DMR is far less simple and user friendly. Repeater access needs proper programming and is rarely straightforward. In terms of range it’s a bit different to how the adverts put it. Analogue FM vs Digital should mean that at the fringes the digits hold up a bit better, then die suddenly, while analogue gets noisier and noisier then dies - however, canny operators get used to the impending dropped signal and move the radio a little, minimising noise and maximising distance. Digital doesn;t give you a clue disaster is near, apart from perhaps a few missed called, or “say again” messages - but because they come either loud and clear or not at all, the extra distance can’t really be banked on.
I’ve been introducing digital kit and am a bit underwhelmed because while they have all these great features, many of my clients simply cannot cope with them. Spending ages making every radio unique with it’s user’s name or department is possible - so when a general call comes through to everyone, the radios say for example “John Stage Left” in the display - however, when John picked his radio up, he’d forgotten to turn it off, so it was on the charger, still charging, so he simply takes Dave’s radio and the confusion starts - programming in groups and other features means people need to remember certain button pressing sequences - so a general call transferring to a one to one group or maybe a department group falls over when they forget to return to channel 1, or whatever. I find so far the most popular request is simply one channel, and a display that doesn’t need reading - exactly the same as the analgue ones they replaced at great cost. I’ve not yet found the repeater thing that handy, as some of the advertising suggested that users could migrate in stages using a mix of analogue and digital - which is partly true. The repeater can handle FM and the digital radios - but they’re not linked I assumed wrongly, that FM into the repeater would come out as digital inside the machine, and it doesn’t so not as wonderful and handy as I thought. I’ve discovered that total strangers can also get into my system and use it, but I don’t know because their programming prevents my radios hearing them - so apart from seeing the TX light come on, I’m unaware, and I don’t like this.