Virginia's Amateur DMR Linked Repeater Network
Virginia's Amateur DMR Linked Repeater Network
As of this afternoon, the Carters Mountain repeater has their network connection reestablished. When you hear Elmer, KF4UCI on the air please thank him for keeping this repeater operational for stations in the C’ville area.
The Carters Mountain repeater is going through some upgrades and will be changing internet service providers. ETA for return to linked status is approximately one week. Stay tuned for updates.
Many of you may have noticed that the Harrisonburg repeater has been operating in stand-alone mode for several weeks. We are happy to report that the site network issues have been resolved. Thank you for your patience!
We are happy to announce a partnership with the HEARS repeater network (N4HRS) to increase DMR coverage throughout Virginia. Some talkgroups will be shared across both systems and users will benefit from increased coverage in respective areas covered by both networks. We will be announcing revisions to the talkgroup line up soon (both additions and deletions). Please stay tuned.
As you have noticed, the website looks a bit different and there will be some changes made to the DMRVA network. We expect to remove some unused talkgroups, add an additional one and announce a partnership with another repeater system. Stay tuned for the details on these upgrades. As always, we welcome input from users at anytime.
We hope to update this post in May with full details on this addition to the network.
The Linden repeater is back on the air and linked up to the network from the original location. Please send any reports about coverage / system performance.
The K4MJO South Hill area repeater has returned to service and is ready to cover stations in the area, including travelers on I-85, route 58 and other areas. Mobile coverage is solid in town as well as up north to Victoria and Kenbridge. The local talkgroup is patched into Richmond Metro. Please give Sammy a shout if you are in the area.
Last fall we reported that the Linden repeater would be going off the air permanently due to site issues. We are happy to report that we expect it to return to the same site/frequency during the month of April. It is currently on the air from a temporary location for testing.
Recently we have received several inquiries about how to best utilize the system, especially in the context of hotspot usage that ties up 25+ repeaters. We wrote about this earlier in the year as well. The major scenario is extended use of VA Statewide which is set full time to repeaters on several networks (DMRVA, AWSVirginia, K4USD, Brandmiester and potentially others).
We will work on some updated recommendations for how to best utilize the DMR network in Virginia but please recognize that your actions (and transmissions) travel well beyond your local repeater and/or hotspot. Until then, please review the talkgroup etiquette page for some basics. Please also be reminded that most of the resources on the network (repeaters, linking hardware, software etc) are privately owned pieces of amateur radio gear.