DMR-MARC Network

What Is The DMR-MARC Network

MARC stands for Motorola Amateur Radio Club Worldwide Network. It is one of the original DMR network coordinators and is still to this day extremely popular and reliable.

The DMR-MARC Network is connected around the world by master servers which in turn connect repeaters to each other in over 74 countries through more than 500 repeaters.MARC NETWORK MAP

One major difference in the DMR-MARC Network as compared to others is that all of the Talkgroups assigned to a repeater timeslot are static. There isn’t a dynamic talkgroup option. So whatever networked Talkgroups your repeater trustee decides to link is what you are stuck with.  They can be changed by the trustee at will, but users don’t seem to have this option dynamically by PTT functionality.

Here is a graphic of how the MARC Network functions:

And as you might expect, the MARC Network is nearly 100% comprised of Motorola repeater equipment. Another great feature of Motorola equipment is the capability of roaming. If the radio is configured properly, it will automatically select the strongest repeater in the area without the user’s intervention at all. This increases reliability and quality of communications.

DMR Plus North America

In addition the the DMR-MARC network, you may also access the DMR Plus Network, which is popular across Europe and Asia.

 The DMR Plus architecture is similar to D-Star. Users have talkgroups to converse, to disconnect, and to monitor channel status. Users choose from a large pool of reflectors and move back to the converse talkgroup for all QSOs. 

Usage of this architecture is gaining momentum in North America, although not extremely popular or easy to find information about. It can be accessed through participating DMR-MARC repeaters and personal hotspots with the proper know how.

For more information please visit the DMR PLUS webpage.

DMR Plus, Phoenix and Other UK and EU Networks

If you are looking for lots of good information about the UK and EU DMR Networks, then check out SIMPLE DMR WEBSITE. It is a great resource for information on networks that were built upon the original DMR-MARC framework, but which have evolved into their own flavor of operations.