

For those into more fancy math if we are talking about growth or declines, compound annual growth rates (CAGR) are often used in different industries to track growth over a certain period. Over the past five years, DMR is still leading the pack at 20.62% CAGR.

However,  beyond the two dedicated non-commercial amateur modes known as Yaesu Fusion and Icom D-Star, it certainly seems interesting that the commercial P25 standard is growing faster than DMR.  

Using repeaters to track the healthy growth of amateur radio is smart.  Repeaters are expensive and local people with radios are needed to create a need for them to exist or to influence what to purchase. This is why counting repeaters is a great proxy to measure growth and adoption trends.

However, some areas do not have many digital voice repeaters but users are purchasing certain digital radios to use with hotspots. Many of these additional digital adopters are likely learning towards DMR or Fusion as a "my first digital radio" rather than D-Star or the two commercial modes known as P25 and NXDN.

Our secret digital future is already here

We have seen new products brought to market by smaller commercial companies and entrepreneurs, such as the RFinder series of DMR smartphone radios thanks to Bob W2CYK.   

New networks run entirely by the radio amateur community like Brandmeister Network and its amazing development team have opened new doors to expand all digital voice modes, including an entirely new up-and-coming amateur created mode such as M17 thanks to Wojciech SP5WWP.

The community also even has other entirely open source network tools such as DV Switch,  HBlink plus the amazing MMDVM and Pi-Star projects that Andy MW0MWZ, Jonathan G4KLX, Andy CA6JAU and others created to let us use repeaters or hotspots and fanned the flames of the digital evolution fire probably the most.

And, how could I not mention the work that folks like Roger VK3KYY are doing with OpenGD77 plus the equally fine development around OpenRTX which both help create new ways to use existing radios for digital communications, such as the case with modifying the cult favorite TYT MD-380 DMR radio to be used as M17.

We should expect some exciting times ahead for amateur radio as we also cross the boundaries of generational differences for people born after 1980 who will be entering later career stages and will have even more time for amateur radio experimentation.

Maybe its popular somewhere else?

Different parts of the world are at a crossroads today when it comes to adopting or retiring certain types of equipment. 

This is something which HVDN will further track publicly going forward since as the below chart indicates the current split between North America and Rest of World digital voice repeater data.

With M17 Project starting to get more attention, especially with a large investment enabled by non-profit entities Amateur Radio Digital Communications and Open Research Institute it is just a matter of time before something groundbreaking grabs mass attention.

What is next?

Many people do not have the attention span to read articles like this, but they need to pay attention to what is being discussed here very closely if you care about your amateur radio hobby.

Here is my prediction for the next two years (2022 and 2023) for digital repeater counts

While spending time within the HF spectrum chasing rare stations or park activators is good fun and will only get easier as the 11 year sunspot cycle matures over the next few years, do not forget about next generation technology.  

Spending more time on SSB during a 20m contest or CW on 40m will not propel the hobby forward for the next generation. Same also with using local 2m analog only repeaters for casual morning gatherings.

Please, spend some time experimenting with different technologies, modes and new ways of thinking and challenge yourself to try and keep track of how much time you spend in different aspects of the hobby month by month or year by year.   

The more time spent on the future will secure our past and ensure amateur radio exists for the next 100 years. 

Feel free to share some comments below on this and check out our past articles to learn what we are doing which may inspire you to get involved with something new in the future of digital amateur radio.

 Awaiting your rotten tomatoes,

Steve K2GOG

Co-Founder HVDN

Great, another DMR radio? But, with real 220 MHz?

Alinco was the first main stream amateur radio vendor to offer a DMR radio way back in 2016 with its  DJ-MD40 UHF only radio.  Less than two years later, they came to market with the dual band DJ-MD5TGP which included a GPS and was roughly based on the same reference design as the popular Anytone D878UV. Main stream being defined as Alinco often being included alongside Icom, Kenwood and Yaesu.

With many other radios such as the TYT MD-UV380, Radioddity GD-77, Baofeng DM-1801 and Ailunce HD1 offering dual band spectrum coverage at various price and feature differences, it looks like Alinco is about to offer its second generation version of its 2018 released "MD5" radio for short and it will offer a few things not found elsewhere, including a third band for some markets! 

This now further cements that Alinco is only going to focus on DMR for the amateur market, Kenwood and Icom on D-Star and Yaesu on Fusion for the time being until hopefully the HVDN backed M17 project and its TR-9 open source radio finds a manufacturing partner in China or maybe with one of the main stream vendors to stop fragmentation with so many competing digital modes.

How many MD5 are there?

There has always been some confusion while looking at discussion boards on Facebook as to how many different MD5 radios are there and the answer has always been two.

The DJ-MD5TGP has been the more expensive version and included a GPS.  The slightly lower cost DJ-MD5T is identical, but does not have the GPS and typically sells for $20 less.  Both versions are covered under the FCC ID of PH3DJ-MD5. The earlier DJ-MD40 can be found under FCC ID PH3DJ-MD5. 

The new, but not yet FCC certified Alinco DJ-MD5XT is going to likely require its own FCC ID as early documentation shows that this will be the first true tri-band DMR radio which will cover the 2m, 70cm and 1.25m amateur radio bands, plus extended receive above and below the VHF and UHF bands as usual. 

Looking in the just released computer programming software available on the Remtronix website, it clearly shows an option under MHF for 220 to 225 MHz.

Hackers are already salivating....

When it was discovered that certain band combinations would allow reception and transmission above 480 MHz just like in the Anytone D878UV and BTECH 6X2, Alinco was quick to issue new firmware to prevent this, but was easily bypassed with a 3rd party software tool to enable 480 to 520 MHz coverage. 

These extra frequencies are sought after in countries like Australia where there are UHF CB channels and in the United States where first responders such as New York City Police and Fire user channels above 480 MHz. 

Without spending time attempting to get an Alinco MD-5TGP with or without the patched 1.13c or 1.10 firmware to work with the CPS 1.09a meant for the new Alinco DJ-MD5XT, it would likely appear that the new Alinco DJ-MDXT due to having a band option meant for 1.25m should suggest there is different hardware inside that will offer safe operation of the 220 MHz band.

While many radios mentioned in this article can be "hacked" to give the impression they will work on the 1.25 band, it is not suggested to transmit as it will ruin the RF power amplifier and filtering in the radio since it is not designed for that spectrum.  Hopefully the Alinco DJ-MD5XT will support this great and underutilized band available only in the United States and few other countries globally. 

Related Reading

• FLASH NEWS!: Alinco MD-5 Series Cleared by FCC (Published Sept 20th 2018)

• The Official "NOT" Review of the Alinco MD-5 Series (Published Oct 4th 2018)

• Review: Alinco DJ-MD5T Series DMR Radio (Published Nov 7th 2018)

• Teardown: Expanded Alinco DJ-MD5TGP Review (Published Nov 18th 2018)

• Frequency Expansion: Alinco DJ-MD5TGP (Published March 7th 2019)

Basic Digital Voice Infrastructure Round Up (Q1 2018 Edition)

In October of 2016, Steve K2GOG made a presentation at the Overlook Mountain Amateur Radio Club of Ulster County New York at its monthly membership meeting.

At that point in time according to Repeaterbook.com, there were 45 DMR repeaters across all of New York State.

Fast forward to March of 2018, that count has increased to 61 according to the same website.

What about Fusion, D-Star Repeaters in New York?

• D-Star had 29 and is now up to 33
• Fusion had 32 and is now up to 39

What about global growth of digital voice repeaters?

• 2,204 Fusion repeaters (1,431 in Oct. 2016)
• 2,315 D-Star repeaters (2,051 in Oct. 2016)
• 2,326 DMR repeaters (1,493 in Oct. 2016
• 330 P25 repeaters (213 in Oct. 2016)
• 107 NXDN repeaters (82 in Oct.2016

How much growth has there been since October 2016?

• 154% growth for Fusion
• 112% growth for D-Star
• 156% growth for DMR
• 155% growth for P25
• 130% growth for NXDN

With Icom's D-Star being the oldest digital voice technology at 15 years, its days of accelerated growth are unlikely due to a lack of new radio equipment being introduced. The newest radio supporting D-Star is Kenwood's tri band TH-D74 handheld at $550 USD.  A dual band FT-70DR Yaesu Fusion radio can be had new for as low as $199.99. Icom's only current dual band D-Star hand held radio is the $390 ID-51.

There are multiple dual band hand held options from different vendors however for DMR ranging from $86 for the Radioddity GD-77 at the low end and no less than 4 others from vendors such as alinco, Anyone, Aiulence, Retevis and TYT for between $150 to $200.

There are also commercial radios that can be purchased new or at reduced cost for used options for DMR, P25 and NXDN. DMR is the only mode supported by non-commercial radio vendors though.

What about non-repeater use?

Hot spot devices such as the Shark RF OpenSpot, MMDVM based ZUMSpot, JumboSpot, NanoSpot devices and a few others allow users not near a repeater to talk globally. All of these devices are capable to support most all modes listed above and a few able to cross mode translate. This function allows a user to use a DMR radio to talk on D-Star or Fusion networks as an example.

According to Brandmeister Network, there are 5,498 hot spots currently connected to its network which is interesting given that there are only 7,282 digital voice repeaters accounted for globally. Combined, repeaters and hot spots make a very robust communications network for both local and global communications.

Democratized Modern Radio 

Digital voice infrastructure would not be needed if there were no users looking to access it, so a rough conservative estimate is that there should be between 350,000 and 700,000  hand held digital amateur radios in somewhat frequent use globally based on repeater and hot spot deployment figures. That figure is based on the following criteria:

• Number of known registered DMR users
• Number of hot spots currently internet connected 
• Number of repeaters currently internet connected
• Number of repeaters not internet connected
• Number of DMR handheld radio products sold in last 12 months on E-Bay
• Estimated number of D-Star and Fusion users and equipment currently in use. 

Original presentation from October 2016 can be found here

Leave a comment about estimated hand held or combined with other form factors below. 

Community version CPS for GD-77

I may start thinking of Roger Clark as the "Wizard of Melbourne" because of all his work lately with improvement considerations for the Radioddity GD-77.

Plainly put, there are a few areas that make this a "love it or hate it" sort of radio such as:

• Battery capacity should be better (7.4V at 2200 mAh stock battery)
• Lack of additional battery options (ability to purchase or extended life batteries)
• Computer Programming Software quirks and issues
• Certain radio functions like scan and monitor are flaky 
• RF wise, the VHF side of the radio is not as good as the UHF side
• Lack of memory for contacts
• Limitations around RX groups and zone
• More....

For a $80 to $110 radio depending on where and when purchased, its actually a much better radio than it may appear. 

The GD-77 does use the same charging cradle as the popular TYT MD-380 and speaker mic connections. A standard SMA antenna as found on radios like a Kenwood TH-D74, Yaesu VX-8, Icom ID-51, etc further allows for some interchangeability among accessories.

Community Version CPS

An issue with most all amateur radios was a lack of standardized programming software. It was common to need one or more software applications to program each radio.  The C.H.I.R.P  application changed that, but is not currently supporting any DMR radios or any digital voice radios for that matter. 

A lot of the CPS for various DMR radios are not full function, or at least how we want them to be.

Roger's thought of making this vendor CPS an open project is a really great idea.  Looking forward to where this goes! 

Related Links:

• Re-engineered Radioddity GD-77 CPS
• Roger's Github repository 
• Current replacement EXE as of 2/21/18 (In case it disappears)
• Current CLONE of Git as of 2/21/18 (In case it disappears)

Comparison of entry level DMR Radios (2017 Edition)

Many people say that they wont get interested in certain digital voice modes for the following reasons:

1. There needs to be repeaters in the area to use first.
2. There needs to be a dual band HT available.
3. There needs to be a lower price point to experiment with digital voice modes.

The good news is that item 2 and 3 on that list are a reality today. Item 1 is coming along in the area with details covered in an upcoming article about current area DMR and other digital voice mode repeaters.

This review is focused on entry level DMR radios with a goal to compare them along with some details I like and dislike between them.

This review covers the following radios pictured, left to right.

• Radiooddity GD-77 VHF/UHF
• TYT MD-2017 VHF
• TYT MD-380G (UHF)
• Tytera MD-380 (UHF)
• TYT MD-380G (VHF)
• TYT MD-380 (VHF)

I would like to cover Yaesu Fusion and Icom D-Star hand held radios, but there are currently no current radio available sold under $200, unless I include the brand new Yaesu FT-70DR which is priced at $199.99 at the time of this article at most resellers. Icom only has one HT, The ID-51A using its GFSK based D-Star mode and is priced at over $400. Kenwood offers the super fancy  TH-D74A which now does D-Star, but is almost $600 but also has the 220 MHz band.

I do want to mention that Alinco has reduced the price of its UHF DMR radio since last year by $70, the DR-MD40 is now $199.99, but for a mono band radio, I did not include that review at this time.

Here is a size comparison of some of the most popular radios today used by DMR enthusiasts that are considered "ham grade" and not commercial Vertex, Hytera, Motorola and others. I have also not included the USA designed, overseas manufactured Connect Systems (CSI) or Bridgecom radios that provide DMR as that is for another article at a later date.

Be warned, all radios in this review are "Made in China" but only the Radiooditty radio is not made by a 100% Chinese owned company to the best of my knowledge.

Country of origin should not matter in our global economy, but I do want to point out that at the price points listed in the chart below, the Chinese vendors are producing a very capable modern radio. This may help push European, North American and other Asian countries such as Japan put out a f-f-f-fantastic DMR product with this open standard digital voice mode in the future.