From the website of DMR-MARC http://www.dmr-marc.net/

North American Talkgroup has Returned to Full-Time Usage, not Just a Calling Channel

DMR-MARC Network Users,

Effectively immediately, the North America talkgroup (TG3) will return to its original purpose as a wide-area talkgroup available to all North American hams for general QSO at any time. We believe that the North America talkgroup is more effective as a meeting place for all hams, rather than only as a calling channel. Accordingly, we encourage all hams to use this talkgroup for general QSOs spanning across multiple North American repeaters as a way to bridge the distance between us. In addition, we kindly ask that hams respect the fact that this talkgroup is widely distributed and that they keep conversations to a reasonable length and take regular pauses to accommodate others that might want to join the QSO. Remember, User Accessible English 1 (TG113) and User Accessible English 2 (TG123) are available on many systems as talkgroups to continue your conversation if you feel that it is going to be lengthy in nature.

Hope to hear you all on North America soon! Best regards & 73’s!

The DMR-MARC Administrative Team

I think this has come sooner than many expected but Motorola announced recently the end of an extensive product line. Now known as legacy products. Sales will be coming to an end for the following products. XPR3300, XPR3500, XPR7350, XPR7550, XPR5350, XPR5550 and the SL7550 repeater

You can expect to see deals to be had as commercial markets remove from service these radios. There’s a newer set of radios and you can learn more on the Motorola website at: http://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_xu/products/mototrbo.html

msi-cancellation-memo-legacy-mototrbo

Have you ever wondered where the 3127 talk group number and the beginning of radio ID’s in Minnesota originated from? The simple answer was the DMR-MARC group (Digital Mobile Radio Motorola Amateur Radio Club). However the origin actually can be traced back to the beginning days of the cellular radio networks and their need for identification numbers for each radio network. Check out this link and notice the similarity to our assigned numbers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_country_code. The MARC website also has a description of where it all began.

Here’s where I find my base operating system for my repeater installations.

Source: Index of /support/mmdvm/images

Talkgroups

Source: MN Twin TRBO

Source: K4USD Network