CS-700 Codeplug - Example

The PAPA CS-700 Codeplug is set up to get the PAPA System member on the air quickly. It is based on the CAL DMR CS-700 Codeplug with contributions and input from PAPA members (N9QE, KJ6RAY, KK6AL and WA6JFK), and has the following changes for improved PAPA System functionality:

• Mt. Lukens / Palm Springs / Mt. Woodson / Mt. Palomar / Santiago / Sunset Ridge DMR repeater Home Zones
• "PAPA Regional" talkgroup 7272
• "San Diego Regional" talkgroup 92101 (Mt. Palomar and Woodson)
• "Worldwide Spanish" talkgroup 14 and "Worldwide French" talkgroup 11 (Santiago only)
• Digital Contact list includes California and Nevada DMR users.
• Revised button definitions
• Most networked UHF DMR repeaters in California, Arizona and Nevada.
• "Local" channel uses a Digital RX Group Call so when the local channel is selected, you will hear (and be able to reply to) traffic on the Local and California Regional (SoCal, CenCal, NorCal) talkgroups for that repeater.
• Zones for the BAYCOM, SF TRBO, Nevada, Arizona and San Diego repeaters have actual talkgroups in use
• 5 custom scan lists (detailed below)
• PAPA analog repeaters
• "Placeholder" channels, Digital RX Groups, Scan Lists and Zones for your own customization

PAPA CS-700 Codeplug

Below is the PAPA codeplug for the CS-700 DMR radio. Right-click on the link for your local DMR repeater and select "Save link as..."
Save the file to a directory on your computer... and remember where you put it.

Start the CS-700 programming software (program and instructions available here) and open up the file you just saved... Remember to enter your radio ID under General Settings.
Write the file to your radio... then to save a copy with your radio serial number, read your radio after uploading. We encourage you to customize this codeplug so it works for you. Click here for the CS-700 codeplug changelog.

"Roll Your Own" DMR

The following is pretty specific to CS-700 codeplugs, but the concepts are applicable to other DMR radios. Here are some of the features and items that we hope will enhance your PAPA System DMR experience. Feel free to tailor things to your own needs.

Zones

There are "Home" zones for the PAPA DMR repeaters (Lukens, Palm Springs, Mt. Palomar, Santiago, Woodson and Sunset) with the following popular talkgroups:

• Local
• PAPA Regional
• San Diego Regional (Palomar and Woodson)
• SoCal
• SoCal 1
• California
• CAL 1
• Southwest
• Southwest 1
• North America
• Worldwide English
• User Activated English 1
• User Activated English 2
• Worldwide
• COMM1
• TAC 310

You can customize these Zones to reflect your local DMR repeater and channel (digital and/or analog) tastes. Each repeater also has its own zone with the following talkgroups (SF TRBO, BAYCOM, Nevada, Arizona and DMR-MARC repeaters have a somewhat different layout to reflect their talkgroup configuration):

• Local
• Regional
• 5150/CenCal/SoCal (depending on network)
• NorCal 1/SoCal 1 (depending on network)
• California
• CAL 1
• Southwest
• Southwest 1
• North America
• Worldwide English
• English 1
• Worldwide
• Audio Test
• Parrot

There are a few empty Zones, as well as ROAD and LOCAL DMR zones for you to customize.

Channels

This is where all the details such as frequency, talkaround, admit criteria, color code, scan list, group list, timeslot, etc. are placed. Some of these parameters can be different if the same channel is in different zones. For example, in the "Home Zone" you may want to use a Group List to hear other timeslot traffic, but in your "Road Zone" you don't use a Group List so just that talkgroup is heard. There are lots of possibilities for customization here.

Button Definitions

There are 3 programmable buttons on the CS-700, each with two functions depending on how long it is held down. The PAPA CS-700 button functions are:

• Top Button Short: Toggle High/Low Power
• Top Button Long: Toggle Monitor
• Side Button 1 Short: Toggle All Alert Tones On/Off
• Side Button 1 Long: Toggle Tight/Normal Squelch
• Side Button 2 Short: Toggle Scan On/Off
• Side Button 2 Long: Toggle Repeater/Talkaround

Text Messages

These are the "Quick Text" messages you find under the "Messages" icon. They are for text you send frequently, such as "Please meet me on Local".

Digital Contact

This is the most dynamic part of the codeplug as here you find the radio ID aliases (Private Calls) and talkgroup numbers (Group Calls). As more folks get involved in DMR, more contacts are added to the list. You can add contacts too, not only new radio IDs, but also new talkgroups. So if one of your DMR repeaters starts carrying a new talkgroup, you can add that in here. The "Contact Name" is what appears on the screen, "Call Type" is "Private" for a radio ID and "Group" for a talkgroup, with "Call ID" being either the radio ID or talkgroup number.

Digital RX Group Call and Group List

These two work together to let you listen to more than one talkgroup at a time; here is how it works. Each channel can have a Group List. This Group List references a Digital RX Group Call which contains Group Calls from the Digital Contacts list. The Digital RX Group Call gives us a way to monitor more than one talkgroup when you are on a channel. The practical result is similar to scanning the talkgroups listed in the Group List. In the PAPA CS-700 codeplug, we have several Group Calls such as Local/NorCal, Local/CenCal, Local/SoCal, and two special ones: Slot 1 and Slot 2.
Take a look at the Local channel for each DMR repeater and you will see each has a Group List assigned. The Group List corresponds to the network that repeater belongs to. When you select the Local channel in a Zone, you will hear (and be able to reply to) traffic on the Local and California Regional (SoCal, CenCal, NorCal) talkgroups for that repeater.
Here is an example:

The Home Lukens Local channel uses the "Local/SoCal" Group List and will hear the following timeslot 1 traffic:
• Local
• SoCal
• SoCal 1
• PAPA

Each Local channel uses this configuration so you will hear (and be able to answer) traffic on these popular regional talkgroups.

Practical DMR: Scanning all traffic on a repeater

Remember the "Slot 1" and "Slot 2" Group Lists? Here is where they fit in the PAPA codeplug. The Slot 1 Group List has all the talkgroups that are on timeslot 1 and the Slot 2 Group List has all of the talkgroups that are on timeslot 2. We have set up two channels for our local repeater, "Lukens- TS1" using the Slot 1 Group List and "Lukens- TS2" using the Slot 2 Group List. In the "All Home" Scan List we have these two channels: Lukens- TS1 and Lukens- TS2. When we scan this list, it listens to all of the timeslot 1 traffic, then to all the timeslot 2 traffic. Much better than going thru each individual channel. Each PAPA repeater has this feature.
But how do you reply to a call? In the "General Settings" we have Group Call Hang Time is set to 5 seconds (5000) to give us 5 seconds to reply. "TX Designated Channel" is set to "Last Active" so that when we key up within 5 seconds, we are on the last channel we heard. We have also set "Priority Channel" to "None" since we want to give all channels an equal opportunity to be heard.

Custom Scan Lists

The PAPA CS-700 codeplug has 5 custom scan lists:

• "Local DMR": Scans the Local, SoCal, SoCal 1, California and PAPA regional TG on the Home DMR repeater. Selected by scanning from the "LOCAL" channel on any of the PAPA DMR repeaters.
• "Local A/D": Scans Local, SoCal, SoCal 1, California and PAPA regional TG on the Home DMR repeater as well as the local PAPA analog repeaters. Selected by scanning from the "PAPA" channel on any of the PAPA DMR repeaters.
• "Home ALL": Scans all talkgroups on the Home DMR repeater. Selected by scanning from the "SOCAL" channel on any of the PAPA DMR repeaters.
• "PAPA DMR": Scans the Local, SoCal, SoCal 1 and PAPA regional TG on all three PAPA DMR repeaters. You will only hear traffic from the repeater you are in range of... sort of a "poor man's roaming". Selected by scanning from the "SOCAL 1" channel on all PAPA DMR repeaters.
• The "CALIFORNIA" channel in any Zone scans the Local, California Regional (NorCal 5150, CenCal, SoCal depending on location), California, Southwest and Comm1 talkgroups. This feature is also available by scanning from the "LOCAL" channel of non-PAPA repeaters.

We hope you find these codeplugs useful and a good starting point... Remember: Amateur Radio is all about experimentation and learning, so we encourage you to customize this codeplug so it works for you.

http://papasys.com/dmr/PAPA_CS700.html