DSD in Edmonton

[rabrol]

Hi all.

Got my first RTL dongle a couple of weeks ago. It is now installed and providing ADS-B feeds to PlanePlotter, FlightRadar24.com & PlaneFinder.net. Since that one is tied up, I've ordered 2 more which should arrive later this week.

The goal for the next 2 RTL-SDR devices is to experiment with DSD, DMRDecode, and Unitrunker under Windows 8.

Can anyone suggest a good strong digital signal that is not encrypted that I would be able to monitor with such a set up?

I'm in South Edmonton. Feel free to PM.
Thanks!
Rob

 

[VE5JL]

What RTL dongle did you get? I got the one from NooElec and so far so good.

I'm located in Saskatoon and I can pick up AC from a little west of Yorkton and East of Battleford.

I'm going to see if I can get an external antenna to extend the range.

 

[harryshute]

Is it MotorTurbo sites close to South Edmonton you are looking for?

 

[rabrol]

Is it MotorTurbo sites close to South Edmonton you are looking for?

Yes, I was wondering what I should be able to receive and decode on the South Side.
I've already had some fun with it, and would report success on 422.3625, 452.775, 452.2375, 410.125, 461.275 and a few others.

I couldn't get 461.1125 to sync, even though it seems like a really strong signal. Perhaps it isn't DMR?

Managed to get some Pocsag and Flex decoding working with the SDRSharp and PDW. The only Pocsag I can find is the 139.95MHz signal, run by CityPage. The Flex ones are in the 929-932MHz range, and I'm not getting as good decoding on those ones at all. They seem to be Canada-wide, whereas the CityPage one is mostly local traffic. I tried upping the filter to 25000 which helped a little.

After playing with that stuff well into the small hours of Friday morning, I must say it is the most fun I've had with radio in years - and certainly the most fun I've had with $17!

Next on my "hit list" is to get the EDM EDACS system tracking through Unitrunker. I am finding it really tough to acquire and keep the signal. The Control Channel seems not to hold its lock for long at all. It shows full bars for a few seconds, sometimes a minute, then stops and doesn't resume. Then when I restart the receiver, it starts logging as if it is a whole new site. I'd like to see if DSD can handle the PV on this system.

VE5JL - I got the same Nooelec dongles. The first one I purchased through Amazon (US), and set it up as a Plane Plotter feed at work. Then I ordered 2 more from Nooelec, this time directly via his website, and saved a few bucks on each one. They are incredible little devices when used with the various OpenSource and freeware apps!

 

[harryshute]

You may also want to try 460.8875, 461.4375, 460.3375, 461.3375, 460.2125, 451.7375, 410.3375 and 410.9125 both of which are linked to 410.125.

WCI (non Motorola) is on 461.1125. DES ENC or PV?

 

[rabrol]

You may also want to try 460.8875, 461.4375, 460.3375, 461.3375, 460.2125, 451.7375, 410.3375 and 410.9125 both of which are linked to 410.125.

WCI (non Motorola) is on 461.1125. DES ENC or PV?

Great. Thanks for the additional channels - I already had 2 of these, but am glad to have the others. Will check them out later this week

As for the ProVoice on the local EDACS, do you know if it is ENC?

 

[kayn1n32008]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9900; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.746 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

As for the ProVoice on the local EDACS, do you know if it is ENC?

Some is some is not.

 

[rabrol]

Some is some is not.

OK thanks. I haven't got Unitrunker working properly on this system. Once I do, I'll give it a proper shot. In the meantime I just parked SDR# on one of the 20 channels, and ran the audio through DSD. Used the DSD160 -fp switch and was pleased to hear some audio when my patience paid off!

Also noticed some voice inversion signals today in Edmonton. Had never seen them before (love having a visual way to look at signals through SDR#). Also noticed software to pipe the audio through over at IZ8BLY MT63 terminal for windows and soundcards

 

[SCPD]

I also recently ordered some usb dongles from NooElec.Rather then make a new thread about this I would like to throw out some questions ( you are in the same local as me ). Using two of the dongles ( one for the control channel and such ) will I get equivalent results compared to what I get on my current Pro-95 . Currently I am still noobish on this stuff and I am only listening to the city EDACS stuff ( ems , ets , eps ).

Watching a lot of youtube videos I am excited on the low cost ( my budget for this hobby at the moment is in the $XX range ) and possibility that these have . 99% of the time I am listening I am at my computer anyway , why not take advantage of that !

Another question I have is what cool local ( Edmonton ) things I can see using these dongles ? pager traffic ( if there is any happening)? maybe some air traffic stuff like the police helicopters or the global one? are there things that can be decoded that I am missing by using my Pro-95 ?

 

[rabrol]

Another question I have is what cool local ( Edmonton ) things I can see using these dongles ? pager traffic ( if there is any happening)? maybe some air traffic stuff like the police helicopters or the global one? are there things that can be decoded that I am missing by using my Pro-95 ?

I haven't been able to get Unitrunker to work well with the dongles on the EDACS system,. However I am able to record activity using UT on the other trunked systems in the area, EDACS or Motorola.

Yes, you can use the dongle along with something like PDW to decode POCSAG / Flex paging messages, although I am not sure of the legality of it here in Alberta. PDW will also allow you to decode ACARS messages from aircraft. You can also set up your dongle to monitor ADS-B signals, and using free software, create your own mini radar site.

DSD will allow you to decode unencrypted P25 & DMR (Mototurbo) as well as unencrypted ProVoice.

Have fun with your new toys

 

[SCPD]

I got my dongles yesterday and playing around with sdr# I figured out how to pipe out audio and got PDW working good.

This morning I was trying the 4XX mhz bands posted here and got DSD to decode one for like 30 seconds then it quit. Is there a listing of what each of those freq's correspond to ?

Have you made/bought a antenna for the aircraft stuff . Or general better overall antenna Vs the stock one .

Also if you had any guides you followed to set up unitrunker with the edacs system I would like to read them as everything I have found seems to be about setting up for P25 ( but it seems to have control and voice channels so it is probably similar ).

To be honest it has been months since I manually programed my Pro-95 , What is the "control Chanel" on the EDACS system ( the 20 freqs don't have any letters next to them to denote)?

 

[harryshute]

Which of of the UHF ones did you decode? I can look to see who it is.

Any of the 20 EDACS LCN's can act as data channel.

 

[SCPD]

I think it was 422.3625 that I briefly got . I think I might need to find a better location to try this stuff out as my home is not getting me the best results ( or get better antennas).

 

[harryshute]

That frequency belongs to Communications Group who sells radio access to various companies including some security firms. Not sure if their 422 MHz channels are trunked or conventional but if trunked could cause some problems for DSD. The key seems to be to get an excellent signal to decode.

 

[awstott]

I picked up 4 of these.

RTL2832U + R820T Mini DVB-T + DAB+ + FM USB Digital TV Dongle - White + Silver - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

Now to figure out how to make them all play nice.

 

[VE5JL]

I picked up 4 of these.

RTL2832U + R820T Mini DVB-T + DAB+ + FM USB Digital TV Dongle - White + Silver - Free Shipping - DealExtreme

Now to figure out how to make them all play nice.

I have one that I use now with PlanePlotter.

Let us know what you're going to use them for, I was going to get a second one so I can do the ACARS.

 

[awstott]

After seeing what you guys have done with them I was thinking seeing what I could hobble together as a cheap scanner - not sure if that's going to work out though. Maybe mess around with some of the SDR software as well.