SDRTrunk SDRTrunk Configuration

[TheAlmightyZach]

@GTR8000 was giving me some info in another thread but we got off topic. I'm working on getting SDRTrunk setup to handle BCFY Calls for my county, but want to ensure I have the necessary configuration. I was informed I'll need a total of 3 SDRs to handle all the frequencies, but my question is: Do I need to add a new channel for each SDR, or by having the other SDRs available will the program automatically use the SDRs if they are available?

Just want to be sure I'm ready when my third SDR arrives, and trying to limit feed downtime as much as possible. Thanks!

 

[GTR8000]

SDRTrunk will use any SDRs that it finds plugged in and not being actively used for other purposes. You only need to configure one P25 Phase 1 receiver to monitor a single trunked site. Yes, P25 Phase I, even if the site has TDMA (Phase II) traffic, as SDRTrunk will know it's a trunked site when it tunes to the control channel, and will create Phase I and/or Phase II traffic channels dynamically. You need to tell it how many traffic channels it should use any any given time, with the default being 3. If your PC is powerful enough, you can increase that number.

 

[GTR8000]

Lots of good info here: DSheirer/sdrtrunk

 

[TheAlmightyZach]

Thanks! I've been reading through the Github wiki and just trying to make good sense of it. I really appreciate your input, and that answers my questions. When the third SDR Arrives it'll be a piece of cake at that point to get my feeds switched over. I have the majority of it pre-configured. Thank you again! I'm excited to be in on this, and on BCFY Calls.

 

[TheAlmightyZach]

Lots of good info here: DSheirer/sdrtrunk

Okay I've looked around a bit in their documentaiton and cannot yet find an answer to this question: When streaming to BCFY Calls, as per the TOS it sounds like it OK to stream all traffic on the system to BCFY Calls, and Calls will automatically determine what talk groups can be shown to the public ear. (For example, if a PD TAC gets sent, I'll see it on BCFY, but the public will not.. correct?)

So question 2 is: What about encryted talk groups being sent to BCFY from SDRTrunk? As of now, I've imported all talk groups to SDRTrunk, and want to allow as many calls to hit BCFY Calls as possible. Will I need to go through and remove encrypted talk groups from my Calls stream, or will it automatically not send encrypted audio to calls? I'll note too that I used the option to mute encrypted traffic during import.

Thank you!

 

[GTR8000]

You can send all talkgroups to Calls if you like, you don't have to filter anything out on your end. Note that the public can listen to all talkgroups live (yes, including Law Tac), but those talkgroups will not be available in the Calls archives (except for the node provider).

For talkgroups that are 100% encrypted, it's probably best to set those playlist entries in SDRTrunk to muted (disable Listen), no recording, no streaming. I don't think SDRTrunk will attempt to do anything when it detects encryption, but it's just as easy to disable them ahead of time. If a talkgroup is partially encrypted, then I suppose just leave it as-is...although you may want to disable those from streaming also so as not to poke the bear.

 

[TheAlmightyZach]

Understood. I do have them set to muted automatically. I can try to pull the known encrypted channels out out.

 

[GTR8000]

Just make sure to leave the encrypted talkgroups in your playlist, since they are identified, but set them to muted/no record/no stream and that should take care of it.

 

[GTR8000]

Oh and also, in your channel configuration, make sure to enable the Ignore Data Calls option so that it doesn't waste receiver resources by tuning to data calls, and make sure the modulation is set to LSM since that's a simulcast cell. Also you only need the frequencies that are control capable in the configuration, and you'll want to set the frequency rotation delay to probably 750ms so it has time to re-acquire if the control channel rolls.

 

[TheAlmightyZach]

Should I need to make any configuration changes to to the additional SDR's configuration? I'm having some choppy audio since I brought up the second tuner, however I currently have 2 SDRs sharing one antenna and I'm wondering if that may be causing some of the poor audio quality issues.