How does ham radio DMR work?

What do you need to get on DMR?

You need an amateur radio license, a DMR ID, a DMR radio with a codeplug, and a way onto a network: a repeater near you or your own hotspot. The license comes first, because RadioID asks you to state that you hold a government-issued amateur call sign before it issues an ID.1

The call sign itself is covered in ham radio call signs. The DMR ID is not a call sign and has no legal meaning. The French BrandMeister page says the regulator, the ANFR, told its authors it is not responsible for assigning DMR IDs. The UK page says the number does not show that you hold a license.89

How do you get a DMR ID?

Register an account on RadioID.net with your call sign and prove your license. RadioID issues one seven-digit ID per person. The first three digits show the country. A repeater gets a six-digit ID after your account is approved. A hotspot uses your own ID with a two-digit suffix.110

1. Open RadioID.net and tick the rules: you hold a licensed amateur call sign, you have no account or ID yet, and you are not registering a repeater.1
2. Give your call sign, given name and country. RadioID makes these public, together with your ID.1
3. Upload your license when asked. RadioID's FAQ says screenshots, "reference copies" and QRZ pages are not sufficient.10
4. Wait for approval. I found no processing time on RadioID's pages, so I give none.
5. For BrandMeister, wait 2 to 5 minutes after RadioID issues the ID, then register with the same email.6

Never invent an ID. DMR-MARC's setup page says so in capitals.11 To look an ID up, use RadioID's database search.2

What the digits mean

The first three digits are a mobile country code from the ITU's E.212 plan, and the first digit gives the region: 2 Europe, 3 North America and the Caribbean, 4 Asia and the Middle East, 5 Oceania, 6 Africa, 7 South and Central America.12 Some countries use the fourth digit for a state or province. France runs 2080 to 2089 and Canada 3020 to 3029.13

A prefix leaves four digits, so it holds at most 10,000 IDs. That is why big countries have several. I counted the first three digits of every ID in RadioID's public dump on October 16, 2026:14

The dump held 314,995 seven-digit IDs in total. That counts IDs, not people.14 The US range is a good example of sources disagreeing: DMR-MARC lists 310 to 316, BrandMeister's US page says 310 to 320, and RadioID holds US IDs up to 329. Of the 125,998 US IDs, 58,055 sit in 317 to 329.131514

Two rule changes matter. US IDs that start with 1 were an overflow block from DMR-MARC days. BrandMeister stopped importing new ones on May 1, 2018, and told US hams that 7-digit IDs starting with 1 stop working after January 1, 2026. RadioID lets you convert a 1xxxxxx ID to a 3xxxxxx ID from the dashboard.121610 And from July 1, 2026 RadioID asks every holder once a year to confirm the ID is still needed; with no answer, the ID is deactivated. I read this in BrandMeister's post, because RadioID's own page was behind a browser check.16

What is a talkgroup?

A talkgroup is a number that tags every call, a virtual channel shared by every repeater and hotspot that carries it. Your radio hears only the talkgroups in its receive list. A repeater carries a talkgroup while it is linked: always if static, for a timed period after you key up if dynamic.1718

Static and dynamic talkgroups

A static talkgroup is set by the repeater owner or hotspot user and passes traffic all the time. A dynamic one starts when someone keys up on it. On BrandMeister's US masters it stays active for 15 minutes without local traffic; elsewhere the timer "depends on the master server".17 The French BrandMeister page lists an on-demand timer of 600 seconds, 10 minutes.8

On a simplex hotspot, auto-static keeps the last talkgroup you keyed until you key another or send TG 4000.1715 TG 4000 is the disconnect: it unlinks the dynamic talkgroups, and the server answers "Not Linked".1920 BrandMeister's help site suggests three or fewer static talkgroups on a repeater, because busy groups can take over a slot.21

Time slots

A DMR channel has two time slots of 30 ms, numbered 1 and 2, so one repeater carries two calls at once.3 BrandMeister accepts any talkgroup on either slot, and its help site says slot 1 is generally used for dynamic ones.817 Other networks fix the slot: the DMR-MARC list sets TG 208 to slot 2 only.22 In Germany, DARC says slot 1 usually carries country and international groups and slot 2 local ones.23

Color code

The color code is a 4-bit value from 0 to 15 that lets a receiver tell overlapping sites apart. The standard says it is not used for addressing.3 Your radio and hotspot generally must match on frequency and color code.24 In BrandMeister's device list, 29,809 of 32,539 devices (91.6%) use color code 1.25 I take 1 as the default when nobody tells you otherwise.

Testing with the parrot

A parrot plays your audio back to you. On BrandMeister it is a private call, not a group call, to your master's country code plus 997: 208997 for France, 234997 for the UK, 310997 for the USA. The recording runs up to 90 seconds.1926 TGIF does it differently: a group call to 9990 or 31000.27

How are BrandMeister talkgroups numbered?

Mostly by country code. BrandMeister's help site says talkgroup numbers follow the mobile country code: 208 is France, 262 Germany, 235 the UK, 302 Canada. One more digit names a region, 2081 for Île-de-France. Numbers 91 to 95 are worldwide and continental, and 4000 disconnects.2829

BrandMeister routes any valid number across the network. The names are labels that help you program a radio.8 I counted 1,844 named numbers in its public list on October 16, 2026: 4 with one digit, 6 with two, 155 with three, 403 with four, 1,082 with five, 188 with six and 6 with seven.29 Look up any number in the DMR talkgroup lookup.

For France, see the French talkgroups. The US states follow a pattern I noticed: the last two digits match the state's FIPS code, so Texas (48) is 3148 and California (06) is 3106.2932 That is my observation from the list, not a rule BrandMeister states.

I could not find a page that states the region and sub-region digits as a rule. They are a pattern in the list: France and Germany use one extra digit for regions, and the French départements use two (20803).298 In the USA, BrandMeister stopped issuing 5-digit talkgroups in May 2020. A user can instead use their own registered 7-digit ID as a talkgroup, a repeater owner its 6-digit ID.28

Which DMR networks are there?

Five matter: BrandMeister, TGIF, FreeDMR, DMR+ with IPSC2, and DMR-MARC, the oldest. They are separate server systems with their own talkgroups, joined by bridges on a few of them. Your RadioID number works on all of them, but each has its own rules and account.2318

By the numbers I could find, BrandMeister is the largest. Its API lists 32,539 device records on October 16, 2026: 2,930 with 6-digit repeater IDs and 29,609 with personal IDs, 7 digits or 9 with a suffix.25 TGIF's home page showed 4,916 connected, 25,478 registered users and 3,480 talkgroups that day.7 BrandMeister marked its second birthday in November 2017 with nearly 1,500 repeaters, 3,800 hotspots and 41 masters.33

BrandMeister also lets you connect to DMR-MARC and DMR+.34 The c-Bridge, a product of Rayfield Communications, was the glue of DMR-MARC: it joined groups of 15 to 20 master repeaters.384 A 2016 club talk described DMR-MARC as repeaters connected through c-Bridges, with no direct hotspots or homebrew repeaters, and said only some talkgroups were linked across networks, among them 3100 and TAC 310 to 312. Its author gave that as the reason a hotspot user could not always reach a repeater user on a statewide group.35

To watch a network, open BrandMeister's Last Heard dashboard. Hoseline, its web player, streams talkgroup audio in a browser or an Android app.3940 TGIF has its own Last Heard page.7

What is a DMR hotspot?

A hotspot is a small personal base station that links your radio to a network over the internet. A common build is a Raspberry Pi with an MMDVM modem board, running Pi-Star or WPSD. It uses your own DMR ID, with a two-digit suffix if you run several, not a repeater ID.414210

MMDVM is open modem firmware by the GitHub user g4klx; its MMDVMHost program runs on the computer and supports D-Star, DMR, System Fusion, P25, NXDN, POCSAG and FM. In BrandMeister's device list 28,832 of 32,539 devices report "MMDVM Host".434425 RadioID says duplex hotspots are not repeaters.10 Pi-Star is a Raspberry Pi image built on that software, with BrandMeister, DMR+, TGIF, FreeDMR and System X in its DMR menu.41 WPSD is a free distribution that credits Pi-Star as its starting point.42

To join BrandMeister with Pi-Star:45

1. Enter your call sign and 7-digit DMR ID, frequency and color code.
2. Set a hotspot security password in BrandMeister SelfCare: 20 characters or less, no special characters, typed by hand.
3. Pick the master and an ESSID from 01 to 99, one unique ESSID per hotspot.
4. A green "DMR Net" on the dashboard means you are connected.

RadioID adds two rules: keep hotspots off satellite frequencies (435 to 438 MHz and 145.8 to 146.0 MHz), and never run several hotspots on one frequency within range of each other.10 BrandMeister has required a hotspot password worldwide, and removed its old default password on October 1, 2021.249 My advice for a first hotspot is to leave everything dynamic and test with the parrot before you program anything static.

A DMR repeater is the fixed version. RadioID gives a repeater ID for "a complete system on a building or mountain", with a transceiver, duplexer and gain antenna, and says duplex hotspots do not qualify.10 RepeaterBook listed 4,714 DMR repeaters worldwide on October 15, 2026, against 2,555 for D-STAR and 3,609 for System Fusion.46

What is a codeplug?

A codeplug is the configuration file of a DMR radio. It holds your contacts, channels, zones and other settings, and you write it to the radio from a PC with the maker's programming software, the CPS. It is specific to each radio model: formats differ between makers and sometimes between models.524

DMR-MARC's 2013 setup page shows the order of work: read the radio, set your ID, load a contact list, build receive lists, then enter each repeater with its color code and slot.11 RadioID's menu offers a contacts list, radio formats and a file generator.10 The Richmond Amateur Telecommunications Society publishes volunteer codeplugs for a range of radios, not tied to any maker.5

On DMR-MARC you were not allowed to invent talkgroups.4 BrandMeister is looser, but its help site still asks you to use only IDs registered to you when you create a new one, and bans maker-specific groups.28

How did DMR networks grow in Europe?

Amateur DMR began in the US in 2008. DMR-MARC came first, DMR+ on Hytera hardware followed at the end of 2013, and BrandMeister in 2015. France shows the pattern: a first repeater in 2013, a national project in 2014 and a volunteer association checking IDs from 2015.38234748

DR@F gives two dates for the French project: it says the project was created on May 19, 2014 after the first c-Bridge, yet dates that c-Bridge to November 2014. I list both as DR@F states them.4950

France also shows what an early national talkgroup looked like. A 2014 presentation prepared by DR@F lists the first French repeater with TG 208 "France only" on slot 2, next to the worldwide French groups 11 and 21.38 The DMR-MARC talkgroup list still gives TG 208 as slot 2 for "all repeaters in France" and links to DMR-France.22 BrandMeister's list also names 208 "France".29

Does a PoC radio need any of this?

No. A PoC radio sends voice over the mobile network, so it needs no radio license, no call sign, no DMR ID and no talkgroup numbers. You pick a person or group in an app. The mobile operator's network carries the call, not a ham repeater or a hotspot. See call signs and PoC.

If you want to talk to hams around the world, a PoC radio is no substitute: you need the license and the ID. If you only need a team across a country without an exam, read What is a PoC radio? and PoC vs DMR. The DMR basics page covers the standard itself.

Questions

Sources

1. RadioID registration rules (2025 copy) · RadioID.net
2. About RadioID.net · RadioID.net
3. ETSI TS 102 361-1 V2.7.1 (2026-05): Digital Mobile Radio (DMR), Air Interface protocol · ETSI
4. How does this all work? FAQ · DMR-MARC
5. RATS DMR Codeplug Project · Richmond Amateur Telecommunications Society
6. Register for an account · BrandMeister Help
7. TGIF Network home page (counts of October 16, 2026) · TGIF Network
8. France (page last edited September 24, 2024, in French) · BrandMeister Wiki, web archive copy
9. United Kingdom (page last edited April 16, 2026) · BrandMeister Wiki, web archive copy
10. RadioID.net FAQ (2025 copy) · RadioID.net