Free software: BCDx36HP WAV Header Reader

[gariac]

Anyone tried Libre Office?

I tried Libre Office on a linux box. If I said Open Office, I was in error.

The script I made can be converted to windows by someone who knows windows shell programming. DD is available for windows. I'm not so sure how to remove nonprintable characters in windows since I can't find an equivalent to the unix/linux tr command.

Load up the XLS file even if it doesn't run. It has information on where the data is located in the header. Once you see that information, my script is trivial to understand.

The problem I see here is the "blocks", which by themselves have well defined boundaries, seem to be a jumbled stromg. You have to dig out the frequency information amongst a number of other characters. I had to use the text editing features of Libre Office to clean up the fields. I suspect this could be done with sed in my script, but I'm not really versed in it.

For example, this is the contents of the channel block.
VHF GuardOff121500000AM15Off20OffAutoOffOnOffOff
General AtomicsOff36500000NFM15Off20OffAutoOffOnOff

Line one is 121.5MHZ AM. Line two is 36.5MHz NFM. It looks like the frequency starts after the word "Off" and presumably "On". At some point it is easier just to write a program rather than hack with sed, awk, or similar string manipulation programs.

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

Does this program also work for the HP-1, or just the 436/536 scanners? I have some files on my HP-1 I want to sort when I get home, and I'm hoping to do it with this program.

If not, can someone recommend a good program, other than media monkey (God how I hate that program grrrrrr), that will get the job done and show the PL tones? Or, if anyone knows, what field would be used in Windows Explorer to show the PL tones?

Thanks in advance.

 

[gariac]

SMPlayer - Free Media Player for Windows with Youtube support - Official Site

smplayer, at least on linux, reads the some of the metadata of the wave header file while playing the audio.

 

[gariac]

Here is a sample wave file from a "conventional" frequency.
http://www.lazygranch.com/sound/2014july/2014-07-24_07-09-42.wav

As seen in smplayer:
http://www.lazygranch.com/sound/2014july//smplayer.png

As seen in a hex editor:
http://www.lazygranch.com/sound/2014july//ghex1.png
http://www.lazygranch.com/sound/2014july//ghex2.png
http://www.lazygranch.com/sound/2014july//ghex3.png
with large groups of of zeros not show, as well as the actual sound data.

Now there is documentation of sorts on the wav header. "Of sorts" since it appears to be very ad hoc.

Here are a few explanations of the "RIFF" header:
Wave File Format - The Sonic Spot
http://ist.uwaterloo.ca/~schepers/formats/WAV.TXT
https://ccrma.stanford.edu/courses/422/projects/WaveFormat/
Wav (RIFF) File Format Tutorial

The wiki on RIFF is pretty poor.

 

[Steve2003]

Looks like something may have changed with the WAV headers on the latest BCD536HP firmware update that was released the other week. The 436 still works fine as there was no firmware update, but recordings from my 536 now have a blank TGID. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[joeuser]

Looks like something may have changed with the WAV headers on the latest BCD536HP firmware update that was released the other week. The 436 still works fine as there was no firmware update, but recordings from my 536 now have a blank TGID. Anyone have any ideas?

The author will have to figure out what changed & update

 

[troymail]

Looks like something may have changed with the WAV headers on the latest BCD536HP firmware update that was released the other week. The 436 still works fine as there was no firmware update, but recordings from my 536 now have a blank TGID. Anyone have any ideas?

Saw the changes in the program I wrote also.... Been looking into a fix. But it will be a real pain if they keep changing the header.....

 

[joeuser]

Saw the changes in the program I wrote also.... Been looking into a fix. But it will be a real pain if they keep changing the header.....

One thing we can say for certain with Uniden, there's always a point at which they just stop updating.

 

[troymail]

One thing we can say for certain with Uniden, there's always a point at which they just stop updating.

true dat.

 

[Jay911]

The talkgroup is present at least twice (more) in the header besides the one which seems to have been dropped. I'm sure theaton can update this sheet when he gets a chance.

 

[marcotor]

Thanks for this!
Works great with Excel on a Mac

 

[Jay911]

Tim,
When/if you do an update to the sheet, could you consider an option to save the path that the Open dialog starts in?

I save all my recordings in a specific folder, and have to navigate to it every time I run the software. I know, it's a minor thing to complain about, but it would be nice if it could be done.

 

[Jay911]

Just a note to say the beta firmware for DMR seems to alter the headers of the recording enough to cause this script to freak completely out. Can't sort any recordings any more, sadly.

 

[racingfan360]

Theaton,
I am having problems when I click "import files" and get the following error:
Run-time error '5':
Invalid procedure call or argument
Any thoughts?

I appreciate this is an old bit of the thread, but I'm really interested in the functionality offered by this script. Has anyone been able to resolve the run-time error described above by Steve2003 and troymail? I get the same issue. I have checked the references as instructed. HAve tried on various platforms and various version of Excel too, all with the same problem reported.

TIA

 

[theaton]

New Header Problem

I'm trying to update this program to read the audio file headers, especially for DMR, but I've run into a major snag. When recording headers for DMR, the scanner DOES NOT RECORD THE FREQUENCY. It records Net, Site, TG, and User INSTEAD OF the frequency. This makes reading the headers nearly useless because the most important piece of information is missing. This is unfortunate because there is a lot of junk recorded in the header that could be dispensed with. I hope Uniden will change this oversight in an update. This is a major hitch for those of us that are trying to research new frequencies and trunked systems to add to the RRDB. As it is, the only way to read the frequency is to do it live by looking at the scanner display while it is monitoring a frequency.

 

[racingfan360]

I'm trying to update this program to read the audio file headers, especially for DMR, but I've run into a major snag. When recording headers for DMR, the scanner DOES NOT RECORD THE FREQUENCY. It records Net, Site, TG, and User INSTEAD OF the frequency. This makes reading the headers nearly useless because the most important piece of information is missing. This is unfortunate because there is a lot of junk recorded in the header that could be dispensed with. I hope Uniden will change this oversight in an update. This is a major hitch for those of us that are trying to research new frequencies and trunked systems to add to the RRDB. As it is, the only way to read the frequency is to do it live by looking at the scanner display while it is monitoring a frequency.

Many thanks for the update theaton, and for your continued work to modify your program .....

Noting the limitations on just recording Net, Site, TG, and User, I'd still REALLY appreciate if you were able to release an updated version that just covered what you can extract today - ie just these metadata fields: I use my 436 largely for scanning conventional systems, and as a hangover from old Unidens, I tend to add the freq into the Alpha tag, and I think that is still collected as metadata in the wav file. I think your updated program might be a big help to me?

TIA

 

[theaton]

To add to the frustration, if you create a channel for a DMR frequency and scan it as a conventional frequency, then it doesn't record any of the DMR info or even show it on the scanner display! You are able to listen to the DMR transmission and record it, however.

I'm in the process of retiring and am very busy at the moment. I'm visiting Utah where there's a lot of DMR activity, and that's why I've been trying things out this week. I should have lots of time to do an update in a few months, but I wish Uniden would settle on a USEFUL header format for the BCDx36HP so we can log hits properly. Recording hits is a wonderful feature, but recordings without frequencies and other data aren't of much use.

I appreciate this is an old bit of the thread, but I'm really interested in the functionality offered by this script. Has anyone been able to resolve the run-time error described above by Steve2003 and troymail? I get the same issue. I have checked the references as instructed. HAve tried on various platforms and various version of Excel too, all with the same problem reported.

TIA