ON AIR (When I am home – most evenings and weekends). DMR and C4FM Gateway.
Located in Bracknell Berkshire. MB6IBK is usually on the air(433.637, CC3, Slot2) most evenings and weekends. With 1W ERP it can be accessed from most parts of Bracknell and parts of West Ascot. It is linked to BM via MMDVM’s new DMRGateway option which allows switching between BM and DMR+ so talkgroups from both networks can be accessed. Use a private call to the normal Brandmeister reflectors to gain access to the BrandMeister network, Brandmeister talkgroups come back to the node on TG9.
FOR DMR
The frequency is 433.6375 Mhz, color code 3, slot 2 (although either slot should work). The DMR node is connected using the MMDVM DMRGateway link so access to both the Brandmeister, DMR+ and XLX950 networks is possible. The network you wish to use is user selectable.
The default gateway connection is to DMR reflector 4400 on both Brandmeister UK and DMR+.
Brandmeister connections will be heard on TG9.
DMR+ Connections will be heard on TG8.
XLX950 is heard on TG6.
To connect to a new reflector you must send a Private Call to the reflector you want. IT MUST BE A PRIVATE CALL!
For Brandmeister use the regular reflector number, so for Reflector 4400, use 4400. Brandmeister reflectors are returned to the Gateway on Talk Group 9. So you need to have TG9 in your receive talk groups list.
For DMR+ add a “8” in front of the reflector number. So for 4400 on DMR+ use 84400. DMR+ connections will come back to the gateway as Talk Group 8, so ensure you have TG8 in your receive group list for each channel.
To connect to XLX950 Module E send a Private Call to 64005.
For reception of both Brandmeister and DMR+ I recommend using a receive group list (rx contacts list) which contains both TG9, TG8 and TG6 for any channel you set up for MB6IBK or use a radio with Promiscuous mode enabled.
Please don’t hog Reflector 4400 as this ties up every hotspot and repeater connected to this. Once you establish a contact on 4400 please move off to one of the chat reflectors such as 4401, 4402 etc.
There is a 10 minute timeout, so the gateway should return to the default reflectors and talkgroups after 10 mins of inactivity on the RF side.
See also MB6BK for 24/7 access on 144.850
Click here for DMR codeplugs for the TYT MD380 and MD2017 radios.
PLEASE DON’T HOG REFLECTOR 4400
Most repeaters and Gateways link to reflector 4400. 4400 is meant to be used as a calling channel to establish a contact, then you can move off on to a different reflector such as 4401 or 4402 for a chat.
While it may appear that having a chat on TG235/Reflector 4400 does no harm as overall it’s not very busy there are a few things that you really, really need to consider.
When you use TG235/Reflector 4400 you are keying up dozens of repeaters and gateways across the network, on Brandmeister that’s currently around 60 repeaters and public gateways. On a repeater this ties up a time slot and may prevent others that you can’t and won’t hear from accessing other talkgroups linked to that same time slot on that repeater.
On a multimode repeater or gateway it ties the repeater/gateway to DMR and prevents it from being used for other modes. So if you’re having a natter on 4400 you lock out Analog/C4FM/Fusion/P25 and DStar users from being able to use any of the mutimode gateways or repeaters linked to 4400. As these are users on different modes you won’t ever hear them on DMR so you can’t tell that you are locking them out and they have no way of breaking in to your conversation to try to get their call in. This isn’t really fair. There are plenty of user activated talkgroups and refelectors that can be used if you want to have a prolonged chat. A user activated talkgroup will only key up the repeaters or gateways that the users are directly connected to. This then allows other users to use the rest of the network or different modes uninterrupted.
MB6IBK and MB6BK are multimode gateways. If someone is chatting on 4400 it completely ties up both of these gateways. It is almost impossible for anyone else on DMR to then be able access the gateways to switch them to a different reflector and unless there is a break in the conversation longer than 20 seconds is impossible for a C4FM user to connect to the gateway. That isn’t really fair on local user of the gateways as a couple of people in, for example, Scotland chatting about a local issue are selfishly preventing others from accessing a multiude of local gateways up and down the country, not just BK and IBK.