SDRSharp UniTrunker and dsd wont work

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bgolpmp

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Nov 24, 2013
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Hello

I am at my wits end!!! I have been playing with this Software USB Radio nor for a week and cant get it to work. All I can seem to get for sound sounds like the old atari game "Tank" I have not got dsd to decode anything.

I followed the "how to make a $19 Police Radio" instructible

What could I be doing wrong. I know this is very vague but I am hoping it is something simple I am over looking. I have messed with the gain so it is all over the place. I know I am on a control freq because unitrunker gave me the popup and I can watch it receive the calls but the only sound I get is the "Tank??" I am going nuts!!!

I really want this to work! Please HELP!!

DSD160
SDRSharp 1.0.0.1171
unitrunker
 

robnj74

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It almost sounds as though you don't have the input sound routed to DSD properly. Could you possibly post some screenshots?

Could a Mod please move this to the Software Defined Radio section so it gets the proper attention.

Rob
K2RJJ
 

bgolpmp

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Here are a few screenshots Anything else I should take a picture of???

With the picture of the playback sound I tried having the "speaker/hp" default and it does not seem to matter if I use that one or the "line 1"

Thanks for the help!!!!!!
 

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SCPD

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How many receivers are connected to your computer?

How many copies of SDR# are running on your computer?
 

bgolpmp

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Nov 24, 2013
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I am thinking it is also a dsd audio issue if i close dsd down it makes no difference????
Where should I go from here???

Thanks

Andy
 

SCPD

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To hear conversations - you will need a second receiver. If this receiver is another RTL stick - you'll need to run another instance of SDR#. The "Zefie" plug-in allows UniTrunker to tell the second instance of SDR# to tune to an active voice channel.
 

bgolpmp

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I do have 2 recievers running in Unitrunker. One is "Control" and the other is "signal"

Is that what you mean by 2 receivers???

Thanks
 

AZScanner

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Judging by the screenshots plus what you've described it seems to me that you're actually very close. The one thing I noticed is that under playback devices, you've got line 1 as your default output device. That should be your speakers. Keep Line 1 as your default in Recording devices however - that's correct. To stop the "tank" noises, mute Line 1 in the playback window. That won't affect how Unitrunker hears it, and you don't need to hear it to get this to work.

Now, a question. Is SDR# changing frequencies when talkgroups light up in Unitrunker? If not, then close Unitrunker and try the older version of Remote.DLL ( found here: SDRSharp UniTrunker Support in the release zipfile). Copying that file to the Unitrunker directory should fix that problem - it did for me. Once you restart Unitrunker and see that it created a file called sdrsharptrunking.log you should be in business. You should see SDR sharp change to the voice channels and then back to the Park frequency specified in your Debug receiver ( you did change that to your current control channel, right? If not, do that now or else SDR# will dutifully tune your dongle to 851.5000 or whatever you have there).

Now, once that's up and running, DSD should be able to try and decode some voice traffic, but you will need to tinker with your filter settings and audio output level to get it to actually decode anything. Lots of trial and error here, and the only advice I can give you is to be prepared to spend many hours fine-tuning things. It certainly will not work out of the box. I find the "Youssef" filter works best, but your mileage my vary.

Give that a whirl and let us know how it goes.
-AZ
 

mmisk

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DSD and SDR

I have noticed that there are a number of users who cannot get DSD to function with SDR even though all else is working fine. I am having the same problem. Unitrunker is fine controlling the second install of SDR and following voice channels normally, but no luck with DSD. I have tried varying every audio option possible and even installed a second sound card but no luck. It is interesting to note that DSD decodes much better on the second sound card (when fed via a tap) versus the on-board audio.

DSD is excellent when fed audio from a tap and a scanner. Provoice, DMR, and P25 decode very well with DSD. My next step is to try everything on another computer and see what happens.
If I come up with anything I will post for others.

Mike
 

Danoman

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Here is a screenshot I just took of my setup.
Remember that DSD gets it's audio from the "default recording device".

In my case I have that set to VAC Line 1.

You need a good signal for this to all work.
I use a preamp on my dongles I picked up from eBay years ago.

Click this image to go to my Photobucket, then click the magnifyer in the lower right for full size.

 
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mmisk

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Audio Input Field not Active

Thank you very much for posting the great screen captures of your setup.

I compared it closely to mine, and I found something right away. In the audio section, I am unable to set the
input device, but I can set the output device. I had noticed this earlier, but was never able to make the input field active.
I am quite sure that this is what is wrong so tomorrow I will go over my installation again and see if I can correct this.
Thanks again,
Mike
 

mojo3120

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Thank you very much for posting the great screen captures of your setup.

I compared it closely to mine, and I found something right away. In the audio section, I am unable to set the
input device, but I can set the output device. I had noticed this earlier, but was never able to make the input field active.
I am quite sure that this is what is wrong so tomorrow I will go over my installation again and see if I can correct this.
Thanks again,
Mike

Pretty sure that's normal. The "input" is coming from the USB dongle
 

mmisk

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Yes, I realize now that is normal.
I seem to have found out my problem. I have only one instance of Virtual Audio Cable showing, and it is the free version. So, to try a work around, I fed the first instance of SDR from a tap and scanner tuned to the desired control frequency. Then, the second instance of SDR (voice following) is set for the only VAC available, and now DSD works and decodes P25 and also EDACS.
To summarize, the problem was due to having only one virtual audio cable available. I will look into this as soon as I get some more time. I would like to learn why DSD does not work from SDR on the default sound card, and will work only with the virtual audio cable. DSD works on the sound card when fed via a tap in line input.
Thanks to everyone for their help and comments!
 

Boatanchor

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Jul 17, 2011
Messages
991
Judging by the screenshots plus what you've described it seems to me that you're actually very close. The one thing I noticed is that under playback devices, you've got line 1 as your default output device. That should be your speakers. Keep Line 1 as your default in Recording devices however - that's correct. To stop the "tank" noises, mute Line 1 in the playback window. That won't affect how Unitrunker hears it, and you don't need to hear it to get this to work.

Now, a question. Is SDR# changing frequencies when talkgroups light up in Unitrunker? If not, then close Unitrunker and try the older version of Remote.DLL ( found here: SDRSharp UniTrunker Support in the release zipfile). Copying that file to the Unitrunker directory should fix that problem - it did for me. Once you restart Unitrunker and see that it created a file called sdrsharptrunking.log you should be in business. You should see SDR sharp change to the voice channels and then back to the Park frequency specified in your Debug receiver ( you did change that to your current control channel, right? If not, do that now or else SDR# will dutifully tune your dongle to 851.5000 or whatever you have there).

Now, once that's up and running, DSD should be able to try and decode some voice traffic, but you will need to tinker with your filter settings and audio output level to get it to actually decode anything. Lots of trial and error here, and the only advice I can give you is to be prepared to spend many hours fine-tuning things. It certainly will not work out of the box. I find the "Youssef" filter works best, but your mileage my vary.

Give that a whirl and let us know how it goes.
-AZ

AZScanner, thanks so much for the above info :)

I've been beating my head up against the wall for days trying to work out why SDR wasn't tracking the voice channels, despite Unitrunker showing all the right trunking info.

After replacing Remote.dll with the older version, everything now works perfectly.

Now I've got SDR/Unitrunker and DSD working with one RTL stick and decoding P25 perfectly.
Now, if only this information was available in the 'Easy to follow' SDRSharp Trunking Plugin instructions..

Forgot to mention that It doesn't appear to be possible to run this setup with VB-Audio cable. For some reason, VB-Audio will only link between two applications i.e SDRsharp and DSD. It won't link to Unitrunker as well.

Virtual Audio cable will link SDRsharp, Unitrunker and DSD all on the same virtual cable.
 
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AZScanner

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Not a problem, glad to help! I need to incorporate a second dongle on my setup. I use one dongle now but the trunking plugin changes the voice channel back to the control channel too quickly and the delay setting just doesn't work for me.

Glad to hear you got it working! :)

-AZ
 

Boatanchor

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Messages
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Not a problem, glad to help! I need to incorporate a second dongle on my setup. I use one dongle now but the trunking plugin changes the voice channel back to the control channel too quickly and the delay setting just doesn't work for me.

Glad to hear you got it working! :)

-AZ

I too have had to go with two dongles in the end.
The single dongle seemed to work OK for a while but then locked up after 10 minutes or so.

I'm now running an RTL dongle for the control channel and a Funcube donglePro+ for the voice channel tracking. This system works a lot more reliably.
 

goldcat

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Aug 5, 2012
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Hi, I've been deseperatly craving to get sdrsharp and unitrunker working with two dongles, I've learned by heart all the tutorials and read countless forums but I didn't find any solution to my pb which is the following, everything works as expected but I cannot open the combobox for com port in the control window.
Under the section serial I have a blue rectangle with NO COM PORT AVAILABLE, wheras I should find com port 1.
Some kind guys after spending a lot of time working on my problem told me that it might be My laptop which has a hardware problem. But My PC is a brand new one.It's an ASUS X52JC with 4GB memory and running windows7 64bits.
Many thanks in advance for any kind assistance
Goldcat
 

kc8tmv

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Jan 7, 2016
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Location
Cincinnati, Ohio
When you guys are talking about "SDR# changing frequencies when talkgroups light up in Unitrunker", do you mean that I should actually see the RED center line move? Or is there something else I should be looking at?

Also, seems like a lot of talk about " try the older version of Remote.DLL (found here: SDRSharp UniTrunker Support in the release zipfile)" which is the version "I THINK" I am using. Remote.dll: Size = 20k, date 7/30/2012. Note: I do not see sdrsharptrunking.log anywhere.
 
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