Let’s assume you have the same gear as I have. One D-878UV Handheld, two D-578UV mobile radio’s, one in the car, one in the QTH. Just by their use they are different.
Radio | Where located | Movement | Repeaters in Codeplug | Remarks |
D-578UV | QTH | none, static | local | connects to repeaters nearby, always the same ones |
D-878UV | Always with me, beltclip | often, dynamic | Europe or Countries I will travel to | connects to repeaters when available but mainly to a hotspot |
D-578UV | CAR mounted | often, dynamic | Europe or Countries I will travel to | connects to known repeaters or hotspot, roaming should be enabled for common regions |
I am lazy and want to get what I want without pressing to much buttons or crawl in lists. That’s why I created three different CP’s each with a little twist.
The D-578UV in the QTH knows only my hotspots at home and 8 repeaters I can reach from here. BUT I have multiplied each repeater 23 times. As the codeplug software does not accept duplicated channel (repeater) names, each repeater name got an addition which represents the TG. I.e. you will find the repeater DO0ERK as DO0ERK World, DO0ERK Germany and so on. In the channel list is for each channel of the same repeater a different TG associated as you can see here in the snippet (for a download of the whole file click here):
Channel Name | Receive Frequency | Transmit Frequency | Channel Type | Transmit Power | Band Width | CTCSS/DCS Decode | CTCSS/DCS Encode | Contact | Contact Call Type |
DO0ERK World | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM World | Group Call |
DO0ERK Germany | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM Germany | Group Call |
DO0ERK Regional | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM Regional | Group Call |
DO0ERK Local | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM Local | Group Call |
DO0ERK Europe | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM Europe | Group Call |
DO0ERK German | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM German | Group Call |
DO0ERK DACH | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM DACH | Group Call |
DO0ERK DL-TAC 1 | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM DL-TAC 1 | Group Call |
DO0ERK DL-TAC 2 | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM DL-TAC 2 | Group Call |
DO0ERK DL-TAC 3 | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM DL-TAC 3 | Group Call |
DO0ERK DL-TAC 4 | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM DL-TAC 4 | Group Call |
DO0ERK DL-MultiM | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM DL-Multimode | Group Call |
DO0ERK EMCOM112 | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM Emcom(112)EU | Group Call |
DO0ERK SachsAnh/ | 145.71250 | 145.11250 | D-Digital | Turbo | 12.5K | 67.0 | Off | BM SachsAnh/Meck | Group Call |
The zones I have defined are the analog repeaters nearby, the digital repeaters with associated TG’s and my hotspots. The TG-List is still there with all TG’s available worldwide, but for nomal use, I just need the channel knob to switch between repeaters and their associated talkgroups. Very convenient. A roaming list is not needed, as this radio normally do not move.
Differently constructed is the CP for the D-578UV in the car. Each repeater is marked with the associated Timeslot (TS) and my most used TG. That means i.e. DO0ERK has two entries DO0ERK-1 and DO0ERK-2 For -1 the TG Germany is associated, for -2 the TG World is associated. That saves channel entries.
I have in my channel list all (and I mean ALL) European repeaters after this methodology. Countries can be selected by the zone list, where each country has its own entry with the corresponding repeaters associated. With one look at the repeater name I can see my TS and my TG is also displayed underneath the repeater name. Of course my hotspots are also there, in case I can not reach a repeater. In such a case I have LTE connection for my DMR hotspot to the WLAN routher in the car. In addition I have created a roming channel list and a roming zone list for my state, where I travel most. With the roaming switched on the radio in the car chooses by itself the next reachable repeater.
The handheld radio has the same channel-list and zones, but as I use mostly my hotspot with the handheld, that’s why I did not create a roaming channel or roaming zone list.
I hope that my idea behind these different CP’s became clear to you, if not pls. blame me as I must have explained it in an unclear way.