I picked up one of these on prime day, - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0749LHXFQ/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Radioddity GD-77 Dual Band Dual Time Slot DMR Digital/Analog Two Way Radio 136-174/400-470MHz 1024 Channels Ham Amateur Radio Compatible with MOTOTRBO, Free Programming Cable -
for $65. I know there are no digital repeaters in my area, so I need a hotspot. What is the best way to go about getting this set up and any suggestions for build it yourself, vs premade hotspots?

Read thru dmr-marc.

ask @Dapzel and @K9-Bob! they just went through all of this...there's a few threads around here I'm having no luck finding

First register for a DMR ID on https://www.radioid.net/

It might take a few days to get your ID. You'll need when setting up your radio.

For HotSpots I have a JumboSpot. It's easy to setup but the web interface can be a little slow connecting at first, able to put in multiple wifi access points. SharkRF is supposed to be coming out with a new HotSpot rumored to have built in wifi this time but will probably cost more than the JumboSpot or ZumSpot.

As for the radio, you'll need to set up a code plug. Some people try to download ones people already built. I suggest watching a few youtube videos and making your own. It was straight forward and easy to me.

You may want to setup a Brandmeister acct also

digital contacts is where you want to put your talkgroups. I put in all the statewide talkgroups and then broke them down into a zone like like States A-G, States H-K etc etc and made  Tac zone and put all the Tac talkgroups like Tac 310 in it.. Global Zone. Then a Digital All, Analog all.

Tac 310 they say it's one of the busiest channels,From personal experience on it it's 90% I just got this radio and doing a radio check and what hotspot are you using. 5% is ragchew and the other 5% is kerchunking to connect to the talk group. Although I did hear an older guy and kid argue about which is the proper phonetic word to use for a letter

I have an AnyTone 868 but I don't see much difference in program any of the radios I've looked at. Anytone has a new HT and DMR mobile they're about to release. It looks sleek.

Ok, lot of info here, gonna follow the directions and see how far I get...

@blackgunmike ... where are you? Call sign?

Eastern edge of Oklahoma, W5OMD.

Per the repeater map on dmr-marc, there is a DMR UHF repeater near Porum that google maps shows ~46 mi. A definite stretch. Although an outside antenna and guessing the terrain is pretty flat ... a definite maybe. Mobile iffy but with a gain antenna on a nice flat metal roof ... wishin' n hopin'. I wouldn't spend a lot of money, but things like omni gain antennas and even a yagi above the house aimed west from your place come to mind.

I have hit a DMR repeater at that distance. Allentown PA driving west on I78.

I will look into it, also heads up anybody looking to spend some money, ham radio outlet has several tyt md2017 model dualband radios in stock used without batteries for a very good price, $60. A new battery was $28 on amazon.

Where do I go to find a list of talk groups? And which one is for arfcom?

Search for "Brandmeister Talk groups" and "DMR-MARC Talk groups", some overlap and it really depends on how you talk into the network.  If you're on a personal node/spot, you're probably setup on a Brandmeister server and can access all their TGs.

If you're going through a public repeater, you need to find info from the administrator of that repeater to see what talk groups are available on it and what time slots they're on.  Around here, there are some repeaters that are pretty open with a dozen or so available TGs either always linked or temporarily liked by kerchunking the repeater, while others are locked down to just a local only group and function essentially like a stand-alone analog repeater.

Thanks, I did find the brandmiester tg list, and have programmed all of the states in now.

You probably want to add TAC310 if you haven't. It's pretty busy but expect a lot of kerchunking as people connect to it or a lot of can I get a radio check talk

Alright, progress has been made. I have noticed that when I transmit into a tg, on the pi-star dashboard it shows my dmr id, and when I receive other peoples traffic it shows their callsigns. Is this functioning how it is supposed to?

Sounds good.  Are you also receiving their audio on your radio, and able to have a conversation?  If so you should be all good.

Yes, I am receiving the other stations audio most of the time, sometimes my radio lights up like it is receiving though, and shows a stations dmr id in the tg, but no audio is heard. What might be causing that?

That's people kerchunking their radio to join the talk group. That's one of the things that i mention that was annoying.
You will see their ID on your dashboard and depending on your radio it will show them as the last caller.
If it's staying lit a long time, switch channels and back to the channel. I have to do that sometimes.

Also program in talkgroup 4000(disconnect) as a group call so you can disconnect from a talkgroup also talkgroup 9990(parrot) as a private call. That will allow you to key up and test your audio. It'll come back and you'll hear what you just said

I have a local repeater (seven springs) and I run an shark RF openspot on uhf most of the time. Of all the hotspots the Shark is the easiest to get started on since its mostly plug and play with very little setup BUT it has no native wi-fi built in so that nesscessitates a travel router to access the network via my phone.  I keep bouncing back and forth some days I use it with my fusion radio -FT-2 and some days I use the MD-uv390 dual band which I have been trying out and comparing to the Ailunce HD-1 which I like better but seems strangely deaf sometimes (?).
I had a zumspot ordered but the vendor  ran out of stock and cancelled/refunded my order and I have not gotten around to re-ordering one .....
So far I like DMR with a few minor points.
the way it does the user database with the individual radio looking up the ID from a database stored in the radio....seems very inefficent and now that db has exceeded the capacity of most radios (100,000+ users) unless you get selective and pare it down,even then thats a temp solution as eventually there will be more than 100,000 US users. Why cant the radio transmit that ID (callsign) like fusion or dstar? Your transmitting the DMR id ---seems redundant to me.

How some guys just jack up the mic gain on the radios that allow it. Listening to a QSO and one guy can barley be heard with the volume jacked up all the way, the next guy blows the windows out of the shack if you dont crank it down quickly enough.

Firmware updates. Just because there is a new firmware out no need to panic and set your hair on fire getting it updated --is it working ok for you? leave it alone till the bugs in the new firmware get worked out. New dosent always mean better.

I really wish the Chinese mfrs would let go of thier pride and open the firmware up and let the smart kids develop thier own firmware rather than struggling to revamp thier flawed bastardized bloated crap every other week.  But they wont.

Some days I struggle to remember that DMR and Ham radio in general is a hobby and supposed to be FUN and try not to let the stick in the mud types get to me...

Anyways...Im enjoying DMR and fusion both have thier pluses and minuses. This weekend I will be carrying the Ft2 as it gives me the capability to monitor the aircraft frequiencies (AM) for the Latrobe airshow and the thunder birds.
I hope you like the GD -77.

@blackgunmike   the light flashing can be an indicator that a TG is active that you are not listening to.

There are dmr nets that I haven't listened to for a while, but will dig up and post here. A few of these nets are intended to answer questions like this. What is initially stunning is that you will hear people from all over the planet checking in and no telling from what country a ham might answer a question. No, it does not count as DX.

If this is your first DMR radio, I'd recommed a MD-380 over the GD-77... I have 3 (funny story) GD-77 radios and they aren't as easy to use and simple as the MD-380. If you absolutely have to have a cheap, VHF/UHF radio and don't want to spend $130-160 on a MD-2017, Anytone AT-D868UV, Retivis, or MD-UV380, go ahead, but know it isn't simple and the bugs have not been getting fixed.

I think the no audio is a bug with the GD-77 firmware. It only receives talkgroups if they're in the Group Decode list, it doesn't matter if it is set as the channel talkgroup...

The MD 380 and Anytone are the ones I hear the most love for when I'm on Tac310
I have the Anytone. Got it when ebay was doing that 20% and got it for around $130. Looks like an updated version of the Anytone is coming out and appears to have better looking and tactile knobs on it that favor the Moto XPR7550
Also saw an Anytone Mobile unit set to be released

That would explain it. I got frustrated and put mine away after never figuring out what the problem was. I'll try that. Thanks.

If there's no DMR repeaters nearby, consider a Shark RF openspot.  My son bought one a year ago, and he uses it constantly on DMR.  He even built a portable kit so that he can use his hotspot with a tethered cell phone.