See on dashboard and radio display but no sound

[k1gar]

Why do I see people hit my pistar dashboard and see the radio key but I hear nothing? Most of those connections are only a second or so.

[KN2TOD]

Digital version of "kerchunking" - No audio, simply hitting PTT for a second or two. Very common. Folks testing their hotspots and codeplugs, making sure they have all their settings correct, reactivating Time Slot allocations/timers, checking reflectors, etc. Some nets even use it as a quickie form of "check-in", since a netop can get all the pertinent info from the dashboard rather than waste time with the usual "This is tango-delta-xray" intro's.

[k1gar]

Yeah that makes way too much sense. I do that too if I am not sure my hotspot is alive. I trigger to see if it responds. I should have figured that out.

So what about the ones that last 20 or 30 seconds and I see but don't hear? That happens less often but I see some everyday.

I just got this hotspot last month. It seems really solid but sometimes I notice people on the dashboard. Even if I eliminate the kerchunk I still see a few longer ones I never hear. Are people holding down their ptt but not saying anything?

Thanks for the response and thanks for not pointing out the fact that I should have figured that one out.

[KN2TOD]

Not all short connections are evidence of kerchunking. There are more then a few folks coming through paths (e.g. repeaters or Echolink, even reflectors) that aren't stable or they are mobile and have a hard time maintaining a good, clean connection, so the connection gets dropped quickly. But in other cases, they manage to hold the slot open but can't pump the audio through for reasons unknown. Those situations are tough to diagnose: off-calibrated radio/hotspot? noisy RF? dropped packets from one's ISP? Server faults? It's a long-shot, but this is one of those situations where an attempted kerchunk may, just may, wake up a seeming dead transmission. YMMV.

[k1gar]

Thanks for all the help. This DMR is new to me and not always obvious. Usually fun though. My hotspot only allows a single group as far as I know but I will definitely look into that, and try not to kerchunk. I swear my hot spot gets moody and stops doing anything unless I reset and kerchunk it sometimes.

[AF6VN]

My hotspot only allows a single group as far as I know but I will definitely look into that

Would be an unusual hotspot then... Most will pass whatever they receive from the network server, and such servers could be passing packets from multiple talk groups. For example, if you had been on TG abc, and switch your radio to TG mno and key up -- the server may keep both abc and mno active as dynamic groups until some time-out expires.

By putting all your regular use talk groups into a "receive group list" and attaching that list to each channel (in your radio), traffic addressed to any of those groups will open squelch on the radio regardless of which group/channel is selected. Some radios may even have some cryptic option to allow for replying /without/ changing channel (so long as the radio displays the received group, say, it will use it for PTT).

I believe Brandmeister has a 15 minute time out on dynamic groups (maybe 10 minute). However, I think I've read that the server also puts a 5 minute lock to the last activated (from either side) talk group -- if so, the only way having multiple groups active makes sense is if ALL of them have very little traffic.