Over the past two years, there has been an explosion of interest in DMR amateur radio. Many SBARC members have been bitten by the DMR bug and they are chatting around the world on global Brandmeister talkgroups using hotspots and repeaters. While much of the attraction of DMR is the ability to work DX on a handheld transceiver, many local operators hang out on the local SBARC Brandmeister DMR Talkgroup (TG 31073).  In fact, every Tuesday night, the Digital Communications and Technology Net moves from 2m FM to TG 31073 at 21:00 Pacific Time.

If you aren’t on the air with DMR yet, not to worry.  You may be able to chat on TG 31073 with a radio you already own! K6TZ operates a multimode digital repeater at La Vigia on the Mesa in Santa Barbara. We have recently reconfigured this repeater to bridge traffic from Yaesu System Fusion radios to TG 31073 using a new protocol called YSF2DMR. If you have a newer Yaesu radio, you may be digital-ready right now. Many new Yaesu amateur radio models available support System Fusion and are capable of connecting to the K6TZ digital repeater in order to bridge from System Fusion to DMR and TG 31073.

Joining the local digital chatter on TG 31073 via System Fusion on the Santa Barbara South Coast is fairly straightforward. Just follow these steps:

1. Obtain a DMR ID.
   If you have not already, click here to register your callsign with the DMR network and receive a unique DMR ID number. Your DMR ID is paired to your callsign on the DMR system and used to identify your transmissions. It takes a day or so to get a new DMR ID assigned and you only need to register once. Once you receive the confirmation email, keep it. You won’t need the number now using System Fusion but if you get bitten by the DMR bug in the future and want to explore further you will use this same DMR ID to configure a DMR radio.
2. Set your amateur radio callsign in your System Fusion radio.
   Each radio model handles this differently. You must enter into your Yause radio the exact same callsign you registered to your DMR ID. The SBARC repeater will only bridge properly identified transmissions from System Fusion to DMR. So be sure you have input your callsign correctly and that you have received confirmation of your DMR ID registration by email before attempting to move on to the final step.
3. Set your Yaesu System Fusion radio to the K6TZ digital repeater frequency pair.
   Tune 445.480- (negative offset) on your Yaesu System Fusion Radio.  Be sure you set the radio to transmit in Digital Narrow (DN) mode. Voice Wide (VW) and FM transmissions will not be bridged to DMR.

Hope to hear you on DMR/System Fusion. If this interests you and you want to learn more, join us every Tuesday night at 20:00 (8:00pm) on the K6TZ 146.79 FM repeater for the Digital Communications Net. Then QSY with us to DMR TG 31073 at 21:00 (9:00pm).