Something I can’t find discussed thoroughly in public forums are practical considerations for programming modern radios. Specifically for the Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) standard that is quickly growing in popularity.

Here, today, we will discuss by example, considerations on how an organizations including your family, may program a DMR capable radio; Not Ham Radio.

I love armature radio, I have several hotspots and even a club DMR repeater in my area. This discussion simply is not about that. To be clear we will not be talking about hotspots or The Brandmeister Network today, its out of scope.

The primary examples will be around a homesteading family, for illustrative presupposes I may slip into making some paramilitary examples, I can’t help it I am just speaking from my own radio experiences. If I had been law enforcement maybe I would have slipped into those examples just letting you know my frame of reference.

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What is a “Code Plug”?

Code plug comes from the days when programming a radio’s channels was done by physically inserting different crystals and configuring jumper switches and wires. The term “Code Plug” refers to the software configuration prepared and uploaded to a modern radio to configure its channels.

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First the briefest preamble on DMR,

• DMR is an open standard for digital two way radio communication
• there are open source implementation of it. For this hacker that's reason enough to explore it.
• NXDN is another standard worth looking at and many concepts cross apply but Asian manufactures just aren't pumping out NXDN radios but they are pretty keen on DMR, including Mr Motorola. So until I acquire some NXDN or P25 gear we are going to talk DMR.

To give some perspective you can find a perfectly capable DMR handset from a Chinese manufacture like TYT for as little as $70 United States Freedom Bucks. We can cover the difference between “capable” and “quality” another time.

For those in the United States, DMR as a standard as been available in FCC certified, Part 90 (Commercial) radios since 2006. So the market is flush with quality 2nd hand devices at reasonable prices.

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Hey you forgot about D-Star!

No I did’t D-Star is developed from the ground up for Ham Radio, so I will discuss it, but not here.

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When programming a digital radio, You need to consider both form and function. Consider how someone is going to operate the device under pressure. For example putting an ALL-CALL at the first first or last channel in a bank or how to reduce distractions using selective calling.

What kind of fat fingers and tunnel vision might occur during use? Need some examples when not actually being shot at or civilization is collapsing? Off the top of my head — Chain saw malfunction, rabid raccoon in your lagoon, that unexpected visitor at 1:30AM swerving down your 1,600 foot driveway directly towards your house, or even an unexpected visitor at 1:30PM swerving down your 1,600 foot driveway directly towards your house?