How to Listen to DMR Online: Last Heard, Web Audio and App

Want to listen to DMR conversations but don't have a radio yet? Or have you already set up a hotspot and want to keep an eye on your group's activity right from the browser? Today, amateurs and anyone interested in digital communications have several convenient ways to listen to DMR online — no radio, no transmit license and no complicated setup.

What Last Heard is and why it matters

Last Heard is a table of the most recent audible transmissions on a DMR network. Each row corresponds to a single communication session and usually contains:

• Callsign — the callsign of the operator transmitting the signal;
• DMR ID — the unique numeric identifier of the subscriber (more about DMR ID);
• Talkgroup — the group in which the exchange is taking place (what a talkgroup is);
• Timeslot — the time slot (TS1 or TS2); DMR splits the channel into two 30 ms slots, which lets two sessions run simultaneously;
• Time and duration of the transmission;
• The repeater or hotspot the signal passed through.

By reading the table you can tell who is currently active on the network, which nodes the traffic flows through and which talkgroups are "alive." For a newcomer it's a great way to get acquainted with the basics of DMR even before buying a radio.

BrandMeister Hoseline: talkgroup streaming straight in the browser

The most popular way to listen to DMR online on public networks is BrandMeister Hoseline (hose.brandmeister.network). It's a web app that receives audio streams from BrandMeister master nodes and broadcasts them to the browser in real time.

How to use it:

• Open hose.brandmeister.network in a browser (Chrome works best).
• On the home page you'll see "tiles" — talkgroups that are active right now. Click any one to start listening.
• In Player mode (link at the top right) you can add several talkgroups at once and switch between them.
• If you click a talkgroup number in the Player, Solo Mode activates — the other groups go silent.

Hoseline works without registration and without a radio — a browser is all you need. It's the ideal entry point for hearing live DMR traffic for the first time. That said, Hoseline only shows public BrandMeister networks; private networks such as DMRhub have their own monitoring tools.

DroidStar and other apps

DroidStar is a mobile app for Android and iOS that turns a smartphone into a software DMR transceiver. It connects to BrandMeister and other networks (D-STAR, YSF, P25, NXDN) over the internet via the UDP protocol and plays back audio through an AMBE vocoder.

DroidStar highlights:

• Supports AMBE USB dongles (ThumbDV, DVstick 30) for hardware voice decoding;
• Works with software vocoders (AMBE3000 or equivalents) on compatible devices;
• Lets you not only listen but also transmit — but transmitting requires an amateur license;
• More about the app's features — /tech/en/droidstar.

An alternative approach is an SDR receiver (RTL-SDR) paired with DMR decoding software (for example, DSD+ or SDRTrunk). This lets you listen to local DMR repeaters over the air without a radio of your own. However, this option requires setting up hardware and understanding the basic principles of DMR.

Last Heard and the map in DMRhub

DMRhub is a private all-in-one DMR network with its own web dashboard. Unlike public dashboards, here Last Heard shows only your network's traffic: your talkgroups, your operators, your hotspots.

What's available in the DMRhub dashboard:

• A real-time Last Heard table — it updates without reloading the page. You can see the callsign, DMR ID, talkgroup, session duration and the node the signal passed through.
• An activity map — the network's hotspots and repeaters are shown on an interactive map. You can see who is on the air and from where.
• Air recordings — DMRhub stores conversation audio, and you can play it back right in the browser inside the dashboard. Handy if you missed a session or want to check the quality of your own signal.

To get started with DMRhub Last Heard, just register at /dashboard and get a DMR ID — the registration procedure takes a few minutes.

Receiving the air in the DMRhub app for Android

The DMRhub app for Android (download the APK) lets you listen to your group's air not only in the browser but on your phone too — including in the background. This works even without a radio: the server uses an AMBE vocoder to decode the voice, and the app plays it back through the phone's speaker.

App features for a "listener":

• Reception of group and private calls by DMR ID — the signal is addressed to a specific subscriber;
• Receiving DMR SMS from operators on the network (how DMR SMS works);
• Notifications about new conversations in the background — the phone works like a "receive-only radio."

So if you have a radio and a RadioStar hotspot, fellow network members can reach you through the phone even when the radio is switched off.

How to start listening to your group in DMRhub

A step-by-step route for a newcomer:

• Step 1. Register at /dashboard and get a DMR ID.
• Step 2. Open the Last Heard section — see who is active on your network right now.
• Step 3. Install the Android app — get conversations on your smartphone.
• Step 4. When you want to transmit — study the license requirements and build a RadioStar hotspot.