Configurations possible with Broadcastify Raspberry Pi Feed Appliance Image and Trunk Recorder?

[edweirdFL]

So far I have used the BCFY RPi4 appliance image and Trunk Recorder with 1 SDR for sending a Calls feed for a single P25 trunked system.
My config file has a single device entry under "sources", and a single system defined in the "systems" section of the config file.

I'm pretty sure I under stand how to make sure each dongle has a unique device name, so if you need more bandwidth you can add them to the config, and it will use them.

Question 1 is can you use different kinds of dongles as long as each one's entry in sources specifies the correct driver and other settings to match the hardware?
(if you have a config file from such a setup, I'd love to see it)

Question 2 is can you have multiple trunked system entries under the "systems" section, and using a different API and system key, send 2 different feeds to the Calls platform? (again, sharing an example from a working setup would be great.)

Question 3 would be if Question 2 is possible, does Trunk Recorder know which dongles to use based upon the entries in the sources part of the config file?

Thanks in advance for answers and examples.
Even more thanks in advance for not speculating, or answering with things outside the scope of the question.

 

[HarryWilly]

Answer 1: You should be able to, I just haven't tried it myself (or seen a config)

Answer 2: Yes, I have done it, but reused API key. To be fair, I am running TrunkRecorder outside of the Broadcastify pi image. Example is in the examples folder from the github: robotastic/trunk-recorder

Answer 3: Here is how it works - basically when you start, TrunkRecorder knows what the possible frequencies are as they are static (you pick a center frequency, and a rate that determines the bandwidth). The most common problem people have is there is no real message if you need to reach a control channel that is outside the frequency range. However, once it is up and listening to a control channel, if you had a system that had a channel that is outside what you are covering, and a talkgroup appears on that channel, you will receive a "no source covering this frequency" (or something along those lines) message and that call would not be logged.

If you dig around on the GitHub page you will see plenty of examples - it's also worth digging through the issues section (especially closed ones) to see examples of stuff and have some of the questions answered. Be forewarned, some of the information, especially on the wiki, is dated so super specific things may have changed - but for the most part the principals have remained constant.

 

[edweirdFL]

I now have 2 NooElec USB SDRs in my RPi4 running the BCFY image, using TrunkRecorder to send 2 different sites of the same system to the Calls platform. I used the same API key but the Node number is different for each site.

I added a second source and a second system to my existing JSON file. I know I want to go back and set a different serial number on the second SDR so the right antenna always matches the system I want to use it on, but for now here's my file with the API's obfuscated for anyone looking for an example of a multi SDR and or multi System configuration.

{
    "ver": 2,
    "sources": [{
        "center": 852787500.0,
        "rate": 2800000,
        "ppm": 0.0,
        "gain": 49.6,
                "mixGain": 15,
                "ifGain": 15,
        "digitalLevels": 4,
        "digitalRecorders": 3,
        "driver": "osmosdr",
        "device": "rtl=0"
    },{
            "center": 857462500.0,
        "rate": 2800000,
        "ppm": 0.0,
        "gain": 49.6,
                "mixGain": 15,
                "ifGain": 15,
        "digitalLevels": 4,
        "digitalRecorders": 3,
        "driver": "osmosdr",
        "device": "rtl=1"
    }],
    "systems": [{
        "control_channels": [852825000, 853200000, 853512500, 853800000],
        "type": "p25",
                "talkgroupsFile": "ChanList.csv",
        "shortName": "VCP25s1",
        "modulation": "qpsk",
        "broadcastifyApiKey": "440xxx06-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-0xxx8xx9xxx",
              "broadcastifySystemId": "965"
        },{
                "control_channels": [856712500, 857212500, 858212500],
        "type": "p25",
                "talkgroupsFile": "ChanList.csv",
        "shortName": "VCP25s2",
        "modulation": "qpsk",
        "broadcastifyApiKey": "440xxx06-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-0xxx8xx9xxx",
              "broadcastifySystemId": "1034"
    }],
        "broadcastifyCallsServer": "https://api.broadcastify.com/call-upload",
        "frequencyFormat": "mhz",
        "captureDir": "/home/pi/bcfy/audio",
        "controlWarnRate": "1",
        "callTimeout": "3"
}

 

[edweirdFL]

Something I didn't ask about originally was can you run both a TrunkRecorder feed using SDRs and a second audio feed using Darkice all on the same RPi4?

The answer appears to be YES.

My second RPi4 was hosting an audio feed and had some unknown issue overnight. This morning I moved it over to the RPi4 I'm using for my 2 Calls nodes and it's up and running now. I'll be watching the load on it and making sure that it doesn't become CPU bound and have issues. The Calls nodes I am feeding on it are small.