VA3XPR Toronto's Digital Ham Radio Repeater Connection
Great news for Canadian DMR users! Today, DMR-MARC Canada, which operates the largest DMR network in Canada, announced three new talkgroups available for all connected repeaters to make user of to enhance their DMR experience. These new talkgroups include:
- User Activated English 1 talkgroup (timeslot 1, talkgroup #113)
- User Activated English 2 talkgroup (timeslot 1, talkgroup #123)
- Parrot talkgroup (timeslot 1, talkgroup #9998)
The User Activated English 1 & 2 talkgroups function the same as the TAC310 talkgroup in that they allow repeater to repeater communications, however these new talkgroups enable these connections globally, whereas TAC310 is limited to North America communications. Users who wish to make contact with another user globally are encouraged to use these talkroups once they have made contact on any of the existing wide area talkgroups, such as Canada, North American or Worldwide English talkgroups. These new talkgroups are currently only carried by the repeaters in the Golden Horseshoe area of Ontario, which includes VA3XPR-1 and VA3XPR-2, however they are available to any repeater connected to the DMR-MARC Canada network upon request by the repeater owner. The default timeout for these talkgroups is 15 minutes.
The Parrot talkgroup allows users to test the quality of their audio by echoing back their signal so that they can determine how well they are getting into the repeater or how their audio sounds to other users. To use the Parrot talkgroup, user simply key their radio on the Parrot talkgroup, provide a brief audio sample and within a few seconds, a echo of the users voice will be played back on the talkgroup. This talkgroup is currently enabled on all repeaters connected to the DMR-MARC Canada network with a five (5) minute timeout.
For a full list of talkgroups available via DMR-MARC Canada network or to enquire about join this network, please refer to the DMR-MARC Canada page for more information.
