We have a DMR Repeater!! — VE7MIR is ‘on the air’

Thanks to a lot of hard work by a number of our members, and most notably Dekaiah VA7DHR, we now have a fully operational Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) radio. Located at the Jensen Centre in central Parksville, the repeater is not yet connected to the internet, but can handle local communications just like a regular repeater 🙂 The only (big) difference is that it’s digital, so if the repeater can hear you at all — it will work!

Dekaiah and I did some initial testing last night and we were easily able to communicate with each other from my home in French Creek and his home in Hilliers. We were using our handhelds connected to our external antennae. I was able to trigger the repeater with my Alinco handheld on medium power from the top of Lee Road here in French Creek, so coverage looks pretty good at this point. It should get even better when the antenna array at the Jensen Centre is replaced later this summer.

I will post connection details here in the ‘Repeaters’ section of the website, but for those wanting to start playing now, here’s the scoop”:

RX Freq (on your handheld) = 444.20000 MHz

TX Freq = 449.20000 MHz

Color Code = 1

Talk Group = 99

Time Slot = 1

Have fun! If anyone needs help programming their Alinco handheld, give Don VE7ATJ a call. Maybe we’ll set up a ‘net’ sometime so people can test their connection to the repeater. We’ll try to get it internet-connected as soon as we can so people can connect to the wider world via the various available talk groups 🙂