Actual Radio vs Scanner/SDR

[TheLeaper]

What do the actual commercial radios do to work with Simulcast? I have a BlueTail Nano, and an AirSpy Mini with SDRTrunk. When I try to listen to Middlesex County Simulcast, I hear LOTS of garbled audio, and interrupted transmissions. I know this is due to Simulcast. I am in Old Bridge, and am hearing at least 3 towers nearby; Main St.-3.1mi, Fire Acadamy - 4mi, and Yates drive - 4.3mi. Obviously the radios issued do not have this problem, so what do they do that I cannot? Do I need an actual commercial radio to listen to this system? Yep, I DO know something about radio; Amateur ragio extra class and First Class FCC license. But this new digital stuff is a whole new animal!

 

[mtindor]

Both the Bluetail Nano and Airspy Mini+SDRTrunk should be able to handle LSM / CQ-PSK systems just fine. Obviously commercial radios are better for a number of reasons, most notably their ability to operate in high RF environments. The Nano and the Airspy mini aren't going to be able to handle strong signals in the same band as well.

As long as you have the simulcast set up in SDRTrunk as an LSM system rather than a C4FM system, it should work fine without issues with garbling, etc -- unless you just have so many transmitters in the same band close by you (I'm not talking about other sites in the simulcast) . Those devices may be suffering from overload. I'd suggest lowering gain to see how that affects performance. Clearly if you are that close to even a single site in the simulcast, you need very little gain to copy the simulcast. So I'd try that first, as I suspect that high gain settings in a saturated RF environment may be part of your issue.

Just my 2 cents.

 

[TheLeaper]

Both the Bluetail Nano and Airspy Mini+SDRTrunk should be able to handle LSM / CQ-PSK systems just fine. Obviously commercial radios are better for a number of reasons, most notably their ability to operate in high RF environments. The Nano and the Airspy mini aren't going to be able to handle strong signals in the same band as well.

As long as you have the simulcast set up in SDRTrunk as an LSM system rather than a C4FM system, it should work fine without issues with garbling, etc -- unless you just have so many transmitters in the same band close by you (I'm not talking about other sites in the simulcast) . Those devices may be suffering from overload. I'd suggest lowering gain to see how that affects performance. Clearly if you are that close to even a single site in the simulcast, you need very little gain to copy the simulcast. So I'd try that first, as I suspect that high gain settings in a saturated RF environment may be part of your issue.

Just my 2 cents.

I improved things a bit by switching to a small attic antenna, vs a discone 30' up my tower. Maybe I'll try some attenuation as well.

 

[northstarfire0693]

For radios I would recommend BK or Harris. Easy to set up not to register with the system in question. There are many forum post on both radios you can research.

 

[TheLeaper]

For radios I would recommend BK or Harris. Easy to set up not to register with the system in question. There are many forum post on both radios you can research.

What Harris radio is most popular? Also, is the programming software available?

 

[northstarfire0693]

What Harris radio is most popular? Also, is the programming software available?

For amateur use I would recommend the XG100p. They are not too expensive and can be found at a decent price. The only downsides are they are a discontinued unit, so parts are hard to find. The other is the software. It is expensive to get from Harris but can be found at no cost if you dig around. The other radio is the XL200P. That is the current supported version. The drawbacks are price, they tend to go for 4k used. Software can be found like the XG100p. You have to look around and do the research.

BK has radio options for a decent price. I dont own any BK radios, but people I know that use them are happy with them.

Motorola has some options also. The drawbacks on M are the price. There are many "tagless" radios out there that have been hacked. Do not get them. Software is easy to get. However, programing one for NAS is a PITA. You have to know what you are doing and you will need to be good at HEX edit or have access to a program called skeygen to make system keys. That program is illegal to have, but its in the wild and the steps to program M radios is much more difficult then Harris or BK.

I would recommend doing research on all 3 brands. The forum here is loaded with information to help you.

 

[CanesFan95]

There's also Unication G4 or G5 and the software is free.

 

[northstarfire0693]

There's also Unication G4 or G5 and the software is free.

Very true. I have never used a G4 or G5, but from what I understand they do a good job.

 

[AF1UD]

I currently have a G5 UHF R1 and 7/800mhz. The thing works very well and the receiver is amazing! The only downside is that it's only Dual-Band. And that there is no way to charge batteries outside of it being in the unit, in the charger.

The XG-100P is ok... it's EOL and has problems as the black sheep of the L3Harris family.