I have a few, TYT MD 380 upgraded with MD380 tools, Anytone 868 and 878
The 868/878 is by far my favorite, dual band, interface is a lot more user friendly than my md380 IMO.
You looking to use this with a local repeater or a hotspot?
I have a local repeater just under 10 miles from me. But, either works for me
I wish it lived up to the hype for me. You need a hotspot for sure.
I’ve had a few conversations regarding this. Apparently all the ham modes use the same proprietary licensed codec and have this problem as a result.I'll be honest, I don't play with DMR a whole lot. IMO the audio quality sucks and wears on my ears after listening for a while. I much prefer analog comms.
I believe they are different vocoders. The one used in all the ham radios is licensed / patented (?) by some company and everyone buys it. It may effect the bit rate or band width which could be why it sounds less tinny or robotic. DDG of “p25” or project 25 brings up a wiki page with a lot of tech info for the curious.Admittedly, I do not know the specifics of what the technical differences are between DMR and P25 that affect the audio of each, compressed digital audio just sucks IMO.
Off topic however my favorite SHTF handie-talkie is the ICOM ID-51A (or variants of). . Downside, drop this thing from a tower climb, and you're not going to be a happy camper...
I have a couple friends with those and they like them a lot. I haven't played with D-Star yet, no repeaters near by and haven't taken the time to learn my ID800 enough to hotspot it.
I use simplex DMR when working at the repeater site or when i'm up on the tower. Its nice to be able to talk to the ground guys and not worry about someone else jumpin in wanting to rag chew. If I go up with anything more than a UV5R or 888, it gets zip tied to my harness shoulder strap, no reason to chance it lol.