DSDPlus Decoding

[UnknownAX]

Hi,

I've been using DMR for past couple months now with a HT, but have recently got an SDR as I'd like to try to listen to more commercial and from what I've seen SDR's can decode and also get TG/CC etc.

I've tried SDR Sharp with the DSD plugin, however I seem to have an issue where it doesn't seem to decode.

I then tried SDR++ and I've managed to get it to show on the 'DSD Source Audio' that it's receiving a signal, however this is always going mad as per the picture attached. When I transmit on my HT the signal changes to even louder, but nothing decrypts. If I change the audio output in SDR ++ to my speakers I can hear the DMR tone. I'm not sure if it's me being stupid, as I'm not in range of a repeater, however the radio is set to a frequency and I have enabled a CC and timeslot. So I assumed that by transmitting on the HT, even out of the range of the repeater it should pick up the DMR signal I'm transmitting and decode it, unless I am mistaken.

I have also tried to get DSD installed directly on the mac, however I can't change the audio as it gives me an error which is why I tried going down the boot camp option to run Windows 10.

Specs: HT Anytone 878UVII Plus
Laptop Macbook Pro, running boot camp version of Windows 10.

Any advise is much appreciated.

 

[slicerwizard]

You're just asking for grief by using SDR# instead of FMP. And to decode a DMR radio (not a repeater) with DSD+ 1.101, you'll have to enable only DMR decoding.

 

[sonm10]

Buy fastlane. Start 1R. Start FMPx. Enter frequency. Done.

 

[UnknownAX]

You're just asking for grief by using SDR# instead of FMP. And to decode a DMR radio (not a repeater) with DSD+ 1.101, you'll have to enable only DMR decoding.

Thank you for your response, I did also try selecting DMR decoding only in the plugin software. Anyhow, I have since tried to use FMP (FMPA 2p7?) I assume this is the correct release from DSDPlus's website. When I attempt to run it I get two errors, can FMPA only be used with Airspy Devices?

Buy fastlane. Start 1R. Start FMPx. Enter frequency. Done.

Thank you, same question as above. Could you also explain what the difference is between, FMP / FMPx / FMPA / FMP24, as I've seen them mentioned in different places but I can't seem to find what the actual differences are. Sorry for the very 'newbie' question.

I must also note the SDR I am using is a Nooelec NESDR Smart v4.


Edit: In the main DSDPlus download I now see FMPA-CC, FMPA-VC, FMP-CC and FMP-VC. What is 1R? I'm going to also sort out purchasing fastlane.

 

[UnknownAX]

I have just attempted to run FMP-CC and CC. I have included a screenshot of both stages.

Screenshot 1 - FMP - No transmission on radio.
Screenshot 2 - FMP 2 - I use my Anytone 878 to transmit on a DMR channel with a colour code and talk group. However I am not in range of a repeater at the moment so I'm not sure whether I need to be in range of a repeater first. Please excuse my newbie questions as DMR radio is very new to me. I'm more experienced with programming than this lol.

 

[dlwtrunked]

I have just attempted to run FMP-CC and CC. I have included a screenshot of both stages.

Screenshot 1 - FMP - No transmission on radio.
Screenshot 2 - FMP 2 - I use my Anytone 878 to transmit on a DMR channel with a colour code and talk group. However I am not in range of a repeater at the moment so I'm not sure whether I need to be in range of a repeater first. Please excuse my newbie questions as DMR radio is very new to me. I'm more experienced with programming than this lol.

I have found when doing similar, one had to set the gain rather low; if too high, I did not get any decoding.

 

[slicerwizard]

I have just attempted to run FMP-CC and CC. I have included a screenshot of both stages.

Screenshot 1 - FMP - No transmission on radio.

You're tuned to 453.8 MHz and DSD+ shows a mobile radio transmission. Who's transmitting?

Screenshot 2 - FMP 2 - I use my Anytone 878 to transmit on a DMR channel with a colour code and talk group. However I am not in range of a repeater at the moment so I'm not sure whether I need to be in range of a repeater first.

You're still tuned to 453.8 MHz and nobody is transmitting. 453.8 would be a repeater output frequency in North America (but you haven't told us where you're located)

Doesn't the radio give you any indication of whether you're out of range? You can't see whether you're transmitting? Is there no TX light?

And as noted above, you're running far too much RF gain to monitor a local transmission. Gain should be reduced to zero and the antenna should probably be removed from the SDR dongle.

 

[UnknownAX]

I have found when doing similar, one had to set the gain rather low; if too high, I did not get any decoding.

Thanks I'll try and reduce the gain.

You're tuned to 453.8 MHz and DSD+ shows a mobile radio transmission. Who's transmitting?

You're still tuned to 453.8 MHz and nobody is transmitting. 453.8 would be a repeater output frequency in North America (but you haven't told us where you're located)

Doesn't the radio give you any indication of whether you're out of range? You can't see whether you're transmitting? Is there no TX light?

And as noted above, you're running far too much RF gain to monitor a local transmission. Gain should be reduced to zero and the antenna should probably be removed from the SDR dongle.

I'm located in the UK, I'm not sure whether I'm attempting to decode something which isn't possible which is why I mentioned I'm not in range of a repeater.

Basically I picked a frequency on my radio set up a colour code, time slot etc and transmitted on the radio. I'm obviously not in range of said repeater but I wasn't sure whether the software will still pick up me transmitting and then decode it, or whether it needs to be in range to the repeater and then the decoding will work.

Hopefully this make sense, but I imagine it's the latter where I first have to be in range of a repeater rather than transmitting with no repeater as a test to see whether it decodes just the anytone radio by it's self with the DMR settings.

 

[a417]

Thank you, same question as above. Could you also explain what the difference is between, FMP / FMPx / FMPA / FMP24, as I've seen them mentioned in different places but I can't seem to find what the actual differences are. Sorry for the very 'newbie' question.

There are textfiles for each in the root folder, i have quoted the first 4 lines of each for you. There is documentation there, you will need to read it. It is not the greatest, but everything with a .txt extension in that folder has the answers for what you need/ask. If you run the applications from the command line with the -h flag and >(pipe) the output to a text file, you can have reference for each flag / and what it does.

FMP is a simple RTL-SDR dongle tuner / NFM demodulator. It samples at 1 MHz, so its spectrum
display spans 1 MHz of the RF spectrum. FMP is designed for low power devices like low end
netbooks where CPU and screen resources are limited.

FMPA is a simple tuner / NFM demodulator for use with DSD+ and Airspy devices.
It samples at 2.5 MHz and displays 1.875 MHz of spectrum.

FMPA operates very much like FMP. Most of FMPA's command line options and active keys
are identical to FMP. These are detailed in the FMP.txt file.

this is not really a hold-your-hand software suite, reading comprehension helps.

 

[sonm10]

From the Notes file



DSD+ interfaces with RTL2832U-based DVB-T dongles via the FMP24 program. FMP24 performs
the required tuning, filtering and demodulation SDR functions.

The FMPA program is used with Airspy devices. Your Airspy serial number(s) should be added
to the FMPA.cfg file; right-click on it and use Windows Notepad to edit the file.

The FMPP program is used with SDRPlay RSP2s. Your RSP2 serial number(s) should be added
to the FMPP.cfg file.


Single-dongle monitoring:

To use a single device, run the 1R.bat file to start DSD+,
then run the appropriate batch file for your device:

DVB-T dongle: FMP24-CC.bat

Airspy: FMPA-CC.bat

SDRPLay: FMPP-CC.bat

DSD+ and the FMPx SDR software (FMP24, FMPA or FMPP) should start talking to each other
and raw demodulated audio waveforms should be displayed in DSD+'s Source Audio window.
The Windows Firewall may prompt you to allow FMPx to act as a server / accept connections;
click the check boxes to allow FMPx to function properly.

Tune your SDR by left-clicking in the FMPx RF spectrum window or by using the left/right
cursor keys or by directly typing in a radio frequency (in MHz) and pressing Enter.

Pressing '?' will list all of the FMPx keyboard commands in the FMPx console window.
Commonly used commands relate to RF gain levels, tuning step sizes and channel filtering
bandwidths.

If FMPx is tuned to a conventional digital voice channel,
DSD+ will decode any unencrypted digital voice that is present.
Use the DSD+ menus to ensure that DSD+ is sending audio to your PC speakers.

If FMPx is used to monitor analog channels,
select "Monitor Source Audio if No Sync and Signal Present" in the DSD+ input menu.

If FMPx is tuned to a P25 control channel, DSD+ will automatically start trunk tracking
and decoding unencrypted Phase I and Phase II voice traffic.

For some NEXEDGE and Tier III control channels, DSD+ will automatically start trunk tracking.

For most NEXEDGE and Tier III systems and for all Capacity Plus and Connect Plus systems,
accurate channel data for the site being monitored has to be added to the DSDPlus.frequencies
file to enable trunk tracking.


If you have a second SDR device, you can run the 1Ra.bat file and the appropriate FMPx-VC.bat
file and simultaneously monitor a second trunking system or site or conventional channel(s).
To manually tune VC FMPx, press Esc once to take FMPx out of VC mode.

 

[UnknownAX]

There are textfiles for each in the root folder, i have quoted the first 4 lines of each for you. There is documentation there, you will need to read it. It is not the greatest, but everything with a .txt extension in that folder has the answers for what you need/ask. If you run the applications from the command line with the -h flag and >(pipe) the output to a text file, you can have reference for each flag / and what it does.




this is not really a hold-your-hand software suite, reading comprehension helps.

I apologize, as per my post above I didn't actually know where to find FMP etc but I edited the post to say I had found it etc. I should've then updated my post to say I had read the text files.

Ok so I've not got it all working and detecting on a DMR channel. So the radio picks up and decodes the traffic fine. However DSD, also decodes the traffic but no sound output. It does show 'cach error' So I'm assuming there's an error somewhere. I've done a little search but cant see what causes this error.


Initiating TCP connection to 127.0.0.1:20001...
Connected to 127.0.0.1:20001
audio output device #1 = 'Speakers (Apple Audio Device)'
audio output device #2 = 'CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual C'

audio output device #1 (Speakers (Apple Audio Device)) initialized

DMR/MotoTRBO decoding enabled
Sync:+DMR
Sync:+DMR
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR37
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=15 Unknown TypeF
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR29
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR42
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Unknown TypeC ERR1
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR48
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 CSBK ERR14 ECC FAIL
Sync:+DMR
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR30
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 CSBK ERR13 ECC FAIL
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR31
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=3 Rate 1/2 Data ERR15
Sync:+DMR
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=3 Rate 1/2 Data ERR15
+DMR CACH ERR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=2 CSBK ERR13 ECC FAIL
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR46
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=6 MBC ERR13 ECC FAIL
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=2 Unknown TypeD
+DMR CACH ERR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 MBC Header ERR12 ECC FAIL
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR45
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR35
Sync:+DMR
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR43
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR34
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR49
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=2 PI Header ERR13 ECC FAIL
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=2 CSBK ERR15 ECC FAIL
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=3 Idle ERR50
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=6 Idle ERR58
Sync:+DMR
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR32
+DMR CACH ERR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR36
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR29
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=2 Unknown TypeD
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR46
+DMR CACH ERR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=14 Voice Hdr ERR14 ECC FAIL
Sync:+DMR
+DMR CACH ERR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR42
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR37
Sync:+DMR

 

[slicerwizard]

Why does it (barely) work now? What did you change?

The decoding is full of errors. That's usually caused by a signal that's too weak. If you're monitoring a repeater or any other non-local signal, you need to turn up the RF gain and/or improve the reception (better antenna / better antenna location)

 

[morfis]

Possibly not a good idea to talk about transmitting on a frequency for which you are not licenced. Juat stick to the illegal reception as no-one bothers about that.

 

[dlwtrunked]

Why does it (barely) work now? What did you change?

The decoding is full of errors. That's usually caused by a signal that's too weak. If you're monitoring a repeater or any other non-local signal, you need to turn up the RF gain and/or improve the reception (better antenna / better antenna location)

You can get the same problem if the gain is too high--I did . I had an HT near the antenna which is what I think he is doing.

 

[slicerwizard]

You can get the same problem if the gain is too high--I did . I had an HT near the antenna which is what I think he is doing.

He's decoding a two slot transmission. Does his HT transmit on both slots?

 

[UnknownAX]

He's decoding a two slot transmission. Does his HT transmit on both slots?

I don't believe it transmits on both at same time, it's currently set to T1. Not honesty sure how I got it working but I did still had the issue of CACH ERR.

I have since plugged it directly into a windows machine rather than using a MacBook running bootcamp, and I have now got it to get rid of the CACH ERR. However I'm not hearing any voices at the moment, but I'm seeing this sort of data, I'm wondering if it's over the air updates or something. Has anyone ever seen this?


+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR10
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR5
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR2
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR4
Null SLCO
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR5
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
Null SLCO
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR3
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR3 DCC=11 Idle ERR8
Null SLCO
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR6
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR2
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR3
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
Null SLCO
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR5
Sync: no sync
Sync:+DMR
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR10
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR5
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR1
CACH Sig ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR4
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR2
Null SLCO
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK ERR1 Preamble 8004 Tgt=1 Src=230
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR2 DCC=11 Idle
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK ERR1 Preamble 8003 Tgt=1 Src=230
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
Activity update: Slot1=Indiv Data Slot2=No Activity
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Data Header DPF=[13:SD-Def] Tgt=1 Src=230 Conf=0 SAP=[10:Short Data] Blocks=2 Format=Binary PadBits=56
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Rate 1/2 Data
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR2
Activity update: Slot1=Indiv Data Slot2=No Activity
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Rate 1/2 Data ERR1
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK ERR2 Preamble 8009 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle
Null SLCO
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 CSBK ERR1 Preamble 8009 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK Preamble 8008 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR3
Activity update: Slot1=Indiv Data Slot2=No Activity
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK ERR2 Preamble 8007 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK Preamble 8006 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
Activity update: Slot1=Indiv Data Slot2=No Activity
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK Preamble 8005 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 CSBK ERR2 Preamble 8004 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR2
Activity update: Slot1=Indiv Data Slot2=No Activity
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 CSBK ERR1 Preamble 8003 Tgt=230 Src=1001
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR2
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Data Header ERR4
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
CACH Sig ERR2
+DMR slot1 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Rate 1/2 Data ERR3
+DMR slot2 BS DATA ERR1 DCC=11 Idle ERR4
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Rate 1/2 Data ERR1
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle
CACH Sig ERR2
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Rate 1/2 Data
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot1 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1
+DMR slot2 BS DATA DCC=11 Idle ERR1

 

[slicerwizard]

You still have many decode errors. The data transmissions could be anything. DSD+ 1.101 doesn't decode very many of them, and even fewer when the decodes are peppered with errors.

 

[UnknownAX]

You still have many decode errors. The data transmissions could be anything. DSD+ 1.101 doesn't decode very many of them, and even fewer when the decodes are peppered with errors.

Would fast Lane be a better option? Is that more reliable? I’ve tried a few different antennas and adjusting gain etc.

 

[lwvmobile]

Would fast Lane be a better option? Is that more reliable? I’ve tried a few different antennas and adjusting gain etc.

Have you tried SDRTrunk yet? Should be able to run it natively on your mac.

Release Version 0.5.0 Alpha 6 · DSheirer/sdrtrunk

Application download links for each operating system are available below in the Assets section. WARNING: this is an alpha release meaning that it is NOT feature-complete and is a preview of upcomin...

github.com

 

[slicerwizard]

Would fast Lane be a better option? Is that more reliable? I’ve tried a few different antennas and adjusting gain etc.

It's better but it won't fix a weak signal.