SDR on a new system

[DarkEnder47]

Hi There!
The Public Safety in my area is currently on a DMR MOTOTRBO System, and my scanner runs great on it. My county is getting a long overdue upgrade on a radio system, Unfortunately for me, It is a 5 Tower Simulcast P25 Phase 2 Site, and I am almost exactly equal distance from two of those towers. From previous experience, my current WS1088 can not handle simulcast very well at all, even when I am very close to a tower. I would like to purchase an SDS100, But those are unfortunately currently above my price range.
I was just curious, How will I go about setting up SDR/DSD on this new P25 Phase II Simulcast system? I am not very familiar with monitoring over SDR instead of a traditional scanner. Will the voice play over the computer speakers? Am I able to stream it to where I could listen over my phone/mobile device? What is everyone's favorite SDR/Receivers? If anyone has suggestions/info about configuring SDR it would be a great help. Thanks.
(Polk County, GA)

 

[Reconrider]

the rtl sdr from amazon is about 35$ each. I have 2 per system.
DSD decodes the audio as best as possible from the signal that it is able to collect/receive from the antenna(dipole unless you change it out at an extra cost)

DSD is cheap even for the 25$ lifetime GET THIS
Audio can be played through speakers, or you can have to go through zello and to any device that's logged in and on the channel(group chat) that you make.

Edit: " If anyone has suggestions/info about configuring SDR it would be a great help "
If you decide to get one, someone can help, or we can send you a few video links to get it working. It's pretty simple to setup and get it working. it only gets more daunting when you try to fix things or do other things with it

 

[AB5ID]

If you are familiar with Linux or have and older computer you can run Linux on, OP25 with a single SDR dongle works fantastic.

 

[DarkEnder47]

the rtl sdr from amazon is about 35$ each. I have 2 per system.
DSD decodes the audio as best as possible from the signal that it is able to collect/receive from the antenna(dipole unless you change it out at an extra cost)

DSD is cheap even for the 25$ lifetime GET THIS
Audio can be played through speakers, or you can have to go through zello and to any device that's logged in and on the channel(group chat) that you make.

Edit: " If anyone has suggestions/info about configuring SDR it would be a great help "
If you decide to get one, someone can help, or we can send you a few video links to get it working. It's pretty simple to setup and get it working. it only gets more daunting when you try to fix things or do other things with it

Thank you so much for the information! Does the RTL Sdr just plug into a usb port on your computer? I would assume that since I am located in the middle of the county I will be monitoring, I should catch most of the transmissions from the dipole antenna.

 

[maus92]

I would use SDRTrunk. Windows based, graphical interface, records and streams, and has better Phase 2 audio decoding than DSD+FL. I like OP25 as well, but it is Linux based and takes some skills to get it working properly.

 

[slicerwizard]

After plugging in the SDR, you have to run the Zadig program once to install the correct device driver. Not complicated.

 

[maus92]

I should clarify my post #3: SDRTrunk is cross-platform / Java based, meaning it can be set up on Linux, OSX, or Windows boxes. I happen to use it on Windows, although I also own Linux and Mac computers. There should be no difference in capability between the platforms.

 

[DarkEnder47]

Thank you all for the help. Do these programs have issues with Simulcast?

 

[maus92]

Thank you all for the help. Do these programs have issues with Simulcast?

OP25 and SDRTrunk are designed to receive P25 simulcast systems, and do well.

 

[JimD56]

I have ZERO issues and great results running 2 RTL-SDRs on SDRTrunk for a P25 II Simulcast System. 1 is for the control channel and 1 one for the talk groups. Get a good antenna. I run a Yagi in the attic into an Electroline Single port +15db then into an 8 Port Amplifier +7db each port.

 

[ggmitchell]

I have ZERO issues and great results running 2 RTL-SDRs on SDRTrunk for a P25 II Simulcast System. 1 is for the control channel and 1 one for the talk groups. Get a good antenna. I run a Yagi in the attic into an Electroline Single port +15db then into an 8 Port Amplifier +7db each port.

I have a a question. I setup just 1 RTL-SDRs on SDRTrunk on my MacBook Pro. My county is on a simulcast system. I setup the channel page to the control channel for my county and then setup the alias page with the various talk groups of the different city police and fire departments. I have heard about running 2 like you did. What would be the advantage of having 2 ? Also could you tell me if I can shut off the department calls I do not want to listen to ? Thank You

 

[JimD56]

Don't know about MacBook. But I run SDRTrunk with 1 dongle on the Control Channel of 3 sites and the other one for my groups. In SDRTrunk you can personalize what you want to listen to in the playlist editor. Also a great tutorial on youtube for SDRTrunk for Windows and Linux.

 

[ggmitchell]

Thank You for your quick response. So I have one dongle set to one control channel and also have my alias list of Talk Groups ties to that control channel. Is there a advantage to purchase another dongle and place my talk groups on that separate dongle vs my present setup. I will have to look further for the playlist editor. Im getting broadcasts from agencies that are not shown on the talk group lists from RadioReference and so I did not add them so Im lost how to eliminate them from playing. Thank you for assistance.

 

[JimD56]

Under SDRTrunk is doesn't matter what dongle the talk groups are on. The 2 dongles work together. Just select the control channel(s) under one of the dongles on the drop-down "Tuners" tab underneath the waterfall.

 

[JimD56]

... and watch the youtube tutorial it's detailed and done well.

 

[ggmitchell]

Ok I watched this video and will post it here if someone else has the same question I had about blocking unknown (unidentified) broadcast. Although it was on a Windows and or Linux OS It also worked for Mac OS. I followed the steps and I no longer hear the unknown broadcast. I know by listening to some of the addresses broadcast they were surrounding counties and cities and some were medical ambulance services in my country area that did not have a talk group id to enter. Thank you again for your willingness to respond and assist me. Have a great evening.

 

[ggmitchell]

Im running a RTL-SDRs on SDRTrunk for a P25 II Simulcast System. Prior to today my Control channel always came up and stayed on, only the Traffic stations would go idle. Now today the control channel will come on as soon as I start the app but will go idle off and on forcing me to restart at times is the RLT-SDR going bad. It's only about a week old.

 

[ggmitchell]

Im running a RTL-SDRs on SDRTrunk for a P25 II Simulcast System. Prior to today my Control channel always came up and stayed on, only the Traffic stations would go idle. Now today the control channel will come on as soon as I start the app but will go idle off and on forcing me to restart at times is the RLT-SDR going bad. It's only about a week old.

Ok I think I found my problem and put the alternate control channel# so when the default stops like it did in my case.
P25 control channels broadcasts constantly. Voice and data channels do not. If you notice the transmission disappearing (not fading) and re-appearing, it is not the primary control channel. There maybe no transmission meaning the system is not on the air or you’re out of range. Before giving up, try all the alternative control channel(s).

 

[ggmitchell]

Ok I think I found my problem and put the alternate control channel# so when the default stops like it did in my case.
P25 control channels broadcasts constantly. Voice and data channels do not. If you notice the transmission disappearing (not fading) and re-appearing, it is not the primary control channel. There maybe no transmission meaning the system is not on the air or you’re out of range. Before giving up, try all the alternative control channel(s).

Nope I didnt find my problem now it went back to being off and on then it wont come on at all. Is this a RTL/SDR that went bad after a week?