POTA and DMR – A New DJ-MD5 Talkgroup

Posted on January 3, 2026 by robert

I really went deep into a rabbit hole yesterday.  I had been reading and listing to many things POTA related and stumbled upon the fact that there was now a DMR Talkgroup, 3181, for POTA users to coordinate their activations.  Probably been there for years, but it was new for me.

That turned into a day-consuming rat hole for me as it meant that I had to reprogram my Alinco DJ-MD5 HTs with the new talk group.  Anyone who has ever used DMR will immediately recognize that is not a “push a few buttons” task.  In my case it was made worse by the fact that I hadn’t changed the codeplug in my HTs in 7 years.  In other words, I had to relearn everything about my radios and their configuration software before I could reprogram them.

My  “Drink Me” moment began when I discovered that my DJ-MD5 had been obsoleted about six years ago.  Thus my journey started with trying to locate the programming software.  Oddly enough, the radio never appeared on the Alinco site, so that was no good.  I did order them from DXengineering, but they really didn’t  have a link to the firmware and programming software.  HOWEVER, buried in their archive was this link:

https://www.remtronix.com/digital-radio/discontinued/dj-md5tgp/

Sure enough that had several versions of the programming software as well as firmware versions – which was good because my original radio had version 1.02 firmware and the most recent one had version 1.13C.

I downloaded the CPS 1.12 programming software, which was distributed with the version 1.13C firmware.  In installed flawlessly.  But when I plugged the radio into my PC, Device Manger didn’t find it.  Then I had a vague memory that the micro USB connector on the side of the radio was amazingly hard to plug in.  Sure enough, after an obscenely hard push, the connector snicked into place, and Device Manager discovered it as a new COM port.

Using the CPS software I was able to suck the contents out of both of my radios (FW 1.13C and FW 1.02).  Now the second part of the journey was to rediscover how to set things up in a DMR radio.  Fortunately I had several other talkgroups defined, so I was able to copy/paste one and change it to the POTA Talkgroup  3181.

The above sounds easy, but as any DMR user knows, that’s the view from 40,000 feet.  In reality I had to add the new talk group in (under the Digital/Talk Groups) tab first.

Next I had to edit the Public/Channel tab to add in a new channel for POTA:

Finally the Public/Zone tab had to be activated to add the new channels into Zone 1 (I only use one Zone in my radio, but there are many cases where multiple zones would be  helpful in organizing things).  See the photo below:

Those three steps are the magic that was needed to get the POTA talk group into my radios.  But I still had two remaining issues:  Firmware out of date in one of the radios, and adding the Digital Contact List to both radios (last updated in 2019).

I figured I could take the 1.13C firmware I had downloaded and use the Tool/Firmware Update to upload it to my radio.  Simple, Right?  Wrong!  First you need the magic decoder ring to get your radio into the firmware update mode.  That’s in the PDF I have here:

Then pay careful attention to the bottom of the third page which explains that you need to run the CPS software IN ADMINISTATOR MODE, otherwise you will get a “Run Time Error 5”.  Funny that is the FIRST thing you need to know before you start the software, rather than the last thing you read in the instruction!

It is almost time for the “Eat Me” return to real life.  The remaining item was to update the Digital Contact List (the DMR User ID information).  That required a trip to the Radio ID database, and obtaining the latest USERS.CSV file from there:

https://radioid.net/database/dumps

The trouble is that file is HUGE – it has all the DMR IDs.  I used Excel to delete everything but the US and Canadian IDs.  Even that was pretty large, 153,387 users as of yesterday.  But it was small enough to fit inside the DJ-MD5, which has room for 200,000 users.

So after that journey to Wonderland, and several rabbit (or rat) hole detours I was rewarded with a POTA Talkgroup on my DJ-MD5.

 

Posted in DJ-MD5, DMR, POTA | Leave a comment

Happy New Year 2026!!

Posted on January 1, 2026 by robert

With the love and care of my bride and help from many good friends, I survived 2025.  While it was a very chaotic year, there were still many fun things that happened along the way.

In terms of POTA, I filled in a few of the newer RI parks (I have 3 left to go to hit Activated All RI for the second time, and that will be a goal for 2026).  In terms of hunting, I finished the year with 1,820 unique parks, up from about 1,600 at the start of the new year.  Today being Jan 1, 2026, I worked two dozen stations on 20 CW, and a few will probably be added to my unique park total.

I managed to operate the WFD Satellite station last year, and completed a handful of other bonus points for our club, NCRC.  If the weather isn’t too awful, I hope to do the same this year.  Summer Field day was a blast as always, and I completed the satellite contacts for our club, some other bonus points, and worked a short slot at the paddle of the CW station.

I’ve really fallen behind in terms of DXing, but I did finish the year with 282 unique countries, 1,582 band-points, and received my ARRL DX Trident Award (CW/PHONE/DATA DXCC – I’m missing a few SSB contacts from hitting the 200 mark on all three, so perhaps that is a good goal for 2026).

On the miscellaneous side of things, I got my QMX+ on the air making CW/DIGITAL and even SSB contacts.  I’m beyond impressed with that QRP Labs product.  Hans Summers G0UPL, who owns the company, mentioned that it took him 2 hours and 20 minutes to build his (the third one he had put together).  I’m embarrassed to say it took me 10 times that amount of time.  I resurrected a pair of Morserino32 units to help a friend work on his CW skills (speaking of Morserino – that’s another product that Hans is producing).

Speaking of Hans, you can see his excellent Five Days In May speech on Polar Modulation here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsDBcFXgHbY&t=1s   Also he was interviewed for Ham Radio Workbench here:  https://www.hamradioworkbench.com/podcast/hrwb-253-qrp-labs-with-hans-summers

Finally, CWops CWT contests always take high priority in my life on Wednesdays,  and I was happy to complete 156 of them in 2025.  I even have the first two of 2026 under my belt.

Posted in Activation, ARRL, Contests, CW, CWops, CWT, Field Day, Goals, POTA, QMX+ | Leave a comment

1800 Unique POTA Parks

Posted on December 11, 2025 by robert

Back on the 27th of September, I had 1,700 unique parks.  As of yesterday I added another 100; so it took 74 days to add 100 parks.

Perhaps I might get to 2,000 parks sometime in May of 2026.

Posted in Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment

New ARRL Trident Award

Posted on December 5, 2025 by robert

I heard from the ARRL that they have a new DXCC Award called the Trident.  The basic requirement is to have 100 or more countries confirmed using CW, Phone, and Digital modes (those three modes being the basis of the name “Trident”).  The award also has endorsements for 200 and 300 countries, but all three modes are required at any given level.  In my case I had 200+ on CW and Digital, but only 173 on Phone.  Until I work 27 more countries on phone, I won’t be eligible for the 200 endorsement.

 

Posted in ARRL, DX, DXCC | Leave a comment

Still Hunting Parks

Posted on December 5, 2025 by robert

I go through bursts of activity (mostly between never-ending doctor visits), sometimes hunting a dozen or more stations in a day.  But still the march up to 2000 unique parks is slow.  For example, yesterday I worked a dozen stations; six of them uploaded their logs.  Of those six, only one was a new park for me.

I was sitting at 1750 on October 9th, so only 40 new parks in the past 56 days.  That might be a reasonable rate, given my schedule.  That means I would hit 2000 unique parks in just under 300 days – oh my heavens, that’s the end of September of next year!

Posted in Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment

Massive Solar Storm

Posted on November 12, 2025 by robert

Yesterday was Veterans Day, and also a major solar storm event.  The earth was impacted by two CMEs, resulting in one of the largest Ground Level Event in the last 20 years.  Folks flying at high altitudes were subject to 20-30 microsievert an hour of additional radiation.  Auroral activity was visible (weather permitting) across the entire continental United States.

I subscribe to SMS Alerts from spaceweather.com, and received warnings of impending CMEs.  My wife popped outside and saw auroral activity through our tree canopy just before 0200z (Nov 12).  So we hopped in the car and drove far enough to have open skies.  At about 0215z, we saw the image below through some pretty heavy cloud cover:

Auroral activity seen through clouds looking ENE.

 

After we returned home, the NOAA Auroral Map looked like this:

NOAA SWPC Auroral Prediction 0244Z November 12, 2025

I refer to SolarHam.com for all things related to ham radio and the sun.  I was never able to capture the Kp index going to level 9, but around 0400z it was still at an 8:

The 0300z CWT was heavily impacted on 40meters, which was to be expected, as absorption must have been quite high.  Even later at 1900z, the 20meter band was still upset.  In fact another CME is impacting the earth now.

Posted in From the OM | Leave a comment

G7UFO – Class Act!

Posted on November 9, 2025 by robert

I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email this weekend from Neil, G7UFO.  Neil had read my post about getting my QMX onto SSB.  I had commented that I had acquired a microphone from Neil’s G7UFO.radio website.  While I wanted to order a mic for the QMX, somehow I messed things up and wound up with one for the Elecraft KX2.

Neil went back through his orders to find mine, verified I had ordered the incorrect mic, but offered to send me a replacement.  I really respect Neil’s commitment to customer service, but I declined his kind offer (it was my mistake, after all).

It’s nice to know that there are still class acts in this world.  Thanks Neil!

Posted in Gear | Leave a comment

First SSB using QRP-Labs QMX

Posted on November 3, 2025 by robert

After building a QMX and QMX+, I decided to order another QMX for 20/17/15/12/10 meters, factory assembled.  Given high demand, it took about 6 months to build, and recently arrived.  I was a bit surprised since it arrived after all the tariff ping-pong.

I hit a few snags getting it on the air – the first being that it appears to have been configured from the wrong bands (80-20).  It took a bit of looking to find out how to change that (factory reset, then select the proper band configuration).  After that it appeared to work fine, but I need to verify internally that it was actually BUILT for the 20-10 configuration.

My next issue had to do with the microphone I had ordered a year ago from the UK.  It was supposed to be compatible with the QMX, but I discovered that tip and ring had been reversed internally (you can see a Rube Goldberg contraption on the left side of the radio to reverse tip/ring).  The mic came from G7ufo.radio, and costs $57 shipped to the US including shipping and tariffs.

Oddly enough, while testing the radio, I saw a “S” appear next to the battery display (which by default is OFF).  That meant the radio was shutting down transmit due to high SWR, which was odd given it was transmitting into a 50 ohm dummy load.  But sure enough, I discovered that the dummy load was indeed defective – I could wiggle the center conductor and get either 50 ohms or infinity).  So I switched to a dummy load that actually worked.

As a bit more margin, I hooked up a 9.6 volt battery (the unit was built for 12.0 volts), and fired it up on the 10-meter band.  Sure enough, a USB signal came out.  I discovered the mic was somewhat hot and if I spoke loudly a “G” appeared on the display (indicating the audio input was too high).

The audio appeared clear and of the appropriate bandwidth.  Pretty cool to have a 5-watt QRP SSB radio for a $140 kit (including shipping and enclosure).

QPRLabs QMX transceiver operating USB into a dummy load (right side), running off a 9.6 volt battery (upper left), with a kludged adapter to reverse Tip & Ring (left middle). The G7UFO mic can be seen on the bottom

Posted in From the OM | Leave a comment

Maybe not so slow?

Posted on October 19, 2025 by robert

On Sept 27, I hit 1700 parks.  Today, 3 weeks later, I have 1,750, so maybe hitting 2000 might take less time than I though. (I have been trying to hunt every day).

Posted in Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment

Speaking of Slow POTA Crawl

Posted on October 3, 2025 by robert

POTA is a global program and there are thousands of parks at DX locations.  My experience with this has been limited.  I believe that many of the DX activators are using QPR rigs and compromised antennas (not unlike their North American counterparts).

I do see DX parks on the spotting network frequently, but it is rare that I can hear them.  Nevertheless, a day ago I received confirmation of my 30th DX Entity, IS-0010, from TF/F8CRH, for a park in Iceland, made on Sept. 11th.  Thank you Franck!

Posted in Hunter, POTA | Leave a comment