TwoToneDetect New TwoToneDetect in the works - Python based

[webby52]

I am having issues with receiving messages ontime. I have the alert setup so it notifies only me when the initial tones are decoded, that works within seconds. But as my list of recipients grows, it seems that the lower you are on the list, the longer it takes to get the message...like sometimes 40 mins. Any insight to how this is happening? I had another program I was using and that would only send out one email to 10 people at a time so in theory if you were the last person on the list it may have taken 1-2 minutes for the program to send your email. I have my version to send out bcc so it shouldn’t trip up the email service (powweb.com running on Fios). I don’t know what else to change or tweak and I have people losing faith in the program asking to be taken off the list. I have sometimes experienced this delay myself and I am the first person on the list.
Should I look into a google account? Is it faster?

 

[aaknitt]

Do the latest version of TTD need to be restarted when users are added or removed from the tones.txt? The list is being hosted locally in the same directory and not remotely.

The tones.cfg file is read to pull in new users once an hour in the new version (v64). If you want it to update sooner than that you can restart or specify a different update_interval in config.cfg.

Andy

 

[aaknitt]

Yes it is just an attention getter but I believe I've got it working. I set it for long tone and .5 second tone and it seems to be working find for both stations and not giving me any false alerts. If it starts acting up I may have to adjust more.

I have one additional question. I've currently got it set up on a radio that is using priority scan. The two fire frequencies are the only ones being scanned but I missed a page earlier and I'm trying to figure out if it was from the small gaps as the radio was checking the priority channel or not.

If the small gaps are messing it up is there anything to correct this short of messing with the radios programming? I thought maybe tone gap length but i'm not sure if that would mess it up or not.

Any ideas?

The priority scan will probably cause you issues. It'll be hard to use the gap_length parameter. That's only intended for A-B tone scenarios and since you don't know when the gap will appear in the tone it'll make it hard to catch reliably.

Andy

 

[aaknitt]

I am having issues with receiving messages ontime. I have the alert setup so it notifies only me when the initial tones are decoded, that works within seconds. But as my list of recipients grows, it seems that the lower you are on the list, the longer it takes to get the message...like sometimes 40 mins. Any insight to how this is happening? I had another program I was using and that would only send out one email to 10 people at a time so in theory if you were the last person on the list it may have taken 1-2 minutes for the program to send your email. I have my version to send out bcc so it shouldn’t trip up the email service (powweb.com running on Fios). I don’t know what else to change or tweak and I have people losing faith in the program asking to be taken off the list. I have sometimes experienced this delay myself and I am the first person on the list.
Should I look into a google account? Is it faster?

Once you see the notification on the screen that the program has sent the email, it's done everything it can do. The email has been sent to the SMTP server. Any delays after that are due to the email service or the phone carrier.

Andy

 

[dlnorth]

AudioBoo Alternatives?

Does anyone have any suggestions on a better service than AudioBoo to autopost TTD emails to Twitter? I've found the service to be very unreliable. I usually get the email notification from them that they have received my post and that it will be posted to their site shortly, however it usually takes several hours for it to actually show up. The only other service that I have used, Posterous seemed to work much better, but since it is no longer operational, I'm looking for some other options.

Thanks

 

[ffryan76]

@webby52 it only takes 30 seconds after intial dispatch for 30 + emails/texts for mine. I am using Gmail.

 

[smokediver61]

I need some help setting this up. I have put in the information for the A/B Tones i have gotten all of my emails entered in and i have also got GMAIL setup to send and i can also send test messages ,but i can not get the software to active and start recording when the tones go off. They do not even recognize the tones. I can see on the squelch bar that the computer is hearing the traffic but i can not get it to active. Does anyone have any suggestions before i go insane?

Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Tone1
[652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0]
Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Tone1
704.0 3
618.0 3
548.0 2
247.0 2
360.0 2
494.0 2
494.0 2
268.0 2
290.0 2
881.0 2
285.0 2
623.0 2
1263.0 2
1995.0 2
1376.0 2
478.0 2
478.0 2
521.0 2
268.0 2
419.0 2

 

[nosoup4u]

I am suddenly getting an echo effect. I have no idea when it started. I pasted an example below.

Any idea what would be causing this?

http://www.warrenskywarn.org/alertpage/F91_2013-12-0602_57_58_722000.mp3

 

[aaknitt]

I am suddenly getting an echo effect. I have no idea when it started. I pasted an example below.

Any idea what would be causing this?

http://www.warrenskywarn.org/alertpage/F91_2013-12-0602_57_58_722000.mp3

I didn't hear any echo when I played it, sounded fine.

Andy

 

[aaknitt]

I need some help setting this up. I have put in the information for the A/B Tones i have gotten all of my emails entered in and i have also got GMAIL setup to send and i can also send test messages ,but i can not get the software to active and start recording when the tones go off. They do not even recognize the tones. I can see on the squelch bar that the computer is hearing the traffic but i can not get it to active. Does anyone have any suggestions before i go insane?

Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Tone1
[652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 652.5, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0, 682.0]
Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Tone1
704.0 3
618.0 3
548.0 2
247.0 2
360.0 2
494.0 2
494.0 2
268.0 2
290.0 2
881.0 2
285.0 2
623.0 2
1263.0 2
1995.0 2
1376.0 2
478.0 2
478.0 2
521.0 2
268.0 2
419.0 2

Make sure you're using the correct audio input and that your radio audio levels and audio squelch level on the program are set correctly. You should see "No Audio" on the main screen when there is no radio traffic, and you should see frequencies in that spot when there is radio traffic. When the tones are being sent, the numbers there should match what you have in your tones.cfg file.

Andy

 

[nosoup4u]

Turns out my chrome browser on the desktop was causing the echo. In IE it sounds fine. Thanks for checking.

 

[DC31]

The tones.cfg file is read to pull in new users once an hour in the new version (v64). If you want it to update sooner than that you can restart or specify a different update_interval in config.cfg.

Andy

Andy, i have set my update_interval in config.cfg to 240 (4hr). It continues to check on an hourly interval even after rebooting.

Otherwise v64Pi is working perfectly for me.

Jim

 

[FVFD23]

I happened again today. We received 2 pages that I received and but it never went off at our 18:00 test. I have shortened it up for you.

742.0 13689
742.0 26448
742.0 26638
742.0 27181
742.0 27091
785.0 26949
785.0 26954
785.0 26905
785.0 26987
785.0 26943
785.0 26896
785.0 26921
785.0 26872
785.0 26945
785.0 26925
785.0 26921
785.0 26951
785.0 26925
785.0 26894
785.0 26852
Frankfort Fire Tone Set Found
Succesfully retrieved local tone info
Tone1
Tone3
Tone4
delay timer Frankfort Fire 15:03:17 on 11/30/13
785.0 26967
2.0
785.0 26893

What are your Atonelength and Btonelength settings in tones.cfg? Try a setting of 0.6 for the Atone and 1.0 for the Btone. It looks like you may have them set for that actual tone lengths of 1/3 and you are only sometimes gettting the entire tone length detected. Using the above suggested lengths you will be looking for .6 sec of Atone and 1 second of B tone. Normally a Quick Call 2 format has 1 second of A followed by 3 seconds of B, so you should easily be able to detect .6 sec A and 1.0 seconds of B.

It looks like you are trying to detect 3 seconds of B tone when in some cases the audio may only be feeding in 2.9 seconds so you miss it. Another one gets the full 3 second feed and you decode it.

Let us know what you find out.

Jim

This is what I am getting. For some reason its picking up 779.0 in between my A tone and B tone which is causing it not to send a message. Not sure why its picking it up.

742.0 26731
742.0 17977
742.0 17221
742.0 26528
742.0 26999
779.0 27056
785.0 26836
785.0 26908
785.0 26861
785.0 26930
785.0 26888
785.0 26872
785.0 26918
785.0 26844
785.0 26852
785.0 26856
785.0 26858
785.0 26922
785.0 26885
785.0 26937
785.0 26873
785.0 26913

 

[DC31]

This is what I am getting. For some reason its picking up 779.0 in between my A tone and B tone which is causing it not to send a message. Not sure why its picking it up.

742.0 26731
742.0 17977
742.0 17221
742.0 26528
742.0 26999
779.0 27056
785.0 26836
785.0 26908
785.0 26861
785.0 26930
785.0 26888
785.0 26872
785.0 26918
785.0 26844
785.0 26852
785.0 26856
785.0 26858
785.0 26922
785.0 26885
785.0 26937
785.0 26873
785.0 26913

In your tones configuration set your Atone to 742 and your Btone to 785. In your config.cfg file set your tone tolerance to .01 (1%) and it would detect this string just fine. With Btone set at 785 and 1% tolerance, the 779 would be considered a valid Btone by TTD.

 

[grcross]

Newbie Questions on settiing up TTD

Hi All,

I have searched an can't seem to find an answer to my questions. I am pretty new to this area and have limited knowledge in the radio field. Sorry if these questions have been asked or are "dense"

I am trying to set up the TTD for my department. We have very little extra funds (like most) and I want to set it up as a back-up system as our pages don't always go through the terrain.

1. The Department is McNab Braeside in Renfrew County, Ontario. The tone listed is 110.9 PL. Am I right in assuming I set the software up for a single tone in the config file?

2. Instead of a scanner, can I use a pager that has a ear piece out-put? Connect it to my sound card. I don't want any other tones just ours. One reason being is I have two pagers and no scanner!

3. If I do have find a scanner can I set it to the one channel only and leave it there instead of "scanning" Is there a different or simple way just to monitor one frequency?

Thanks it for now until I start to set this up.

Thank you and I look forward to your input. Its programs like these that really help out the department!

GCross

 

[DC31]

GC,

On your questions:

1. no, that is likely not the tone you are looking for. That looks like a guard tone. Do your pages start with two audible tones? Each one is likely in the range between 300 and 3000. If you can get a recording you can use Audacity to analyze the frequency. See Andy's instructions for a link to a video on how to do this.

2. Yes pagers are commonly used.

3. Yes again. TTD doesn't really care what the audio source is. Anything that you can feed into the computer will work. You could even monitor one of the internet scanner feeds with an ipod touch connected into the computer and it would work.

Good luck. Come back here with any questions, someone will help you out.

 

[grcross]

Hi DC31

Thanks for the response. The page comes in as rapid hi pitched beeps, not the two different audible tones. Hence why I am a little confused. It may not work with our system I guess. I will run the Audacity program and see what it says. Might have to wait a day till I get a chance and I will post my results.

Again this is just a backup system for those of us that live in the rocks. Example my pager only works in the top half of my house and only certain parts of the building at work. Most of us don't have playback either so if we miss the address or call we are heading out blind or not at all...

 

[davidVT]

107 pages of messages... WOW

Wow this thread has been busy,

I have not been back for quite some time as my TTD attention has been on the raspberry Pi version.

My old p4 continues running well with the windows TTD v60. Thanks Andy for a great program that is really helping my departments and so many more!

For those with the desire for a little adventure into the low cost, low power consumption but quite capable Raspberry pi TTD, I urge you to give it a try.

David

 

[aaknitt]

Hi DC31

Thanks for the response. The page comes in as rapid hi pitched beeps, not the two different audible tones. Hence why I am a little confused. It may not work with our system I guess. I will run the Audacity program and see what it says. Might have to wait a day till I get a chance and I will post my results.

Again this is just a backup system for those of us that live in the rocks. Example my pager only works in the top half of my house and only certain parts of the building at work. Most of us don't have playback either so if we miss the address or call we are heading out blind or not at all...

The rapid high pitched beeps are what come out of your pager, correct? That sound is the alerting beep that is produced by the pager. The paging tones are what are sent over the air. Then your pager hears those paging tones, it starts beeping. TwoToneDetect does the same thing. Only instead of beeping, it records the audio and sends emails. What you need to know is the paging tone frequencies. If you're going to record audio from your channel, use your scanner, keep it on your dispatch channel, and let it record a page. You can then get the tone frequencies from the recording.

You can use TwoToneDetect with a pager, but you'll need to set the pager up so that it does not alert (beep) when it receives the paging tones. Instead, you want it to act just like a single channel scanner...no beeping.

Andy

 

[davidVT]

GC,
I am coming into this late and want to add a bit more.
Exactly what kind (brand/model)of pager do you have? I assume a normal two tone pager of the sort most of us use. There are some departments here that use buisness pagers for second crew call outs. Those may not be able to work on TTD.

My involvement started when my rural department went to narrow band and our pager reception went into the toilet. Now the smartphone messages back up the distorted or missed information that still tries to reach the fire/ems pagers. These emails are also a great record of call out times for record keeping. My slightly amplified antenna helps pull in and distribute page information when dispatch uses the wrong towers which happens far too often it seems. I use a cheap RadioShack scanner that I found on ebay. One channel is programmed but I leave it on manual so it does not even try to scan. That works great!

Using a two tone pager to supply TTD works but you must find the settings that keeps your pager 'open' and sending all the local traffic to your pager speaker (or earphone jack). My pager has voice so it says "monitor frequency one" when I set it to be 'open'. At that point I can key my portable radio and hear the transmitter. Can you find that position or function on your pager?

If you find the monitor function, you should start to hear dispatch and other local tone sets as they go off through the day. Again this assumes that you are on a normal fire/ems two tone dispatch system rather than a business pager system.

Now you want to find the two tone set that will trigger your department's pagers. Perhaps you can contact your department's pager dealer or someone who does your local programming to get the two frequency numbers for your department's page set. Andy and Jim are good at telling how to use software to read the tones to determine the frequencies if you are able to record them off the air.

As Andy mentioned, the beeps heard AFTER a page is triggered are not radio tones we are trying to hear so to trigger TTD. The beeps you refer to will likely never be heard on a scanner as they are generated only by the pager itself. The scanners will hear the needed two tones just prior to your pager responding with those alert beeps.

Keep trying, we want you to be successful!!