Build a DMR-6X2 Code Plug: A Basic Code Plug for your DMR Radio

March 31, 2022 at 7:54 pm

Build a DMR-6X2 Code Plug: A Basic Code Plug for your DMR Radio

By Dan Romanchik, KB6NU

Now that you know the lingo, it’s time to build a simple code plug. (If you haven’t read the blog post, Build a DMR-6X2 Code Plug: Learning the Lingo yet, please do so.)

The first thing that you need to do is to download the customer programming software, or CPS. You’ll find the CPS for the DMR-6X2 here on the BTECH website. The download includes Includes a USB driver, the latest firmware for the DMR -6X2, and the CPS software.

You’ll also need the USB cable that came with the DMR-6X2. This is very important. I tried using the USB cable that came with my BTECH UV-5X3, but it didn’t work right with this CPS.

Once you have installed the CPS, the first thing that you will want to do is to set up the radio ID. To do this, select Radio ID List as shown below. You can actually program the DMR-6X2 to have several IDs, but at this stage, just use the one assigned to you RadioID.Net or ham-digital.org.

The next step is to set up your talk groups. As shown below, you do this by clicking Digital -> Talk Groups. To enter a new entry or edit a current entry, double-click on the talk group number. When you do this, a dialogue box, like the one shown below, will pop up. Enter the name you want to use for the talk group and the TG/DMR ID for the particular talk group. Leave the Call Type as Group Call.

As you can see for this simple code plug, I am only going to set up three talk groups. W8RP.Local is the local talk group for our repeater. I use that talk group only when I want to talk with other users of our W8RP repeater. The MI talk group is carried by other repeaters throughout the state of Michigan. TAC 310 is a talk group carried by repeaters worldwide.

Although not mandatory, the next step would be seting up a receive group. What a receive group allows you to do is monitor several talk groups simultaneously on a channel. You can set up many different receive groups and switch between them, but for this simple code plug, I’ll set up only one. It contains all three talk groups that I previously programmed into the radio. You can ignore this step if all you want to do is to listen to same talk group that your channel would transmit on.

The next step is to create channels. You’ll need to set up a channel for each talk group and for each analog channel that you want to use. In the screens below, you’ll see that I have set up two analog channels and three digital channels. When you program a digital channel, you have to make sure that you not only set up the correct transmit and receive frequencies, but also the correct color code and time slot for the talk groups. For example, on our repeater, the W8RP.Local and MI talk groups are on time slot 1, while TAC310 is on time slot 2.

NOTE: In the example below, you’ll see that I’ve selected Receive Group 1 as the Receive Group List. if you did not set up a receive group, then select NONE from the drop-down menu.

Finally, you have to set up a zone. As I found out, if you don’t set up a zone, you still won’t be able to access any of the channels. You can set up many different zones and switch between them, but for simplicity, I’m going to put all five channels in a single zone. When you set up a zone, you can select the channels that the radio will initially be set to on the A channel and B channel. I’ve select a digital channel for A and an analog channel for B.

Once you’ve done all that, you should be able to start talking on the DMR (and analog) channels.

There are a bunch of other things that you can program your radio to do, such as setting up scan lists and setting up a digital contact list. I’ll be covering those in subsequent blog posts.

Build a DMR-6X2 Code Plug: A Basic Code Plug for your DMR Radio