Trunkview V 1.22

[morfis]

Already mentioned in another thread but the latest update to Trunkview MPT1327 decoder has now been posted for download on the authors website.

http://www.linato.net/trunkview/

This is a free piece of windows software that will track MPT1327 trunked systems (with a supported scanner, otherwise just display system information).

Several new features and specific support for four more scanners.

The website has also been re-designed and contains a basic guide to help in getting all the necessary settings for system tracking.

[RCjim]

Software looks interesting, has anyone in the USA had any luck getting to track our systems properly?? I'm only asking as I'm not having much luck and there are 3 systems in my listening area. Central New York

I gave TrunkSniffer a try but the 12 day demo period ran out before I got it working right.

RCjim

[DCMon]

I have been using trunkview to monitor a new system in my area. It is still being built and so traffic is limited to radio techs at this time. However, trunkview has successfully tracked radio traffic and all features are working as described. Since US scanners do not track MPT1327, a software program is the only way at this time. I to tried several others and had no real luck with them. I suggest you try trunkview and see what you think, you can't beat the price (free). I have tried it with a Uniden BCD396T and it worked just fine. I have tried it hooked to my computer via serial and usb and an audio cable to the "input" connection of my computer.

[morfis]

Originally Posted by RCjim

Software looks interesting, has anyone in the USA had any luck getting to track our systems properly?? I'm only asking as I'm not having much luck and there are 3 systems in my listening area. Central New York

I gave TrunkSniffer a try but the 12 day demo period ran out before I got it working right.

RCjim

No reason why it shouldn't track US MPT1327 systems as they (or at least all the ones I know of) adhere to the MPT1327 standard.

DCMon has had good success in his locale and I'd agree with his comment that you should try it. It lacks the features of things like TrunkSniffer and FTrunk ...but it costs a lot less than either of them ;-)

[morfis]

Originally Posted by morfis

No reason why it shouldn't track US MPT1327 systems as they (or at least all the ones I know of) adhere to the MPT1327 standard.

I ought to qualify this slightly and say "No reason why it shouldn't track US MPT1327 systems as they (or at least all the ones I know of) adhere to the MPT1327 standard as long as they use a logical channel plan (the vast majority of systems do)."

Trunkview cannot 'track' systems that use a custom channel plan. FTrunk and Trunksniffer both can.

[Jay911]

The website (linato) is down again, so I can't send this to the author right now, but I will later on - for now, I'll post here:

I'm using the program with a Motorola HT1000 as the source radio, and a BCD396T as the voice channel radio. The system I monitor has three frequencies - 424.1625, 424.2625, and 424.5125.

Rather ingenious way of making the 396 follow the voice, I must say - using a tightly-defined custom search. However, this runs into trouble if/when the system's control channel changes.

The program seems to 'park' the 396 on the lowest voice channel - in my case, 424.1625 - when the system is idle. The problem arises when the control channel switches to that frequency. If there are no voice calls any time soon after the control channel changes, the voice scanner (the 396) blares out the control channel continuously. This is doubly bad if you are running the audio of the scanner to another computer or recording device and end up with hours of control channel noise.

If the program receives a MOVE command where the control channel will be the same freq as the voice scanner's currently on, I think the program should move the voice scanner to another freq..

Just my two cents

[morfis]

Originally Posted by Jay

The website (linato) is down again, so I can't send this to the author right now, but I will later on - for now, I'll post here:

I'm using the program with a Motorola HT1000 as the source radio, and a BCD396T as the voice channel radio. The system I monitor has three frequencies - 424.1625, 424.2625, and 424.5125.

Rather ingenious way of making the 396 follow the voice, I must say - using a tightly-defined custom search. However, this runs into trouble if/when the system's control channel changes.

The program seems to 'park' the 396 on the lowest voice channel - in my case, 424.1625 - when the system is idle. The problem arises when the control channel switches to that frequency. If there are no voice calls any time soon after the control channel changes, the voice scanner (the 396) blares out the control channel continuously. This is doubly bad if you are running the audio of the scanner to another computer or recording device and end up with hours of control channel noise.

If the program receives a MOVE command where the control channel will be the same freq as the voice scanner's currently on, I think the program should move the voice scanner to another freq..

Just my two cents

Jay, I'm a little confused by your post. Are you using Trukview to computer control your 396T? Your posts initially seems to imply that you aren't (you are using a "tightly-defined custom search").

The program is really only designed to use one radio and that under computer control. In your case it would be the 396T. This way it will monitor the control channel until a voice call is made and then change to the channel of the voice call.
Using a sperate radio for the control channel audio means you cannot use the site list to retune the radio, cannot perform a band scan (though I can't see any use in the way Trunkview does this anyway) and you can't use the software to automatically record the voice calls.

[morfis]

Originally Posted by Jay

The website (linato) is down again

Site is working atm (07:00 GMT)

[Comint]

Originally Posted by morfis

Using a sperate radio for the control channel audio means you cannot use the site list to retune the radio, cannot perform a band scan (though I can't see any use in the way Trunkview does this anyway) and you can't use the software to automatically record the voice calls.

Also, the 'Clear Down' signal is sent over the Voice Channel, and if that audio is not getting to the program, then that is why the program appears to be responding incorrectly to the change of Control Channel.

Comint

[Jay911]

Originally Posted by morfis

Jay, I'm a little confused by your post. Are you using Trukview to computer control your 396T? Your posts initially seems to imply that you aren't (you are using a "tightly-defined custom search").

That's the terminology I was using to describe the mode the 396 appears to be in when Trunkview tunes to the voice channel. I see on its screen "Custom Search 424.1625" (or similar; I'm 60 miles away from the scanner right now) when it is tuned by the program. I assumed this was done by setting up a custom limit search using 424.1625 as the low and the high limits of the search.

Originally Posted by morfis

The program is really only designed to use one radio and that under computer control. In your case it would be the 396T. This way it will monitor the control channel until a voice call is made and then change to the channel of the voice call.

I see. However that makes it hard to know when other calls are going on that don't involve the current voice channel (i.e. if radio 301 keys up on 6003 on freq 424.1625, and radio 300 keys up on 6001 on 424.2625).

The way I have it right now is the HT1000's audio is sent via a speaker adapter to the line input of the one computer. Until the software supported the 396, I haven't tried controlling a scanner for voice tracking - I've used another HT1000 with the control channel locked out, to listen to the audio of this system. Now, I have the 396 being controlled by the computer running Trunkview, and the audio from the 396 going to a separate computer, running ScanRec vox-sensing recording software.

Complicated yes, but I wasn't aware that I could use a single scanner. I never would have thought that would be favored, considering the potential loss of information as I outlined above.

Originally Posted by morfis

Using a sperate radio for the control channel audio means you cannot use the site list to retune the radio, cannot perform a band scan (though I can't see any use in the way Trunkview does this anyway) and you can't use the software to automatically record the voice calls.

As mentioned, I am using ScanRec for recording, and I'm not sure what the benefit is of using the site list. The 396 is tuned just fine with this setup, except that it is occasionally tuned to (and thus recording) the control channel. Now that I understand how things are supposed to be set up, I can change my setup to match. (I haven't been able to find any documentation on this program at all - the revised website helps a little, but it's still kind of limited in scope.)

Overall the program has been a great help in determining the details of the systems in my area, but it would have been helpful to have some instructions while putting it all together.

Thanks for your advice!

[morfis]

Jay,

Most people oly want to dedicate one scanner to the system but still want to track voice calls. I'm with you in that this misses too much info I want to see and that is the main reason I wouldn't normally use things like Trunkview. As a first step and introduction to MPT1327 monitoring it is however very useful.

The 396T is being set to the specific voice channel for the call it is monitoring. I don't have access to a 396T to examine the idea that it parks on the lowest frequency - if controlled by the software it should be reset to the control channel frequency not reset to the lowest one in your system (the software doesn't "know" what frequencies are actually in use by your system and sets the scanner only in response to a GTC...it doesn't 'remember' which freqs it has previously used).

Trunkview does have limited ability to only follow calls belonging to a specific group or a specific radio. Again to get the full benefit of this type of operation you really need to use more professional software (hobby market you are limited to Trunksniffer and FTrunk).
Group tracking isn't always useful as many systems are set up with all radios having the same group prefix and subgroups created using the actual radio idents. Larger, busier, wide area groups, such as Fleetcomm in the UK use multiple group prefixes as well as individual sub-groups - Trunkview can't deal with subgroups of this very well so many calls are missed.

There is apparently a new yahoo group for users to support each other.

[morfis]

Originally Posted by morfis

There is apparently a new yahoo group for users to support each other.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/trunkview

[Napalm]

The reason your 396 looks like it's doing a Custom Search is the command which sends one frequency to the radio is defined as such. It's NOT doing any kind of search, all it does is send the frequency + step + mode to the radio in one burst.

Take a look in the protocol from Uniden - it's on their website as a PDF.

Incidentally, since the 396/330 share the same/similar command set, I'd be interested to know if Trunkview will control the 996 base/mobile unit as well. As far as I can tell it may accept the same QSH command (I can't quite remember the exact command but I think that may be it).

[Napalm]

Damn looks like I can't edit my post - if anyone has a 996 or a BCT-15 and care to try out Trunkview using the 330 or the 396 setting in the software, please let us know if it works.

I'm pretty confident that all these radios use the same quick search command to enter one frequency into "VFO" mode.

[morfis]

Originally Posted by Napalm

Damn looks like I can't edit my post - if anyone has a 996 or a BCT-15 and care to try out Trunkview using the 330 or the 396 setting in the software, please let us know if it works.

Are the control protocol documents online as they are for the 330T and 396T?

[Napalm]

Yes, although Uniden's site isn't exactly user friendly.

http://www.uniden.com/index/download...roduct=BCD996T

I'll be getting a BCT-15 eventually, so I can actually play with it first hand and find out if it works without changing TV.

[mam1081]

Originally Posted by Napalm

Damn looks like I can't edit my post - if anyone has a 996 or a BCT-15 and care to try out Trunkview using the 330 or the 396 setting in the software, please let us know if it works.

I'm pretty confident that all these radios use the same quick search command to enter one frequency into "VFO" mode.

FYI,

It works on both the 396 and 996.

[Napalm]

Thanks Mark.

The developer is due to release the latest version very soon (v1.3). Will be up on the site soon:
http://www.linato.net/trunkview/