[ILHam] Interested in DMR? What is it?

[Mike Swiatkowski]

The DMR-MARC (Digital Mobile Radio - Motorola Amateur Radio Club) worldwide
group of hams is looking to expand our presence in IL, IN, and WI this
year.  Right now we have 3 UHF repeaters in Illinois: Schaumburg, Crystal
Lake, and Morris.  If your club is interested in joining the worldwide
network which uses a 2-slot TDMA open standard digital format please drop
me a line. You will need a MotoTRBO repeater and a radio from one of the
dozen manufacturers of DMR.  We already have over 160+ DMR repeaters
worldwide active on the ham bands.  90+ of them are affiliated with the
DMR-MARC network.  The nice thing about DMR is that you get 2 voice
channels from one repeater in 1/2 the bandwidth of the analog repeaters you
use today.  We use slot 1 (channel 1) for the worldwide network, and slot 2
(channel 2) for the local traffic linked in NE Illinois.  If we get
stations in SE WI, NW IN or downstate we will highly consider linking them
to slot 2 to provide roaming coverage.

We have a worldwide weekly net at 11am CT Saturdays to answer technical
questions and give you system updates on our large worldwide network in 10
countries.  If you would like to learn more visit http://dmr-marc.net.
We've had booths at Dayton for the last 2 years but I'm guessing this is
the first some of you have heard about DMR. We have had a great growth rate
of 4x in the last year alone. Thanks for your time and potential interest.

73,
Mike, AA9VI