DSDPlus DSD+ Question

GrumpyGuard

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I am new to DSD+ and have a question. Using Radio Reference I found the control channel for the NXDN NEXEDGE 4800 system I want to listen to. I put that into FMP24-CC.bat as I am using a generic DVB-T +DVB FM USB. When I start FMP24-cc.bat and 1R.Bat I don't see the system. What value should I put in -P0.0?
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mtindor

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I am new to DSD+ and have a question. Using Radio Reference I found the control channel for the NXDN NEXEDGE 4800 system I want to listen to. I put that into FMP24-CC.bat as I am using a generic DVB-T +DVB FM USB. When I start FMP24-cc.bat and 1R.Bat I don't see the system. What value should I put in -P0.0?
View attachment 196992
I'm guessing you are monitoring this one?


Keep in mind that if there is just one freq on an NXDN site marked as a CC, that doesn't mean that some of the other freqs on that site couldn't be CCs. It just means that when somebody discovered that site, the CC at that time was the one you are using. Check all the frequencies on that site for an active control channel. When you tune to the freq, you would see the signal in FMP and you would start seeing information at the bottom of the DSDPlus Event Window

Here is the license for the Newberg area site - FCC Callsign WQTD608 (COMMUNICATIONS NORTHWEST) with the following frequencies:

451.06875
451.15625
461.44375
461.54375
461.73125
462.15625

There very easily could be more freqs active on that site since the last time somebody monitored it and submitted data to the DB. And on many systems, any freq could be a potential CC or they often have at least two CCs and may or may not rotate them periodically.
 
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GrumpyGuard

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Thank you for helping. Great job figuring out which system I am attempting to listen to. DSD+ is new to me, but I should have thought of entering all the frequencies as I do with my scanner. I put in the frequencies you provided, and none of them were a cc. I will go through all the frequencies listed on the FCC page, and hopefully, I will find the control channel.

One other question: can I put more than one frequency for this system into the FMP24-cc.bat file? If so, will 1R.bat scan through the channels until it finds the CC?
 

saioke

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How do I lower the gain?
G to raise it, g to lower it. It's best to add a -g argument in your FMP24-CC file after you find an optimal gain so that it's automatically set each time you boot DSD+ instead of adjusting each time manually.
 

mtindor

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Thank you for helping. Great job figuring out which system I am attempting to listen to. DSD+ is new to me, but I should have thought of entering all the frequencies as I do with my scanner. I put in the frequencies you provided, and none of them were a cc. I will go through all the frequencies listed on the FCC page, and hopefully, I will find the control channel.

One other question: can I put more than one frequency for this system into the FMP24-cc.bat file? If so, will 1R.bat scan through the channels until it finds the CC?
I posted the wrong set of frequencies the first time. So you might want to re-read my post and make sure you got the "updated" frequencies. I originally posted the Doubletree freqs instead of the Newberg (whatever mountain) frequencies.

Odd that you don't pick it up. I mean your profile suggests you are in Newberg, and the licensed site is there. But if you hear nothing on any of those frequencies, the site may not be online. I did notice that in the DB it wasn't actually designated as a control channel and may have only been added based upon one of the other sites reporting it as a peer/neighbor.

Mike
 

cg

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Once you bring your gain down (G/g) to a good level, the signals will be more obvious. Lower the gain until the green and white signal lines are around the 2nd horizontal blue line. That is a good starting point.
You have what looks like a NXDN signal lurking off to the right in your pic. I would try the second frequency in the above list.

However, tuning to that spike only starts your adventure. When you get a good signal, you will see activity in the Channel Activity window. You then need to gather info and populate the various files that tell the program the frequencies to tune to and the talkgroups you want to hear or not. It is not difficult but it does require some patience.
With a new system, I try to edit files in some kind of order, Network, Site, Frequencies so I don't overlook one and my data is consistent.
So your edited Network file would have an entry like
NEXEDGE48, 492, "Comm NW"
Site file might have:
NEXEDGE48, 492, 4, "Chehalem"
and to start, the Frequency file has a first entry of the following (with this system, there will be one line for each frequency):
NEXEDGE48, 492, 4, ?, 451.15625, 0.0, 1

Your job will be to determine what channel numbers are used for each of those frequencies. That info will pop up on the Channel Activity and the Event Log windows. You have to match the activity with the channel used. So, for example, if you see traffic on Channel 3 and there is a spike at the same time near one of the frequencies in the list, you could try entering that as the channel number in the frequency list. Just keep going until all the licensed frequencies are figured out or you are not missing any conversations.
 

GrumpyGuard

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I posted the wrong set of frequencies the first time. So you might want to re-read my post and make sure you got the "updated" frequencies. I originally posted the Doubletree freqs instead of the Newberg (whatever mountain) frequencies.

Odd that you don't pick it up. I mean your profile suggests you are in Newberg, and the licensed site is there. But if you hear nothing on any of those frequencies, the site may not be online. I did notice that in the DB it wasn't actually designated as a control channel and may have only been added based upon one of the other sites reporting it as a peer/neighbor.

Mike
I work in Beaverton and the two Portland sites are not that far from there. I wasn’t able to pickup the control channels there either, but I was able to pickup DMR and P25 systems. When I go to work on Tuesday I will try again.
 

GrumpyGuard

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Once you bring your gain down (G/g) to a good level, the signals will be more obvious. Lower the gain until the green and white signal lines are around the 2nd horizontal blue line. That is a good starting point.
You have what looks like a NXDN signal lurking off to the right in your pic. I would try the second frequency in the above list.

However, tuning to that spike only starts your adventure. When you get a good signal, you will see activity in the Channel Activity window. You then need to gather info and populate the various files that tell the program the frequencies to tune to and the talkgroups you want to hear or not. It is not difficult but it does require some patience.
With a new system, I try to edit files in some kind of order, Network, Site, Frequencies so I don't overlook one and my data is consistent.
So your edited Network file would have an entry like
NEXEDGE48, 492, "Comm NW"
Site file might have:
NEXEDGE48, 492, 4, "Chehalem"
and to start, the Frequency file has a first entry of the following (with this system, there will be one line for each frequency):
NEXEDGE48, 492, 4, ?, 451.15625, 0.0, 1

Your job will be to determine what channel numbers are used for each of those frequencies. That info will pop up on the Channel Activity and the Event Log windows. You have to match the activity with the channel used. So, for example, if you see traffic on Channel 3 and there is a spike at the same time near one of the frequencies in the list, you could try entering that as the channel number in the frequency list. Just keep going until all the licensed frequencies are figured out or you are not missing any conversations.
Thank you. This is a lot of useful information. I will gain quite a bit of knowledge on using FMP24 and all the associated files.
 

cg

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One other part I did not mention. For NXDN, the best bandwidth is 4 (B/b key). Also, you can go to the Decoder tab and uncheck all the modes except NXDN ones. This can help with the decoding of weaker NXDN signals. You just need to remember to re-check them for monitoring the other modes.

cg
 
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