DSDPlus FL 2.506 released

mtindor

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No, for what ever reason, any OTA stopped working on NYC Interoperable Communications Network (NYCICN). It stopped saying alias in the column and it stopped mentioning anything about Dsdplus server.

The pic I posted is from CLMRN and the first time seeing multiple underscores where the alias value should be.

The underscores are simply radio IDs that had OTAaliases which were captured and sent to the server. At some time later on all of those ______ would be replaced with the real cleartext alias value once the batch of aliases (which could include aliases from 50 different systems) was ran. So, as for CLMRN, everything is working as intended.

I probably fed misinformation before. The word "alias" in the common doesn't necessarily mean there is an alias. It means that DSDPlus is checking for an OTAalias. If it doesn't find one, it isn't going to display Alias next to a voice transmission with that RID again until the reacquisition time is met.

So you have have ten separate voice conversations where you see "Alias" next to them. It's checking for the existence of an OTA Alias or for the existence of an updated OTA Alias. Once it checks it, if there was a new / updated alias it sends it to the server. If there is already an OTA alias and it is the same as what is in the .radios file, it doesn't do anything. And there will be no more mentions of "Alias" next to voice comms with that RID until reacquistion time. That's my current understanding.

So in the case of NYCICN, perhaps you and/or somebody else already captured all of the OTA Aliases for the RIDs you typically see on the sites you monitor, and they are up to date, so no further "Alias" activity will happen until reaquisition time.

Also, keep in mind that some systems just don't have OTA Aliases enabled for all radios. And some sites on some systems will send OTA Aliases and others won't. Most of Ohio MARCS sites do not send OTA Aliases. But, get over into Zone 4 (SW Ohio), and there are multiple county simulcasts that are sending OTA aliases. Some systems may just have OTA aliases for a very small subgroup of radios, for instance a specific department, or consoles, etc. Again that's my understanding.

Anything you have described sounds completely normal to me based upon the systems I monitor (WVSIRN and PASTARNET).
 

mtindor

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@dave3825 Also keep in mind that typically there is significantly less traffic on any particular site that you want to monitor. Also consider that for CLMRN, it has the most OTA aliases sent / decoded. If the majority of those aliases came from a site that you monitored, there are likely very few left to get unless radios that weren't busy during normal business hours during the week happen to come online for an event (like a fire department that didn't have calls for days suddenly has a call today and radios that only registered/affilitiated in the past week now are making voice calls).

The two WVSIRN sites I monitor I've been monitoring since the alias support was added. During the week I always get some new hits, but not many. Even less over the weekend. Why? I've already captured / send / received cleartext aliases for nearly every radio that keyed up on those sites during the time I've been monitoring. So I won't see much activity at all throughout the weekend unless some department comes out of the woodwork that I didn't monitor before. Things will likely pick up tomorrow. And also keep in mind that there are often lots of radios from lots of agencys that may register/affiliate dailiy but never make a voice call all week. Can't get aliases for them until they key up.
 

VA3ADP

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As some others have pointed out, It was a useless update. I noticed on the encrypted PSRN/LMRN system out my way that DSD is still having trouble decoding all aliases on all RIDs that appear. Some are just leaving the usual two quotations that appear in the RADIOS file.

I also wish in the next update, they'd do something about the super long numbers and letters under the RID and just insert the RID where the quotations go as with the NXDN/IDAS systems.

Guess there is still some R&D to be done...
 

mtindor

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As some others have pointed out, It was a useless update. I noticed on the encrypted PSRN/LMRN system out my way that DSD is still having trouble decoding all aliases on all RIDs that appear. Some are just leaving the usual two quotations that appear in the RADIOS file.

I also wish in the next update, they'd do something about the super long numbers and letters under the RID and just insert the RID where the quotations go as with the NXDN/IDAS systems.

Guess there is still some R&D to be done...

Long number and letters? You mean the scrambled OTA alias? Has to be put somewhere because it is used as reference even after its uploaded to the server. If a month from now DSDPlus sees that the OTA Alias has changed (based upon comparing it to the one in the .radios file), then it'll submit the OTA Alias for updated decoding.

If there are just "" and no OTA Alias, then your DSDPlus did not collect any alias for that particular RID. Keep in mind that RIDs that only register/affilitate are NOT going to be transmitting OTA aliases and there will be nothing to decode. The radios must transmit, and your DSDPlus must be available to tune to that voice transmission when it occurs in order to capture the OTA alias.
 

slicerwizard

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I noticed that the 2.505 update was decoding Durham NEXGEN radio aliases, but some were obviously wrong or incomplete. The latest update has all of them decoding properly. So not so useless, IMO.

Some are just leaving the usual two quotations that appear in the RADIOS file.

OMG, I just clued in - as the poster above explained - you're complaining about no aliases on radios that aren't making any calls. Or if they are, you don't have DSD+ tuning to those calls. Wow.
 

Echo4Thirty

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TxWARN is a huge regional system that covers most of East Texas, so depending on where @ole_geezer is at, there may not be much other systems to monitor. I would think the Harris County/Houston area would likely have names on their radios because you're talking the 4th largest city in the US, and the incredible number of users would make a dispatcher's job a living hell otherwise.

I'm North of the Dallas/Fort Worth Area, and the NTIRN system appears to be using names (based on the stats, but I'm out of range), but PAWMco (Collin County, Plano, etc.) that I'm in range of doesn't seem to be transmitting names OTA, so I'm stuck monitoring McKinney, Texas (the only other Motorola P25 system I can pick up from here, despite it being 90%+ encrypted) from my base station. I'm off with my mobile rig to see if another system or two is playing nice, but don't expect to build a large database from my mobile adventures, only just planting seeds.

OTA is an APX only function (Ok the Harris XL series for Harris, but ONLY on a Harris system thats supports OTA, just as Motorola radios can only do this on a properly optioned and configured Motorola system) AND it is a purchasable flashcode option. That said, while all of CoH and most of the core Harris county users are APX, not all of them have the group services flashcode option. Then you get to the outlier counties that have a ton of XTS/XTL radios and thus do not support sending of their alias and never will.

The network does support it and does send out OTA information, but I would not really expect to see it outside of the Harris, CoH, FtB, Moco and Galveston county subsystems. Even in those, it could be hit or miss as to what agency/subscriber sends what. I do see the consoles transmit their OTA, at least for the HC consatables and SO that I monitor. I am not sure about HPD/HFD.
 

dave3825

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DSD+ wanted to access the internet. Why was this?

 

exkalibur

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OTA is an APX only function (Ok the Harris XL series for Harris, but ONLY on a Harris system thats supports OTA, just as Motorola radios can only do this on a properly optioned and configured Motorola system)
A Motorola radio can decode OTA aliases on a Harris system as it uses the P25 standard method. It just doesn't work the other way around.
 

Echo4Thirty

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A Motorola radio can decode OTA aliases on a Harris system as it uses the P25 standard method. It just doesn't work the other way around.
My APX8000 At R34.00 does not decode the OTA alias information on the Harris system locally to me, just the Motorola one. The XL200 on the other hand at FW 17B happily decodes the OTA on the Harris system, but not on the Motorola system. None of the radios in the fleet we maintain do this either. I need to check the programming on our Motorola radios to see if i missed something, but they do have group services in the flash and work properly when they are on the Motorola system but just show the RID when over on the Harris system.

Did OTA finally get put into TIA.102? If so who is not compliant?

EDIT: I just checked and we did have OTA alias decode on the Harris system profile. Not sure what else would need to be checked as that is sufficient to get the OTA aliases on the Moto system.
 
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ole_geezer

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After running a few days, a few OTA descriptors other than RID have been noted. But, they are only for the dispatcher radios.
 

Echo4Thirty

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A Motorola radio can decode OTA aliases on a Harris system as it uses the P25 standard method. It just doesn't work the other way around.
Welp you were correct. I updated the firmware on another radio and its working on the Harris system. Now to figure out whats wrong with my 8000.
 

DaveNF2G

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I have priorities configured and have noticed that DSDPlus jumps to groups where new aliases are detected regardless of priority settings.
 

LimaZulu

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I have priorities configured and have noticed that DSDPlus jumps to groups where new aliases are detected regardless of priority settings.
That's not new. It's like that since the very first public release. Maybe an option to be turned on/off would be great
 

adamfancher

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Almost all of the aliases returned on the system I am monitoring are just the RID.
My local system serves a whole list of agencies like public transit, police, fire, EMS for municipalities and counties, department of transportation, national guard, DMV, DEEP, College Campus Security, Department of Corrections, Department of Justice....None of which send OTA aliases except for a handful of municipalities.

However, one of the biggest users of the system is our state police, and they send out aliases that contain the badge number and in some cases even the license plate number of a trooper (We have roughly 1000 of them).

In my case, I didn't read the release notes when I updated 2.505 so I was surprised to see them come pouring in, so I wasn't expecting any particular functionality. It seems they've been transmitting the aliases all along and I just got lucky :)
 

bravo14

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I ran Lakeland FL and Polk County 800 (for days) no OTA expect that one 1 rid seem still didn't fill correctly. The RID belongs to DeSoto Disp and I barely hear them unless open bands or one of their unit is polk county. I ran the Duke Energy and surprised didn't see them in the Alias Stats list.
 

mtindor

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I ran Lakeland FL and Polk County 800 (for days) no OTA expect that one 1 rid seem still didn't fill correctly. The RID belongs to DeSoto Disp and I barely hear them unless open bands or one of their unit is polk county. I ran the Duke Energy and surprised didn't see them in the Alias Stats list.

Duke Energy is a Harris system. Those OTA aliases aren't scrambled and can be decoded directly by DSDPlus without any offsite processing. The alias processing via a server is only for Motorola P25 systems/sites that have OTA Aliases turned on.
 

bravo14

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Duke Energy is a Harris system. Those OTA aliases aren't scrambled and can be decoded directly by DSDPlus without any offsite processing. The alias processing via a server is only for Motorola P25 systems/sites that have OTA Aliases turned on.
I forgot about that guessing the CRS kicking in :unsure:
:geek:
 
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