Friday, September 23, 2016

Baofeng DM-5R: Radioddity Responds to Questions

Radioddity posts a response to some of the questions about the DM-5R and it's DMR capabilities:
Rumor 1: The BaoFeng DM-5R is not compatible with MOTOTRBO TIER 2.
FALSE. While the BaoFeng DM-5R comes out of the box only supporting Tier 1, it can be easily upgraded to support Tier 2 online. The upgrade will be available at Radioddity.com as well as BaoFeng’s official website (under construction). This upgrade costs less than $10.

Rumor 2: The BaoFeng DM-5R is a dPMR, not a DMR.
FALSE. The standards for a DMR are as follows:
TS 102 361-1: Air interface protocol
TS 102 361-2: Voice and generic services and facilities
TS 102 361-3: Data protocol
TS 102 361-4: Trunking protocol
The DM-5R meets each of the ETSI Standards listed above. A true DMR, not a dPMR.

Rumor 3: The BaoFeng DM-5R is not FCC or IC certified.
FALSE. The BaoFeng DM-5R has met FCC and IC standards in its testing. The documents may not be visible online, as it takes about 4 weeks for the documents to be available.
They still don't give specifics on how to get Tier II - only mentioning the $10 upgrade.

Monday, September 19, 2016

Boafeng DM-5R: Tier II Support

Radioddity has updated the DM-5R listing with this cryptic note about Tier II support:
"Support DMR repeater function (DMR Tier I; support Tier II if upgraded with less than $10)"
Thanks to Don for pointing out the update.

Baofeng Tech UV-5X3: Display Sync

A nice little feature of the UV-5X3 tri-bander (Amazon $64.89):

Sunday, September 18, 2016

End Times

Fact.

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Friday, September 16, 2016

TalkiePi - Raspberry Pi Walkie Talkie

"talkiepi uses Mumble for its voice communication protocol. Mumble is an open source, lightweight, high quality voice chat system designed for use by PC gamers. Mumble lent itself perfectly for this use case. There are already software clients for all platforms (Mac, Win, Linux, IOS, Android), meaning you can talk with your talkiepi using your phone or computer, and you're not limited to just talkiepi devices! By utilizing Mumble channels, user registration, and access control lists, you can configure different groups of talkiepis, just like using different channels on a traditional walkie talkie.

talkiepi is built utilizing a Raspberry Pi, USB speakerphone, some basic electronic components, and a 3D printed enclosure. talkiepi runs amumble client that has been designed specifically for push to talk via the push button interface. After it is setup on your wifi network and the software is configured, talkiepi will require little to no maintenance to use."