RTL Dongle-R820-SDR Console V3.0.1.8

[XPS720]

I thought I was receiving USB on 15 Meter band .
As you can see the CW is at the right side. The more I listen It turns out to be either 2 meter's or 6 meter's. Why is my tuning so way off? I also have lots of Ham USB at 24-25 Mhz. How can I fix the tuning? It is great to hear lots of Ham but I want it to be at proper location.

Thank you

 

[u2brent]

Have you selected Direct Sampling (Q branch)

The RTL-SDR V.3 dongle on shortwave: Gary details setup and reviews

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gary Wise (W4EEY), for the following review of the RTL-SDR dongle: Based on your blog post on the Version 3 release of the RTL-SDR dongle I had to buy one. I…

swling.com

 

[Thorndike113]

I have the same issue where I live. I have the rtl820 from nooelec. Especially as it gets warm, which happens rather quickly, when a signal kicks up, instead of being right where it should be on the software, I get spikes of signal all over the place. The closer the signal, such as those coming off the north tower for my county, which is about 6 miles from me as the crow flies, the display looks like a bed of nails with all the spikes of signal. It makes it really hard decoding digital because it seems as though I have a thousand DMR transmitters around me as well as P25. State police in my area do have A LOT of towers with p25 that I can pick up and hear the control channel from but not the amount that I find. This SDR has wasted at least 3-4 whole days of my time trying to get it straight and there is no exact way to solve any of it. Especially this frequency issue with one transmitter popping up on the screen over the course of over 100 mhz worth of frequencies. Seems every dongle, every computer, every driver, and every type of SDR software is completely different making thousands of different combinations that will work for one person but not for another. Ive watched several tutorials on the same software and dongle as I have but if there is one little thing like a different type driver or something, then that tutorial doesnt apply to me. What gives?

 

[DRL-XM43]

How is your gain setting? Are you perhaps over-driving the radio? Is the noise floor half way up the waterfall.

Anyway I get the spikes when the gain is too high so just mentioning it.

 

[Thorndike113]

I actually cant find any gain setting. If there is a gain setting it doesn't have any effect on the signal. I have crystal clear signals with both DMR and P25 that dont sound over driven and are 50% on the signal or better. Even the DMR ham radio repeater on that north tower doesn't come in clear enough to decode properly. The raw data signal sounds clean though. What gets decoded is all garbled. I've had digital scanners before and picked up clearer communications on a fraction of the signal I get now and it came across perfect. To be honest, I am new to this stuff and its probably a setting somewhere. I have been over all the settings and tinkered with them and the signal never improved nor did it get worse.

 

[Skypilot007]

XPS720: When you are tuning frequencies you must select Direct sampling Q branch as u2brent mentioned.

Thorndike: If you click on the home tab, along the top row of buttons you should see one that says RF gain. Usually this doesn't need to be any higher than 28.0 dB. Also for your poor decode, under the receive tab make sure your FM narrow high pass filter is off and in the options make sure you don't have any custom equalizer settings enables. You can also widen the band width, this helps some times with Fusion for me. DMR, P25 and NXDN usually decode well with narrow setting so long as signal strength is good.

 

[DRL-XM43]

I actually cant find any gain setting. If there is a gain setting it doesn't have any effect on the signal. I have crystal clear signals with both DMR and P25 that dont sound over driven and are 50% on the signal or better. Even the DMR ham radio repeater on that north tower doesn't come in clear enough to decode properly. The raw data signal sounds clean though. What gets decoded is all garbled. I've had digital scanners before and picked up clearer communications on a fraction of the signal I get now and it came across perfect. To be honest, I am new to this stuff and its probably a setting somewhere. I have been over all the settings and tinkered with them and the signal never improved nor did it get worse.

Click on the one labeled RF Gain a drop down will have all the possible settings for your dongle - it may be set to auto - on mine that is way too much gain. I use the latest version it just came out the other day. Using the build in DSD+ trunk following feature (needs 2 or more dongles) all the decodable digital sounds great here.

Strange as it seems the author in the DSD+ decode instructions stipulates these settings which work great for me. (But that is using the built in DSD+ feature) I don't know if it is the same doing it a different way.

 

[Thorndike113]

XPS720: When you are tuning frequencies you must select Direct sampling Q branch as u2brent mentioned.

Thorndike: If you click on the home tab, along the top row of buttons you should see one that says RF gain. Usually this doesn't need to be any higher than 28.0 dB. Also for your poor decode, under the receive tab make sure your FM narrow high pass filter is off and in the options make sure you don't have any custom equalizer settings enables. You can also widen the band width, this helps some times with Fusion for me. DMR, P25 and NXDN usually decode well with narrow setting so long as signal strength is good.

I tried messing with that I and Q thing and it has to be in the quad mode to be able to work. All the other stuff is off so that it is only using narrow band. The other thing also that I noticed is that I am using airspy which needs a ultra fast processor to work. I just had to delete it out of my computer and reinstall it along with deleting the virtual cable and reinstalling it. Airspy keeps getting fed up with receiving and it will just shut down. I am at a loss. I just want to be able to decode digital and monitor stuff above 30 mhz. Im still trying to get this set up. Ive been at it for a straight 8 hours again today. DSD+ also is very horrible. It wont pick up anything other than the raw data and will spit that across the DOS screen.

 

[Thorndike113]

View attachment 80268

Click on the one labeled RF Gain a drop down will have all the possible settings for your dongle - it may be set to auto - on mine that is way too much gain. I use the latest version it just came out the other day. Using the build in DSD+ trunk following feature (needs 2 or more dongles) all the decodable digital sounds great here.

Strange as it seems the author in the DSD+ decode instructions stipulates these settings which work great for me. (But that is using the built in DSD+ feature) I don't know if it is the same doing it a different way.

View attachment 80268

I had this program in my computer but cant figure out how to decode digital with it. I actually prefer this one over airspy because it runs a lot better on my computer.

 

[DRL-XM43]

View attachment 80268

Click on the one labeled RF Gain a drop down will have all the possible settings for your dongle - it may be set to auto - on mine that is way too much gain. I use the latest version it just came out the other day. Using the build in DSD+ trunk following feature (needs 2 or more dongles) all the decodable digital sounds great here.

Strange as it seems the author in the DSD+ decode instructions stipulates these settings which work great for me. (But that is using the built in DSD+ feature) I don't know if it is the same doing it a different way.

View attachment 80268

This is an image of decoding a nexedge48 trunk using built in DSD+ trunk following. See Signal to noise ratio (high signal low noise floor). The audio is first rate.

 

[slicerwizard]

I tried messing with that I and Q thing and it has to be in the quad mode to be able to work. All the other stuff is off so that it is only using narrow band. The other thing also that I noticed is that I am using airspy which needs a ultra fast processor to work. I just had to delete it out of my computer and reinstall it along with deleting the virtual cable and reinstalling it. Airspy keeps getting fed up with receiving and it will just shut down. I am at a loss. I just want to be able to decode digital and monitor stuff above 30 mhz. Im still trying to get this set up. Ive been at it for a straight 8 hours again today. DSD+ also is very horrible. It wont pick up anything other than the raw data and will spit that across the DOS screen.

If you just used FMP24 (you don't have an Airspy, despite you writing it above, correct?) with DSD+, you could've saved those hours. Just sayin'...

 

[DRL-XM43]

If you just used FMP24 (you don't have an Airspy, despite you writing it above, correct?) with DSD+, you could've saved those hours. Just sayin'...

I would agree about doing it "properly" and easily with FMP24 - just to clarify I only mess around with this other stuff because I cain't do much else

 

[Thorndike113]

I thank everyone on here that replied and helped. I downloaded the SDR version 3.0.20. I also downloaded FMP24 but it being in a .csv file, I cant open it. I know its a database type list similar to what is used on CHIRP software. The other issue I have is that I cant hear audio due probably to the virtual cable. The program doesnt slow my computer down so thats a good thing. Just need help on the audio and decoding digital. My dongle is a rtl2382U-R820T2

 

[KE5MC]

I'll add that SDR-Console V3 can be cpu demanding and not previously pointed out, but some comments made suggest users computer is struggling. Simon's link provided...

Software Defined Radio

All about software defined Radio (SDR)

www.sdr-radio.com

Now that I upgraded to Win10 from 7, his V3 might run better for me, but sticking to SDRUno and RSPdx and working well.
SDR-Console very good when I tried it back in the day and likely better now.

Good Luck,
Mike

 

[slicerwizard]

I thank everyone on here that replied and helped. I downloaded the SDR version 3.0.20. I also downloaded FMP24 but it being in a .csv file, I cant open it. I know its a database type list similar to what is used on CHIRP software. The other issue I have is that I cant hear audio due probably to the virtual cable. The program doesnt slow my computer down so thats a good thing. Just need help on the audio and decoding digital. My dongle is a rtl2382U-R820T2

You're not making sense. FMP24 isn't a csv file. FMP24 is a program that interfaces with rtl dongles. FMP24 comes with DSD+ Fast Lane.

I get the impression that you're trying to monitor P25 trunking sites. For that, you need one of DSD+ Fast Lane, Unitrunker, SDRTrunk or OP25. You don't need SDR#, SDR Console, SDRUno, virtual cables, yadda yadda.

 

[Thorndike113]

You're not making sense. FMP24 isn't a csv file. FMP24 is a program that interfaces with rtl dongles. FMP24 comes with DSD+ Fast Lane.

I get the impression that you're trying to monitor P25 trunking sites. For that, you need one of DSD+ Fast Lane, Unitrunker, SDRTrunk or OP25. You don't need SDR#, SDR Console, SDRUno, virtual cables, yadda yadda.

I was finally able to get the SDR Console 3.0.20 to decode digital with DSD+
It doesnt do it well as P25 is barely able to decode when it comes to voice. I have been able to finally listen to a local DMR repeater with no issues. Other DMR, which there is a ton of in my area, doesnt give me much as far as voice. Lots of data on DSD+. Radio Reference is not updated in my area for some reason so the DMR I am able to hear is stuff I stumble upon, not something I find on here. As for monitoring trunked sites...... well.... that I am still figuring out. I already have all the data for trunked sites in my area, I need to figure out decoding the voice portion of it and DSD+ is not great at that.

When it comes to that FMP24, I found a site that had it in a zip file. I downloaded it, unzipped it and the folder had one file in it. FMP24.csv
There was nothing else. I searched everywhere and I cant find a program. Unless I downloaded from a site that didnt have the whole program zipped up. Anyways, SDR console 3.0.20 works well with rarely any hickups on either computer and DSD+ seems to work ok for what I need it to. Im sure I have a few bugs to work out.

 

[slicerwizard]

It sounds like you're using DSD+ 1.101 or a similar vintage. It sounds like you are not using any of the required programs that I listed, so you will not be doing any P25 trunking.

And I told you that FMP24 is part of DSD+ Fast Lane. It seems like we're not communicating.

 

[u2brent]

The free version is available here..

DSDPlus – Digital Decoder

looking elsewhere for these files can lead to troublesome problems (Radio Reference would be a safe exception from that rule) I'd run away from an FMP24.csv unless I knew the source.

 

[BM82557]

I think this is the FMP24.csv he is referring to -

FMP Frequency File

 

[Thorndike113]

yes, thank you.......... u2brent, what you posted is what I was looking for. When I found the csv file, it came from a site with SDR software on it. I have since gotten rid of it and got the actual program running. BM82557, thats the site and file I was referring to. lol..... wrong one I guess. no worries. Thankfully it didnt do anything to my computer.