Tag: digital
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Building Your First DMR Codeplug
A codeplug is the configuration file that tells your DMR radio which talkgroups, zones, and contacts exist. Building your first one from scratch looks intimidating and is actually a very learnable process.
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Getting on FT8 with the Icom IC-7300 Mark II
One USB-C cable, no external interface needed. Here’s how to get the IC-7300 Mark II talking to WSJT-X and make your first FT8 contact.
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DMR vs. D-STAR vs. YSF (and the Rest): Comparing Digital Voice Modes
Four digital voice ecosystems, four different tradeoffs, and none of them talk to each other. Here’s how DMR, D-STAR, System Fusion, and the smaller players actually compare.
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APRS Explained: Trackers, Digipeaters, and Messaging
APRS quietly runs in the background of the hobby, tracking hams, relaying weather, and passing short messages across a mesh of digipeaters. Here is how the whole system fits together.
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Getting Started with Yaesu System Fusion and Wires-X
System Fusion is Yaesu’s digital voice ecosystem, and Wires-X is the network that links its repeaters and rooms together over the internet. Here is how to actually get on it.
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Getting Started with D-STAR
D-STAR was the first widely adopted digital voice mode in amateur radio, and its reflector and gateway system still works a little differently than DMR or Fusion. Here is how to actually get on it.
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Repeaters: How They Work, Why They’re Great, and Why They’re Not a SHTF Plan
Repeaters turn a 5-watt handheld into a radio that can talk 40 miles. Here’s how that works, and why you shouldn’t bet your grid-down comms plan on one.
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What Is PSK Reporter?
PSK Reporter is a free website that shows you, on a live map, exactly where your signal is being heard around the world. Here is how it works.
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Why the AnyTone AT-D878UV II Plus and AT-D890UV Are Still the Radios to Beat
The 878 basically defined the affordable DMR handheld category. The 890 built on it. Here’s why both are still worth your money, plus how the BridgeCom Maverick and the rest of the field stack up.
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EchoLink and IRLP: Linking Repeaters Over the Internet
Before DMR and Fusion linked repeaters digitally over dedicated networks, EchoLink and IRLP were already connecting hams worldwide over the ordinary internet. Both are still very much alive.