Hytera MD785G review and first impressions.

After my last article on the TYT MD380 I decided it would be nice to get a DMR radio for the home / car use. I read quite a lot online and decided to select a radio that would support roaming. The Hytera MD785G fitted the bill, and is available in both a high and low power UHF or VHF version. I selected the UHF 45w version, and purchased the programming software and lead. The ability to load codeplugs is essential, as DMR is still very much a moving target, new repeaters are coming on all the time.

The Hytera MD785G is a tier II DMR radio, UHF 400 to 470 MHz, with a 1024 channel capacity. It can be programmed with up to 64 zones (16 channels in each zone)

Size 174 x 60 x 200 mm at 1.7 kg with colour LCD display.

RF power is adjustable depending on model  from 5 to 45w (high power version) or 5 – 25w (low power version). The 785G supports GPS although the amateur DMR networks does not support GPS location data at this time.

The radio has a BNC connector on the rear for your aerial, and SMA for GPS. The resolved audio is loud, crisp and clear and the radio looks and feels solidly built.

I couldn’t find any good quality pictures of the top, front and rear online so I took some myself. Here you can see the BNC connector for your aerial, heatsink, power lead (detachable) and SMA for the active GPS antenna.

UPDATE Jan 2016

The structure of the DMR network has changed substantially since I first wrote this article, and many of the codeplugs have become outdated. New codeplugs that reflect the FEB 16 structure can be found at GB7JG and GB7CL website.

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At the time of writing some previous sites have outdated codeplugs (although links retained as they may be updated) Codeplugs online are often outdated G0HWC site.  Other codeplugs are available from codeplugcentral and  GB7DD.

Hytera MD785 CPS software is available at GB7DD

You can monitor live UK traffic for DMR online, and clicking on a callsign / repeater  will filter activity just for that call / repeater.

A list of all the UK DMR repeaters is available on the UK repeaters website.

Ham radio now filmed W2XAB John giving a great talk available to watch below on DMR. He also produced a guide to DMR in PDF free to download.