We’re a little (too) spoilt for choice in the Amateur Radio community when it comes to digital voice modes.

DStar was designed for Amateur Radio use by JARL and has been with us a since 2001, and as a result it has well established backend infrastructure – but the entry cost has remained high with (up until now) only Icom supporting it on their premium transceivers – thus limiting its mass appeal.

ORARC has embraced Yaesu’s C4FM thanks to a very generous cashback that comes with the purchase of the Yaesu DR-1X repeater, but mobile C4FM radios for use with our repeaters still begin at $469, more than double the price of an analog only radio.

APCO P25 ex-commercial gear has never really reached the realm of affordable and the backed end infrastructure for P25 is not well supported for Amateur Radio use.

Perhaps the thing stopping digital modes reaching the mainstream are affordable digital radios?  The Chinese have done an amazing job mass producing capable little radios such as the ubiquitous Baofeng UV-5R, of which I think every Amateur owns at least 2 – and why not when the cost of them takes them beyond an impulse buy and virtually into disposable territory?

The Chinese have properly embraced DMR as their chosen digital mode of choice, and for a while now the TYT MD-380 has been the darling radio of the digital amateur radio community with its affordable price ($150AUD) and hackable, upgradable firmware.  This radio, combined with a DV4mini dongle at less than $250 will get you into the reflector network and let you chat in crystal clear digital voice to other reflector network users around the world.

As good and cheap as the MD-380 is, it’s still very much a commercial radio that we’ve adopted for ourselves, and whilst the price is fantastic it still has a single big crux – it’s mono band.  You can have it in VHF or UHF, but not both at the same time.  This obviously precludes it from most peoples lists when shopping for a new general purpose handheld.

How about this then?  Meet the Baofeng DM-5R Dual Band DMR Mobile:

VHF: 136-174MHz, UHF: 400-480MHz, 5W, 2000mAh – $92.99AU posted, available now.  Note that this is a first generation product, and for the moment it’s only a Tier 1 radio – meaning (out of the box) it can’t be used with DMR repeaters, though apparently this is being resolved for $10 extra?  At the time of writing I’d say it’s probably wise to wait for a version with native Tier 2 functionality.

Irrespective, I don’t think there’s any question that the format that’s going to become the default standard will be the one that’s shipped in sub $100 radios.  Even if you’re not interested in the wide area internet based communication these radios are capable of, digital simplex voice still has many advantages over analog FM, such as:

• Up to 40% better battery life than FM.
• Static free communications.
• Better range than FM, with digital clarity right up to the cliff.
• Auto callsign ident of transmissions on the display*.
• Text messaging*.
• Position reporting*.

* If supported by the transceiver.

It’s not just Baofeng either, slightly more upmarket Wouxun has the KG-D2000 on the way:

Dual Band, 1024 memories (I personally find the 128 on the Baofengs a little limiting), VHF: 136-174MHz, UHF: 400-520MHz, 5W.  No doubt these will be more than the Baofeng, but they’ll still unquestionably be affordable.

Keep an eye out for new entries on the market.  Note that radios of interest to us (again at the time of writing) support MOTOTRBO DMR and are ideally Tier 2 compliant.  dPMR and NXDN are also digital radio standards that are similar in name and transceiver appearance, but are totally incompatible with the DMR standard.