Can't seem to hear P25 in Summit County.

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vini_i

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I'm very new to this. I've set up two SDR dongles to listen to the trunked radio system in Cuyahoga Falls Summit county. The dongles are NooElec and RTL-SDR. I've set them up per several different tutorials that I've found online. I'm using Unitrunker 1.0.33.6 to do the tuning. The NooElec dongle is parked on the 858.5125 MHz control channel and the RTL-SDR is listening for the voice. Unitrunker is then pumping the audio (digitized) to VB wire. Then to decode the audio I have DSD+ 1.101 receiving the audio from VB wire and decoding it to actual audio. On the surface, this seems to be working. The control channel is picking up all the audio channels. Unitrunker is jumping back and forth on the voice channels. DSD+ seems to be decoding the audio but all I hear is garbage. It sounds like voice that has been horribly autotuned.

At first, I thought that it might be encrypted. From what I've read encrypted voice sounds like R2D2 no autotuned voice. Also, if I listen long enough I can hear voice transmissions that are hard to understand but legible.

I probably messed up a setting somewhere but I'm not even sure where to start looking.

1. Is the P25 network in summit county encrypted and I'm wasting my time?
2. If I'm not wasting my time, what are some settings that could improve the voice quality or what could I have possibly messed up?
 

mszabo2000

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Akron PD is encrypted. Akron FD and SCSO use encryption on some talkgroups. I can't assist with your setup but I wouldn't spend much time fixing the setup for 6F4 as this system will be shut down in January. Users are expected to transition to 348 site 2 starting the week of Jan 14th.
 

tonya

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A couple of weeks ago there were posts about this. Not talking about APD but the other depts. that are not ENC. I have also not been able to hear this system in my car like I used to. There was some talk about removing one of the freq. which I did but I'm not sure that helped. I don't get into Summit Co that much so maybe someone else that listens to that system all the time can chime in.
 

vini_i

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I went through and locked out all channels listed as mode DE (I assume that means digital encrypted). This made the reception seemingly better. Everything that is coming through is now voice. I think that possibly some encrypted channels were coming through before.

The voice quality is still quite low. I noticed that DSD+ shows e: with a bunch of numbers and letters while the autotuned voice is coming through. I found that this means there are errors while decoding. The control frequency is showing a health of 80 to 90%.

Is there a reason that DSD+ would be getting so many errors.
 

mtindor

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I went through and locked out all channels listed as mode DE (I assume that means digital encrypted). This made the reception seemingly better. Everything that is coming through is now voice. I think that possibly some encrypted channels were coming through before.

The voice quality is still quite low. I noticed that DSD+ shows e: with a bunch of numbers and letters while the autotuned voice is coming through. I found that this means there are errors while decoding. The control frequency is showing a health of 80 to 90%.

Is there a reason that DSD+ would be getting so many errors.

This really isn't the best area of the forum to have a discussion about this. A more proper place would be https://forums.radioreference.com/forums/voice-control-channel-decoding-software.26/.

I suspect what is going on is that you are monitoring a Simulcast using Unitrunker and DSDPlus, and DSDPlus can only properly support good decoding of simulcast voice if you are using the Fast Lane version of DSDPlus, NO Unitrunker, and two FMP24|FMPA+DSDplus copies with everything TCP linked together.

This is no different than attempting to using a scanner that doesn't support simulcast (anything other than a Uniden SDS100) and then expecting 100% decode on the simulcast.

You will likely run into the very same issues once Summit has migrated over to the new 348-2.2 Summit Co Simulcast as well.

The only real solution would be to ditch Unitrunker, buy DSDPlus FastLane, and then properly configure the DSDPlus package to do all of the trunktracking / voice decoding.
 

MotorolaDave

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Akron PD is encrypted. Akron FD and SCSO use encryption on some talkgroups. I can't assist with your setup but I wouldn't spend much time fixing the setup for 6F4 as this system will be shut down in January. Users are expected to transition to 348 site 2 starting the week of Jan 14th.

Mike,

Is there a simple way of discovering what TG's belong to what agency once you guys switch to MARCS? Or do we just have to find out the old fashioned way? So far it appears all Summit TG's begin with 62XXX. I know when the switch was made to P25 all we had to do was divide the TG number by 16. I haven't discovered any pattern as of yet.
 

budevans

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Mike,

Is there a simple way of discovering what TG's belong to what agency once you guys switch to MARCS? Or do we just have to find out the old fashioned way? So far it appears all Summit TG's begin with 62XXX. I know when the switch was made to P25 all we had to do was divide the TG number by 16. I haven't discovered any pattern as of yet.

Once Summit P25 becomes part of MARCS the RID's should change to start with 77xxxxx. Regarding TG's, most likely the Old Fashion way. Monitor, post what you hear and compare notes.
 

k8zgw

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Where can I find out more about what is going with the "migration" from the Summit P-25 system
to the "new" MARCS system, and also a little more about the "new" system.
I see what looks like 21 channels, but nothing about which are the control channels.
Do I need to "finger poke" all 21 channels into the software

Thanks

Don
 

KWs

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Basically, in a nutshell, the existing Summit-Akron system migrates over to merge into the MARCS IP system. The frequencies utilized by existing system will be transferred over to Summit MARCS site, in stages.
You need to ready Monday to start hearing radio traffic on the Summit MARCS site. The evolution of all TGs ( but with new TGIDs ) over to MARCS will also be done in stages based on Dispatch centers.
 

mtindor

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Just put in 857.2625, 857.6625, 858.5125, 858.7125 and it should do the trick!

Hmm. 857.6625 is the control channel of the MARCS-IP site 2-002 Summit Co Simulcast. 858.5125 is the current control channel of the old Summit Co system. It would not be good to mix those frequencies. Use the information contained in the MARCS-IP DB for Site 2-002 if you want to monitor the new Summit Co simulcast site 2-002 on MARCS-IP.

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=33432
 

wmlovell

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Nope, You're right!

I was thinking more in the near future when there is no old Summit system. -Too soon for that! -Works on the G5 currently since the SysID also has to be entered. ...but would cause issue for scanners while both systems are online.
Hmm. 857.6625 is the control channel of the MARCS-IP site 2-002 Summit Co Simulcast. 858.5125 is the current control channel of the old Summit Co system. It would not be good to mix those frequencies. Use the information contained in the MARCS-IP DB for Site 2-002 if you want to monitor the new Summit Co simulcast site 2-002 on MARCS-IP.
 

k8zgw

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Well, did the change over occur, it seems like I am hearing more on the MARCS system
but it's hard to tell, unless I am actually watching the radio ..
I think I am hearing Aurora on MARCS, where I was hearing them on a 420 channel before ?
I moved the radio to sit next to my computer, to make it easier to see.
I just to pay more attention to it.

Don
 

KWs

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Today was the first day of the move to MARCS, Migration continues all week, a few agencies each day.
 

wmlovell

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I think I am hearing Aurora on MARCS, where I was hearing them on a 420 channel before ?

Aurora switched from VHF to MARCS a couple years ago. ...Waiting to be able to talk to Twinsburg finally using the same radio.
 

k8zgw

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I know something changed, I didn't hear Aurora nearly as much as I do now.
To the point I needed to change the scan group I had them in, so I could turn them off !!
Don
 

sbhnutts570

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Hmm. 857.6625 is the control channel of the MARCS-IP site 2-002 Summit Co Simulcast. 858.5125 is the current control channel of the old Summit Co system. It would not be good to mix those frequencies. Use the information contained in the MARCS-IP DB for Site 2-002 if you want to monitor the new Summit Co simulcast site 2-002 on MARCS-IP.

https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?siteId=33432
 
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