Sorry haven't posted anything in awhile not much happening and been busy. But i do have a few questions that some of you might be able to help me with so I can be more active on helping everyone. I would like to think im kinda a scanner pro since i have been doing it for over 10yrs but only Trunking for 3yrs since I lived in Montana and not much Trunking there. I would really like help though with Unitrunker and what you need to run it and use it correctly and what scanners it works with.
Advice!!!
- Thread starter jjwhite29
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Hey jjwhite29 welcome to our neck of the woods. We would love to have you help, especially in your area as I don't think we have anybody there currently!
The only scanners that I know support Unitrunker out of the box or are GRE variety. However, there are many that will support it with a small modification. Personally I run mine on a Radio Shack Pro-92. The modification is VERY easy and I found the scanner used online at a VERY good price. It has some broken parts like the screen and the speaker so it was way cheep, but for Unitrunker I don't need either of those.
The Modification I am talking about is to add a discriminator tap. You can get some info HERE about it and links to a few scanners and how to modify them. Basically all the discriminator tap does is give you a very clean audio line out of the scanner. You then take that into the MIC lin in your computer and you are up and running.
If you have specific questions, please post them and one of us will try and answer back...
I forgot to say that the scanner you use for Unitrunker doesn't even have to be trunked. It just needs to be able to tune to the control channel and have the discriminator tap.
The only scanners that I know support Unitrunker out of the box or are GRE variety. However, there are many that will support it with a small modification. Personally I run mine on a Radio Shack Pro-92. The modification is VERY easy and I found the scanner used online at a VERY good price. It has some broken parts like the screen and the speaker so it was way cheep, but for Unitrunker I don't need either of those.
The Modification I am talking about is to add a discriminator tap. You can get some info HERE about it and links to a few scanners and how to modify them. Basically all the discriminator tap does is give you a very clean audio line out of the scanner. You then take that into the MIC lin in your computer and you are up and running.
If you have specific questions, please post them and one of us will try and answer back...
I forgot to say that the scanner you use for Unitrunker doesn't even have to be trunked. It just needs to be able to tune to the control channel and have the discriminator tap.
Your what? ...and don't say scanner 
What signal level are you getting in Unitrunker?
What signal level are you getting in Unitrunker?
KT7L
Member
Your what? ...and don't say scanner
What signal level are you getting in Unitrunker?
I am not sure signal strength is the key criteria for operating UniTrunker w/o a tap. Since Narrow FM has both pre-emphasis and post-removal as part of it's 'standard', I have found some radios don't have as much post-process as others.
Since Mr. UniTrunker, Rick, chose to optimise performance of his decoder at the discriminator level, all this post-process mucks up the algorithim accuracy. IMHO....
So, my response to the issue of running UniTrunker w/o a discriminator tap is to try it..... If you get above 30% decode accuracy, you 'may' be satisfied with it. Brett -- remember when we tried running a couple HT's thru the headphone jack at the get-together at Sugarhouse? I seem to recall that Viper's HT worked -- and the 396 didn't... But hey, my memory's going....
Nonetheless, the only way anyone is going to reach the 99% accuracy number on UniTrunker's software meter is to avoid the post-processing.
The Qual(ity) Percentage that shows in Unitrunker that im going to assume is the signal Quality, is all over the place, from 20% one minute to 80% another minute. But it decodes ok, if it decodes better with the tap then thats fine. And yes its my scanner that doesn't have a tap. But at first was led to believe or thought that i had to have the tap or unitrunker didnt work so... i dont know there. The Antenna that came with the scanner I think is the main reason my signal isnt good. I dont have an antenna on the roof or this Probably would fix it. The only problem ive found is the one voice frequency doesnt pick up on unitrunker as well but the signal strength shows opposite. If it lookat the control channel why would the signal trength of the voice channels matter? Besides I thought it was all coming from the same place Ford Ridge. Who knows?
KT7L
Member
Enos: That's interesting about the audio channel -- and no, I don't have a clue either -- But you really aren't listening to the audio channels when you run UniTrunker anyway -- unless you have a second receiver doing the audio processing. I can't compare internal antennas to roof mounted, as the internal one works fine with site #24 being about 3 miles away and line of sight.
I also notice, even with the tap, that Unitrunker drops down to a low percentage, then shoots back up. However, on UniTrunker Alpha, the Green fake led display just stays pegged full green.
-- Bob
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