2832U & Unitrunker-No digital Audio

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murphdog856

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I have two 2832U dongles that I am using with Unitrunker. They track and provide analog audio just fine. When I try and set the digital audio out to VB cable I seem to have to leave demphasis on or I can't set the squelch. If I don't engage demphasis, static will come out no matter what the squelch setting is.The same condition applies if I output to speaker. I have tried this with the new release and previous version of Unitrunker without the separate analog and digital outputs. I want to output it to DSD+ but nothing digital ever comes out. I have tried unchecking analog and selecting P25 only. I am attempting this with various P25 P1 encrypted systems in my area. Thank you in advance.
 

frazpo

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My working setup

My current setup is doing what you are trying to do. I had your problem once while setting up. Not usre what stopped it but here is my setup,,
 

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murphdog856

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I tried that also with no success. I know in analog mode if squelch is not set with demphasis on, the voice receiver will not track at all. I assume it is staying on the park freq when that happens. I assume I need it on for digital.
 

SCPD

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Un-checking deemphasis allows you to hear the unfiltered, unsquelched audio through the analog output. It does nothing for the digital output.

The digital and analog outputs are gated. The analog output is active while (a) parked or (b) during an analog call. The digital output is active - only during a digital call.
 

murphdog856

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I cant get any digital audio from any system in my area to come out. I have tried outputting it to speaker so I can hear the digital audio hash and still nothing.

The only reason I was worried about the demphasis is that on analog systems if that was not on and the squelch is not set to be 100% silent when no audio was present, the tuner will stall on the park freq causing it not to follow the trunked conversation. My theory was that the dongle just parks and never scans.

I set it up on another computer with no success. Is there anyway to know if the voice dongle is actually tracking conversations such as a log?

Thanks
 

deboe

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Scroll to the bottom of the voice receiver setup, In the Listen area you will see the current voice call it has changed to .
 

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SCPD

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My theory was that the dongle just parks and never scans.
Ask yourself, why is that?

Here are some reasons why a working voice following receiver never leaves the park frequency.

1. Listen option is not checked on main program window Options tab.

Make sure the Listen check box is checked.

2. Groups / radio IDs don't meet the listening threshold set in the main program window Options tab.

Increase the listening threshold or edit your group / user IDs to a higher ranking. 1 = most listenable, 50 is medium and 100 is least. You can actually exceed 100 but most folks keep their ranking to two digits.

3. There are no frequencies entered in the site window.

If the program doesn't know the voice channel frequency - it can't tell the voice following receiver where to go.

4. There is no call activity.

Sometimes no one is talking.

5. Calls are wrong service type - eg. digital on an analog-only receiver or encrypted voice / data.

The program doesn't try to follow calls that it knows won't work for your configured receiver(s).
 

frazpo

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The original post mentions that he is trying to monitor encrypted systems. Maybe this is the issue.
 

murphdog856

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The original post mentions that he is trying to monitor encrypted systems. Maybe this is the issue.

The systems do have some encrypted groups but a vast majority are in the clear. They come through fine on a scanner.

Listen is enabled. Priorities are set correctly. I can see that people are talking on the groups, and confirmed with a scanner. I am downloading the systems from radio reference. Maybe there is an issue with the data, but it does work fine with the scanner. I will have to comb over the downloaded data.

I did notice that on the voice dongle it indicates that priority is parked. No sure if that is normal. Source and target never populate either.



It is tracking EDACS and Moto analog sytems with no issue. I know the program works like a champ on P25 for others so It is a matter of time until I figure out what is going on.
 

murphdog856

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I attached my latest settings. I have tried the defaults,changing the park freq, etc. The systems I am trying are all P25 P1 except for one mixed Phase 1 and 2 system.

Thank you for the continuing help.
 

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SCPD

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Two observations on your RTL setup:

1. Squelch needs to be higher ... between 100 and 1000. Find a channel in the same band as your site and use that to calibrate your squelch level. You can use the control channel frequency for this. After it's calibrated, set the park frequency to whatever you want to hear while the voice receiver is parked.

2. You have auto-gain set but your manual gain value is 700. The range for manual gain is 0 to 500. Should you select manual gain, a value of 700 won't yield more than the 500 maximum.

Back to getting voice following to work for P25, try this:

Make sure the signal receiver is busy decoding an active site.

Create a Debug receiver. Set it to Voice role. Check P25 under the Control section. Start the receiver.

Scroll down to the bottom of the Debug receiver window.

You should see the Debug receiver move from call to call.

That will validate your overall voice following configuration for that system.
 

murphdog856

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I entered an EDACS analog/Provoice system and it tracked and decoded just fine. It was a small 6 channel system.It now only seems to be a P25 issue. One of the systems I am trying to monitor has 37 channels listed but seems to only use a handful. If I had too many channels would that confuse Unitrunker?

I did try the debug and it did not follow on any P25 system. It worked fine on the analog and Provoice systems.

I will do some more research as maybe I'm missing some channels or maybe some data is wrong.
 

SCPD

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37 channels? Must be a Phase 2 system.

Which system is this? Do voice calls appear as FDMA or TDMA? You can tell by looking at the LCN prefix. Flip over to the band plan tab. If the corresponding row has a number greater than 1 in the Slots column, it's a TDMA call.
 
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murphdog856

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The main system I wanted to monitor is Camden County(NJ) [http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6739

It does appear to have a mix of TDMA and FDMA channels. RR shows it as a 25 channel system and Unitrunker shows 37. Now I understand why.

I found that one of the other systems I was trying to monitor was missing data. Some of the data from RR was not pulling into Unitrunker for some reason. It is partially monitoring that system after entering in the missing frequencies. I'm an EDACS sysadmin so some of the Moto settings are a little foreign to me. Still learning.
 
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SCPD

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Yeah, the DB shows a mix of "E" and "T" talkgroups. You may have better luck on NJICS.

The frequency list is strange. I don't remember seeing a site with both 851 and 770 Mhz frequencies. Would you mind sending me a decode log of this system? An hour's worth on a busy day should be enough. I'm curious how well the decode log matches what is listed in the RR DB.

As for frequencies, you don't normally need to type them in for P25. The band plan that maps channel number to frequency is broadcast over the control channel. For Motorola, the program can often infer the correct band plan. In some cases you may need to try in the control channel frequency - once. An exception to this are VHF / UHF systems where there are no standard band plans. I did not see any Motorola sites on VHF or UHF in your area.

One issue the program hasn't tried to deal with yet is passing TDMA calls to third part decoding software. The discriminator audio carries both time slots. At the moment, there is no means to tell the decoding program which voice slot to decode.
 

murphdog856

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Hi,

Here is a link to the zipped log: https://app.box.com/s/ldqy4vjlzhszhs93ej2w .It was too big to attach.

I have to get a better antenna for the NICS system. I have a decent antenna but the dongles are not sensitive enough. There is not that much of interest to me on that system.

I have been trying the Burlington County System. It is a UHF system. After I populate Unitrunker with the 508 MHZ CC channel it starts indicating that the other channels are in the 800 band. This is the same system that is missing channels after a download from RR. I manually entered the correct channels but the other incorrect ones keep getting added to the channel list. I will have to research the missing data.

At least I'm learning a lot as I go.

Thanks
 

SCPD

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Thanks murphdog. All of the call traffic appears on channels with a 2- or 3- prefix which are TDMA calls on that system. Mixed 770/851 mhz use on the same site was news to me.

Would you happen to know the system ID of the Burlington County Public Safety (P25) system? It's missing from the database.

Downloading the Burlington County Public Safety SmartZone system should fetch the band plan and set all the sites' frequencies for you. If, after clearing out any junk, incorrect frequencies come back - please let me know. I may ask for a decode log again.
 

murphdog856

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I will get that ID ASAP.

Thanks for looking at the log. Is the TDMA decoding in the pipe line? I appreciate the hard work. Let me know if you take donations.

Thanks
 

SCPD

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Is the TDMA decoding in the pipe line?
Adding support for this in Unitrunker is low effort since it doesn't actually decode voice channels.

You'll have to find a third party program that decodes P2 voice. I don't know of any.
 
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