Best Setup to Send to Broadcastify?

[scottct1]

Hi there, for the last 9 plus years I have been proudly feeding the Newington, Connecticut, Police Fire and EMS to Broadcastify / RadioReference.

I currently feed the site using a Uniden HomePatrol 1. I have an offsite backup that automaticlly connects if my feed goes down using a Uniden BCT15X. This setup have been working GREAT for me for years.

My towns feeds will soon be moving from its Analog LTR trunking system to the Connecticut Land Mobile Radio Network (CLMRN) system which uses P25 Phase II system. (Connecticut Land Mobile Radio Network (CLMRN) Trunking System, Statewide, Connecticut) which means my setup I am using will no longer work.

I am looking to continue broadcasting the Newington system when they switch. I have met and talked with the Chief of police who has assured me that he wants to see the routine calls be made available to the public and told me that the routine calls will not be scrambled. He also told me that calls from surpervisor to suprvisors may be encrypted (I iam ok with that, and they do that now). They have ordered the new digital radios and they will go into use this fall.

So what I am looking for is what is the best setup to do this without breaking the bank.

I have looked at the Homepatrol 2, the BCD996P2, the SDS200, the P25RX, SDR Dongles and so forth. I am told I should not use the Homepatrol 2 becuase of Simulcast issues (which I don't understand but thats ok.) I have worked with SDR dongles and got SDR Trunk to work. I want something that is easy to setup and let it run. (Set it and forget it) The ONLY thing this this is going to monitor is that feed, so I don't care if it stores a million channels.

I just want to send my feed to Broadcastify (and hear it locally when I am near it like I do now)

Now to add one more wrinkle to things, should I also be sending to "Broadcastify Calls" and can I broadcast to both the standard broadcatify service and Calls at the same time from the same device?

I also notice that my local Connecticut State Police (Troop H) is not being broadcast on Calls while all the other troops are... Maybe I should broadcast that way too.

So what kind of advice can people give me so that I offer the best quality and again without breaking the bank? Thanks!

 

[SDWolfman]

Although it is not totally set it and forget it, I use SDR Trunk on a windows computer with three SDRs to monitor two local trunking systems. It simultaneously feeds two Broadcastify feeds (one has talkgroups from both systems) and a calls node. I have it set up so I can remote into the feed computer via TeamViewer when I need to update/reboot the software.

 

[TJX400]

I agree 100% with the above. I have SDRTrunk hosting 9 feeds (including two calls platform nodes), and I absolutely love it. It's slightly difficult to learn, but once you figure it out, it's an awesome tool. It feeds audio directly to Broadcastify without any additional software. Dissimilar to a scanner, where you have to connect audio cables to everything. All you need really, are 2 SDR sticks and the program. It's really neat.

 

[scottct1]

I have used SDR Trunk in the past as it is supposted to do LTR Trunking, but had a hard time with my local system. So I think I can pick it up for when they move.

Is it ok to do both the audio feed to RR and feeds at the same time or is that frowned upon? I don't know much about the feeds program but if I can use this to contribute to something else and it don't cost me extra to do so, then I am happy to do so.

 

[TJX400]

So, there's an option for an "audio" feed, and a "calls platform".

Audio feed is what you find on scanner apps and Broadcastify.com normally. A calls platform essentially records each talkgroup SDRTrunk receives. Here's some more in-depth info about calls: Broadcastify-Calls - The RadioReference Wiki

Once your audio feed application is approved, restart SDRTrunk, go to the streaming tab in playlist editor, and click new. All of your approved audio feeds will be there, very easy to setup. Calls platform requires your calls API key (which you get once your node is approved) & the calls system ID. Then you select which talkgroups/aliases you want to go to the calls platform.

To answer your other question, you can do both at the same time with no issues.

 

[JimD56]

SDR Trunk minimum 2 Dongles, with a $150.00 dedicated PC off of Amazon, like a Dell Optiplex running Windows 10.
This would be the cheapest and it is pretty close to "set and forget". The dongles will heat up though with constant use.
OR
Set up an LLC (Only $180.00 in Florida) and get a Tax ID # Number from the IRS in the LLC's name (Free) Buy a couple of SDS200's and write them off as a business expense on the 1040 Schedule B. You can also write off the square footage of the size of the monitoring room, and a percentage of the power and internet. You can show a loss for 3 years with no income. Then dissolve the LLC in 3 years. If new scanners come out, just open another LLC and start all over. Yes, this is all legal.