DSDPlus This doesn't look good

[bobruzzo]

Local P25 simulcast SOUTH ZONE using indoor whip antenna. Just trying to see what reception is with small antenna. Gain set at 40....if I go less it loses connection......when running hardly any errors show up. Are all these peaks competing/interfering signals? Can anyone translate all the characters scrolling by in black window?

 

[BM82557]

The FMP24 screen grab looks like interference, possibly from an electrical device.

 

[bobruzzo]

The FMP24 screen grab looks like interference, possibly from an electrical device.

I was watching that FMP24 screen and when a regular transmission comes thru, the whole thing clears right up and when transmission ends it goes back to all the spikes. I am wondering if those spikes are from computer. I have small whip antenna mounted directly to dongle. I like experimenting so this is interesting. When dongle connected to outside antenna (discone) there are no spikes.

 

[GTR8000]

Localized interference. Also, you need to put some correction on that dongle in your batch file...-1766 Hz off center is no bueno, regardless of how good a job FMP24 does at auto-correcting.

 

[NebraskaCoder]

The text on the black screenshot is just control channel data. Good stuff to have and not errors. It will stop when you get a transmission because the tuner is no longer on the control channel and instead on the voice channel.

 

[bobruzzo]

Localized interference. Also, you need to put some correction on that dongle in your batch file...-1766 Hz off center is no bueno, regardless of how good a job FMP24 does at auto-correcting.

I tried playing with the dongle correction (ppm?) but I dont know how to effectively adjust it. If you could assist, that would be great. What I tried was pressing a letter to move the shape from left to right. But I really couldnt tell if it was centered right. It looked OK but I am new to this stuff. But if you think it is off, advise me how to fix please. Looking at the pic I do see the 1766. I am looking thru the text files but dont know what to look for....a lot of scattered information. I tried to adjust ppm with letter"P" lower case/upper case for direction but it didnt matter what direction I went, I couldnt get that number lower.

 

[bobruzzo]

I kept pressing the lower case "p" and waited a few seconds and the number to the right of frequency started to come down. I got it down to about -34....it was hovering a little below and above -34. The offset is -0.9 But when a transmission came on, the number jumped up to about +200 . So I am assuming I put "-P0.9" in one of the batch files? I dont know which one. Once it settles in the number goes down to 1, or 2...stays very low.

 

[GTR8000]

-P-0.9

 

[slicerwizard]

I dont know which one.

The one that you use to start FMP24.

 

[bobruzzo]

The one that you use to start FMP24.

OK Thanks. Got it fixed. In the dsd plus folder, are there any unnecessary files I can delete? It is a pain sifting thru all those files to edit stuff. I am using just 1 dongle, and have my site loader set up with a few systems...so do you know which files I can safely delete, or at least store in a separate folder? I need to keep straight the actual files that need to be edited when I add/change things.

 

[cg]

Batch files, recordings and text files are all you should mess with. I don't generate enough of them to worry about getting rid of them.
I try to name files what they do and/or add dates. For example, if I create a help file for the latest version, I don't leave it as "Help.txt" but I rename it as "DSDPlus help 2_256.txt". Regular recordings go into their own folder with common sense names, I delete those after a month or so.
Batch files I name for what they do. "FMP24 i1 o20001.bat" is a generic startup file for any system. I can then use Siteloader or hand enter parameters.
Of course you have backups of your working files, right??

chris

 

[bobruzzo]

Batch files, recordings and text files are all you should mess with. I don't generate enough of them to worry about getting rid of them.
I try to name files what they do and/or add dates. For example, if I create a help file for the latest version, I don't leave it as "Help.txt" but I rename it as "DSDPlus help 2_256.txt". Regular recordings go into their own folder with common sense names, I delete those after a month or so.
Batch files I name for what they do. "FMP24 i1 o20001.bat" is a generic startup file for any system. I can then use Siteloader or hand enter parameters.
Of course you have backups of your working files, right??

chris

Hahaha I DON'T have backups because I don't know what all the important files are. Its too confusing. There is what seems to be a lot of redundant stuff. Right now what I do is run a batch file called "go.bat" which is this:

cd dsdfree
start 1R
start FMP24-CC

So those 2 files start the program. I probably should RENAME the file but when I copied everything over to the FREE version folder from the PAID version folder I just kept the name. Then the next 3 files "NETWORKS" "SITES" ["siteloader"] & "FREQUENCIES" which seem to be set up OK cause everything works. As for the REMAINING files, I don't know which OTHER ones to be concerned with. I run just 1 dongle. So far only monitor DMR, NXDN & P25. The only complaint I have is fighting the garbled audio, which is intermittent. I use a few different antennae depending on band...mostly 400mhz, 800mhz and 900mhz. I want to back up what I should but dont know EXACTLY what I need, but I assume the above 4 files are the ones. There are other confusing batch & config files I dont understand. Maybe they are for when you use more than 1 dongle. Right now, the 900mhz trunk TRBO system is VERY busy....lots of commercial traffic. The tower for this system is 5.5 miles to my northwest and VERY high in both the actual tower and land elevation. So signal strength shouldnt be an issue. The PPM correction is set for-0.9 which seems to work the best. However I see the number fluctuate plus/minus, especially when a call comes thru. Computer should be fast enuff....16 GB ram, i5 processor, SSD. This digital stuff has SO MANY hidden variables that its hard to pinpoint whats causing issues AFTER you check the things others recommend. As far as reception on my SDS200, I actually get better reception (simulcast system here) on an 8 element yagi pointing AWAY from everything. The RSSI is a little higher but audio is not too bad. I took a ride in car with my BCD996P2 and an 800 mhz mobile mag mount antenna. Reception in car was MUCH better than in house. So I am thinking my location is part of the problem. While riding in car I was monitoring all 4 sites in the state...they ALL sounded good with very minimal dropouts and distortion. Even sitting in my driveway the reception was fantastic. I just cant figure it out.