Ported DOS MTrunker to WIN32

[r00t]

Hi,

to Dewey: Mtrunker32 will just close? or crash with some error message? It's hard to say, whats wrong. If it's caused by some data received on control channel, you can try to record that sequence (use some prog that can save last x seconds of received sound - like Analyzer2000 or other).

about Australian freq plans: Using xxxplan.txt file is much better idea how to handle these special freq plans. You can use them also on DOS trunker with xxxxplan.txt support - not special version of trunker. Maybe it's good idea to implement this: When there is some unknown plan id in xxxxsys.txt, just ignore it (fall back to plan 0 internally), but preserve it when saving file.

Anybody have same problems like Dewey? I ran MTrunker32 for 6 hours, no problems...

r00t
http://www.r00t.cz

 

[loumaag]

Anybody have same problems like Dewey? I ran MTrunker32 for 6 hours, no problems...

Not exactly. As I said above, I thank you for getting rid of the scrolling problem in Windows-98. Since you did, I ran it continuously for quite a number of hours (over 24) and it continued to perform well. I had imported my GRP and IDS files from my DOS Trunker data on the VHF TRS I am monitoring. At some point (not sure how many hours past 24) one of the "Unkown" radios I had marked for BEEP, sounded off and I was able to get a new talkgroup ID'd as well as the radio. After pressing "G" and editing the group information, I pressed "I" to edit the radio, the little line showed up at the bottom and the program continued to decode and tell me what was happening, but keyboard input died. This is the sort of action I would expect to see with a memory leak. Nothing else, beside operating system, anti-virus software and networking software were running on the computer. :?

 

[SCPD]

r00t.
I tend to agree with you on the Australian band plans for the UHF systems. Its much easier to use the map file, and its work squicker I have found then running the AusTrunker version as well.
Only other hting that kinda has me stumped at the moment is how I can run the Australian 800Mhz trunk band with Mtrunker32. The base frequency, step and offset are the same as the US bandplan, but the US bandplan cuts off at 469Mhz, where as the Australian band plan continues to 870Mhz.
I'm not sure if it is possible to make up a map file to run the extra Mhz of trunking band. I thought that it mighgt be able to be done by working out the first frequency from 869Mhz and the offset, and using it as a second range in the map file, but I have a feeling trunker might also have restrictions on going over 869Mhz when tuning a scanner. Is this the case? If not I'll have a go at working out a map file and seeing if it works.
Keep up the good work with tihis version!

Dave

 

[EricCottrell]

r00t.
Only other hting that kinda has me stumped at the moment is how I can run the Australian 800Mhz trunk band with Mtrunker32. The base frequency, step and offset are the same as the US bandplan, but the US bandplan cuts off at 469Mhz, where as the Australian band plan continues to 870Mhz.
I'm not sure if it is possible to make up a map file to run the extra Mhz of trunking band. I thought that it mighgt be able to be done by working out the first frequency from 869Mhz and the offset, and using it as a second range in the map file, but I have a feeling trunker might also have restrictions on going over 869Mhz when tuning a scanner. Is this the case? If not I'll have a go at working out a map file and seeing if it works.

Dave

Hello,

If you set the plan to 0 and put a map file in place it should work. You need
the map to cover all the plan. Here are the 800 and Splinter plans expressed as map file data:
Normal
851.0125,0.025,0
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
867.4250,0.025,3c1
868.9750,0.000,3be

Splinter
851.0000,0.025,0
866.0125,0.025,258
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
867.4250,0.025,3c1
868.9750,0.000,3be

I suspect that part of the plan is remapped to cover the additional frequencies but this should give you the same results as plan 8 or S to start.

73 Eric

 

[SCPD]

Thanks Eric.
I was hoping that there were no actual software restrictions that prevents trunker form tuning the scanner to these frequencies. Maybe tuning to these frequencies was locked out from the software, because none of the US models can tune there anyway.
I'm off work today, so i'll have a try and see how it goes. I was thinking that you would have ot run a MAP file as well, and add a second base, step and offset line in to get it to track past 869Mhz.

Dave

 

[Dewey]

Error Report Included

Hi,

to Dewey: Mtrunker32 will just close? or crash with some error message? It's hard to say, whats wrong. If it's caused by some data received on control channel, you can try to record that sequence (use some prog that can save last x seconds of received sound - like Analyzer2000 or other).

r00t
http://www.r00t.cz

Hi r00t,

Well, the two XP machines crashed at very close to the same time again. They may have been at the same time, but I can't say this for sure since I wasn't watching when the crash happened. Anyway, I made screen prints of the error windows hoping that this will help you. I also noticed that a file is written (appcompat.txt) when the error occurs, but is erased when the error boxes are cleared. Since I discovered this on the first machine, I copied the text file before closing the error boxes on the second machine. Either way, I've included the screen prints of the error boxes on both machines, and the error text file from the second machine. I hope this helps... MTrunker is a GREAT program.

Dewey

 

[SCPD]

Thanks for the 800Mhz offsets. I have them worked out.
Few things I have found with trunker while trying a few things out. Maybe these are things r00t can look at later one. Many of them mainly concern Smartzone systems.
FIrst, i have a question about the signal strength of control channels now. In the past trunker showed what I could consider an accurate data rate for the control channel. I think now it seems to give a rating that is better then the actualy signal that is coming in. I have noticed that noisey signals still command a rating of 75% or more. I also noticed that i get input channels showing up when I have a noisey signal.
Is there a way that this showing of input channels could be rectified in the software. Say, knwoing that trunker knows the band plans for 800Mhz and 900Mhz channels, could the software be changed so it it forced to reject frequency channel IDs in the input ranges of the trunk bands. Also the software could also check the base setting in a ****MAP.txt file and do the same. This would also stop input channels showing up for even in the output listings. I am aware that you need to know the input hex channel numbers to get the radio IDs to show up in their colum.
Also I noticed that on the mixed mode OMni-Link system near me, that trunker in the top left of the screen doesn't display this as an astro networked system any more, , but just shows it as a type II networked.
I discovered also that the cursor went nuts again when adding in a new group, though this is not always happening.
Also another thing that happened I think it was the austrunker version, when you started up on a Omni_Link site, it displays the neighboring sites, and their control chanels frequencies, and also the Zone system ID of each neighboring site. Mtrunker32 just displays the neighboring frequency and site number. maybe something to look at there.
Lastly, a feature I discovered that I could be added easily to Mtrunker32, that some people might find usefull. With mixed mode sites, could it be possible to make digital talk groups get the highest priority, just like with the new seek command. ON some dual mode systems, digital talk groups are not to common, and when they come up, unless you have them tagged already with a high priority they tend to get missed. You can use the Newseek command to give new talk groupss the high priority, but of course you get all this way, and not just the newer digital ones.
Anyone have thoughts on this feature?
r))t, did you ever get source code for AusTrunker? It would probably contain some very useful features for these wide area Omni_link systems, that seem to be popping up all over the planet at the moment.. If you need any OSW audio dumps from these systems, let me know. I can take some audio samples and send them to you.

Dave

 

[EricCottrell]

Thanks for the 800Mhz offsets. I have them worked out.
Is there a way that this showing of input channels could be rectified in the software. Say, knwoing that trunker knows the band plans for 800Mhz and 900Mhz channels, could the software be changed so it it forced to reject frequency channel IDs in the input ranges of the trunk bands. Also the software could also check the base setting in a ****MAP.txt file and do the same. This would also stop input channels showing up for even in the output listings. I am aware that you need to know the input hex channel numbers to get the radio IDs to show up in their colum.

Dave

On the standard 800 and 900 map there is not input range as everything is a fixed offset. So what you ask would be difficult to implement in a way that would not be limiting in some situations.

The real problem is mis-decoding of the control channel. Trunker does error checking and keeps counts of good and bad frames. The percentage count reflects the ratio between the two. If you are getting significantly higher percentage counts on a noisy control channel with Mtrunker32 than with Dos Trunker then I would suspect Mtrunker32 is treating bad frames as valid data and corrupting your trunker data. This would not only affect frequencies but also talkgroup and unit data as well.

73 Eric

 

[SCPD]

On the standard 800 and 900 map there is not input range as everything is a fixed offset. So what you ask would be difficult to implement in a way that would not be limiting in some situations.

Hi. I would have though tif anything, this would have made resolving this issue easier. All frequencies in a trunk system are assigned a hex channel number, both the inputs and outputs. when you get a bad decode, ocassionally an input hex number will pop up in the ouutput colum of trunker. Surely knowing where one range starts and another ends would allow something to be written into the software to stop this once a bad decode has happened. The same idea could also be implimented on oddball systems like UHF or VHF systems. The MAP.txt file again shows the limitations of where the input range ends, and the output range starts. Now I'm no programmer, but couldn't some sort of placement filtering after the OSW decode stop the inputs going into the wrong colum on the screen?

Dave

 

[cpetraglia]

Trunker(ported)

To r00t,
Beautiful work. I have never been thrilled with T4win as I could never get a second scanner working properely. I've heard people experiencing problems with your most recent version, but I have had it decoding(Win2000 SP4) for 2 complete days now without a glitch. Sound card is defininatly a better AD converter as my accuracy rate is much higher and response to signal strengths is instantaneous.
Great Job.

Chuck

 

[EricCottrell]

Hello,

If you set the plan to 0 and put a map file in place it should work. You need
the map to cover all the plan. Here are the 800 and Splinter plans expressed as map file data:
Normal
851.0125,0.025,0
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
867.4250,0.025,3c1
868.9750,0.000,3be

Splinter
851.0000,0.025,0
866.0125,0.025,258
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
867.4250,0.025,3c1
868.9750,0.000,3be

Hello,

I realized I made a mistake on the list. The lcns or hex codes have to be in ascending order so the last two need to be flipped.

Normal
851.0125,0.025,0
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

Splinter
851.0000,0.025,0
866.0125,0.025,258
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

You may wonder why the frequencies in the 866 to 868 range are weird. In the protocol the channel number (the hex code) and commands are transmitted in the same location in the OSW. I suspect originally the codes were straight forward with frequencies below 2bf hex and commands at 2bf hex and above with room to grow in both sections. The FCC opened up 866 to 868 later on and Motorola ran out of room below 2bf hex so some of the unused reserved command codes were used.

I suspect on VHF/UHF systems the command code values can not be used for frequencies so there are invalid channel numbers. Maybe that is one reason a VHF/UHF system can have up to 3 ranges.

73 Eric

 

[NDRADIONUT]

M-TRUNKER Illegal Operation on VHF SYS. r00t Any Ideas ?

TRUNKER caused an invalid page fault in
module TRUNKER.EXE at 0167:0040e316.
Registers:
EAX=007b1480 CS=0167 EIP=0040e316 EFLGS=00010206
EBX=816e1f24 SS=016f ESP=00bdfe78 EBP=00bdfe80
ECX=006ee04c DS=016f ESI=00000008 FS=4d87
EDX=00000000 ES=016f EDI=816b0c28 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
89 42 04 8b 4d 10 0f be 51 2b 83 fa 49 75 11 8b
Stack dump:
00000029 006ee04c 00bdfea8 0040a047 00000049 007b1480 007b1480 00000000 00684240 007b1480 007b1480 006ee04c 00bdfed4 00412d3d 007900d0 00000648

 

[kma371]

Can someone help me? I transfered the files I used from the old trunker to this new version of trunker (sound card input) but for some reason it's not loading up my saved files (.sys, .grp, .ids files). How can i get the program to use this information instead of creating a new file

 

[BANDIT]

When it first starts it uses the 1234*.* files. When it decodes for a bit it should indentify the system and load the correct *.sys file for the control channel your monitoring. Works for me with no problems. Do you have the files in the same directory with trunker?

 

[kma371]

I understand how it works, I'm just trying to use my old files I already alpha tagged etc with the new program.

 

[SCPD]

Windows NT/2K/XP: The files may be in the same directory as expected by the program but the files were saved under a different user's credentials. Make sure you can view your data from a program like Notepad.

Windows (any): The program may be looking for your data in a different directory. Try this ... run the program long enough for it to recognize a known system. Exit the program. Locate where it saved the files for this system. Copy your data files to this directory.

If you are running the program from a shortcut (if you launch the program from Start -> Programs ... menu then you probably are), right-click on the shortcut, select "properties" and examine the "working directory" field in the shortcut properties popup window.

-rick

 

[Comint]

800 MHz Map files

Hello,

I realized I made a mistake on the list. The lcns or hex codes have to be in ascending order so the last two need to be flipped.

Normal
851.0125,0.025,0
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

Splinter
851.0000,0.025,0
866.0125,0.025,258
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

73 Eric

I don't know if the above would be of any use with the Australian 800 MHz band, as it runs 200 contiguous channels from 865.0125 to 869.9875 MHz in 25 KHz steps.

I don't know what lcns or hex codes it uses.

Comint

 

[Comint]

800 MHz Map files

Hello,

I realized I made a mistake on the list. The lcns or hex codes have to be in ascending order so the last two need to be flipped.

Normal
851.0125,0.025,0
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

Splinter
851.0000,0.025,0
866.0125,0.025,258
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

73 Eric

I don't know if the above would be of any use with the Australian 800 MHz band, as it runs 200 contiguous channels from 865.0125 to 869.9875 MHz in 25 KHz steps.

I don't know what lcns or hex codes it uses.

Comint

 

[EricCottrell]

Re: 800 MHz Map files

Hello,

I realized I made a mistake on the list. The lcns or hex codes have to be in ascending order so the last two need to be flipped.

Normal
851.0125,0.025,0
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

Splinter
851.0000,0.025,0
866.0125,0.025,258
866.0000,0.025,2d0
867.0000,0.025,32f
868.9750,0.000,3be
867.4250,0.025,3c1

73 Eric

I don't know if the above would be of any use with the Australian 800 MHz band, as it runs 200 contiguous channels from 865.0125 to 869.9875 MHz in 25 KHz steps.

I don't know what lcns or hex codes it uses.

Comint

Hello,

What you need to do is to go to a couple of control channels and see what hex code comes up in trunker for them. Then do some calculations.

I would guess that the map file would be like
865.0125,0.025,0
Although sometimes a lower base frequency is choosen to cover multiple countries.

If you post the frequencies and hex codes I can do the calculations for you.

73 Eric

 

[MattSR]

I have been using Mtrunker32 on Australia 800Mhz systems for several months now.

The correct band plan is

865.0125,0.025,230

Cheers,
Matt