Should I become a feed provider?

drsprite · Jan 5, 2015

Not sure this is the right place to ask, but I've noticed the scanner feed for my area has been down for about 5 months now. So long it's no longer listed on the broadcastify page. Local PD switched to P25 in August and I think that has caused some issues with the original feed.

This past weekend, I've setup an RTLSDR with SDR# and DSD+ to do the decoding. It works pretty good!

1) Does ScannerCast work with this setup?
2) Does it make sense for me to broadcast? I don't mind contributing, but I don't want to "step on anyone's toes".

Not knowing how it all works, I figure I would ask for any thoughts.

Voyager · Jan 5, 2015

I would think a scanner would be better. I don't think you can control what TGs are sent on DSD+ and RR has some prohibitions on certain types of TGs.

drsprite · Jan 5, 2015

Local PD isn't trunked, it's just P25. Best I can tell after 3 days of listening, there is only 1 TG. I read the TOS and I would seem to be in compliance since there's only 1 dispatch channel - no special SWAT or hospital type activity.

I would be broadcasting the same as the old feed, just now it's P25 digital.

Spitfire8520 · Jan 7, 2015

If you are using a Virtual Audio Cable setup or something similar, then I believe ScannerCast will work just fine with a SDR + DSD setup. I know of several feeds that use a similar setup to feed. The whole thing with feeds whether or not you want to provide the feed for your local PD. You have to take into consideration that an officer will eventually find out there's a feed of your local PD and that could end up being bad for you in the long run. It's really personal preference.

cmjonesinc · Jan 7, 2015

Even if it were a trunked system you can run two sdr's with unitrunker and DSD and still lockout talkgroups. I've never ran a feed with a SDR personally but I know someone is running one for my county (Randolph, NC) on a p25 tunked system and it sounds pretty good.

drsprite · Jan 7, 2015

Thanks for the replies fellas. The P25 here sounds pretty good with P25.

Spitfire, what kind of trouble do you assume I'd get in? The thought of that kind of steers me away from doing it

There was a feed up previous to P25, but it's been gone for 5 months now. Just thinking I'd fill the gap since I have a working setup.

Spitfire8520 · Jan 7, 2015

drsprite said:
Spitfire, what kind of trouble do you assume I'd get in? The thought of that kind of steers me away from doing it There was a feed up previous to P25, but it's been gone for 5 months now. Just thinking I'd fill the gap since I have a working setup.

Oh, I didn't intend to hint towards any sort of trouble to yourself personally. I was more leaning towards the idea that you, as a listener, may notice certain phrases becoming more common use (eg. "call me on my cell"). Once they are aware that they are actively being monitored, they tend to be less "fun" over the air. There are more extreme cases in which they decide that they don't want you to listen and then encrypt their communications, but that's a completely different topic altogether.

drsprite · Jan 7, 2015

Spitfire8520 said:
Oh, I didn't intend to hint towards any sort of trouble to yourself personally. I was more leaning towards the idea that you, as a listener, may notice certain phrases becoming more common use (eg. "call me on my cell"). Once they are aware that they are actively being monitored, they tend to be less "fun" over the air. There are more extreme cases in which they decide that they don't want you to listen and then encrypt their communications, but that's a completely different topic altogether.

Ah, okay. Makes sense!

KD0TAZ · Jan 24, 2015

FYI if you're going to do it, make sure you keep a close ear on your feed. Just because your department is the only one using your local tower right now doesn't mean it will stay that way for long. When our department changed over to P25 it was the only TG for a while, but now the next town over has changed over and RTLSDR picks up more of their traffic than ours. We also get highway patrol dragging traffic to our tower from other counties all the time.

Yuni T Runker said a while ago that he is considering adding the ability for Unitrunker to assign specific TGs to specific audio receiver sticks, but it as yet has not been implemented. That's the only thing holding me back from running my feed off SDR so I can have my scanner back.

thmsemrtn · Feb 6, 2015

Thank You

You are a life saver! Thank you for getting SPD back on streaming! I can't afford a new scanner and I work in Winchester Square where all the murders happen. I actually hear the gunfire many times. Again thanks for doing this I listen for about 32 hours per week while working (security).

dw2872 · Feb 23, 2015

I have the same kind of setup right now using UniTrunker and DSD+ (not broadcasting on RR though, maybe later). On the first instance of UniTrunker fed to DSD+, I have the "Listen Priority" set to 3 so only TGs with a 3, 2, or 1 can ever be heard. Since the default for all TGs is 50, I just changed the 4 or 5 main dispatch TGs I wanted to hear to numbers below 3. The one I never wanted to be interrupted I set at 1.

This is the easy way to only let specific TGs get through. Locking out hundreds (or more) TGs is not practical.

HEFFTJ · Jul 9, 2015

thmsemrtn said:
You are a life saver! Thank you for getting SPD back on streaming! I can't afford a new scanner and I work in Winchester Square where all the murders happen. I actually hear the gunfire many times. Again thanks for doing this I listen for about 32 hours per week while working (security).

How can we get the other channels from Springfield ,Ma
Police Department ? Is there a link thru Radio References ?

HEFFTJ · Jul 9, 2015

Also from Springfield and I'm very concerned about these kids shooting each other !
Was wondering if there's a way to get the other channels from
The Springfield PD. ? Maybe the Radio Reference can add these channels
Not sure how to contact them ! Thanks for caring about our city
My Newest Friend !

drsprite · Jul 9, 2015

HEFFTJ, not going to happen. The 1 channel is all you'll hear from Radio Reference. According to the terms of service (Feed Provider Terms of Service - The RadioReference Wiki), only the dispatch channel can be streamed.

Nasby · Jul 9, 2015

HEFFTJ said:
How can we get the other channels from Springfield ,Ma
Police Department ? Is there a link thru Radio References ?

You could always buy your own scanner and program everything you want to hear.

Scanners are very reasonably priced these days.

Then you would know all about those darn troublemaking kids.

KD0TAZ · Jul 9, 2015

Nasby said:
You could always buy your own scanner and program everything you want to hear.

Scanners are very reasonably priced these days.

Then you would know all about those darn troublemaking kids.

LOL! Have you priced P25 scanners lately?? That comment tells me either you have not, or you have a lot of disposable income and your perception of $500 differs wildly from ours. They're not even "reasonably priced" on the secondary market.

fredva · Jul 9, 2015

KD0TAZ said:
LOL! Have you priced P25 scanners lately?? That comment tells me either you have not, or you have a lot of disposable income and your perception of $500 differs wildly from ours. They're not even "reasonably priced" on the secondary market.

New P25 Scanner, $269 and free shipping on Amazon. Not $500. http://www.amazon.com/RadioShack-Pr...e=UTF8&qid=1436488519&sr=8-1&keywords=PRO-668

And that same model has been as low as $180 at times. And it will decode both Phase 1 and Phase 2. Others that will meet the need for Springfield, MA PD can be had used on ebay for less than $200 if you have patience and don't get into a bidding frenzy on one particular unit.

fredva · Jul 9, 2015

And if you are willing to put up with a missing battery cover to get one cheap, there's this option: Radio Shack Pro 96 Handheld Digital Scanner | eBay

Nasby · Jul 9, 2015

KD0TAZ said:
LOL! Have you priced P25 scanners lately?? That comment tells me either you have not, or you have a lot of disposable income and your perception of $500 differs wildly from ours. They're not even "reasonably priced" on the secondary market.

You can buy digital P25 scanners right here brand new on the classifieds for around $200.00.

Of course that is more expensive than sponging off of someone else's feed though.

bee · Jul 9, 2015

why do you want to be a "feed provider"

Why does anyone want to be a "feed provider??

Should I become a feed provider?

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I might be completely clueless! =)

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I might be completely clueless! =)

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