boatbod
Member
Not sure that anyone would say op25 is a linux app that "just works" (it requires some configuration to get going) but it will tune P25 on both phase 1 and 2 system with a single rtl dongle and has great audio.
Digital SDR program that "just works" for Linux?
- Thread starter fonestar
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RF-Guy-El-Loco
Member
SDRTrunk Misc Info
1. In the Audio Identifier Field find the Select New box, use the drop down menu to Add Talkgroup. Add it to the Talkgroup: box by clicking on that field box itself. *It has to be in HEX for now* Click SAVE. Also afterward, use the Select New box as before and drop down for Audio Priority. Use the slider bar. #1 would be your Most Important calls, #100 the least importants and slide the bar past #100 and get the Do Not Monitor. No buss calls! Click SAVE. Then write in your Talkgroup names into the Alias field and use the drop menu for List/Group. You can also assign it an Action (beep) or trigger misc audio file the same way in the Action Field.
2. I lose the settings at times too, especially if I was using two RTL-SDR sticks and then just go back to using one. So I have to just restart the program a couple times. Also I would copy your playlist files. They are in Linux under your (home name folder of your PC) in the SDRTrunk Folder/Playlist. Once you get a full playlist, if things get wacky, and you need to re create this program's parameters, it will write over the playlist with new blank data. So make a backup of your Playlist files when you get them perfected and store the backup elsewhere. If/when you recreate the program with a different setup and it starts from scratch, get the program running good and then copy back those playlist files back over the (newly made empty blank playlist) files.
3. No "Hold/Monitor" yet, he's working on this. But if you set a few select Talkgroups to Audio Priority #1, the program will automatically "alight" to these every time they are active and actually break off of all the other calls. You pick what are the most important calls to you by assigning each Talkgroup a Priority Level by using the Audio Priority Slider bar. Don't leave them all on #100 default. Once you fool with this setting, though, you will get a lot of audio calls jumping back and forth off and on different Talkgroups per your own Priority assignments, but to me, that's what I want it doing, just a great deal of call switching for your brain to handle. Takes a clear mind to process all the switching, but wow what a Feature!
4. Your PC should be fast enough, my low end I-3 with 4 gigs of Ram will handle it. Any 4 core I-3 or above will handle it. I tried a few Thinkpad laptop I-3s and I-5 chips in Linux and Win 7 and I end up using a total of maximum 2-3 gigs Ram (Less with Linux). Just not any Dual Core PCs, not enough cores. I tried it on a standard grade Intel (Dual Core) laptop and (Dual Core) desktop box with dual boots of Win 7/Linux Mint and they bog down and give me "Overload" Red Bars on the calls, neither is fast enough in either OS. But with Any I-3 chip (4 core) or above it will be plenty sufficient. Even works on an AMD A4 low spec 4 cores chip!
5. If you get IDLE/FADE, it means that it is losing the Control Channel. I had this too and moving the antenna cured it. It should Not go into IDLE at any time, means that it has lost Control Signal. I have also got that on the calls themselves, which means that the signal is too low for decode. (In my basement, ha!)
1. In the Audio Identifier Field find the Select New box, use the drop down menu to Add Talkgroup. Add it to the Talkgroup: box by clicking on that field box itself. *It has to be in HEX for now* Click SAVE. Also afterward, use the Select New box as before and drop down for Audio Priority. Use the slider bar. #1 would be your Most Important calls, #100 the least importants and slide the bar past #100 and get the Do Not Monitor. No buss calls! Click SAVE. Then write in your Talkgroup names into the Alias field and use the drop menu for List/Group. You can also assign it an Action (beep) or trigger misc audio file the same way in the Action Field.
2. I lose the settings at times too, especially if I was using two RTL-SDR sticks and then just go back to using one. So I have to just restart the program a couple times. Also I would copy your playlist files. They are in Linux under your (home name folder of your PC) in the SDRTrunk Folder/Playlist. Once you get a full playlist, if things get wacky, and you need to re create this program's parameters, it will write over the playlist with new blank data. So make a backup of your Playlist files when you get them perfected and store the backup elsewhere. If/when you recreate the program with a different setup and it starts from scratch, get the program running good and then copy back those playlist files back over the (newly made empty blank playlist) files.
3. No "Hold/Monitor" yet, he's working on this. But if you set a few select Talkgroups to Audio Priority #1, the program will automatically "alight" to these every time they are active and actually break off of all the other calls. You pick what are the most important calls to you by assigning each Talkgroup a Priority Level by using the Audio Priority Slider bar. Don't leave them all on #100 default. Once you fool with this setting, though, you will get a lot of audio calls jumping back and forth off and on different Talkgroups per your own Priority assignments, but to me, that's what I want it doing, just a great deal of call switching for your brain to handle. Takes a clear mind to process all the switching, but wow what a Feature!
4. Your PC should be fast enough, my low end I-3 with 4 gigs of Ram will handle it. Any 4 core I-3 or above will handle it. I tried a few Thinkpad laptop I-3s and I-5 chips in Linux and Win 7 and I end up using a total of maximum 2-3 gigs Ram (Less with Linux). Just not any Dual Core PCs, not enough cores. I tried it on a standard grade Intel (Dual Core) laptop and (Dual Core) desktop box with dual boots of Win 7/Linux Mint and they bog down and give me "Overload" Red Bars on the calls, neither is fast enough in either OS. But with Any I-3 chip (4 core) or above it will be plenty sufficient. Even works on an AMD A4 low spec 4 cores chip!
5. If you get IDLE/FADE, it means that it is losing the Control Channel. I had this too and moving the antenna cured it. It should Not go into IDLE at any time, means that it has lost Control Signal. I have also got that on the calls themselves, which means that the signal is too low for decode. (In my basement, ha!)
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Thanks for your help, RF-Guy. I think I've got the alias thing figured out. It's working pretty well now; I've not yet seen any "Overload" indicators at all. And yes, the audio quality is great!
I have another RTL-SDR dongle on order, and so I will try the program using three once it arrives.
I am definitely going to make a backup of my alias settings in the event they get wiped for some reason.
I have another RTL-SDR dongle on order, and so I will try the program using three once it arrives.
I am definitely going to make a backup of my alias settings in the event they get wiped for some reason.
The C4FM decoder uses different signal tracking code than the LSM. I'm going to redo the C4FM code to use the same logic as the LSM tracking code, since it works better.
1. Add an alias and set the name to what you want displayed, e.g. 'Police Dispatch'.
2. Type an alias list name for all of the aliases that you want to use and make sure you select that in the channel configuration window.
3. Select the alias in the list and then in the editor window under the 'Identifer' tab, click 'New' and add a Talkgroup identifier.
4. Set the talkgroup identifer to the hex value for the talkgroup. It has to be either 4 (talkgroup) or 6 (radio ID) characters long, using leading zeros to make it the proper length.
The program auto-saves all changed settings every 5 seconds. Make sure you don't close the program for at least 10 seconds after you make any changes.
Not yet.
I ran some benchmarks this past weekend on the new 0.4.0 code and I've reduced memory usage considerably. Comparing the 0.3.3 code against the 0.4.0 code with an airspy running 10 MSPS into a 4k FFT display, peak memory usage is down 60% and as java hotspot optimizes the code after the program runs a bit, memory usage gradually decreases another 30-35%.
Denny
Attachments
SDRTrunk
Got it set up and working under Linux Mint and also on a Windows 10 machine. Works fine.
In the Windows setup, what is the name of the file where the alias information is stored? And, can this same file be shared with the Linux setup to avoid entering all the data twice? (Not on the same computer). IOW, can I copy the windows data and use it on the Linux install, and vise versa?
Got it set up and working under Linux Mint and also on a Windows 10 machine. Works fine.
In the Windows setup, what is the name of the file where the alias information is stored? And, can this same file be shared with the Linux setup to avoid entering all the data twice? (Not on the same computer). IOW, can I copy the windows data and use it on the Linux install, and vise versa?
BM82557
Member
Windows filename = playlist_v2.xml
Thanks!
RF-Guy-El-Loco
Member
SDRTrunk Thank YOU!
W4KRR, the file is in Windows C:\Users\(Your Name)\SDRTrunk\Playlist. It will work in Linux the same and vice versa. Tried it already.
This program is putting all my costly scanners to shame! It smokes all of them. Nice to see that you're trimming Ram use now too. Wasn't too bad in Linux, but this will make it fabulous. I can't tear myself away from this thing now. Really built a better P-25 mousetrap you certainly did! :-')
W4KRR, the file is in Windows C:\Users\(Your Name)\SDRTrunk\Playlist. It will work in Linux the same and vice versa. Tried it already.
This program is putting all my costly scanners to shame! It smokes all of them. Nice to see that you're trimming Ram use now too. Wasn't too bad in Linux, but this will make it fabulous. I can't tear myself away from this thing now. Really built a better P-25 mousetrap you certainly did! :-')
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Yes OP25 works extremely well, as does SDRTrunk, i thinkthereis room for both as both have strengths and weaknesses, the biggest difference is SDRTrunk has a nice interface as opposed to OP25 in either flavor being pretty basic also you can hold a talkgroup on OP25 and Cannot on SDRTrunk
whilst OP25 operates effectively with only the 1 SDR device, both decode extremely well
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