DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

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ve2wkr
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:29 pm
Location: Silverthorne, Colorado, USA

DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

Post by ve2wkr » Tue Aug 23, 2022 5:49 pm

HI!
I noticed that when talking on our local colorado DMR repeater I only get the radio DMR ID displayed, and not the callsign and name from the DMR ID database.
However on my Brandmeister repeater things work perfectly.
What am I missing ?
Thanks
Luca
VE2WKR/W0

G4EML
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Joined: Sat Nov 16, 2019 10:01 am

Re: DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

Post by G4EML » Tue Aug 23, 2022 8:32 pm

Brandmeister looks up the ID from the DMR database and then uses talker alias to send callsign details.

Other networks don't do this. So if you need the callsigns you need to have the DMR database loaded into your radio so that the radio can look up the callsign.

The DMR database can be loaded using the extras menu of the CPS.

VK3KYY
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

Post by VK3KYY » Tue Aug 23, 2022 11:06 pm

In case you are not aware of what 'talker alias' (TA) is

This is additional data that is as part of the voice data traffic, and I think can contain a maxium of 27 bytes.

In the case of Brandmeister, they send the callsign, and other information in these bytes, and the firmware extracts them and displays them as text.

BM, sends the callsign it gets from the RadioId database, but does not send the name etc. However if you have an account with BM, and set the APRS text in their Self Care section, that text is also sent in the talker alias data. Albeit only the first few characters because of the overall length limit.

Also, in case you wondered why the name does not appear immediatly with the Talker Alias, its becasue only a few characters are sent with each DMR frame, and the entire TA takes 6 frames to be completely available.

I think possibly the station's location can also be sent as part of TA, and the frimware has code to read the location (Lat / Long), but at the moment we don't use this data.... Mainly because hardly any stations send location data.

ve2wkr
Posts: 65
Joined: Thu Oct 22, 2020 11:29 pm
Location: Silverthorne, Colorado, USA

Re: DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

Post by ve2wkr » Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:54 pm

ok, I am loading the database with 14 characters to fit ~125k entries (DM1801 using voice prompts). I think that the lookup is not working properly. As for Brandmeister the lookup is immediate most of the time. I can tell when the talker alias is being used. Did somebody test the different database entry length lookups ?
I'll try to do some more testing locally.The problem is that there is very little traffic on the RMHAM network even if it covers 3 states.
Thanks.
Luca

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F1RMB
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Location: Grenoble, France

Re: DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

Post by F1RMB » Thu Aug 25, 2022 3:15 pm

Hi,

There is not BM vs others lookups, it's the same code, based on the ID received in the DMR frames.
Are you sure you have all needed regions in your list ?


Cheers.
---
Daniel

VK3KYY
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: DMR ID database for non Brandmeister repeaters ?

Post by VK3KYY » Thu Aug 25, 2022 10:05 pm

ve2wkr wrote:
Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:54 pm
ok, I am loading the database with 14 characters to fit ~125k entries (DM1801 using voice prompts). I think that the lookup is not working properly. As for Brandmeister the lookup is immediate most of the time. I can tell when the talker alias is being used. Did somebody test the different database entry length lookups ?
I'll try to do some more testing locally.The problem is that there is very little traffic on the RMHAM network even if it covers 3 states.
Thanks.
Luca
The firmware does not display an indication of where the callsign data came from

There is a setting in the display options, which let's you choose the order in which the firmware looks for the Callsign, (See the User Guide)
But if the firmware can't find the ID in , for example the TA it will look in the database, depending on what order is in the settings

DMR MARC / DMR PLUS don't send TA, so any lookups will be via the database

On the whole most DMR radios don't transmit TA, so listening directly on simplex should use the database.
However the OpenGD77 can transmit TA, but its disabled by default, as transmitting TA signals is not compatible with DMR MARC repeaters and causes dropouts

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