If You have seen my callsign MM7WAB on a DMR network monitor or repeater dashboard recently but did not hear my voice, there is a pretty good chance it was Not a legitimate transmission from me!
I realised someone else was pirating my DMR-ID / Callsign when I saw my callsign appear on my local repeater dashboard with the source shown as 'Net' a few minutes after I had made a test transmission into the repeater and gone QRT. This was a big red flag to me for two reasons.
#1: All of my legitimate transmissions into the repeater are listed with source as 'RF' with associated RSSI information and I have Never accessed the repeater via any other means.
#2: My DMR radio had been swtiched OFF a few minutes before the illegal transmission appeared over the 'Net' connection into the repeater.
At first it was assumed that someone had made a mistake entering their DMR-ID on their new radio or hotspot and that they would realise it was wrong and correct their mistake.
After a few hours of reseaerch I have found several transmissions recorded in various online system logs at times when I was actually operating SSB or Digimodes on HF, on local 2m analog FM nets or working stations on other Non-DMR systems. Many of the pirate transmissions on DMR using my callsign have been logged when I was not even 'On-Air' at all.
Someone else has been illegally using my DMR-ID / Callsign from a location in England 400 miles South of my QTH for at least the last month.
Surely there must be a way to stop this sort of identity theft and illegal activity on DMR systems, after all the DMR system was originally designed for commercial/business users so there should be some way to manage the system to ensure illegal operators are removed. Unless of course the system management features were broken when DMR was adopted/modified for amateur radio use. If this is the case then I will simply delete all DMR related data from my radio and use it purely for good old fashioned analog FM operation and working satellites instead.
There are plenty of other network supported systems to use instead of DMR.
If all else fails with exclusive amateur network assisted modes like DMR my friends can still contact me on the Network Radios channel suite, Southern Ireland Repeater Network and a few other well maintained channels on the Zello-PTT platform where each user is 'trusted in' to transmit and every user connected to each channel has a recorded history of transmissions on the channel. This makes it easy to check any reported issues and moderators, administrators and channel owners have granular access controls with the power to easily block pirates or abusive operators from the channels when required.
I still personally prefer the simplicity of good old fashioned analog RF communications without network assistance and fancy codeplugs or software applications but I have also enjoyed operating over a selection of network assisted simplex communications platforms. Some are better than others, many have proved to be badly implemented or hard to manage and none of them are 'perfect' but when poor propagation conditions and excessive noise levels make normal RF operation impractical, network assisted communications platforms do have their place in the communications enthusiasts toolbox.
: If I continue to use DMR or not depends on how well the system is managed and how well the DMR system can deal with identity theft and stop illegal users masquerading as legitimate licensed operators.
73 de MM7WAB 'Hairy' Paul.
UPDATE: The offending operator that was illegally using My registered DMR ID was tracked down and it appears that they had incorrecly entered their own DMR ID when programming their DMR codeplug and setting up their new DMR radio. With a little assistance from a friend their mistake was corrected. They contacted me with an apology and the problem was resolved.
When setting up a new radio, hotspot or other device always double check the information You have entered is correct to avoid issues like this from arising.
I have now returned to using the DMR network assisted communications system.
73 de MM7WAB
