RTL-SDR scanner software

[gjetson99]

Hello all.

I just recently received two Nooelec R820T dongles. I have both Unitrunker and SDR# working but I am having some issues. First, I have unitrunker decoding the control channel and also following the voice tuning. However, I can barely pick out a word or two in DSDPlus. I assume it is my antenna on this as analog signals sound fine in SDR#. For instance the NOAA weather station at 162.550 sounds just great. I am using a radio shack mobile antenna I have placed in the loft. I am thinking of getting this Antennacraft ST2, Antennacraft ST2 Scanner Antenna Kit : Scanner Antenna Kits | RadioShack.com

Anyone have any thoughts on using this antenna since I primarily want to use it for an 800 mhz P25 system I want to scan with the occasional non-digital scanning.

Also, I have tried several different plugins and applications as scanner apps. I cannot get any of them to work like I want. That is, I want to be able to scan a range of frequencies such as 460-468 mhz with the scanner stopping on each signal it finds. Just exactly the same way as my Pro-96. Does anyone have such a scanner working on a R820T dongle? If so, PLEASE point me to the software and any instructions you may be aware of.

Thanks for any advice!

 

[KD8DVR]

Hello all.

I just recently received two Nooelec R820T dongles. I have both Unitrunker and SDR# working but I am having some issues. First, I have unitrunker decoding the control channel and also following the voice tuning. However, I can barely pick out a word or two in DSDPlus. I assume it is my antenna on this as analog signals sound fine in SDR#. For instance the NOAA weather station at 162.550 sounds just great. I am using a radio shack mobile antenna I have placed in the loft. I am thinking of getting this Antennacraft ST2, Antennacraft ST2 Scanner Antenna Kit : Scanner Antenna Kits | RadioShack.com

Anyone have any thoughts on using this antenna since I primarily want to use it for an 800 mhz P25 system I want to scan with the occasional non-digital scanning.

Also, I have tried several different plugins and applications as scanner apps. I cannot get any of them to work like I want. That is, I want to be able to scan a range of frequencies such as 460-468 mhz with the scanner stopping on each signal it finds. Just exactly the same way as my Pro-96. Does anyone have such a scanner working on a R820T dongle? If so, PLEASE point me to the software and any instructions you may be aware of.

Thanks for any advice!

Well, for trunking, you can get rid of SDR#. The latest version of Unitrunker can stand alone without SDR#.

On the digital stuff.. Make sure you have the correction absolutely perfect on both dongles. You can calibrate this with SDR#. Your antenna could also be part of the issue. You need to make sure it is properly designed for 800 Mhz, as your receive gain could be suffering.

Can't help you on the scanner plugins.. there are so many.

 

[gjetson99]

Thanks John. I did in fact get rid of SDR# for trunking and am using the latest Unitrunker. I can see that it is working and occasionally I will hear a word or two that is understandable. But mostly it is just digital noise. I used SDR# to calibrate both dongles and entered that ppm info in Unitrunker. The antenna I am using I bought from radio shack years ago for my car. It is a generic 25-1300 mhz
Magnet-mount mobile scanner antenna - Radioshack
It picks up my analog signals far better than the little antenna that cam with the dongle as well as several different rubber-ducky antennas but nothing I try works very well with digital. I also noticed a pinched spot in the mobile's coax where I had it routed through the trunk for a long time. It isn't broken through but you can certainly see the flattened area. Not sure if that has a detrimental affect or not.

I wish I were better at hands-on projects, I would just make an antenna, but alas that has never been my forte so I guess I'll wind up getting that Antennacraft ST2 and hoping I can get it high enough to grab the 800 P25 I want.

 

[VA3HQB]

Im using two Dongles myself, and I can get the control channels NO PROBLEM, but I cant for the life of me get the voice to work at al. Or at least I cant seem to get them to work. There are lots of DIY's out there, and Iv found that most of them are out-dated, or unclear. If you have a link or PDF of the one you used, THAT would be great. Im also using Unitrunker and DSD+... Thanks a ton.

 

[KD8DVR]

Im using two Dongles myself, and I can get the control channels NO PROBLEM, but I cant for the life of me get the voice to work at al. Or at least I cant seem to get them to work. There are lots of DIY's out there, and Iv found that most of them are out-dated, or unclear. If you have a link or PDF of the one you used, THAT would be great. Im also using Unitrunker and DSD+... Thanks a ton.

On an analog system, set the Voice dongle to reflect its output to whatever speaker system you use.

On a digital system, it is harder. You need to install a "virtual audio cable" that pipes the digital output into a digital speech decoder program, which in turn, pipes the audio out to your speakers.

If you are aware of this and have done this; but it still fails... I discovered... by accident.. Open the Volume mixer from your toolbar, and where the audio playback settings are, just click on (sliders) them wherever.... Magically the audio works..... Find I need to do this when I add new systems to Unitrunker. (Win7 and later), maybe Vista too.