It has been apparent for some time that at least one of the members of the Brandmeister USA team has it in for the DV4mini. There have been occasional actions to block users of the DV4mini from connecting to the master servers operated by the USA team. Comments in a Facebook group by a team member have long indicated a desire to eliminate connections from this somewhat flawed, but useful and prolific device.
While investigating why my DV4mini stopped working on the Brandmeister network, I learned that the USA team disabled reflector access. Reflector 4999 is needed on the Brandmeister DMR network to take advantage of extended routing. I note a comment from Corey Dean (N3FE) on the Brandmeister USA Facebook group back in October that states, “DV4MINI and reflectors are disabled on all US masters.” This shows what I believe to be the true intent of disabling reflector access, although the DV4mini is not specifically mentioned in the Brandmeister USA wiki. He later makes comments about this freeing up talkgroups in countries whose codes start with 4. However, there is no code assigned to a country that starts with 499, so extended routing could still be allowed and not interfere with any Asian or Middle Eastern nation that wants to jump on the Brandmeister wagon.
So, DV4mini users in the USA who connect to one of the 4 master servers (3101, 3102, 3103, and 3108) now need to resort to connecting to a server outside of the USA.
Dissatisfaction and requests for reconsideration to allow extended routing should politely be directed to dmr-admins@repeater.net.
I have 2 DV4minis. Never had any issue with them. I have one UHF and one VHF. Now they’re both useless. How about the Brandmeister Admins consider providing a large discount on a device they promise not to kick under the bus to help those of us with fixed incomes overcome this action?
Banning the DV4MINI is a good start, I look forward to the day they ban all hot spots and DMR returns to it’s roots of being a repeater network.
Well what about places that cannot have a DMR repeater? I am not talking about rural or remote locations. The city of Toronto Canada used to have a very well supported DMR repeater and an active repeater community. Then someone decided to begin jamming it. Due to the fact that they were jamming the Intenational group, it was causing havoc. Because the jammer could not be caught and stopped, the decision was made to shut the repeater down and dismantle it. So there is a sizeable group of hams who now have no access to DMR, including senior license holders. What about them? Hotspots are the only answer. Purity of practice has its place, but at the cost of people totally losing access to the system? 73 de VE3FMQ
This is BS. DMR Admins are nothing more than a monopoly and fail to exercise one of the main purposes and intent of ham radio.
The rules and regulations in this part are designed to provide an amateur radio service having a
fundamental purpose as expressed in the following principles:
(b) Continuation and extension of the amateur’s proven ability to contribute to the advancement of
the radio art.
(c) Encouragement and improvement of the amateur service through rules which provide for
advancing skills in both the communication and technical phases of the art.
(d) Expansion of the existing reservoir within the amateur radio service of trained operators,
technicians, and electronics experts.
(e) Continuation and extension of the amateur’s unique ability to enhance international goodwill.
So much for encouraging “goodwill”.
100% agree. Out pseudo-politicians from hamradio community. 73s.
Hey guys – they got a new release if you go to Xreflector.net – you have to set up a talkgroup in your radio for each of the talkgroups you want to get on. Then also, go into BrandMeister.network and go down to Service/Selfcare and set up your “repeater” then enter in the under “Static Talkgroups” the TGs that you programmed into your radio. I can’t believe I actually got it working without any instructions.