police scanner guides need updating, only 1 SDR needed

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rosecitytransit

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Just would like to say that I successfully got a SDR# + UniTrunker + DSD+ setup to work using https://sites.google.com/site/policescannerhowto/ and some other sites, and I think one of my stumbling blocks was that in the newer versions of UniTrunker, the debug option has changed.

There is no longer a "Debug" in the list of radio models when you go to set up the control receiver, and instead of picking "Control" when you click the plus sign on the toolbar, you have to pick "debug". I'm pretty sure this is what got the sdrsharptrunking.log to be created.

In addition, two USB dongles are not needed to follow voice traffic. Not sure about the direct RTL support in newer versions of UniTrunker, but the ZefieMod trunker plugin for SDR# can move the tuner from the control channel to a voice channel (when instructed to by UniTrunker through sdrsharptrunking.log) and then back to the control channel frequency once a transmission is over--essentially just like a real hardware scanner does. UniTrunker and DSD+ cope fine when the tuner gets moved; the only downside is that, like an actual trunking scanner, you miss knowing what's on the control channel during calls.

The ZefieMod site is broken, but through the Google cache and reading the page source, I found the working download link: http://the.midnightchannel.net/sdr/...d/SDRSharp.Trunker.ZefieMod.v1.2013.430.1.zip

Last tip: if things aren't working right or you're getting poor voice quality, temporarily turn up the FFT Display resolution in SDR# and zoom in. Make sure the tuner is centering on the channel that's being tuned. I thought I had my dongle calibrated, but changing the PPM just 3 notches has made a big difference in digital decoding.
 
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joeuser

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Just would like to say that I successfully got a SDR# + UniTrunker + DSD+ setup to work using https://sites.google.com/site/policescannerhowto/ and some other sites, and I think one of my stumbling blocks was that in the newer versions of UniTrunker, the debug option has changed.

There is no longer a "Debug" in the list of radio models when you go to set up the control receiver, and instead of picking "Control" when you click the plus sign on the toolbar, you have to pick "debug". I'm pretty sure this is what got the sdrsharptrunking.log to be created.

In addition, two USB dongles are not needed to follow voice traffic. Not sure about the direct RTL support in newer versions of UniTrunker, but the ZefieMod trunker plugin for SDR# can move the tuner from the control channel to a voice channel (when instructed to by UniTrunker through sdrsharptrunking.log) and then back to the control channel frequency once a transmission is over--essentially just like a real hardware scanner does. UniTrunker and DSD+ cope fine when the tuner gets moved; the only downside is that, like an actual trunking scanner, you miss knowing what's on the control channel during calls.

The ZefieMod site is broken, but through the Google cache and reading the page source, I found the working download link: http://the.midnightchannel.net/sdr/...d/SDRSharp.Trunker.ZefieMod.v1.2013.430.1.zip

Last tip: if things aren't working right or you're getting poor voice quality, temporarily turn up the FFT Display resolution in SDR# and zoom in. Make sure the tuner is centering on the channel that's being tuned. I thought I had my dongle calibrated, but changing the PPM just 3 notches has made a big difference in digital decoding.


Excellent post!
 

tylerwatt12

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On occasion I mess around with single SDR setups. I personally don't like them, because when a call is finish, there is about 1 second of missed space that a call could come through, which I would have missed. This is the latency that happens while Unitrunker reads the control signal again
 

rosecitytransit

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Interesting. I haven't looked that close. And if you're in search mode (not trying to follow a talkgroup), it doesn't totally matter as you'll miss all other calls besides the one you're listening to anyways.

But what I'd like to do is use the multiple VFOs in SDR Console (or whatever it's called) to record multiple calls at once (as well as continuously monitor the control channel). I'm planning on doing a post about it in the trunking forum.

Lastly, your blog was one of the sites that I got some useful information from. Thanks for doing it.
 
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