N0AGI (Nagi) has a new DMR repeater on the air at 442.175+ in Prior Lake, complete with an APRS icon. The local DMR scene has exploded in the past two months, after simmering for the previous five months. Four months ago, when I got in, there was one reliable repeater and a second (low coverage) machine that was often not on the air.
Over the course of the past two months, a small group has added a repeater in Dayton and another in Oakdale. UHF being what it is, there are dead spots in coverage due to terrain. But it's undeniable that coverage has vastly improved into St. Paul and the east metro -- even at 5W transmission power levels. None of these DMR repeaters operate at anything near the power-house RF outputs common in analogue and some other digital mode repeaters in town. They are all 25W or less. Still, the narrow-band and digital nature of the mode has been leveraged to make coverage work at these lower power levels throughout the majority of the metro.
The south metro coverage has been spotty from the first, basically being provided by the 442.425+ machine at the University and requiring a more powerful signal than an HT can offer in most cases. It's still a bit early to make definitive statements, but the Oakdale repeater doesn't seem to reach much of the south-east metro (e.g. Inver Grove Heights, Cottage Grove, Eagan) due to terrain. The Dayton repeater also lacks coverage in the south-west metro, facing similar topographical challenges. It seems unlikely that high power levels would make a substantial improvement in either of these situations.
This was a situation that called for a fourth repeater sited in the south metro itself. But the DMR team had no site in that area, nor a spare repeater to put up. Nagi had been talking about operating a DMR repeater out of his home in Prior Lake, and even shopping for repeaters, but it had all seemed months away to everyone in the DMR community. He was negotiating access to a great tower in Prior Lake, and it seemed natural that the DMR repeater would wait until the tower was secured.
I was quite surprised to find out by email, during an intense roundtable on the 444.425+ Friday night, that Nagi had actually put the repeater on the air. He lacked a user radio to test the repeater, but the network op was able to access it through the C-bridge and confirm that it was connected to Local 2 -- and, thus, the rest of the local network.
Since hardly anyone has an updated code-plug that includes the new 442.175+ repeater, it will take a while to determine the coverage in the south metro. NK0M (Brandon) made a stab at it with an HT from Shakopee (seven miles away), but didn't fare well. Packet loss was heavy, but Brandon's effort proved that it was actually operating and connected to the local network. At this point, it's safe to say that, if you were previously able to access Nagi's Fusion repeater on that same frequency, you should be able to get in to the new DMR repeater. The new DMR repeater in Prior Lake is now the most powerful DMR machine in the state, running 50W.
I'm told that the System Fusion repeater will return to the air under a new frequency pair, so C4FM users shouldn't see this as a loss.
It would be very surprising if this new DMR repeater were not relocated to the higher tower once access has been obtained, and the Fusion repeater would probably join it. I'm looking at the current site as a test arrangement, and one that finally links an uncovered area of the metro to the rest. The south metro is a challenge to cover (especially with UHF) due to the steep drop in elevation south of the Minnesota River. There will undoubtedly be dead spots in the south metro coverage (as all three of the other repeaters have in their respective areas), and an exterior antenna may be needed for HT operation, but I think that the community will be pleasantly surprised at what's now possible. And, once the new tower site is in place, coverage should be quite impressive.
If you have the ability to update your DMR radio to include the 442.175+ repeater, it would be great to get some first-hand experiences of the coverage.
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