DSDPlus Can DSD+ be a stand-alone scanner ?

[charlieprimero]

I live in a rural area and only need to scan two P25 frequencies, and our local Ham DMR repeater. No trunking.

I have a stack of old laptops in my garden shed from years ago when I worked as an I.T. monkey.

Does DSD+ have the ability to scan those three frequencies without running heavy receiver software like SDRSharp ?

I did due-diligence research, but all the DSD+ tutorials focus on trunking, which I do not need.

Any help appreciated!

 

[mtindor]

Yes, at least Fast Lane version can. 1.01 (publically available at DSDPlus – Digital Decoder) may be able to as well.

Mike

 

[slicerwizard]

I live in a rural area and only need to scan two P25 frequencies, and our local Ham DMR repeater. No trunking.

Does DSD+ have the ability to scan those three frequencies without running heavy receiver software like SDRSharp ?

I did due-diligence research, but all the DSD+ tutorials focus on trunking, which I do not need.

All covered in the DSD+ 1.101 FMP.txt file.

FMP's scanner mode is designed to be used with DSD+. FMP and DSD+
should be running in the same folder. While DSD+ is decoding
digital voice, FMP will auto-hold on the current RF channel.
If DSD+ is not decoding digital voice, FMP will auto-scan to the
next channel in the scanlist. This behaviour will let you monitor
multiple digital channels, including control or rest channels.
FMP will not get hung up on constant carriers that are not broadcasting
digital voice calls.

 

[charlieprimero]

All covered in the DSD+ 1.101 FMP.txt file.

Doh! I never read all those text files. I searched the web and YouTube instead.

Thank you for pointing my in the right direction to learn this stuff !

 

[a417]

Doh! I never read all those text files. I searched the web and YouTube instead.

Thank you for pointing my in the right direction to learn this stuff !

...then when you say "RTFM" or a man page people get all bent out of shape. Glad you found what you needed to know!

[edit]
Your reference to 'due-diligence research' was noted, but when you're working with open-source/freeware/shareware stuff, you should always start with the documentation provided by the people who did the hard work. If you were working with software by Apple, et al. that is designed to "Just Work" and is highly intuitive, a youtube video or something else might suffice. Someone sat down and wrote DSD+, and that same person usually includes a very detailed man page or document(s) with it to prevent this very thing from happening.

 

[charlieprimero]

...you should always start with the documentation provided by the people who did the hard work.

That is true. Incidentally, I did find a slightly more detailed description of the programs and command line options here...

How to use DSD+ to receive DMR, D-STAR and other digital voice (DV) signals.

How to use DSD+ to receive DMR, D-STAR and other digital voice (DV) signals.

www.satsignal.eu

Learning DSD+ will take time!

 

[charlieprimero]

Got FMP.exe working. It scans too slow to be useful.

My command:

C:\DSDPlus>fmp -o2 -s1

"-o2" specifies that FMP's output go to VB Cable (my audio device number two) which feeds to DSDPlus.exe which is running an another command-line window.

"-s1" specifies that scanning of the 3 frequencies I put in the text file FMP-FreqList.csv be performed.

The result: It ran and decoded the audio, but was only able to scan one frequency every one and a quarter seconds. Sadly, too slow to be practical. It also stops scanning the first time it hits an active frequency.

FMP rev 1.4t

SDR sampling rate = 1.008 MHz
Spectrum window width: 512
FFT size: 32,768
Spectrum update rate: 10 Hz
Step size table:  5.000  6.250  7.500  12.500  15.000  25.000
DSD+ path: '.'
Primary frequency list: '.\FMP-FreqList.csv'
Secondary frequency list: '.\FMP-FreqList2.csv'
Database search distance: 99.90 miles
Base latitude/longitude: 19.7163 -155.6241
Using WaveOut device #2
Scanner mode enabled

Audio output device #1 = 'Speakers (2- High Definition Au'
Audio output device #2 = 'CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual C'

SDR device count=1
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner type=5 (R820T)
Sampling rate set to 1.008000 MHz
Exact sample rate is: 1008000.009613 Hz
RF gain set to 49.6 dB
frequency correction factor = 0.0 PPM
Opening WaveOut device 'CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual C'
Loading frequency data...
Scanner active
3 digital scanlist channels loaded
Tuning to 155.71000
Tuning to 158.89000
Tuning to 440.00000
Scanner terminated

 

[a417]

Got FMP.exe working. It scans too slow to be useful.
[snip]
The result: It ran and decoded the audio, but was only able to scan one frequency every one and a quarter seconds. Sadly, too slow to be practical. It also stops scanning the first time it hits an active frequency.

Ok, I'm confused. You told it to scan, and are suprised it stops on an active frequency? It has to stop and decode...otherwise you're not going to get anything.

 

[maus92]

Ok, I'm confused. You told it to scan, and are suprised it stops on an active frequency? It has to stop and decode...otherwise you're not going to get anything.

I'm guessing he means that the program doesn't resume scanning after the active transmissions completes. But yea, a scanning speed of 1 channel per 1.25 seconds is slow.

 

[a417]

I don't know, I guess we could look at it that way until the OP comes back.

 

[slicerwizard]

FWIW, FMP24 uses squelch logic and scans considerably faster.

 

[mtindor]

Got FMP.exe working. It scans too slow to be useful.

My command:

C:\DSDPlus>fmp -o2 -s1

"-o2" specifies that FMP's output go to VB Cable (my audio device number two) which feeds to DSDPlus.exe which is running an another command-line window.

"-s1" specifies that scanning of the 3 frequencies I put in the text file FMP-FreqList.csv be performed.

The result: It ran and decoded the audio, but was only able to scan one frequency every one and a quarter seconds. Sadly, too slow to be practical. It also stops scanning the first time it hits an active frequency.

FMP rev 1.4t

SDR sampling rate = 1.008 MHz
Spectrum window width: 512
FFT size: 32,768
Spectrum update rate: 10 Hz
Step size table:  5.000  6.250  7.500  12.500  15.000  25.000
DSD+ path: '.'
Primary frequency list: '.\FMP-FreqList.csv'
Secondary frequency list: '.\FMP-FreqList2.csv'
Database search distance: 99.90 miles
Base latitude/longitude: 19.7163 -155.6241
Using WaveOut device #2
Scanner mode enabled

Audio output device #1 = 'Speakers (2- High Definition Au'
Audio output device #2 = 'CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual C'

SDR device count=1
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Tuner type=5 (R820T)
Sampling rate set to 1.008000 MHz
Exact sample rate is: 1008000.009613 Hz
RF gain set to 49.6 dB
frequency correction factor = 0.0 PPM
Opening WaveOut device 'CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual C'
Loading frequency data...
Scanner active
3 digital scanlist channels loaded
Tuning to 155.71000
Tuning to 158.89000
Tuning to 440.00000
Scanner terminated

Do you have the Fast Lane version of DSDPlus? If so, you should be using fmp24 and not fmp.

FWIW, FMP24 uses squelch logic and scans considerably faster.

The question is -- does the OP have FastLane or the free 1.01 off of www.dsdplus.com ? If he/she doesn't have FastLane, they don't have access to FMP24 and will need to purchase FastLane.

Mike

 

[charlieprimero]

FWIW, FMP24 uses squelch logic and scans considerably faster.

That is good news!

 

[charlieprimero]

...does the OP have FastLane or the free 1.01

I'm testing the free version.

How much faster does the non-free FMP24 version scan ?

 

[slicerwizard]

Just tested it. It's about 7 channels per second.

 

[charlieprimero]

Just tested it. It's about 7 channels per second.

Interesting!

Thank you for the report.

I hope the difference is the software and not my weak hardware.

I should buy DSD+ non-free, but my outrageous Texas property tax bill is due on February 1st. It's $2,300. I may have to wait.

 

[a417]

but my outrageous Texas property tax bill is due on February 1st. It's $2,300. I may have to wait.

Oh, you've never been to CT. I once paid that on a $25,000 ford explorer for property tax...annually.

 

[DRL-XM43]

If you want free fast digital scanning you can set up SDR# fast frequency scanner plugin with a frequency range and feed the audio to the public release of DSD+. You can click on unwanted hits so it won't scan them. It scans really quick.

 

[slicerwizard]

If you want free fast digital scanning you can set up SDR# fast frequency scanner plugin with a frequency range and feed the audio to the public release of DSD+. You can click on unwanted hits so it won't scan them. It scans really quick.

Uh,

Does DSD+ have the ability to scan those three frequencies without running heavy receiver software like SDRSharp ?

 

[DRL-XM43]

Uh,

Not sure what Uh, means I think it is a disbelief grunt LOL

So anyway here is a system I know you know, I am scanning a range which includes the 6 voice channels of a moto type 2 system, I clicked on the control channels because I do not want them in the scan.... they are red ones.

The 6 channels are capable of both P25 and analog so I am feeding DSD+ with the -m1 switch so I hear both the decode and the clear FM.

It is not how I would normally do trunk decodes but it does work and quite well.