Getting back in SDR. SDRTrunk or Unitrunker?

[airwavelistener]

Used SDR the last time 8 years ago. I'm getting back into SDR and wow,how things have changed.

Back then I monitored my local public safety,fire,etc. They use Project 25 Phase I.
I remember using Trunktracker with 2 dongles,I think SDRsharp,VB-Cable,etc.

I now see there is SDRTrunk and Unitrunker. Not sure which one would be the preferred solution for my needs. Are two dongles even needed now?
They are Nooelec RTL-SDR.

Any suggestions on which one and videos for a setup will be appreciated.

 

[BinaryMode]

SDRTrunk for voice. Unitrunker for control channel monitoring and well - voice but I believe that requires two SDRs. SDRTrunk doesn't per say unless the voice channels are spread far apart bandwidth wise. Then two dongles are needed for SDRTrunk. I can use one SDR dongle with SDRTrunk in my area just fine.

 

[Enforcer52]

I prefer the interface of SDRTrunk over Unitrunker. I monitor 12 conventional channels, and 4 different counties and their towers on the TxWarn system. Running 6 RTL-SDR v3, and streaming 3 different feeds to Broadcastify, and the Calls Platform. All this on a 10 year old quad-core laptop with 16 gigs of memory.

The number of sdr's you will need depends on what all you want to listen to.

Plenty of folks here on RR to help you out with either of the software choices.

Here is good video for SDRTrunk.

 

[airwavelistener]

SDRTrunk for voice. Unitrunker for control channel monitoring and well - voice but I believe that requires two SDRs. SDRTrunk doesn't per say unless the voice channels are spread far apart bandwidth wise. Then two dongles are needed for SDRTrunk. I can use one SDR dongle with SDRTrunk in my area just fine.

I do have two SDR from my previous setup years ago.

 

[JimmyJet727]

I prefer the interface of SDRTrunk over Unitrunker. I monitor 12 conventional channels, and 4 different counties and their towers on the TxWarn system. Running 6 RTL-SDR v3, and streaming 3 different feeds to Broadcastify, and the Calls Platform. All this on a 10 year old quad-core laptop with 16 gigs of memory.

Wow. I knew you were running a large array of dongles and was curious about how much horsepower this required. Somehow I envisioned a big honkin' server with a brazillion gigs of RAM. Also you mentioned that you run the dongles on a powered USB hub, which brings me to another question...

Does the powered USB hub help the processing power (CPU) of the laptop or just electrical load?

 

[airwavelistener]

Think I'm going to try SDRTrunk. I know back when I did SDR,I had to set one SDR as Data and one for Voice,Think I said that right.
Will SDRTrunk automatically use one when it detects two SDRs? If it mentioned it in the video above,I missed it. The other videos I have watched doesn't mention it either.

 

[Enforcer52]

Does the powered USB hub help the processing power (CPU) of the laptop or just electrical load?

Just the electrical load and transfer buffers, not the CPU performance.

 

[Enforcer52]

Will SDRTrunk automatically use one when it detects two SDRs?

SDRT will automatically use them when detected.

 

[airwavelistener]

SDRT will automatically use them when detected.

Thanks.

 

[Jphila20]

The main issue with SDRTrunk is if you download from RR you have lockout everything you don't want to hear. I listen to Cuyahoga County in Ohio and listen to both the state wide P25 system and the Cleveland system which both have a ton of talk groups I could careless about. Unitrunker makes it easier to find what you want listen to and set or hold on specific talk group when something like a pursuit is going on.

It's best to have multiple SDR's with a P25 system using one for control which allows the software to receive what you want to hear. I have 1 control and 3 voice using Unitrunker. I've used Unitrunker since version 1.

 

[airwavelistener]

Thanks for all the replies. Unfortunately,the Laptop I was going to use had the motherboard go bad. Now I need to find another one which I hadn't planned for. Any suggestions on what to get?

 

[redbeard]

Literally anything that has the features you want. Stuff is fast enough these days it really doesn't matter much except for special uses.

Also check out DSD+ Fast Lane. I prefer it over the others.

 

[BinaryMode]

The main issue with SDRTrunk is if you download from RR you have lockout everything you don't want to hear. I listen to Cuyahoga County in Ohio and listen to both the state wide P25 system and the Cleveland system which both have a ton of talk groups I could careless about. Unitrunker makes it easier to find what you want listen to and set or hold on specific talk group when something like a pursuit is going on.

It's best to have multiple SDR's with a P25 system using one for control which allows the software to receive what you want to hear. I have 1 control and 3 voice using Unitrunker. I've used Unitrunker since version 1.

You can lockout ranges. See screenshot.

 

[airwavelistener]

Got lucky and found the Dell E6420 that I used the last time I was using SDR, thought I had gotten rid of it. I just to put the 16gb ram back into it to. Already has the OS on a SSD and an I5.

 

[BinaryMode]

Latitudes are great laptops. I have two.

Dell Latitude is a line of laptop computers manufactured and sold by American company Dell Technologies. It is a business-oriented line, aimed at corporate enterprises, healthcare, government, and education markets; unlike the Inspiron and XPS series, which were aimed at individual customers, and the Vostro series, which was aimed at smaller businesses.

Dell Latitude - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

I need to edit that article, it reads like crap. LOL Yes, I'm an editor - of sorts...

 

[Enforcer52]

Got lucky and found the Dell E6420 that I used the last time I was using SDR, thought I had gotten rid of it. I just to put the 16gb ram back into it to. Already has the OS on a SSD and an I5.

That should work!

An easy way to set your Alias List in SDRT on a trunked system is to import the system.
Click on first entry, then scroll to the bottom and shift-click on the last entry, then turn off Listen and click Save.
The go back to the top of list, slowly scroll down and ctrl-click the TGIDs you want to listen to and highlight them, once you get thru the whole list, then turn on the Listen option and Save.

 

[airwavelistener]

Followed this VIDEO and got things set up. I'm going to have to watch it again since I'm not getting any activity on my SDRs. One just says Idle. I'll post an update when I get a chance to mess with it again.

 

[airwavelistener]

Been trying for a few hours now and no luck. The one Dongle does switch back and forth now from Idle to Control,but the other Dongle doesn't show any active calls. Not sure if it's a setting or a bad dongle.

I'll switch them tomorrow and see what happens.

 

[Enforcer52]

Go to the tuners tab and set the gain to 495 on both sdrs, see if you can lock on the control channels with the gain all the up. If it locks on the control channels, then you can start lowering a step at a time, till you see the control channels start losing signal. Then bump it up a step at a time till they stay locked on, and then at least one more step up.

How many control channels/towers are you trying to monitor?

Are you using antennas that came with the sdrs, or an outside antenna. Depending on how far you are from the towers makes a big difference, but generally an outside antenna will work better.

 

[airwavelistener]

I set both to 495 and the "control" channel still would jump between idle and control.
2 control channels.
I used the same antennae that I used previously and picked up the signals fine.
Tower is around 15mi from me.

I went and changed which Dongle I wanted to use for the "control"and it did the exact same thing. I assume that this means that both Dongles are ok.

I'll mess with it more tomorrow.