dmchalmers
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I'm Curious which is a better investment, Would a sdr dongle be worth it or would DMR , XNDN upgrades
SDR vs Scanner upgrades
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rrobinso84
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I'm testing that right now! Cheap RTL-SDR ruining DSD+ Fast Lane is decoding and following some local DMR traffic. I'll probably give in and get the scanner key because the SDR is really only good at following one control channel and not a true scanner.
Indeed SDR dongles are not true scanners, but SDRTrunk (with multiple dongles) + rdioScanner can give you a digital scanner feel.
Ubbe
Member
A SDR dongle are always worth to have for anyone using radio receivers. You can check if you have any strong transmitters that interfere with your reception. You can easily find unknown transmitters. You can scan a 20MHz range, like VHF-AIR, in 2 seconds.
The receive quality of dongles are bad, but then the receiver chip in Unidens SDS scanners are of the same quality.
If a DMR and NXDN will be worth $100 for you depends on if those kind of systems can be found in your area and you would like to receive them. It's a lot easier to handle those systems in a scanner than using a dongle. It's like asking if you need to buy winter tires for your car, it depends on where you are and if you prefer to stay home when it snows. If it snows in your area and you would like to make full use of your car you buy those tires at an extra expense.
/Ubbe
The receive quality of dongles are bad, but then the receiver chip in Unidens SDS scanners are of the same quality.
If a DMR and NXDN will be worth $100 for you depends on if those kind of systems can be found in your area and you would like to receive them. It's a lot easier to handle those systems in a scanner than using a dongle. It's like asking if you need to buy winter tires for your car, it depends on where you are and if you prefer to stay home when it snows. If it snows in your area and you would like to make full use of your car you buy those tires at an extra expense.
/Ubbe
ChrisABQ
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True that SDR dongles are not "scanners". Scanners "scan" through talkgroups and channels, and in the process, miss about 95% of the traffic on a busy system. Cheap SDR dongles and 2 FREE programs SDRTrunk and Trunking Recorder encode and "record" 100% of what you want to listen to. You can also stream it privately to any phone, unlock/lockout talkgroups and does not suffer from simulcast distortion. Been running it for 2 years now and have scanners gathering dust. Will never go back to scanners again.
I think it also depends on how you use your scanner. I have many SDR's but when im in my truck I grab my 436. Simple and eay. What do you plan to do ?
I see no options in the editor to enter NXDN.
I feel both (upgrades and dongles) because when I am out with my 436 (that has all upgrades, except Provoice) I can listen to anything while my NooElec dongles are logging and recording at home. I have a few dongles logging and recording multiple talk groups on multiple systems. With dongles and the right software you can view the data transmitted over control channels. Cames in handy when you stumble on a control channel that's not in the database. Also good if you are trying to figure out who is using enc tg's on a system. I use @Unitrunker2 for that as it has the best logging features out there.
And to add tho what @ChrisABQ said, I am logging and recording every Pd and fire related tg on my counties, system, and a state system. So if I know about when something happened, I can go in the browser that pulls up and displays all the recorded tg's and listen.
And to add tho what @ChrisABQ said, I am logging and recording every Pd and fire related tg on my counties, system, and a state system. So if I know about when something happened, I can go in the browser that pulls up and displays all the recorded tg's and listen.
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Thought so, I'll have to stay with Fastlane, it works great but it would be nice to have the capabilities of
of SDRTrunk. Thanks,
Mil
Why not do both?
From my own experience, I use both scanners and SDRs. I view as tools in a toolbox. A ball-peen hammer, a roofing hammer, and an air hammer all have separate jobs. Same as radios: a scanner and SDR has different jobs. A scanner will have the best listening experience. However, if you want to map out a DMR or NXDN system, there is no better than a SDR paired with DSD+ Fasltlane. YMMV.
From my own experience, I use both scanners and SDRs. I view as tools in a toolbox. A ball-peen hammer, a roofing hammer, and an air hammer all have separate jobs. Same as radios: a scanner and SDR has different jobs. A scanner will have the best listening experience. However, if you want to map out a DMR or NXDN system, there is no better than a SDR paired with DSD+ Fasltlane. YMMV.
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I would do both but like many of us space is limited. I am using just a coax tee as a splitter and I don't know if that would work with
my trx-2 or not. It would be nice to have a larger area and a powered splitter but thats the way it is. ?? YMMV?? Goggle maybe.
Mil
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I have been using one of these for a while and am pretty happy with it. 1 antenna feeds 3 scanners and 4 dongles at the moment. My feed line comes in right behind my pc desk where I do most of my sdr.
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Dave I have been using a EDA 2400 for years at the bottom of my tower to push 60 feet of lmr400 around the house toI have been using one of these for a while and am pretty happy with it. 1 antenna feeds 3 scanners and 4 dongles at the moment. My feed line comes in right behind my pc desk where I do most of my sdr.
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my radios. I think I put another one on the end and it was to much gain. Right now I use just SMA splitter cables and it works for me. I have used
3 (4 outputs) without much loss, never measured it though and with sdr's didn't seem to interfer with each other.
For listening to trunk systems, I have been quite pleased with sdr-trunk-windows-x86_64-v0.5.1-beta1 along with 2 RTL-SDR.com V3 units to cover the bandwidth needed. You can even pick talkgroups to record as .MP3 files.
github.com
GitHub - DSheirer/sdrtrunk: A cross-platform java application for decoding, monitoring, recording and streaming trunked mobile and related radio protocols using Software Defined Radios (SDR). Website:
A cross-platform java application for decoding, monitoring, recording and streaming trunked mobile and related radio protocols using Software Defined Radios (SDR). Website: - DSheirer/sdrtrunk
github.com
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Hmm, something for me to think about. Right now my feed line comes in near a downstairs pc. I was going to run a line off my first 8 port to upstairs feeding another 8 port (that I don't have yet). I think I would need to attenuate.
Isn't that what Broadcastify Calls does? I am using SDRTrunk to feed Calls and then put the link on my phone to listen when out of the house.
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