Saturday, January 23, 2016

DMR Vs dPMR Simplex Testing

Myself and Roydan M0LEX recently decided to make a video showing the Kydera DP-550S dPMR and the TYT MD-380 DMR handhelds in action. We tried to do a range test in an urban area as everyone knows that in an open area or hilltop to hilltop any radio will perform particularly well.

We chose our locations after consulting Google Earth and I went to Irlam Locks and Roydan went to Barton Locks in Trafford Park, Greater Manchester. The two points are about 2.8 miles apart.

The Kydera is a fantastic little radio but we concluded that the stock antenna it comes with is awful. I wanted to do some footage of it with a Nagoya NA-771 whip antenna but the wind and recent drop in temperature made me retreat to the car and use a small Nagoya SP-80 magmount making the test unfair. The radio worked fantastic over the distance with no packet loss whatsoever.

However, the MD-380 performed fantastically well on the stock antenna and even better on the Nagoya NA-771 with only a slight bit of packet loss when I moved into the shadow of a large iron bridge.

I was going to scrap this footage and shelve the video for a while but I thought I'd share it. It's a look at how both radios work and sound if nothing else. Enjoy!

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