Unitrunker RTL820T2 EDACS No Analog Audio

[dncbert]

I am using a 2 dongle setup in Unitrunker. Local government in Harrisonburg-Rockingham County VA uses an 800mhz EDACS ProVoice system. The vast majority of the traffic on the system is digital. Unitrunker output is being routed to DSDplus for decoding which is working flawlessly for digital traffic. The first attached screenshot with a ProVoice label in the filename shows the receiver configurations, site information, and DSDplus scope for digital traffic that is being processed correctly.

My issue is that two of the primary fire-rescue dispatch channels are analog and when these channels are being tuned by Unitrunker there is no audio output to the PC speaker. I can validate that the traffic is analog in two ways. I have a Harris XP-25 handheld unit that reflects an analog indicator when there is traffic on the dispatch channels. In addition, if I direct the digital output to the PC speaker the traffic on the dispatch channels comes through loud and clear while the digital channels produce "noise" since it is not running through the decoder.

In summary, in the working digital decoded voice setup, Unitrunker is identifying the analog traffic as digital and therefore the analog signal is being passed to DSDplus. DSDplus is obviously not looking for analog traffic and therefore ignores this input. You can see this in the second screenshot I have attached where the "RFR Tac 1 Dispatch" talk group is active and being tuned by the voice receiver. Note that the "SVC" field reflects "Dig". In addition, the screenshot was taken during an audio tone and you can see the tone being generated on the DSDplus scope. Again, this analog signal is being passed through the digital output by Unitrunker and therefore no audio is being generated to the PC speaker.

I have worked on adjustments to the receiver configurations but it seems like the underlying issue is "misidentification" of the analog traffic by Unitrunker. Any assistance on what may be causing this to occur would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Daryl

 

[satboy8888]

I am using a 2 dongle setup in Unitrunker. Local government in Harrisonburg-Rockingham County VA uses an 800mhz EDACS ProVoice system. The vast majority of the traffic on the system is digital. Unitrunker output is being routed to DSDplus for decoding which is working flawlessly for digital traffic. The first attached screenshot with a ProVoice label in the filename shows the receiver configurations, site information, and DSDplus scope for digital traffic that is being processed correctly.

My issue is that two of the primary fire-rescue dispatch channels are analog and when these channels are being tuned by Unitrunker there is no audio output to the PC speaker. I can validate that the traffic is analog in two ways. I have a Harris XP-25 handheld unit that reflects an analog indicator when there is traffic on the dispatch channels. In addition, if I direct the digital output to the PC speaker the traffic on the dispatch channels comes through loud and clear while the digital channels produce "noise" since it is not running through the decoder.

In summary, in the working digital decoded voice setup, Unitrunker is identifying the analog traffic as digital and therefore the analog signal is being passed to DSDplus. DSDplus is obviously not looking for analog traffic and therefore ignores this input. You can see this in the second screenshot I have attached where the "RFR Tac 1 Dispatch" talk group is active and being tuned by the voice receiver. Note that the "SVC" field reflects "Dig". In addition, the screenshot was taken during an audio tone and you can see the tone being generated on the DSDplus scope. Again, this analog signal is being passed through the digital output by Unitrunker and therefore no audio is being generated to the PC speaker.

I have worked on adjustments to the receiver configurations but it seems like the underlying issue is "misidentification" of the analog traffic by Unitrunker. Any assistance on what may be causing this to occur would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Daryl

Separate analog and digital vco's. Check off either digital or analog on each vco. That way, the analog talkgroup will be tuned with the analog vco and bypass being sent to dsdplus; and digital talkgroups will be sent directly to dsdplus without hearing the digital encoded audio.

 

[dncbert]

Good suggestion... however as best I can tell because Unitrunker is identifying the analog traffic as digital the analog VCO never tunes to the voice channel. And therefore all traffic is continuing to go through the digital VCO.

 

[satboy8888]

Good suggestion... however as best I can tell because Unitrunker is identifying the analog traffic as digital the analog VCO never tunes to the voice channel. And therefore all traffic is continuing to go through the digital VCO.

Hum, then I will step aside and let the other more competent members pickup.

 

[SCPD]

dncbert - please send a decode log of the control channel. The log would need to capture traffic at the time of a call that is misreported as digital.

UniTrunker | Log Files

Decode Logs

Decode logs record packet or message level content. Message format, structure and nomenclature varies by protocol. These messages drive the behavior of Unitrunker. The decoding receiver can optionally save raw decoded messaging as a text file. Check the "Logging" option in the Decode section of the signal receiver. Decode logs have a high value for debugging. To see your decode log files in Windows Explorer, click the folder icon at the top of the receiver window.

 

[dncbert]

Unitrunker,

I did not have the decode logging turned on. So I activated logging and took another screenshot this morning showing "HFD 1 Dispatch" traffic which has the same analog attributes. I have also attached the log file.

Thanks for your help,

Daryl

 

[dncbert]

One additional piece of information that may be related ... but perhaps not. After some research I realized that the two dispatch channels with analog traffic are actually patched into the 800 mhz system. i.e. There are two unique 400 mhz channels where the analog traffic for dispatch are located. Unfortunately these two channels are far enough apart that I cannot monitor them with a single SDR. Therefore, if I were to monitor the 800 mhz system plus these two 400 mhz channels I believe I would need 4 SDRs. In other words, it would really be nice to be able to pull these channels through the 800 mhz talk group patches rather than from the 400 mhz source.

 

[satboy8888]

The dongle monitoring the control channel will be stuck within 3mhz (or dongle limitations) either side of that control channel. But the other dongle should be able to tune anywhere else as well.

Therefore, vco's on the 800mhz control channel dongle will not tune down to 400mhz but the second dongle should.

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

[SCPD]

Found the IDs in the RR DB.

I'll have a fix for this in the next week or so.

 

[dncbert]

Unitrunker,

Thanks for your assistance. Much appreciated.

dncbert