How to Enter a P25 USAF Base Radio System into SDRTrunk? (Luke AFB Arizona)

kingshootr

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I'm close to Luke AFB in Glendale, Arizona and would like to listen in if they are not fully encrypted. The link is to the RR frequency information page.

For non-military systems, I can find the repeater tower that is broadcasting, but LAFB I'm not seeing anything on the Radio Reference >Country>State>County>System View or Talkgroup View that references them. I've looked in the County Trunked Systems/State Trunked Systems/County Agencies/State Agencies/National Agencies - but not seeing anything there either.

Any advice/information if it is listenable on SDRTrunk (or another SDR program) and how to go about it. In "traditional" scanning I see references about manually setting up and entering the talkgroups, frequencies, etc (all over my head at this stage of my education). Is that even an option for SDR if that's the only way to try and listen in?

Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this.
 

VexingRaven

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I'd just pull up SDR# or something like that and check those frequencies from that page and if any are strong, constant signals that's probably an active control channel so I'd pop that into SDRTrunk and see if it decodes.
 

BinaryMode

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If memory serves, when I used SDRTruck you heard ALL talk groups and I think had to enter the ones you did not want to hear. I think... Been a while since I used SDRTrunk.

You just enter all the frequencies you see there in red with a "c" next to them as the control channels and the rest as the voice channels. Then you should see things start to take action and talk groups appear. If unencrypted of course. I think SDRTrunk will say if it's encrypted.

I'll have to try SDRTrunk again, but I think it uses Java and I have to install Java again.

Here's some videos. https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=sdrtrunk
 

VexingRaven

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I re-read again and I think I understand the question now but I'm not 100% sure. You do not need to program anything except the control channel with SDRTrunk or other trunk following software. It will get everything it needs from the control channel. The only reason you would need the list of talk groups is so you can label them, as they will have no labels except the TGID.
 

BM82557

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Control channels are entered in the Playlist Channel tab, Then in the Aliases tab create an alias list with a TG range of 1-65535 (Add Identifier, APCO-P25, Talkgroup Range) . To listen to everything that is not encrypted be sure to enable Listen when you create the alias list. By default, SDRTrunk will not listen to a talkgroup unless it exists in the alias list.
 

kingshootr

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Foremost - Thank you all for taking a minute or two to help a brother out!

Man, I'm trying but just no luck so far. Here's the steps I'm taking:

1] Open Playlist Editor and create a new Playlist "Luke AFB"
SDRTrunk Playlist Tab.png

2] In the Alias tab, I've created a Luke AFB Alias, with the identifier settings you noted above.
SDRTrunk Alias Tab.png

SDRTrunk Alias Alias Tab.png

And this is as far as I can get. I imagine I'm missing where to put the control frequencies at a minimum. When I go to Arizona/US/Arizona Federal and go to Luke, I see all these entries (plus more down from this screen grab):
RR LukeAFB 01.png

When I click on the link "United States Air Force (3D6), and scroll down, I get to this list of Luke entries:
RR LukeAFB 02.png

...and then to this:
RR LukeAFB 03.png

Then this:
RR LukeAFB 04.png
(Continued...)
RR LukeAFB 05.png

At this point I am lost - I do not what all these columns of information are, how they relate to scanning, Which info to put where in SDRTrunk, etc.
 
Last edited:

BM82557

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Under Playlists go into the Channels tab and enter all the site info for Luke which among other things includes the Control Channel Frequencies, see example for my local system below --

Screenshot - 7_27_2023 , 4_50_47 PM.png



In your case you need to enter all 4 of the Control Channels that are in Red in the database entry --

Screenshot - 7_27_2023 , 4_48_55 PM.png
 

ToddWilkinson

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I'm close to Luke AFB in Glendale, Arizona and would like to listen in if they are not fully encrypted. The link is to the RR frequency information page.

For non-military systems, I can find the repeater tower that is broadcasting, but LAFB I'm not seeing anything on the Radio Reference >Country>State>County>System View or Talkgroup View that references them. I've looked in the County Trunked Systems/State Trunked Systems/County Agencies/State Agencies/National Agencies - but not seeing anything there either.

Any advice/information if it is listenable on SDRTrunk (or another SDR program) and how to go about it. In "traditional" scanning I see references about manually setting up and entering the talkgroups, frequencies, etc (all over my head at this stage of my education). Is that even an option for SDR if that's the only way to try and listen in?

Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this.
Its under County Trunked Systems
 

kingshootr

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While you can create a playlist for whatever you wish, you can just use one playlist, and define all the systems within the the channels tab.

My one play list

View attachment 145991


My systems in the one playlist in channels tab.

View attachment 145992
I tried doing separate playlists but it was a pain. I just have the one now, like yours. Much easier to manage.
 

kingshootr

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Its under County Trunked Systems
I looked again, and I can find 4 entries under the Regional Wireless Collective. Their alias' are Luke AFB with E2, E3, E4, and E5. They all have "Phoenix Regional Fire Dispatch in the "Group" tab. It's late right now and the only activity is a garbled call that is from a fire dispatch, as far as I can tell. I'll give it a listen in the morning.

Looking at the RR database, sure seems like a lot of talkgroups. I figured there would be many more, even if they were encrypted, showing up. Do you see something under "County Trunked Systems" that I may be missing?


EDIT - Ugh, I'm blind... Just found it. Thank you Todd for getting me on track.
 
Last edited:

ToddWilkinson

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I looked again, and I can find 4 entries under the Regional Wireless Collective. Their alias' are Luke AFB with E2, E3, E4, and E5. They all have "Phoenix Regional Fire Dispatch in the "Group" tab. It's late right now and the only activity is a garbled call that is from a fire dispatch, as far as I can tell. I'll give it a listen in the morning.

Looking at the RR database, sure seems like a lot of talkgroups. I figured there would be many more, even if they were encrypted, showing up. Do you see something under "County Trunked Systems" that I may be missing?


EDIT - Ugh, I'm blind... Just found it. Thank you Todd for getting me on track.
Anytime bud!
 
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