Trunking problems?

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Circa

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I wanted to try Trunking with my RTL dongles, Unitrunker, and DSD.

I setup unitrunker using 2 RTL sticks. Signal and Voice.
Signal is parked on the closest cities MARCS tower frequency and Unitrunker pulls up the window with my Site info.

Everything is setup according to: RTL-SDR Tutorial: Following Trunked Radio with Unitrunker - rtl-sdr.com

I see status text that people "Joined" and "Call" but I have never heard anything other than the trunking sound in over 6-7hours.
I don't think it's digital, but DSD is running with the Virtual Audio Cable just in case.
DSD has never picked anything up, even on the Control channel.

Should I assume that no one is using this MARCS freq?
I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.
Can anyone shed some light on my situation?
 
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W8RMH

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Don't know if it matters but MARCS is not a digital system. It is a Motorola Type II SmartZone Omnilink which uses digital voice.

Which site are you trying to receive. (I am familiar with MARCS but I don't know squat about SDR).
 

Envoys

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Try using VB Cable instead from here. I had a similar problem with Virtual Cable, nothing would go to DSD but for some reason I switched to VB Audio Cable and it started working. Make sure your control channel is muted and that your voice channel is also routed to VB Cable, not muted, and from my experience, auto-gain being on, also make sure de-emphasize isn't checked. Also, when in the voice receiver window, when a call comes through, do you see it at the bottom of the receiver window?
 

KF6ORX

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Help With Unitrunker

Ok, I guess I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I cannot figure out how to install Unitrunker as a plugin to SDR#' I downloaded Unitrunker and ran the UniTrunker-1.0.29.5.msi program. All it seemed to do is copy the files to a folder of my choice. SDR# doesn't recognize it. It would seem that an "< ADD KEY.... \> entry needs to be added to the plugins.xml file. What would that look like?

Anyway, if I can get over that hurdle I'd try the following configuration:

Dongle RTL2832U/R820T (Control) -----------> SDR# Instance A


Dongle RTL2832U/E4000 (Voice) --------------> SDR# Instance B

It seems like I need a virtual cable to get the audio from B to A and another one to get tuning control from A to B. This js not that complicated but the implementation could be nasty.
 

KF6ORX

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Help With Unitrunker

Ok, I guess I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I cannot figure out how to install Unitrunker as a plugin to SDR#' I downloaded Unitrunker and ran the UniTrunker-1.0.29.5.msi program. All it seemed to do is copy the files to a folder of my choice. SDR# doesn't recognize it. It would seem that an "< ADD KEY.... \> entry needs to be added to the plugins.xml file. What would that look like?

Anyway, if I can get over that hurdle I'd try the following configuration:

Dongle RTL2832U/R820T (Control) -----------> SDR# Instance A


Dongle RTL2832U/E4000 (Voice) --------------> SDR# Instance B

It seems like I need a virtual cable to get the audio from B to A and another one to get tuning control from A to B. This js not that complicated but the implementation could be nasty.
 

SCPD

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Hi KF6

Configure your R820T stick as a signal receiver in Unitrunker. Set the correction factor and park the receiver on an active control channel. A site window should appear.

Unitrunker does not support your E4000 stick so you must use SDR#.

Configure SDR# to use the E4000.

Verify both programs are working independently before moving on.

Search this forum for links to an updated plugin that works with current versions of SDR#. Edit your plugins.xml file and place the trunking plugin in the same folder as SDR#.

In Unitrunker, create a new "Debug" receiver. Set it to the Voice role. Do NOT set the receiver to running just yet. Click the Folder button on the Debug receiver's Toolbar. Copy the complimentary DLL - "Remote.DLL" to this folder. Now you can set the Debug receiver to Run.

Turn on "Listen" on the Unitrunker main Options tab. If there's any call activity in the Site window, one call will turn green. That's the call that you *would* be listening to if the plumbing between Debug receiver and SDR# was complete. You can verify this by selecting the Debug receiver and scrolling to the bottom. The active voice call's details will appear there.

Back to the receiver's folder in Windows explorer. You should see a text file in that folder that is updated each time the Debug receiver tunes to a new call. The SDR# trunking program needs to be configured to find and read that file.

Once you've done that, SDR# should start following voice calls.

If the system you're monitoring is mostly digital - more steps are required to decode digital voice.

Good luck.

Note - if you purchase a second R820T stick, you can configure that as a voice following receiver directly in Unitrunker and avoid the hassle of configuring plugins (and save your E4000 for other monitoring duties). In fact, order two R820Ts so you'll have a spare.
 

KF6ORX

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Unitrunker Plug In Installation

Hello Unitrunker,

I didn't mean to throw the discussion off course by mentioning the E4000 tuner. I have a second R820T on the way. It should arrive any day. I have Unitrunker working standalone with my existing R820T defined as as a "signal" receiver tuned to a local trunking frequency. There are a number of these trunking frequencies in my area. I thought the advantage of Unitrunker being an SDR# plug in was that I could use the scanner plug in to move between different trunking frequencies.

Thanks for your detailed setup instructions for Unitrunker.

P.S. I still don't know what the "ADD KEY" string would look like in SDR#'s plugins.xml.
 

SCPD

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I thought the advantage of Unitrunker being an SDR# plug in was that I could use the scanner plug in to move between different trunking frequencies.
The plugin came about in 2012 mostly because Unitrunker does not support most of the SDR receivers out there. R820T support didn't happen until earlier this year.

About the "add key", I've seen it discussed here so try a search of this forum using that text.
 

Circa

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OH/PA/WV
Hello Unitrunker,

I didn't mean to throw the discussion off course by mentioning the E4000 tuner. I have a second R820T on the way. It should arrive any day. I have Unitrunker working standalone with my existing R820T defined as as a "signal" receiver tuned to a local trunking frequency. There are a number of these trunking frequencies in my area. I thought the advantage of Unitrunker being an SDR# plug in was that I could use the scanner plug in to move between different trunking frequencies.

Thanks for your detailed setup instructions for Unitrunker.

P.S. I still don't know what the "ADD KEY" string would look like in SDR#'s plugins.xml.

Try the key in here:
http://forums.radioreference.com/software-defined-radio/297013-sdrsharp-unitrunker-plugin.html
( <add key="Trunker" value="SDRSharp.Trunker.TrunkerPlugin, SDRSharp.Trunker" /> )

And there a version from 2013 posted here:
http://forums.radioreference.com/software-defined-radio/265660-sdr-trunking-has-been-updated.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/RTLSDR/comments/1d5jmv/updated_sdrsharp_trunking_plugin_with_settings/ (http://the.midnightchannel.net/sdr/SDRSharp_Plugins/zefie/?plugin=Trunker.ZefieMod#downloads)

Another version, says from 2014:
http://forums.radioreference.com/2155643-post109.html
Says it's from Mar 17, 2014.

I couldn't get the SDRSharp Trunker plugin to work when I tried(While ago), so I used Unitrunker and 2x RTL sticks.

Here are a few more tutorials:
https://public-xrp.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/sdrsharptrunk.htm (Learned alot from this LONG tutorial).
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/rtl-sdr-tutorial-following-trunked-radio-unitrunker/ This is one for using only Unitrunker and 2x RTL sticks.

Remember if it's P25, you will need DSD+ to decode what is received.
http://www.rtl-sdr.com/improved-digital-voice-p25-decoding-dsd/
 
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