eVerge™ & Amateur Radio

Michael Lozano, KØNGA

December 7, 2013

Agenda • • • • • Concepts Software & Firmware Programming Basics ▫ Contact List / RX Group List ▫ Channel List ▫ Channel Groups Other Settings ▫ Buttons! Buttons! Buttons!

▫ Frequently Used Features Differences from MotoTRBO

Concepts - eVerge™ • Newer line of DMR radios from Vertex Standard • Different that VXD series (rebranded Motorola) • Commercial Radios • Follow DMR standards • Can be used on RMHAM and DMR-MARC TRBO networks

Important Note - Analog • eVerge™ Radios are analog capable • Software assumes commercial use • Most Ham analog use is wideband, commercial now narrowband • USA version of the software is narrowband only • eVerge™ Radios can be programmed on Ham wideband analog channels using the international version of the software • I’m not a lawyer; proceed accordingly

Software & Firmware • Freely available from Vertex Standard (requires free account) • Programming cable & radio adapter cable • Programming cable has a comm port driver • Firmware package includes update utility • Sample configuration files available

Programming Basics • Install cable driver (once) • Plug in cable and note the comm port number • Update firmware (when new, and occasionally after that) • Install & run programming software • Configure comm port • Download & open appropriate sample configuration file • Change Radio ID in Digital Common settings • Download to the radio

Firmware Update

Contact List / RX Group List • Contact List contains Talk Groups and User IDs ▫ Must be configured in the Contact List to be used • Tag (a label) limited to 8 characters • RX Group List used to determine which Talk Groups are received on each channel ▫ Typically 1 TG per RX Group for ham radio • “Private” IDs used for Radio ID recognition ▫ Private calls not used in ham radio

Contact List / RX Group List

Channel List - Digital • TAG (limited to 8 characters) • RX & TX frequencies • Repeater Code • Time Slot • Contact No. (Talk Group) • RX Group List (matches Contact Number)

Channel List - Analog • W5 – Ham radio wideband • TAG (limited to 8 characters) • RX & TX frequencies • Sub Audio – Decode & Encode ▫ C- for CTCSS ▫ D- for DCS

Channel Groups • 16 channels per group • Number of groups determined by radio model • Scan settings per group entry; Group Scan per group • Channels selected from the Channel List; TAG automatically populated • Group name can be changed

Channel List / Channel Group

Buttons! Buttons! Buttons!

• Buttons have to be programmed before they will work • Common – Key Function • Number of programmable buttons different on each model • Popular programmable features: ▫ Channel Up/Down ▫ Group Up/Down ▫ Scan, Group Scan, Follow Me Scan, Dual Watch ▫ Set ▫ Talk Around

Key Function

Misc • • • • • • • • Mic Gain – typically needs to be boosted Talk Around – set per channel on the channel list RX Power Save – set per channel on the channel list Priority Channel 1 – global, effects some scan and button functions Priority Channel 2 – one per Channel Group, effects some scan and button fuctions Default Split – Set to -5, useful for building your own config files Talk Back – allows for talking while paused during scanning Dimmer Level – mobile radio only, turns on LCD light

Differences from MotoTRBO • No roaming ▫ But five (Count them! FIVE!) types of scanning • Contact list limited to 128 entries ▫ Not possible to include all RMHAM or DMR-MARC entries • Display limited to 8 characters ▫ Typical of Vertex Standard / Yaesu radios

For Help, Contact: Michael Lozano – KØNGA kø[email protected]