Canadian DMR C-Bridge Launch Makes Amateur Radio Newsline

News of the launch of the Canadian DMR C-Bridge on February 23rd made the headlines with Amateur Radio Newsline on March 1st, which also made mention of the VA3XPR DMR repeater in downtown Toronto. For the full story, see below:

 

WORLDBEAT: CANADA LAUNCHES MOTOTRBO DIGITAL AUDIO C BRIDGE INTERCONNECT

Hams in Canada have taken their first step toward the creation of a national amateur radio Division Multiple Access or DMR network. This with the launch of the first inter-provincial DMR networking server on Saturday, February 23rd. Amateur Radio Newslines Stephan Kinford, N8WB, has the details:

“The server, more commonly known as a “c-Bridge”was manufactured by Rayfield Communications and will serve as a network hub for Canadian amateur radio DMR repeaters. It will not only allow them to reliably link to one another but also to the growing DMR-MARC global network using Internet connectivity.

The DMR-MARC global network is an all-digital group of Mototrbo DMR repeaters in the USA, Germany, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, Switzerland, Spain, Austria, Finland, Sweden and of coarse Canada. The backbone networking is being created by amateur radio operators many of whom are Motorola Solutions employees, Motorola Service Station employees, dealers, system installers, and just plain Motorola equipment aficionados. Repeaters on this network are connected around the clock.

And for those listeners who are unfamiliar with Mototrbo system, this is a Motorola digital radio product marketed primarily to business and industrial users, but which has found its way into some public safety uses and now to ham radio. The format is based on and compatible with the European 2-slot DMR standard and uses Time Division Multiple Access to accommodate two simultaneous users. Therefore a single 12.5 kHz channel is able to carry two simultaneous and independent conversations or simultaneous and independent voice and data paths each with 6.25 kHz equivalency. More about the world-wide DMR-MARC global ham radio network is on-line at www.dmr-marc.net.

The Canadian c-Bridge is located in Montreal and is currently supporting several DMR repeaters in Ontario and Quebec, including the VA3XPR digital DMR repeater located in downtown Toronto. For more information on the new Canadian digital interconnect and how your organization can connect their DMR system to it, please visit
tinyurl.com/canada-cbridge.

For the Amateur Radio Newsline, I’m Stephan, Kinford, N8WB, in Wadsworth, Ohio.”

And before you ask, Mototrbo and D-Star radios cannot talk directly to one another. This is because each uses a different and incompatible digital voice encode and decode technology. (VA3FXT via QRZ.com, DMR-MARC)

Full story on Amateur Radio Newsline.