Getting started with the Anytone AT-D878UVII Super, making a codeplug

I passed my Foundation Amateur Radio Exam and have been using the Baofeng UV-S9 for over a couple of months (the first month just listening). I decided it was time for a better radio as a lot of activity seems to be on digital channels and links like Echolink, All Star etc. and the Baofeng scan facility is limited to either all channels, or all frequencies in one waveband. So I pre-ordered the Anytone AT-D878UVII Super as this is the only budget radio that seems to have enough memory to download the entire DMR contact list which now exceed 200,000 registred users.

My new Anytone AT-D878UVII Super

The Anytone can hold upto 500,000 so it should be good for a few years. When programming a radio like this people refer to a codeplug, it is not a physical plug, rather it is data that is specific to your radio's frequencies, repeater channels, DMR contacts and personal settings. It will also contain your DMR Id so beware of exporting the data plug to other people without first removing that info.

We need a few things that do not come with this radio, but are specific to this model -

Firmware updater
CodePlug Software
Repeater List
DMR Channels List
A DMR Radio ID

You will need to install these on a Window 7 or 10 PC or a Windows 10 VM on a Mac or Linux.

As with many Chinese manufacturers the Anytone software is not registered with Microsoft so you may get thefollowing warning.

It is your choice, but to run it you will have to lick the 'more info' link to continue. I have no reason to believe the software is anything but genuine and it does work.

Ensure your radio is connected to your PCs USB port and not receiving a channel. Download the CP and FW software from http://anytone.net/download.html firmware (FW) and CodePlug (CP), ensure these are the correct ones for your model!

Updating the firmware

Unzip the file to a local folder

First job is to backup the current data or codeplug.

Open the CP software and select Set, Port and locate the correct port for your machine. If you cannot lcoate the port in device mamager then download this driver https://ftdichip.com/drivers/vcp-drivers/.

Select Program, Read from radio, click OK to confirm.

main channel list

Enter frequencies and repeater channels

Visit either of these sites for your local repeater information, UK Repeater of course only has UK repeaters data.

https://www.repeaterbook.com (they also have an app) or
https://ukrepeater.net (RSGB website) I have found some discrepancies with both.

channel information

Fill in each channels information for simplex and repeaters as desired, you will not be able to set the scan groups until you have created the scan group and you can't do that until you have some channels to add!

Zones

Nexy I recommend up Zones. It is up to you how you organise your data, but for me I have 4 zones as shown below. Simply click a row to create a new zone, name it and add the appropriate channels to it.

add channels to the scan list

Set up scan groups and channels

Select Scan List on the lelf hand side and name and add a new list. You can then select and move channels form left to right to put them in the list. Note: You will aslso have to add each channel in the channel list, weird?

add each channel to a scan list

A video for this part is at https://youtu.be/JVboG5SkLhI

A brief understanding of DMR

DMR is not just a transmission mode or modulation technique, it is a whole new way of communicating using digital modulation, and linking via the internet through Echolink, D-Star, Brandmiester and other links, talk groups, color codes and a slightly different way of operating.

DMR Talk Groups, make sure you get the Anytone one! https://www.repeaterbook.com/wiki/doku.php?id=dmr_tools *** Note *** I had to delete the Greek talk group 202 as it contained illegal characters for UK settings, apologies if you are from Greece! You could always rename the channel.

A very good explanation of DMR radio and setup is at

https://www.wx4car.org/uploads/8/3/7/7/83773582/dmr_cheat_sheet_wt1im.pdf

https://www.repeaterbook.com/index.php/en-us/2016-04-07-21-08-49/2-uncategorised/32-how-does-dmr-compare-to-analog

DMR setup

Import digital contacts there are over 200,000 so you don't want to be typing them in. First visit

https://radioid.net To get your ID you will need a scan or pdf of your licence, registration is free.

Then click Database, then digital dumps sections. then select users.csv file and save it.

click database, then database dumps section

select users.csv

Now you need to import this into the CP software, click Tool, Digital Contact List, select the users.csv file from where you downloaded it to. Then click Import from file list. This may take 5 minutes!


Import the users.csv file

Then upload the data to your radio, with Program, Write to radio.

Promiscuous mode

To engage promiscuous mode we simply need to program Digital Monitor to a spare button and pressing that button will toggle the setting to allow you to monitor all talk on that channel.