Decision Time...

[K0MSM]

Hi all -

I've been providing the feed for Greene County since we moved in, about 3 years or so ago. As of 10 days ago, Greene has moved completely over to ISICS for all of their public safety operations, with the exception of fire paging/alerting. That's still on VHF. Everything else is on ISICS now. Which my PRO-2096 obviously won't pick up - and that's what I use to feed Broadcastify.

I could still continue to broadcast the VHF channel for dispatch/paging, but that's not overly useful to folks who enjoy listening to traffic. OTOH, if I start to push out the ISICS traffic, I only have one SDS 200 in the stable. (Not sure I'm ready to spring for a second one!) I use that to listen not only to Greene County public safety, but also ISP traffic in Greene County.

I guess my question is this - if I switch my Broadcastify account over to the SDS 200, it's going to be more than just Greene County public safety, because ISP is on there too (and we're talking a pretty big area that D3 covers). And, if there's something interesting going on when I'm around, I tend to lock in a channel to monitor it.

How do other feed admins handle this?

 

[nick0909]

Switch to software defined radios and upload to the Calls platform.
I still provide regular "oldschool" audio feeds but they are more of a pain honestly, I am considering dropping them and doing Calls only, but a lot of people still listen to the standard streams.

 

[mule1075]

Well honestly that is for you to decide. You could still feed the VHF/Paging channel as you have stated. Again it is entirely up to you.

 

[mule1075]

Switch to software defined radios and upload to the Calls platform.
I still provide regular "oldschool" audio feeds but they are more of a pain honestly, I am considering dropping them and doing Calls only, but a lot of people still listen to the standard streams.

And alot of people including me are not versed in going that route. And old school is not bad and not a pain at all. Different strokes for different folks.

 

[K0MSM]

Switch to software defined radios and upload to the Calls platform.
I still provide regular "oldschool" audio feeds but they are more of a pain honestly, I am considering dropping them and doing Calls only, but a lot of people still listen to the standard streams.

I am unfamiliar with that platform. I know what SDR is, sure. But I've never really explored the possibility of going that route, and I'm not familiar with "Calls" at all.

I'm assuming there is some information out there for using SDR with something like a Pi, for example? I'm not opposed to moving on to a better technology. I just want to make sure there's some info to read about it first, so I can understand what's involved (and ask fewer questions later).

Sean

 

[saioke]

Calls are a new Broadcastify feature that will capture audio from each individual talkgroup. Ideally, you'll want to monitor all traffic on a site so that it goes to Calls, and if there's duplicates, any duplicated calls from other nodes in the area are judged to determine which is likely to be the better one. Calls are relatively new and still needs some time in the oven imo, but I do see it as being the way forward in the future. You can just make a playlist of whatever talkgroups you'd like to listen to and bam, everyone has their own personal scanner. But the more people running nodes = the better for everyone.

As for an SDR, you can run it on a Pi depending on the application. If your area has a lot of traffic and the CC/VCs are spread out beyond the 2.4ghz bandwidth of a simple RTLSDR stick, you may need to get two of them. Some applications like DSD+ Fast Lane (Windows) or OP25 (Linux) would work with one dongle but as I said, it isn't ideal if you're going to be monitoring and uploading all traffic from a site if it's busy. I can get away with it because my area isn't too active at any given time. If you're going to be using a Pi, you should look into OP25. It seems difficult to set up but it's also one that doesn't use many resources and is low maintenance, that it can run forever after you set it up.

Setup for most applications can take some time to research but it's not overly difficult and I'm sure anyone here would help you figure things out. Just know that if you aren't too close to the P25 site you want to monitor, the included Dipole antenna that comes with a basic RTLSDR isn't great with 700+ MHz P25 signals in my experience. But it's fine if you want to pick up NOAA satellites or 50-500mhz.

I would recommend getting familiar with an SDR before tackling P25 decoding and all that. Scan through some local radio stations, etc. It's fun to experiment.

 

[BinaryMode]

I'd go the SDRTrunk route. Providing you don't need two SDRs, one should suffice and SDRTrunk also has the Broadcastify API built-in so you can stream right from SDRTrunk.

SDRTrunk is a Java coded program so you will need to install Java on the target machine. Something small like an Intel NUC or like computer, Raspberry PI, Dell Optiplex Micro will do. Even an older circa 2015 Dell Latitude laptop will work. Doesn't matter what OS. I'd use Windows 7. I have several computers here online 24/7 running 7. Or you could just go Linux if you want.

The great thing about an SDR is not only are they cheap, but WILL allow you to monitor a simulcast system like your SDS. No need to buy yet another SDS. This is the route I would personally go. I would NEVER dedicate a 700 some dollar scanner to a feed. No way, no how.

If you need help scroll through this subforum or post a new thread.

Check this out as well: Broadcastify Raspberry Pi Image v3.0 Beta

 

[K0MSM]

I'd go the SDRTrunk route. Providing you don't need two SDRs, one should suffice and SDRTrunk also has the Broadcastify API built-in so you can stream right from SDRTrunk.

SDRTrunk is a Java coded program so you will need to install Java on the target machine. Something small like an Intel NUC or like computer, Raspberry PI, Dell Optiplex Micro will do. Even an older circa 2015 Dell Latitude laptop will work. Doesn't matter what OS. I'd use Windows 7. I have several computers here online 24/7 running 7. Or you could just go Linux if you want.

The great thing about an SDR is not only are they cheap, but WILL allow you to monitor a simulcast system like your SDS. No need to buy yet another SDS. This is the route I would personally go. I would NEVER dedicate a 700 some dollar scanner to a feed. No way, no how.

If you need help scroll through this subforum or post a new thread.

Check this out as well: Broadcastify Raspberry Pi Image v3.0 Beta

My current feed system was a PRO-2096 and an old, old Dell D520 latptop running Windows XP. Did the job fine for an analog monitor.

I grabbed a copy of SDRTrunk last night and tried to get it going on a Win10 PC that I have in the shack. I'm struggling, TBH. I know the concepts of SDR and trunking. I've just never tried to bring the two together. I'll go check out that subforum. I spent about 2 hours last night piddling around with SDRTrunk, and I'm not getting very far.