What the setting filters, how to aim it at one timeslot or both, how to answer someone it lets you hear, and what changes when you add a second radio or a second hotspot.
Digital Monitor is not part of the DMR standard. Nothing in the protocol requires a radio to offer it, and many DMR radios do not. Programming cannot add the feature to a radio whose firmware lacks it.
Check your radio against the list below before reading further. If it is not there, skip to the RX group list comparison, which is the closest thing you can build yourself.
| Radio or firmware | What to look for |
|---|---|
| AnyTone | Present across the current line: AT-D168UV, AT-D868UV, AT-D878UV and AT-D878UVII Plus, AT-D890UV, and the AT-D578UV mobile. Listed as Digi Moni in the radio menu and Digital Monitor in the CPS. Early AT-D868UV manuals do not document it; the shipping firmware has it. |
| Same platform | BTECH DMR-6X2, 6X2 Pro and DA-7X2; Alinco DJ-MD5. Built on the same platform, with the same four settings and the same menu. |
| OpenGD77 | Set the DMR filter to None. Its timeslot filter works differently from AnyTone's Double Slot: the firmware listens on both slots until valid data appears on one, then follows that slot. Runs on the Radioddity GD-77 and GD-77S; TYT MD-UV380, MD-9600 and MD2017; Retevis RT-3S, RT-84, RT-90 and RT-82; and Baofeng DM-1801, DM-1801A, DM-1701 and RD-5R. |
| MD380tools | Promiscuous mode on the TYT MD-380 and MD-390, via third-party firmware. |
| Motorola · Hytera | Generally not offered as a user menu item. Some Hytera PD6xx and PD7xx models reach something similar through a developer-mode OVCM receive option, and only for transmissions carrying that flag. |
| Other DMR radios | Many DMR radios have no equivalent setting on stock firmware. The RX group list is then your only tool. |
The rest of this page uses AnyTone menu names, since that is where the feature is most commonly met. The behavior described applies to any radio offering promiscuous monitoring, whatever its own firmware calls it.
Every DMR transmission carries a label saying which talkgroup it belongs to and which timeslot it rides on. Two separate things decide whether you hear it, and Digital Monitor only touches one of them.
Digital Monitor does not open you up to the whole network. You hear your static talkgroups and nothing else. If your hotspot has six talkgroups linked, six is the ceiling. The setting only stops your radio from narrowing those six down to one.
A duplex hotspot carries both timeslots, so talkgroups can sit on TS1 and TS2 at the same time. A simplex hotspot carries one slot, and Pi-Star puts everything on TS2. On a simplex hotspot there is no TS1 traffic to hear, Double Slot has nothing extra to unmute, and Case 2 below is not available.
Everything on this page also applies to a DMR repeater, which carries both slots the same way a duplex hotspot does.
The examples below use a duplex hotspot with three static talkgroups on each slot, and a radio sitting on a channel programmed for TG31068 on TS1. They also assume DigiMoni Id is set to Any Id, which is the part that drops the talkgroup filter. With Same Id, the Switch alone changes nothing about which talkgroups you hear.
Only the talkgroup your channel names. The other five arrive at the radio and are discarded.
Everything on the slot your channel uses. TS2 stays shut.
Both slots, every static talkgroup. Still one call at a time.
The menu offers Off, Single Slot, and Double Slot. Nothing in it names a slot. Single Slot follows whichever slot your current channel is programmed for, so you pick the slot by picking the channel, not by changing this setting.
| To monitor | Do this |
|---|---|
| TS1 only | Select a channel programmed for TS1, then set the DigiMoni Switch to Single Slot. |
| TS2 only | Select a channel programmed for TS2, then set the DigiMoni Switch to Single Slot. Same setting, because the channel does the choosing. |
| Both slots | Set the DigiMoni Switch to Double Slot. The channel's slot no longer matters for listening. |
The setting lives at Menu → Digi Moni on the radio, or under Optional Settings in the CPS. Digital Monitor is radio-wide, not part of a channel and not part of a zone. Turn it on and it stays on across every channel and zone until you turn it off, which is why it is worth assigning to a programmable key.
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| DigiMoni Switch | Off · Single Slot (the current slot) · Double Slot (TS1 and TS2). |
| DigiMoni Cc | Same Cc hears only your color code. Any Cc hears any color code on the frequency, which matters on a repeater pair shared with another system. |
| DigiMoni Id | Same Id keeps the talkgroup filter. Any Id drops it. Any Id is the part that makes this promiscuous mode. |
| Slot Hold | Holds the radio on the slot it is decoding for a few seconds when the signal drops, instead of switching to the other slot immediately. Without it, a momentary dropout can move you to activity on the other slot part-way through a transmission. The manual recommends turning it on when monitoring both slots. |
Hearing a conversation does not move you to it. Your channel still points at its own talkgroup, so plain PTT sends you there rather than to the call you were listening to. Read the display first, then use one of three routes back.
Read the display first. While the call is coming in, the radio shows the talkgroup the traffic belongs to, and the caller's callsign when a digital contact database or talker alias supplies it. That number is what you need, and it clears once the call ends, so look while it is on screen.
Monitor Response, while the call is still up. The AnyTone firmware has a response function built into Digital Monitor for exactly this. During a call whose ID does not match your channel, press the response key and the screen shows Monitor Response Setup Successfully; PTT then answers that call. The same menu can save the heard talkgroup into a zone as a new channel. The manual does not name the key in its text, and third-party guides report it as *, so confirm it on your own radio.
Reply by Manual Dial. Press and hold the 0 key to jump to the Input ID screen, or take the full path at Menu → Talkgroup → Manual Dial. Enter # followed by the talkgroup number for a group call, then key up. The # prefix is what separates a group call from a private call, and leaving it off sends a private call to that number instead.
Reply by switching channels. If the talkgroup is one you use often, select the channel already programmed for it. Slower in the moment, but the display shows the talkgroup's programmed name and the channel's own RX group list still applies.
Manual Dial changes the talkgroup, not the timeslot. If you heard the call on the other slot through Double Slot monitoring, dialing the number still transmits on your channel's slot, and the people you are answering never hear you. Move to a channel on the correct slot first.
Digital Monitor is one of three ways to end up hearing more talkgroups, and each pulls at a different point in the chain.
| Lever | Lives at | Changes |
|---|---|---|
| Static TGs | the network | which talkgroups your hotspot pulls down at all |
| RX group list | the channel, in your codeplug | which of those arriving talkgroups the radio unmutes for |
| Digital Monitor | the radio, globally | switches the RX group list off entirely |
A long RX group list reaches a similar result by a different mechanism. The differences are set out below.
| RX group list | Digital Monitor | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | One channel. Other channels are unaffected. | The whole radio, every zone, until switched off. |
| Selectivity | You name each talkgroup. Anything not listed stays muted. | All or nothing. No way to admit five talkgroups and exclude a sixth. |
| Timeslots | The channel's slot only. A channel has one slot, so a list cannot reach the other. | Double Slot crosses to the other slot, which no RX group list can do. |
| Changing it | Edit the codeplug and reprogram the radio. | A menu toggle, or one press of a programmable key. |
| Upkeep | Goes stale. Add a static talkgroup at BrandMeister and the list needs updating to match. | None. It admits whatever turns up. |
Use an RX group list when you know which talkgroups you want and expect to live with the choice. Reach for Digital Monitor when you do not know yet, when you want the other slot, or when you are exploring an unfamiliar repeater. The list is set up once and then maintained; the monitor is a single toggle.
TG 777 is often raised alongside Digital Monitor, and it is not an alternative to it. It works at the opposite end of the chain. On TGIF, linking 777 is reported to make the server send you every active talkgroup on the network rather than only your subscriptions, which widens filter 1 — the one Digital Monitor cannot touch.
The two need each other. Traffic arriving that way still carries its own original talkgroup ID rather than 777, so a channel whose RX group list does not name that talkgroup stays muted. Two ways round it: turn Digital Monitor on, or populate the RX group list with the talkgroups you want. Forum discussion favours the first for the simple reason that you cannot list what you have not met yet.
The behaviour of TG 777 described above comes from TGIF user forum threads, the earliest from 2018. It is not confirmed in TGIF's current help site, and the network's own talkgroup list carries 777 under an ordinary talkgroup name. Confirm the present behaviour with the network before relying on it.
The concept holds regardless: a network-side monitor talkgroup fills the pipe, and a radio-side setting opens the gate. Networks handle talkgroup delivery differently, so check the current documentation for whichever one you are on.
On a hotspot you configured yourself, the setting reveals only what you already chose to link. On a repeater you do not control, it reveals things you had no way of knowing about.
Picture a repeater whose owner has three talkgroups statically linked to TS1: a statewide group, a regional group, and a TAC channel. Your channel is programmed for the statewide group. Two operators are mid-conversation on the regional group, on that same slot.
With Digital Monitor off, the radio stays silent. The slot is busy, but nothing at the radio shows it, so a transmission started then lands on top of the conversation already running. With Single Slot on, that conversation is audible, and the choice to wait or to join is yours to make.
Single Slot is the setting to reach for first, and it works as a courtesy feature as much as a listening one. Knowing the slot is occupied before you transmit matters more day to day than hearing the other slot.
Digital Monitor filters talkgroups and slots. It does not tune frequencies. That single fact decides all four cases below.
Four limits worth stating plainly.
It does not decrypt. Encrypted traffic stays unintelligible. Promiscuous mode removes an address filter, not a cipher.
Range and sensitivity are untouched. Nothing about the receiver changes. A signal too weak to decode stays too weak to decode.
It does not tune frequencies. Whatever is not arriving at your antenna on the frequency you are sitting on stays out of reach. That is scanning territory.
Nothing is fetched from the network. The hotspot pulls down what you linked, and no radio setting reaches back up the chain to change that.
The setting is radio-wide. Not per channel, not per zone. Switch zones and it is still on. Assign it to a programmable key so turning it off takes one press instead of four menu levels.
PTT ignores what you just heard. Listening to 31075 through Digital Monitor does not move you there. Key up and you transmit to the talkgroup your channel names. Use Manual Dial or switch channels first, as above.
Double Slot is not two audio streams. The radio has one receiver and decodes one call at a time. If both slots go active at once, you get one of them. Two radios are the only real answer to that.
Any Cc can admit other systems. On a hotspot this usually changes nothing, since nothing else is normally using that frequency within range of you. On a shared repeater pair it can bring in a completely different system running the same frequency with another color code.
A lightly loaded hotspot has nothing to reveal. One static talkgroup per slot means Digital Monitor has nothing to unmute. The setting earns its keep when several talkgroups share a slot, or on a repeater whose linking you do not control.
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