Hoping to get some advice from people that are much more knowledgeable about the SDR game than me as I am not getting the desired results, probably from lack of knowledge on SDR's in general.
My current setup is a Windows 11 mini PC (2.5ghz, 16GB RAM) mounted on a rack shelf with a powered USB 3.0 hub. The hub has 3 RTL-SDR Blog V4's plugged into it (plan was to expand to 5) which are in turn connected to an 8-port Electroline EDA2800 cable amp and out to a single antenna mounted to the top of the rack. I plan to move the antenna outside, but so far this has been working surprisingly well for receiving the local 800 simulcast system as well as two local 700mhz sites. The goal was to cover the 800mhz system with 3 dongles and the 700mhz site with 2 dongles to stream some talkgroups online. Under Windows 11 with SDRTrunk, I have no problems locking onto the control channel and receiving audio.
Here is where the problems start.. I have a need to switch to Trunk-Recorder to use a particular plugin. I installed WSL and the latest version of Ubuntu on the same PC and ported the USB ports with the dongles over to WSL. After installing Trunk-Recorder and GQRX, I am finding that I can hear the control channel in GQRX with all 3 dongles but it seems significantly weaker, and it only seems to clean up if I significantly boost gain. I went through the process to find the frequency error for each dongle and found they are only 50hz off.
With the rtl_test application I seem to be getting significant and continuous packet loss with the sweep at 2.4mhz and I only seem to be able to reduce it by significantly tightening the range down below 2mhz. Of course now I can't cover all of the frequencies for either site with the 3 dongles I have. With Trunk-Recorder running I am getting only the very occasional decode from the control channel. Playing with the gain settings have little effect.
It has been suggested to me that this may be a product of the Windows to WSL pipeline for the USB and that I should run a Linux-only box for this, seeing as how with SDRTrunk under Windows works great.
Just looking for some advice from anyone that has run into something similar and how you solved it. I don't necessarily mind adding a 2nd PC in there for the SDR's, but I wanted some opinions before I spend the money. I have also been thinking about going with the Airspy Mini dongle for the 700mhz site since that one can cover a 6mhz spread.
Thanks!
My current setup is a Windows 11 mini PC (2.5ghz, 16GB RAM) mounted on a rack shelf with a powered USB 3.0 hub. The hub has 3 RTL-SDR Blog V4's plugged into it (plan was to expand to 5) which are in turn connected to an 8-port Electroline EDA2800 cable amp and out to a single antenna mounted to the top of the rack. I plan to move the antenna outside, but so far this has been working surprisingly well for receiving the local 800 simulcast system as well as two local 700mhz sites. The goal was to cover the 800mhz system with 3 dongles and the 700mhz site with 2 dongles to stream some talkgroups online. Under Windows 11 with SDRTrunk, I have no problems locking onto the control channel and receiving audio.
Here is where the problems start.. I have a need to switch to Trunk-Recorder to use a particular plugin. I installed WSL and the latest version of Ubuntu on the same PC and ported the USB ports with the dongles over to WSL. After installing Trunk-Recorder and GQRX, I am finding that I can hear the control channel in GQRX with all 3 dongles but it seems significantly weaker, and it only seems to clean up if I significantly boost gain. I went through the process to find the frequency error for each dongle and found they are only 50hz off.
With the rtl_test application I seem to be getting significant and continuous packet loss with the sweep at 2.4mhz and I only seem to be able to reduce it by significantly tightening the range down below 2mhz. Of course now I can't cover all of the frequencies for either site with the 3 dongles I have. With Trunk-Recorder running I am getting only the very occasional decode from the control channel. Playing with the gain settings have little effect.
It has been suggested to me that this may be a product of the Windows to WSL pipeline for the USB and that I should run a Linux-only box for this, seeing as how with SDRTrunk under Windows works great.
Just looking for some advice from anyone that has run into something similar and how you solved it. I don't necessarily mind adding a 2nd PC in there for the SDR's, but I wanted some opinions before I spend the money. I have also been thinking about going with the Airspy Mini dongle for the 700mhz site since that one can cover a 6mhz spread.
Thanks!
