LilTeddyP
Member
Try to follow my roller coaster here 🤣🙄
I have an SDS100 and UniG4/G5 so I’m used to the audio quality of those. When I listen to my local streamers feed, it doesn’t sounds great. Nowhere near what my scanners sound like. My local feed provider had to move his rig recently and the new provider only has a couple dongles so calls are missed. I’ve been thinking for a while to set up my own rig with Rdio scanner(with trunk recorder) because it seems like a really cool idea. Here’s where my problem starts. I’ve listened to a handful of feeds and none of them have the audio quality of my handhelds. Constant glitches, varying audio levels, skips, just things I’m not used to. Is this to be expected out of SDRs? I get it’s the program more than the hardware, but are there any programs/decoders that sound great? As good as a scanner? My area needs 6-8 (I don’t remember exactly) dongles to cover the spectrum. So we aren’t talking a $30-$80 crap shoot here. Before I upgrade an old (but capable) computer, buy all the stuff, pull my hair out making it all work, am I going to be disappointed every time I listen to it? I have no problem investing so I have my own “git-up” and don’t have to rely on Broadcastify, I just don’t want to do it all to be royally disappointed because I’m spoiled with great sounding P25.
Should be noted I’m in Lansing (Ingham County), MI so we are MPSCS P25 Simulcast.
Also, reliability. I thought I read that these are basically a “set it and forget it” kind of thing that requires little to no maintenance once set up (besides obvious reprogramming for new TGs and whatnot). Local one (apparently) goes down quite frequently and they’ve now set it up to go down every night for a few minutes for a system restart. Is that expected? I want to locate the rig offsite once it’s all set up so I won’t have direct access to it without driving 15 minutes to it’s location (was going to do most things post install via remote access). It doesn’t have to be in our remote garage, it’s just where my eventual “base” will be when I get a radio system up and going. I have access to an old 40ish foot radio tower on the site which wouldn’t be necessary for the SDR setup but will come in handy when I get a repeater or 2 going. I guess I can tack on, should I have them at the same site? I don’t want a 50-100w repeater in the same cabinet (I figured I would just put the computer in the repeater cabinet when it gets to that) to cause interference with the streaming rig. I can keep the streaming rig at my store just the same if it would be an interference or maintenance issue being at the garage.
I’m not super interested in feeding to Broadcastify for the time being. This is pretty much a me thing for me and maybe for my fam/friends that want to listen.
I have an SDS100 and UniG4/G5 so I’m used to the audio quality of those. When I listen to my local streamers feed, it doesn’t sounds great. Nowhere near what my scanners sound like. My local feed provider had to move his rig recently and the new provider only has a couple dongles so calls are missed. I’ve been thinking for a while to set up my own rig with Rdio scanner(with trunk recorder) because it seems like a really cool idea. Here’s where my problem starts. I’ve listened to a handful of feeds and none of them have the audio quality of my handhelds. Constant glitches, varying audio levels, skips, just things I’m not used to. Is this to be expected out of SDRs? I get it’s the program more than the hardware, but are there any programs/decoders that sound great? As good as a scanner? My area needs 6-8 (I don’t remember exactly) dongles to cover the spectrum. So we aren’t talking a $30-$80 crap shoot here. Before I upgrade an old (but capable) computer, buy all the stuff, pull my hair out making it all work, am I going to be disappointed every time I listen to it? I have no problem investing so I have my own “git-up” and don’t have to rely on Broadcastify, I just don’t want to do it all to be royally disappointed because I’m spoiled with great sounding P25.
Should be noted I’m in Lansing (Ingham County), MI so we are MPSCS P25 Simulcast.
Also, reliability. I thought I read that these are basically a “set it and forget it” kind of thing that requires little to no maintenance once set up (besides obvious reprogramming for new TGs and whatnot). Local one (apparently) goes down quite frequently and they’ve now set it up to go down every night for a few minutes for a system restart. Is that expected? I want to locate the rig offsite once it’s all set up so I won’t have direct access to it without driving 15 minutes to it’s location (was going to do most things post install via remote access). It doesn’t have to be in our remote garage, it’s just where my eventual “base” will be when I get a radio system up and going. I have access to an old 40ish foot radio tower on the site which wouldn’t be necessary for the SDR setup but will come in handy when I get a repeater or 2 going. I guess I can tack on, should I have them at the same site? I don’t want a 50-100w repeater in the same cabinet (I figured I would just put the computer in the repeater cabinet when it gets to that) to cause interference with the streaming rig. I can keep the streaming rig at my store just the same if it would be an interference or maintenance issue being at the garage.
I’m not super interested in feeding to Broadcastify for the time being. This is pretty much a me thing for me and maybe for my fam/friends that want to listen.
