Radio Programming

This page will help you with the programming with analog and digital radios. This page is only a guide, all radios are made differently and you should consult your manual with detailed instructions

The first half of the page will deal with analog radio and the second half will deal with digital (DMR) radio. Each radio can be programmed keyboard direct (enter programming information from keyboard) or you can use what is called a Customer Programming Software, most commonly known as CPS.

Many hams have their CPS's on their main computer (in their shack) and on a laptop or tablet so they can quickly program it (the radio) in the field. I recommend keeping a CPS on a shack PC and also a laptop and / or tablet for field operations.

Most radios now can be programmed by blue tooth by simply getting a dongle to plug into your radio like you do with the programming cable, and connect that with your PC or phone. Using the phone in the field is the newest way so you don't have to carry around a laptop.

The main CPS for analog radio is a program called CHIRP. It will work with a number of radios, you can see if your radio is compatible with CHIRP here.Some radios use a different driver then your radio. You might see use XXXX, where XXXX is the other driver. Chirp can be used on a Widows, Mac OS or Linux system.

You can get CHIRP by getting the CHIRP-next or the CHIRP-legacy version.

To download CHIRP, select your system by choosing the correct icon. PLEASE NOTE: The download may not be the current download, but you be prompted to upgrade when starting CHIRP.

Not all radios are compatible with CHIRP and sometimes you will need to use a different driver withing CHIRP for your radio due to that at the time CHIRP doesn't have a driver for your radio.
at times, if CHIRP does not have a driver, you will need to use the driver or look for the driver for your radio, usually on the manufacturers website.

Here is a screen shot of CHIRP:

While using CHIRP, you can program your radio in one of two ways:

You can select the repeaters from: Radio > Query Source > RepeaterBook inside CHIRP and let CHIRP enter the required information needed.

You can also enter the information (frequency, PL tone and offset) yourself.

You should let the software put in all the required information. This will prevent any mistypes that will prevent you from accessing a repeater.

If you are putting in a simplex frequency, you do not need a PL / DCS tone and offset. Sites you may use to get frequencies are:

RepeaterBook
RadioReference
DMR-MARC
przemienniki.net

I can't guarantee that any or all will work in your area, but querying from RepeaterBook is your best bet. CHIRP is usually updated each day. When you start CHIRP, it will tell you if there is a update, and if so, it will ask you if you want to update. This is totally up to you to update at this time, but I do recommend you to update CHIRP at every now and then due to new drivers and radios being added.

It is always a good practice, before you program your radio is to upload the radio to your computer and save that file so you can use it to reset your radio if in case your radio stops working.

This next section is going to talk about programming your analog radio for SIMPLEX and REPEATER use. Simplex means just that, you use one frequency for your TX and RX. Just think of it as a party line, if I had a party line or extension telephone, and picked it up while others where talking, I could hear what is being said. A repeater works in much the same way, but you need to do a little more work to access the repeater. A repeater uses what is called a PL or DCS, commonly known as a CTCSS tone. This allows you to "wake up" the repeater.

A repeater use two normally uses two frequencies, one you transmit into it with, and another you listen to the repeater to.

Below I will show what you might see on repeaterbook.com. You results will differ from mine since I used my area.

Choose Country Image

This is the first image you see when you enter RepeaterBook. Here is where you select the country where you want to search for repeaters. You may be directed to the second image automatically, if you do not see this, and want to search
different countries, you may goto https://www.repeaterbook.com/row_repeaters/.

Choose A State Image

Here is where you will select the state for which you want to search.

After you select your state you come up with this. This shows all the bands, modes, linked and emergency repeaters that may be in the area. Also on this page, if you scroll down, you can see any repeaters that may be around highways in that state. Also, you can search for repeaters by directly clicking on a city / town name or the county.

Repeater Information Image

After you selected a state, city / town, county you will come up with a page that shows all the repeaters in that area. These are a couple in my area, the left show the down link frequency(which is clickable), then you have the tone(s), city, county, call sign of repeater, system type (OPEN or CLOSED), and the type of mode(s) it is capable of.

If you click on the frequency, you come up with a page similar to this. This shows the Downlink (listen), Uplink (transmit), the tones (if any), and other info.

There is another radio servuice called GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) that use the same methods as amateur radio. You can also find GMRS reperaters on RepeaterBook and on MyGMRS.com. You will program your radio as if programming a ham radio.

Back To Top

Before you do anything in the didgital world, you will need to get a DMR ID. This DMR ID can be use for all you DMR radios or if you want, you can get multiple ones for each radio.

After you download your CPS for your radio and get your DMR ID, you will need to do the following:

Read from radio, (to get any settings from the radio).
Program the Talk Groups (usually labeled as TG).
Program the CHANNELS.
Put those channels in a ZONE (if you don't do this step, you radio will have the channels but won't be able to display them).
ALWAYS save you code plug.
If you need to reprogram anything ALWAYS read from radio to get any settings you might have done manually.
You may download sample code plugs here and on the download page.

You can find your CPS as I said on the manufacturers or site you bought your radio. If you cannot get it there, usually a simple Google search with make and model number should yield results.

The main things you need to set in in your CPS before programming is:

Your DMR ID	Found under: Digital > Radio ID List
Talk Groups	Found Under: Digital > Talk Groups
Channels	Found Under: Public > Channels
Zone	Found Under: Public > Zones
APRS (If Using)	See APRS Set Up Page and you manual

Here are what the major CPS screens should look like. They may differ because of manufacturer and/or you CPS version. These are the main screens you need to work with.

If you programmed your radio and hotspot correctly, everything should look like this.
PLEASE NOTE: You will not have any talk groups on until you TX or key up a talk group.

You can also send text messages from your radio. You will need to add talkgroup 310999 as a private call, United States only. Watch the video to the right for more information on SMS messaging and setup.

This is for the Anytone 878, but should work for all models / makes. If you find out this doesn't work for you radio / model. please consult your user manual and kindly send me a email, and I will update the site.

CODEPLUGS
NAME	FORMAT	SIZE
Alinco DJ-MD5XTG	RDT File	18 KB

When programming talk groups into your radio, you may program different modes also. Each mode you must program a prefix, except DMR going into BrandMeister. This prefix will tell the hot spot where to send and receive the traffic to and from. You can get a listing of the prefixes here.

When programming your radio, you program it like if you are programming a analog radio. The only change is, except of putting in a PL (or sometimes called CTCSS) or DCS tone, you will be using a Color Code, or sometimes known as a CC.

When looking up a repeater on RepeaterBook, you use the same methods as described in programming a analog repeater.

When you are programming your radio and your hotv spot, it is a good idea to use a high CC number in case you are in a big city or there are a lot of repeaters around so you, and they, dont interfere with each oither.

Back To Top

HOME	ABOUT	CONTACT	WEATHER
RADIO PROGRAMMING	APRS SET UP	PI-STAR SETUP	HAM TOOLS
DOWNLOADS		LEARN HAM RADIO