Author: tdr

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DMR: A Learning Journey

This article first appeared in Echo Ireland and was written by Jeffrey Roe.

The following is less of a how-to and more of a journey of me learning about DMR and getting started.

DMR, what is it?

Digital Mobile Radio (DMR) is a digital radio standard for voice and data transmission in non-public radio networks. It’s different from the analogue radios some of you might be more familiar with. It doesn’t transmit using FM in the traditional sense, but uses a digital signal.

DMR has a few tiers, and the technology originally targeted the commercial market (around 2012). It works a bit like a phone network, with every radio having its own ID, and it can even support sending SMS over the network.

With a few rule changes in 2014, the FCC paved the way for amateur radio use. The widespread availability of Raspberry Pi hotspots helped DMR use to explode, making it easy to bridge a handheld radio onto talkgroups across the internet. RadioID (RadioID.net) looks after the coordinated DMR identification numbers for hams.

The radio that started it all

Now, back to my story. During the summer of 2025, I was gifted a Tytera TYT MD-390 DMR handheld radio (new old stock). The fellow Tog member who gave it to me had plans to get into radio, but life got in the way.

I was interested in trying it out because it claimed IP67 waterproofing, which sounded perfect for cycling trips. At the time, I knew nothing about DMR, but that radio kicked off the journey.

A tip from Tog and a firmware rabbit hole

During one of the monthly social nights in Tog Hackerspace, I got chatting about this new-to-me radio. Daniel EI8ICB made some great suggestions. It turned out he had used the same model before. To convert it for amateur radio use and make things a little easier, he suggested I look at MD380 Tools: https://md380.org/

This firmware patch adds some very useful features, such as promiscuous mode, USB logging, and Morse code narration. The big plus, though, is the callsign database you can load onto the radio.

The downside? The firmware flashing can’t be done via the cable in the box. It requires a custom USB-to-accessory connector. Daniel, being well ahead of me on this one, already knew the pinout and sent me a wiring diagram.

Making The Cable

I had some leftover parts from an SSTV project, including some connectors from AliExpress. I thought this would be an easy evening job, but it wasn’t to be.

After tracing the wires with a multimeter, it turned out the connectors I had didn’t match the pins I needed. I didn’t want to wait weeks for replacements, so I went digging around Tog’s electronics room to see what we had on hand.

The male USB connector was an easy find, and so was the 3.5 mm jack, but I had to dig deep in the “jack pile” to find a 2.5 mm jack. In the end, I cut up what looked like a custom cable from an old digital camera. A little soldering and heat-shrink later, I had a working cable.

MD380 Tools in practice

It’s possible to install and compile all the tools required to build the firmware patch, but the project also provides a VM image. Think of a VM as a program that runs a whole operating system inside your laptop. In this case, a Linux environment with everything pre-installed and ready to go.

With VirtualBox installed on my Ubuntu laptop, flashing the radio was straightforward. More importantly, it proved my soldering worked, and I now had a much more ham-friendly handheld.

Hotspots: Getting on the network

DMR radios work best when they can reach other DMR radios. You can do this via a DMR repeater. You can see what’s around Ireland on the IRTS gateway page: https://www.irts.ie/cgi/gateway.cgi

But none were near me. The next best thing is an MMDVM hotspot. You can think of these as a bridge from RF to the internet, and back again.

A fellow Tog member( Conor EI9JYB) was also interested in DMR, so we turned to AliExpress and ordered a couple of hotspots. I picked one intended to pair with a Raspberry Pi Zero, an inexpensive single-board computer I already had a few of.

In the meantime, thanks to the power of Mastodon, someone offered me another TYT radio after seeing me talking about soldering my own cable. Brilliant. That gave both of us a reason to get stuck into DMR together.

The kits arrived and needed a bit of soldering, so off I went to visit Kilcock on the bike for a day of cycling, soldering, and radios.

A little tangent here: we even called into the Sunday 2 m news using a heavy 10 W handheld. I had to climb up on a wall to be heard, but it was a fun way to start the day.

Hotspot Software

The default software for many MMDVM hotspots is Pi-Star:  https://www.pistar.uk/

I loaded it onto the Raspberry Pi Zero, but the problems started quickly. I found the whole thing very slow and not particularly straightforward to use.

After a few YouTube videos, the internet suggested I try a newer project that’s actively developed: WPSD: https://w0chp.radio/wpsd/

WPSD promised easier setup and more features, but it didn’t support my very old Pi Zero. It needed more RAM and processing power. It did support the Raspberry Pi 3, and I had a few of those lying around from a donation to Tog.

Installation was much smoother, and the interface made more sense. It also guided you through registering on RadioID and BrandMeister.

With everything set up, my Raspberry Pi cases wouldn’t fit because of the SMA connector, but Dremel made light work of that problem.

Radio programming

Now, the journey wasn’t over yet. I still had to configure the handheld with contacts and talkgroups.

The usual programming option for my analogue handheld, CHIRP, was out of the question because it doesn’t support DMR radios. I turned to qDMR for Linux: https://dm3mat.de/software/qdmr

Next question: who to call for a first test? I asked in the Online Amateur Radio Club Discord (https://www.oarc.uk/) if anyone would take a call. Thanks to Robin M0JQQ for answering my request.

With their DMR ID in hand, I used qDMR to configure the radio and was ready for my first QSO on DMR.

It worked \o/

Wrapping up

Thanks for reading my story if you got this far. I’m hoping to explore more of what DMR has to offer over the coming months, and you might even see a follow-up article.

In the meantime, you can find my radio and cycling adventures on Mastodon:
https://chaos.social/@tdr112

For more photos of the build, check out our gallery. https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/album/dmr-radio-project

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All Island Maker Mobility: Connecting Communities Through Making

We’ve some lovely news to share at Tog. We’ve been awarded funding under the Shared Island Civic Society Fund for a new cross-border project called All Island Maker Mobility, with the tagline Connecting Communities Through Making.

We’re really delighted to be teaming up with Farset Labs in Belfast for this project. Farset are a volunteer-run hackerspace and maker community, and like Tog, they are all about people coming together to learn, build, experiment, repair, and share skills. It feels like a very natural partnership, and we’re excited to see where it leads.

Over the next year, we’ll be working together on a mix of activities to bring our communities closer together. That includes site visits between Dublin and Belfast, a Maker-in-Residence exchange between both spaces, and the development of a shared STEM outreach resource that we can each bring to events and use in our own public activities. We’ll also be taking the project out into the world through events such as Dublin Maker, ShipItCon, and the Northern Ireland Developer Conference (NIDC), helping more people discover what makerspaces are all about and why they matter.

The first part of the project is happening on April 11th, when members of Farset Labs will come to visit Tog. They’ll be joining us for our Repair Café, where there’ll be plenty of fixing, tinkering, problem-solving, and tea. Afterwards, they’ll stay on for our monthly Open Social Night, which should make for a great evening of chat, ideas, and getting to know each other a bit better.

For us, this project is about much more than just a few visits. It’s about building lasting connections between communities North and South, sharing skills openly, and showing how making can bring people together. Makerspaces can be places of learning, creativity, repair, and belonging, and we’re really happy to have the chance to grow that through this project.

We’re looking forward to welcoming our friends from Belfast into the space and sharing more updates as the project develops.

This project is made possible with support from the Shared Island Civic Society Fund through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We’re very grateful for that support, which is helping Tog Hackerspace and Farset Labs build stronger links through making, shared learning, and community collaboration across the island.

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TOG Hackerspace at ZeroDays CTF 2026

We are delighted that TOG Hackerspace is a community sponsor of ZeroDays CTF 2026. This year, we are especially excited to be hosting the lockpicking challenges as part of the event. ZeroDays CTF 2026 takes place at Croke Park on Saturday, 21 March 2026, and Zero Days Security says it is aimed at students, university graduates, and ICT professionals, with 400+ participants expected.

At TOG, we love community events that encourage experimentation, curiosity, and playful uses of technology. We are big believers in learning by doing, and lockpicking is a great fit for that. It is hands-on, practical, a bit puzzly, and always a good way to get people thinking differently about how things work.

ZeroDays has done a great job building up cybersecurity events in Ireland, and we are glad to play a small part in this year’s event. Capture the flag competitions are a brilliant way to bring people together, whether they are completely new to the area or already deep into the world of security. They create space for problem solving, teamwork, and plenty of chances to learn something new. Zero Days Security says its goal is to promote, develop, and encourage participation in CTF events in Ireland.

This year’s theme is MEMES, so there should be a good bit of fun and silliness mixed in with the challenges, too. Registration opens at 9 am, with the competition kicking off at 10 am, so it promises to be a full day of activity based on the event description you shared.

If you are heading along, be sure to drop by the lockpicking area and say hello. We are looking forward to meeting participants, chatting with visitors, and adding a hands-on challenge to what should be a brilliant day.

See you at ZeroDays CTF 2026.

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TOG Hackerspace at Dublin Comic Con Spring 2026

We had a brilliant weekend at Dublin Comic Con Spring 2026, with TOG Hackerspace back on the floor meeting loads of curious visitors, makers, sci-fi fans, and people discovering us for the first time.

Our stand was packed with a mix of what makes TOG great: games, radio gear, 3D prints, and homemade sci-fi props. It gave us a great chance to show off the kinds of projects our members get up to and to chat with people about making, hacking, building, fixing, and learning new skills together.

One of the best parts of the weekend was getting to talk to everyone who stopped by the stand. Some people already knew TOG, while others were hearing about the space for the first time. We had loads of great conversations about electronics, creative projects, fabrication, radio, cosplay props, and all the different things that can happen when you get a community of curious people together in one space.

Events like Comic Con are always great fun for us. They are a chance to share a bit of the spirit of TOG out in the wild and hopefully inspire a few more people to come along to one of our open nights, workshops, or events.

Thanks to everyone who dropped by to say hello over the weekend. We had a great time, and we’re already looking forward to the next one.

You can see more photos from the weekend here:
https://www.tog.ie/gallery/nggallery/album/dublin-comic-con-spring-26

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TOG Repair Café at DCU’s Climate Action Fair (Green Week 2026)

We’re heading to DCU Green Week as part of the Climate Action Fair — and we’re bringing a mini TOG Repair Café setup with us. Come say hello, meet loads of other brilliant groups on the day, and if you’ve something small that’s broken, bring it along and we’ll do our best to help you get it working again.

Repair Café details

  • When: Wednesday 4 March 2026, 11:00–14:00
  • Where: Ground Floor, U Building (GLA), bottom of the steps
  • What to bring: “broken tech and trinkets” (small, carry-in items work best)
  • Cost: Free to drop by (it’s part of the fair)

What is a Repair Café?

It’s a friendly, drop-in repair meetup: you bring the item, we bring the tools and volunteer know-how, and we’ll troubleshoot it together. Even when something can’t be fixed on the spot, you’ll usually leave with a better idea of what’s going on (and what to try next).

More info

DCU have the full Green Week / Climate Action Fair listing here:
https://www.dcu.ie/sustainability/campaigns

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Adult Learners’ Festival 2026 at TOG: Spring Into Learning (Tuesday 3 March)

For Adult Learners’ Festival 2026 (2–6 March), TOG is turning our normal Tuesday Open Night on 3rd March into a festival-friendly, drop-in evening as part of #SpringIntoLearning #ALF26.

When

Tuesday 3rd March, 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Free, no booking required — just drop in.

What’s happening?

A relaxed, welcoming intro to the hackerspace:

  • Pop in for a tour and a chat
  • See what members are building, fixing, or learning
  • Bring a question or a small project and we’ll help you figure out next steps

TOG as informal adult education

TOG is a great place for learning by doing. Across our group nights and workshops, you’ll find people picking up practical skills like:

  • Electronics (soldering, debugging, sensors)
  • Making and fabrication (3D printing, laser cutting, prototyping)
  • Repair and reuse (fixing everyday items, sharing tools and know-how)
  • Radio and comms projects (antennas, digital modes, getting started)

More festival events

See what else is on during the festival: https://www.adultlearnersfestival.ie/events/

Come along on Tuesday 3rd March and Spring Into Learning with us.