Pro96Com: Trunker-like 9600 baud decoding with Pro-96!
- Thread starter RFfreeTLD
- Start date
- Status
mikey60
Member
The software wasn't quite where I wanted it to be for release.. I would have appreciated it if you had waited until I was ready to release it.
For everyone else, now that the cat's out of the bag... The program is quite new, and bound to have bugs... I had hoped to get a few more people to test it on various systems before release. Now I guess it can be considered an open beta.
Mike
For everyone else, now that the cat's out of the bag... The program is quite new, and bound to have bugs... I had hoped to get a few more people to test it on various systems before release. Now I guess it can be considered an open beta.
Mike
Awesome job!
-Wayne
-Wayne
fmon
Silent Key Jan. 14, 2012
concur 8)
Damn, outstanding job.... looks very nice!
DonS
Member
Group / Table
One suggestion...
You might want to change the references to "Group" and/or "Table", where those refer to the upper 4 bits of the 16-bit Channel, so that they instead use the term "Channel Identifier".
The 16-bit Channel field (in messages like GRP_V_CH_GRANT) has two parts: the 4-bit Channel Identifier and the 12-bit Channel Number. (TIA/EIA-102.AABC 2.3.8, 6.2.9, and Annex F)
This is suggested in order to avoid confusion with other "Group" terminology in P25, and "Table" terminology in the PRO-96.
A note about how these values relate to the PRO-96's "Extended Tables"...
There can be up to 16 sets of unique channel parameters (base, channel spacing,bandwidth,tx offset) in a P25 system (well, per control channel). Each such set is associated with a Channel Identifier. There are up to 4096 individual Channel Numbers associated with each Channel Identifier. When a Channel Grant message is received, a radio looks at the Channel Identifier, then uses the Channel Number to calculate the correct frequencies from the base/spacing/offset info for that Channel Identifier.
The PRO-96 doesn't break the 16-bit Channel field into these two parts. Instead, it uses the entire 16-bit field as a single number to look up the correct "range" (i.e. Win96's 'ChLO' and 'ChHI' fields in Extended Tables), then calculates the voice frequency based on base/offset/step for the found range.
The PRO-96 "works" as long as there are not more than 6 discontinuous (or overlapping) frequency ranges in use by the system.
There appears to be at least one system that uses up to 8 overlapping sets of Channel Identifier data. Since you can only enter 6 "ranges" on the PRO-96, it will have a problem tuning to voice frequencies if the high 4 bits of the Channel field (the Channel Identifier) specify a range that has not been explicitly (and correctly) programmed.
-Don
One suggestion...
You might want to change the references to "Group" and/or "Table", where those refer to the upper 4 bits of the 16-bit Channel, so that they instead use the term "Channel Identifier".
The 16-bit Channel field (in messages like GRP_V_CH_GRANT) has two parts: the 4-bit Channel Identifier and the 12-bit Channel Number. (TIA/EIA-102.AABC 2.3.8, 6.2.9, and Annex F)
This is suggested in order to avoid confusion with other "Group" terminology in P25, and "Table" terminology in the PRO-96.
A note about how these values relate to the PRO-96's "Extended Tables"...
There can be up to 16 sets of unique channel parameters (base, channel spacing,bandwidth,tx offset) in a P25 system (well, per control channel). Each such set is associated with a Channel Identifier. There are up to 4096 individual Channel Numbers associated with each Channel Identifier. When a Channel Grant message is received, a radio looks at the Channel Identifier, then uses the Channel Number to calculate the correct frequencies from the base/spacing/offset info for that Channel Identifier.
The PRO-96 doesn't break the 16-bit Channel field into these two parts. Instead, it uses the entire 16-bit field as a single number to look up the correct "range" (i.e. Win96's 'ChLO' and 'ChHI' fields in Extended Tables), then calculates the voice frequency based on base/offset/step for the found range.
The PRO-96 "works" as long as there are not more than 6 discontinuous (or overlapping) frequency ranges in use by the system.
There appears to be at least one system that uses up to 8 overlapping sets of Channel Identifier data. Since you can only enter 6 "ranges" on the PRO-96, it will have a problem tuning to voice frequencies if the high 4 bits of the Channel field (the Channel Identifier) specify a range that has not been explicitly (and correctly) programmed.
-Don
Some selected screenshots of the application:
mikey60
Member
Re: Group / Table
Yep, I'll make changes in this area. That was one of the areas that I had difficulty with the terminology.
Specifically, ALMR in Alaska has 8 channel Identifier sets (Thus my E-Mail to you the other day regarding the hard limit of 6 tables). In the areas that were tested, only 6 of the identifiers were used, so the Pro-96 will work if you put those 6 in.
800Mhz works so well because it appears to always be in Identifier set 0. If they ever start to use 700Mhz channels, then we're going to have to set up tables to track them properly (Assuming the bandplan is compatible with the Pro-96 extended frequencies).
Mike
DonS said:
Yep, I'll make changes in this area. That was one of the areas that I had difficulty with the terminology.
DonS said:
Specifically, ALMR in Alaska has 8 channel Identifier sets (Thus my E-Mail to you the other day regarding the hard limit of 6 tables). In the areas that were tested, only 6 of the identifiers were used, so the Pro-96 will work if you put those 6 in.
800Mhz works so well because it appears to always be in Identifier set 0. If they ever start to use 700Mhz channels, then we're going to have to set up tables to track them properly (Assuming the bandplan is compatible with the Pro-96 extended frequencies).
Mike
mikey60
Member
BTW, to calculate the table values for the Pro-96...
Ch lo = Channel Identifier * 4096
Ch hi = Ch lo + 4095
Offset = Ch lo
Base = Shown Value for Channel Identifier
Spacing = Shown Value for Channel Identifier
So for Channel Identifier 3...
Ch lo = 3 * 4096 = 12288
Ch hi = 12288 + 4095 = 16383
Offset = 12288
Mike
Ch lo = Channel Identifier * 4096
Ch hi = Ch lo + 4095
Offset = Ch lo
Base = Shown Value for Channel Identifier
Spacing = Shown Value for Channel Identifier
So for Channel Identifier 3...
Ch lo = 3 * 4096 = 12288
Ch hi = 12288 + 4095 = 16383
Offset = 12288
Mike
Very nice program Mike, Thanks! 8) 8) 
DonS
Member
mikey60 said:
To add to the above...
You'll only need discrete entries for displayed Channel Identifiers if they form discontinuous or overlapping frequency "ranges".
For example, if the CC dump indicates that Channel Identifier 0 uses a base of 136.000000 MHz and a spacing of 15.000 kHz, while Channel Identifier 1 uses a base of 197.440000 MHz and a spacing of 15.000 kHz, you'd only need to enter one range for the PRO-96:
CH Lo = 0
CH Hi = 8191
Base = 136.00000 MHz
Offset = 0
Step = 15.000 khz
This is because the PRO-96 will see the 4096 channels associated with Channel Identifier 1 as channels 4096 through 8191, and 4096 x 15.000 kHz + 136.00000 MHz == 197.44000 MHz. The PRO-96 sees all 8192 channels as a single, continuous, non-overlapping range of frequencies.
You could, of course, enter the two ranges separately:
CH Lo = 0
CH Hi = 4096
Base = 136.00000 MHz
Offset = 0
Step = 15.000 khz
CH Lo = 4096
CH Hi = 8191
Base = 197.44000 MHz
Offset = 4096
Step = 15.000 khz
but that unnecessarily wastes one of the PRO-96's six entries.
The ALMR system in AK appears to use overlapping ranges. That is, all of the Channel Identifiers discovered thus far use the same base and spacing values. These would all have to be entered into the PRO-96 for it to be able to correctly calculate voice frequencies.
-Don
DonS
Member
Re: Group / Table
Unfortunately, it's not just a matter of compatibility with the extended frequencies.
Based on the control channel's frequency (or the base frequency - I forget), the PRO-96 attempts to validate the resulting voice frequency. There are defined ranges of "valid" voice frequencies, and none of them include 700 MHz. They go from the UHF band (406 - 512 MHz) straight to the 800 MHz band (850 - 869 MHz, excluding a cell range).
-Don
mikey60 said:
Unfortunately, it's not just a matter of compatibility with the extended frequencies.
Based on the control channel's frequency (or the base frequency - I forget), the PRO-96 attempts to validate the resulting voice frequency. There are defined ranges of "valid" voice frequencies, and none of them include 700 MHz. They go from the UHF band (406 - 512 MHz) straight to the 800 MHz band (850 - 869 MHz, excluding a cell range).
-Don
DonS
Member
rfmobile said:
For a real radio on the system (or any other listening device that used the Identifier Update (IDEN_UP) messages), yes. For the PRO-96, no. The PRO-96 doesn't use them.
Uniden Control?
Excellent software!
How is the response time for Uniden control? Do you lose much of the start of the transmission or do things happen pretty quick? Might be worthwhile for me to grab one if it works well...
- Rob
Excellent software!
How is the response time for Uniden control? Do you lose much of the start of the transmission or do things happen pretty quick? Might be worthwhile for me to grab one if it works well...
- Rob
I don't miss any of the transmission at all with my 796.
Paul
Paul
Is there a way to scan while waiting instead of stuck with dead air? Even if you lose a bit at the beginning of the transmission?
mikey60
Member
rfmobile said:
To work correctly with 9600 systems other than 800Mhz an update would be required. It probably wouldn't make sense to upgrade the Pro-96 to that though, since it would change the memory map of the current radios (16 tables as opposed to the 6 that are there now)
We should be able to get the 96 to work with the 700 stuff using multi tables though. It's just going to be a manual entry, even though the control channel transmits everything the radio would need to do it automatically.
I can't remember the specifics on the systems that transmit the 700Mhz identifiers at the moment, but the tables for the Pro-96 for that would be something like this:
Table Ch lo Ch hi Base Offset Step
0 0 4095 851.00625 0 6.25Khz
1 4096 8191 762.00625 4096 6.25Khz
Mike
- Status
