BrandMeister DMR repeater sysops: how to create a “local talkgroup” on your repeater

BrandMeister Repeater Sysops : How to create a “local talkgroup” for your repeater ?

Repeater owners like to offer a talkgroup dedicated for hams within the coverage area of the repeater and refer to it as the “local talkgroup”. This can be achieved two ways, depending if you want a talkgroup:

1) that only local users within the repeater coverage can use

As you know, all valid talkgroups numbers are routed between BrandMeister master servers. There is however an exception for talkgroups 1 through 90. QSOs on these talkgroup numbers will never route past the repeater.

Considering that single-digit talkgroup numbers are usually used for clusters, using a talkgroup number between 10 and 90 for your local-only talkgroup(s) is a good choice.

One might think that Talkgroup 9 on Timeslot 2 is an option because traffic doesn’t seem to route. However it is not a good idea because TG9/TS2 is dedicated for reflector usage. As soon as someone connects a reflector on the repeater: all the traffic that users think is local on TG9/TS2 is now broadcasted on the matching talkgroup on the worldwide BrandMeister without them knowing! (unless the connected master is configured to disable reflectors, but better be safe than sorry!).

2) that is dedicated to the local community of the repeater users but also available outside of the coverage area if someone travels and want to use a different repeater or hotspot to talk to hams at home

What is recommended in this case is to simply use a talkgroup number that matches the 6-digit DMR ID of the repeater. This avoid any possible collision if choosing an arbitrary talkgroup number, since all repeaters have a unique ID on the BrandMeister network. 4-digit and 5-digit talkgroups are usually dedicated to regional talkgroups. There no need to make this talkgroup static since it is for the repeater’s local users.