Virginia's Amateur DMR Linked Repeater Network
Virginia's Amateur DMR Linked Repeater Network
The Middle Peninsula Amateur Radio Club hosted the DMRVA team at a special meeting this afternoon for members to learn about DMR as well as the repeater network. It included a presentation as well as demonstration of a portable repeater. Thanks to all who attended and we hope that you enjoyed the material. We look forward to hearing more of you on the air!
Please take a moment to read about proper operating etiquette and conduct.
N8RAT/R is now in the air from the WINC transmitter site near Linden, VA. The frequency is 443.16250+. It should provide good coverage of the I-66 corridor between I-81 and the outer DC suburbs, plus the I-81 Corridor between Strasburg and Hagerstown.
The Repeater carries the standard DMRVA talkgroup lineup plus West Virginia Statewide (3154) on TS2.
Please send along coverage reports.
The talkgroups on the Roanoke W5CUI system have been reconfigured to promote better use of the spectrum. The repeater is no longer carrying the DCI Bridge (3100) talkgroup on TS1, or the PRN talkgroup on TS2. Users are reminded that these talkgroups are still available on the other Roanoke repeater.
Repeater users are also reminded to consider proper operating etiquette when operating on a large linked repeater system like this – i.e. use the local talkgroup to speak to your friend who is using the same repeater as you.
The repeater site in Midlothian experienced a power failure due to the storms on Thursday, a lightening strike or a mixture of both. There was damage to a host of equipment at the site and the Richmond repeater was off the air and the network for parts of the last couple of days.
After a thorough exam and status check, the repeater is back in service and operational. Please report any issues or observations to us. Thanks to WB4KXS, N4MW and N4ZRW for the assistance at the site, and as always a big shout out to the RATS board and technical groups for their support as well.
The Richmond repeater is down due to storm-related issues at the site.
No restoration ETA is currently available.
We wish to welcome the KV4VP portable repeater to the DMRVA network. The repeater will primarily operate in the tri-cities area south of Richmond but may show up in other areas as needed. This is a preliminary view of the system, operating with a Motorola SLR5700 repeater with a cellular modem to reach the network backend. Stay posted for more updates on this system.
While not directly connected to the DMRVA repeater network, this new repeater is operated cooperatively by DMRVA staff.
The repeater is located in downtown Richmond with an elevation of approximately 350 feet. The repeater performs nicely to the north, east and south. Coverage to the west is decent too but there is some shadowing due to the buildings.
It operates on 443.5375 MHz, up 5 MHz with CC1. TS 1 is wide open for any talkgroup available on the BM network. TS 2 currently carries Va Statewide (3151), Local 2 (2), Local 9 ( 9, local repeater only) as well as Richmond Local (31511 – tied to the DMRVA repeater local).
There are no codeplugs available for download with this new repeater system (yet).
For further details on how the BrandMeister particular repeater operates differently than DMRVA (a c-bridge network) check out this page from AF6FB.
Two repeaters in northern Virginia on the Chicagoland DMR network are carrying the Virginia Statewide talkgroup (3151) on TS1.
The 442.4375 MHz repeater in Herndon has mobile coverage from Gainesville to across the Potomac, and from the mountains to Tysons Corner. An image of coverage is located at this link.
442.900 Mhz is located in Vienna with much different coverage and also uses TS1 for statewide. For both repeaters, the talkgroup is PTT activated and times out after 15 minutes of inactivity.
