Simoco DMR Radios

[MaxK98]

Anyone have them for HAM or deployed for commercial use?either the portables or the Xd repeater. The SDP760 looks nice but there is not much info about them on the north American market. Full duplex too apparently.

 

[zap]

Back in march (3 weeks before IWCE) we put up a Tier 3 Simoco system in Decatur, Tx. 4 sites, 2 repeaters per site. A comparable capacity max system would've been ~$60,000 more for the same level of redundancy.

I've got an SDP660, SDP650 and SDM630. Audio is low on them all.

Now the SDP760 I've played with, outperforms the XPr7550 (haven't put it up against the e model) especially in the audio quality/resolution, even over Bluetooth.

Yes, they can do full duplex (ties up two timeslots to do) and interface directly to a SIP client.

There is also a new run of repeaters in the works.


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[N4KVE]

Now I know who Simoco is. They were Pye Radio. Growing up in Canada, there was Motorola, GE, Canadian Marconi, & Pye. Always wondered what happened to Pye. Had a Pye Continental years ago on the VHF mobile phone freq's. Tube transmitter, & solid state receiver. It was a great radio in 1972. Glad they are still around. GARY

 

[zap]

Now I know who Simoco is. They were Pye Radio. Growing up in Canada, there was Motorola, GE, Canadian Marconi, & Pye. Always wondered what happened to Pye. Had a Pye Continental years ago on the VHF mobile phone freq's. Tube transmitter, & solid state receiver. It was a great radio in 1972. Glad they are still around. GARY

There is a story behind the name. When the owner inherited Pye from the founder there was a naming run. At some point the following was said, "So It's My Own Company, Okay?" At least that's the story the guys there like to tell.


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[techman]

There about web link outlines more history and also Phillips involvement before they spun if off

https://www.simocogroup.com/about-us

Locally simoco has had a couple trading names for the engineering and sales side but sold radios under simoco name. Couple years ago it was all renamed to simoco across the board and more recently they are starting to call themself simoco solutions or something similar.

With there dmr kit, sdp600 series radios were developed in England and sdm6xx mobiles developed primarily in Australia with some software engineering support from England. Repeaters are similar to Motorola xpr series in context of two mobiles glued together with controller board.

There portable did not sell well as it has issues with antenna socket snapping off and not great, mobiles sold ok because they had 3 head options. Repeaters have been good, they passed analog voice across ip out of the box in tier 2 mode but there up network setup dose not scale (every repeater needs to be aware of every other repeater in the network, you need to basically build the config and although the management software was good it is a pain to do) tier 3 works well but uses multicast ip traffic to communicate which can cause issues with routing across internet via vpn.

New 700 series radios look to be a joint simoco/kirison effort. Firmware all looks to be simoco work and radios look to hav sepura/ kirison engineering behind it. Initial discussions with local simoco office is the radios are good but lack options in firmware. They have a road map and development people are coding hard.

For a tier 3 solution, they have a number of sites locally in Australia and they run well, also the price is appealing too, starting price is 1/2 that of hytera and 1/4 Motorola as all of the brains is in the repeater and not not a pizza box server running the controller. They also have fail over between repeaters all sorted in the repeater stack as well.

Simoco also makes a p25 phase 1/analog radio in mobile and portable config and they have been popular with public safety locally. Not sure if they were sold in USA. Look up srm9000 and srp9000 series radio in google. No indication if they will produce a phase 2 radios yet.

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[zap]

There about web link outlines more history and also Phillips involvement before they spun if off

https://www.simocogroup.com/about-us

Locally simoco has had a couple trading names for the engineering and sales side but sold radios under simoco name. Couple years ago it was all renamed to simoco across the board and more recently they are starting to call themself simoco solutions or something similar.

With there dmr kit, sdp600 series radios were developed in England and sdm6xx mobiles developed primarily in Australia with some software engineering support from England. Repeaters are similar to Motorola xpr series in context of two mobiles glued together with controller board.

There portable did not sell well as it has issues with antenna socket snapping off and not great, mobiles sold ok because they had 3 head options. Repeaters have been good, they passed analog voice across ip out of the box in tier 2 mode but there up network setup dose not scale (every repeater needs to be aware of every other repeater in the network, you need to basically build the config and although the management software was good it is a pain to do) tier 3 works well but uses multicast ip traffic to communicate which can cause issues with routing across internet via vpn.

New 700 series radios look to be a joint simoco/kirison effort. Firmware all looks to be simoco work and radios look to hav sepura/ kirison engineering behind it. Initial discussions with local simoco office is the radios are good but lack options in firmware. They have a road map and development people are coding hard.

For a tier 3 solution, they have a number of sites locally in Australia and they run well, also the price is appealing too, starting price is 1/2 that of hytera and 1/4 Motorola as all of the brains is in the repeater and not not a pizza box server running the controller. They also have fail over between repeaters all sorted in the repeater stack as well.

Simoco also makes a p25 phase 1/analog radio in mobile and portable config and they have been popular with public safety locally. Not sure if they were sold in USA. Look up srm9000 and srp9000 series radio in google. No indication if they will produce a phase 2 radios yet.

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The SDB600 line of repeaters had one thing the Motorola XPRs did not, ducting. The original design had an external heat sink (for the 50W model). The current design features a 3"x3" duct from the intake fan, across the XPR style heat sink and out the side vents towards the rear of the repeater. The ducting is insulated all the way through. The repeaters also are capable of encoding analog across IP to digital out and vise versus (it just has to be mapped out). The unit has an ARM based CPU running Linux.

The P25 repeater is a Voting/Simulcast solution which can be configured in a trunked arrangement. The 100W model is cheaper than the 50W model. The repeater consists of a 2U box with a receiver and transmitter, PA, ARM based PC utilizing a 2GB CF card for storage and a secondary 3 port router internal to the system. It is not mobile based. Downside, it requires two software suites (being it is an add on board from the MTP1327 version) to program, one for frequency and one for digital options and then the plastic faceplate can not handle the weight to the repeater when rack mounted.

The neat thing about the SRM9005 is that two can be configured as a standalone P25 repeater (which applies FEC and transfers the audio stream via serial).

Though the SR*9000 series utilizes the AMBE 2 module, it will not be phase 2 capable. Rumor is the 700 series is its replacement.


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[techman]

The SDB600 line of repeaters had one thing the Motorola XPRs did not, ducting. The original design had an external heat sink (for the 50W model). The current design features a 3"x3" duct from the intake fan, across the XPR style heat sink and out the side vents towards the rear of the repeater. The ducting is insulated all the way through. The repeaters also are capable of encoding analog across IP to digital out and vise versus (it just has to be mapped out). The unit has an ARM based CPU running Linux.

The 25w version of the repeater (initial release into Australia and England) was a forced air cooled heat sink which pretrouded out the back of the repeater, 50w version used ducted air. this system worked well and had the advantage of reducting the lenght of the repeater by about 3'

The neat thing about the SRM9005 is that two can be configured as a standalone P25 repeater (which applies FEC and transfers the audio stream via serial).

True and there is a lot of analog repeaters installed today using this setup.

Though the SR*9000 series utilizes the AMBE 2 module, it will not be phase 2 capable. Rumor is the 700 series is its replacement.

You will not find a lot of p25 enabled SRx radios locally on the market, simoco were a pain the the butt around wanting to see you the board upgrade (yes worse then motorola, DMR and AES EID in NA region) Anyone who has a p25 enabled SRx more or less has a collectable item. I was not aware of the ambe 2 silicon on the p25 upgrade board.

There was comments/rumors around at the time the 600 series would be P25 enabled at some point but they continued to make the SRx9000 series hardware. I believe they have now planing to stop all development of 9000 series to focus on new DMR models and develop that platform further.

 

[zap]

You will not find a lot of p25 enabled SRx radios locally on the market, simoco were a pain the the butt around wanting to see you the board upgrade (yes worse then motorola, DMR and AES EID in NA region) Anyone who has a p25 enabled SRx more or less has a collectable item. I was not aware of the ambe 2 silicon on the p25 upgrade board.
.

I actually have to search for the analog only versions on Partner Portal. I can order them direct with P25 no problem (perks of being a dealer?).



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[techman]

I actually have to search for the analog only versions on Partner Portal. I can order them direct with P25 no problem (perks of being a dealer?).



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Out of interest try and order it and see what simoco in the USA wants you to do to get access to the kit.

I work for local dealer as well and the issue may be localised to Australia but p25 upgrade from simoco involves a lot of questions and paperwork from head office wanting to know who,what, when and send us your first born and the will consider it. They even put there own staff through the hoops who need p25 board for there internal use.


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[zap]

I'll give it a try. I know the software is a pain to obtain compared to the DMR stuff.


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[admda2]

Just for a point of interest, I worked for Philips Mobile Communications Systems in Australia in the early nineties when that business was sold off to a management consortium lead by Ian Mckenzie. It included the Cambridge and Clayton manufacturing & design and the respective service departments and sites business (later to become ComGroup) We were told the origin of the name SIMOCO was an acronym for Sandra and Ian McKenzie's Other Company. The Tetra business was sold off to Sepura.

 

[techman]

I had not heard that one about simoco.

Now sepura has debt issues and is talking to hytera about purchasing them.


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[Navy_BOFH]

The SDB600 line of repeaters had one thing the Motorola XPRs did not, ducting. The original design had an external heat sink (for the 50W model). The current design features a 3"x3" duct from the intake fan, across the XPR style heat sink and out the side vents towards the rear of the repeater. The ducting is insulated all the way through. The repeaters also are capable of encoding analog across IP to digital out and vise versus (it just has to be mapped out). The unit has an ARM based CPU running Linux.

The P25 repeater is a Voting/Simulcast solution which can be configured in a trunked arrangement. The 100W model is cheaper than the 50W model. The repeater consists of a 2U box with a receiver and transmitter, PA, ARM based PC utilizing a 2GB CF card for storage and a secondary 3 port router internal to the system. It is not mobile based. Downside, it requires two software suites (being it is an add on board from the MTP1327 version) to program, one for frequency and one for digital options and then the plastic faceplate can not handle the weight to the repeater when rack mounted.

The neat thing about the SRM9005 is that two can be configured as a standalone P25 repeater (which applies FEC and transfers the audio stream via serial).

Though the SR*9000 series utilizes the AMBE 2 module, it will not be phase 2 capable. Rumor is the 700 series is its replacement.


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You, sir, just answered one of my project requirements in a post I didn't even look for!

We have an analog VHF and UHF system across our state, all ham frequencies, and all interconnected over IRLP. We either keep the repeaters in stand-alone, link UHF/VHF only, link the entire system, or link both bands at a single site as a simulcast.

If Simoco provides all that out of the box with their DMR radios, we might be making our switch to them.