SDRtrunk; listening to any trunked chatter, at wits end!

[JavaValhalla]

So I'm an IT guy by trade. This SDR stuff is fascinating but I'm having a heck of a hard time just even getting started. It pains me to ask... would someone be willing to work with me a bit to get SDRtrunk working?

Preferably someone tolerant to being asked stupid questions and lots of them. At least while I get started? Full details below.

Thanks in advance! This is an awesome hobby and resource!!

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I've got a premium RR account and really want to use SDRtrunk for it's integration and UI friendliness. My goal is just to listen to nearby EMS. I've got an enclosure loaded with two RTL SDRs; the radios themselves work fine.

Finding any trunked convo to listen to is something I've yet to accomplish. I've watch all the tutorials and they seem incredibly easy...I do the same and get no audio.

This is what I understand the process to be:

1. Load SDRtrunk.
2. Load playlist editor.
3. Locate the entity you want to monitor.
4. Within talkgroup view, import all talk groups.
5. Within system view, click create the channel group (with ALL for freqs and SINGLE for configurations.)
6. Hit play

I hear absolutely nothing. The control info shows "Idle" and I'm flooded with SYNC LOSS messages. If I select "FOR EACH" instead of "SINGLE" and add a bunch of channels for the same system, then hit play on as many as I can, then I hear bits of chatter. But now I can't even make that happen.

I've got a MacOS running Windows 10 via parallels. I've also tried this in DragonOS and get the exact same results.

Would someone be willing to work with me a little bit on this? This seems incredibly easy. it's especially infuriating because I'm an IT tech in troubleshooting and I swear I'm doing everything right here! lol If it aint Ham nor Broadcast FM...I can't listen to it!

I know I've got all the tools...in addition to this dual-dongle SDR, I've got a HackRF, another RTL-SDR, DSD+FastLane (above my head and no RR integration). I wanted to have all the tools to explore this hobby and hilariously cannot even get the simplest thing off the ground here lol

Clearly I'm missing something stupid staring me right in the face here. Gain is up, I've played with PPM, and still cannot listen to a trunked convo to save my life.

 

[maus92]

So I'm an IT guy by trade. This SDR stuff is fascinating but I'm having a heck of a hard time just even getting started. It pains me to ask... would someone be willing to work with me a bit to get SDRtrunk working?

Preferably someone tolerant to being asked stupid questions and lots of them. At least while I get started? Full details below.

Thanks in advance! This is an awesome hobby and resource!!

-----------
I've got a premium RR account and really want to use SDRtrunk for it's integration and UI friendliness. My goal is just to listen to nearby EMS. I've got an enclosure loaded with two RTL SDRs; the radios themselves work fine.

Finding any trunked convo to listen to is something I've yet to accomplish. I've watch all the tutorials and they seem incredibly easy...I do the same and get no audio.

This is what I understand the process to be:

1. Load SDRtrunk.
2. Load playlist editor.
3. Locate the entity you want to monitor.
4. Within talkgroup view, import all talk groups.
5. Within system view, click create the channel group (with ALL for freqs and SINGLE for configurations.)
6. Hit play

I hear absolutely nothing. The control info shows "Idle" and I'm flooded with SYNC LOSS messages. If I select "FOR EACH" instead of "SINGLE" and add a bunch of channels for the same system, then hit play on as many as I can, then I hear bits of chatter. But now I can't even make that happen.

I've got a MacOS running Windows 10 via parallels. I've also tried this in DragonOS and get the exact same results.

Would someone be willing to work with me a little bit on this? This seems incredibly easy. it's especially infuriating because I'm an IT tech in troubleshooting and I swear I'm doing everything right here! lol If it aint Ham nor Broadcast FM...I can't listen to it!

I know I've got all the tools...in addition to this dual-dongle SDR, I've got a HackRF, another RTL-SDR, DSD+FastLane (above my head and no RR integration). I wanted to have all the tools to explore this hobby and hilariously cannot even get the simplest thing off the ground here lol

Clearly I'm missing something stupid staring me right in the face here. Gain is up, I've played with PPM, and still cannot listen to a trunked convo to save my life.

Looks like a signal problem - as in there isn't anything usable. What system are you trying to monitor, and how far are you from the nearest RF site?

Below is an example of usable signalling.

 

[millam]

You have to set up a tuner, have you done that? Thats not in your list of things to do.

Mil

 

[dave3825]

The control info shows "Idle" and I'm flooded with SYNC LOSS messages.

If I select "FOR EACH" instead of "SINGLE" and add a bunch of channels for the same system, then hit play on as many as I can, then I hear bits of chatter.

Sync loss means poor or no signal. Turn up rf and adjust your dongles ppm from within the tuners tab. If its a trunked system, I believe you only need the channels labeled as control and alternates. You do not want to add voice channels as you will have zero control as to what you can listen to.

Your screen shot shows a p25 phase 2 decoder. Even if the entity is phase 2, set it up as phase 1.

Can you post a link to the system your trying to receive?

 

[Reconrider]

Have you changed the driver for the sdr with the win_usb one with zadig if you have an rtlsdr blog device?

 

[JavaValhalla]

Have you changed the driver for the sdr with the win_usb one with zadig if you have an rtlsdr blog device?

I have.
That process works OK for all my SDRs except my HackRF; another frustration in the mix lol

Looks like a signal problem - as in there isn't anything usable. What system are you trying to monitor, and how far are you from the nearest RF site?

Below is an example of usable signalling.

View attachment 122987

The site I bought my SDR from informed me I'm 15 miles from a 30 mile repeater.
I'm trying to listen to EMS/Police; really anything around me I can listen to.

Sync loss means poor or no signal. Turn up rf and adjust your dongles ppm from within the tuners tab. If its a trunked system, I believe you only need the channels labeled as control and alternates. You do not want to add voice channels as you will have zero control as to what you can listen to.

Your screen shot shows a p25 phase 2 decoder. Even if the entity is phase 2, set it up as phase 1.

Can you post a link to the system your trying to receive?

Thank you for your reply!

I suspected this. Every now and again I'll get a flash of a message, for example, I went to one I knew it was encrypted. Among all the SYNC LOSS errors, I did see in the message, in plain text, that the signal was encrypted.

I don't know what to adjust the PPM to. Most mentions of it say anywhere from 5 to 30. When I'm running SDRtrunk, I tried adjusting it to get the peak of the signal in the center; this would come out to some bonkers value like -500 PPM which seems horribly wrong.

Here's the odditiy, I swore that when I had added only a single channel, the band would highlight it. At one point I was able to get voice decoding but only bits and pieces, now not even that much. But now that only seems to happen if I make multiple channels play. Even my screenshot is showing a signal I had one of those very minor success on.

I was not aware to try to setup Phase II as Phase I. I will give that a go and try to get those screen caps to you!

You have to set up a tuner, have you done that? Thats not in your list of things to do.

Mil

I have.
Ran Zadiag; made sure I could hear at least FM broadcast on the both tuners.
I also used DragonOS which has all the drivers pre-loaded but same result unfortunately.

Thank you for your input!

 

[dave3825]

I don't know what to adjust the PPM to. Most mentions of it say anywhere from 5 to 30. When I'm running SDRtrunk, I tried adjusting it to get the peak of the signal in the center; this would come out to some bonkers value like -500 PPM which seems horribly wrong.

What dongle are you using? To adjust ppm, that is basically the same as making adjustment to get the signal on the spectrum centered. Your better off programming in something that has a solid signal for you to receive before attempting ppm adjustment.

Also,
Your screen shot shows a p25 phase 2 decoder. Even if the entity is phase 2, set it up as phase 1.

 

[JavaValhalla]

What dongle are you using? To adjust ppm, that is basically the same as making adjustment to get the signal on the spectrum centered. Your better off programming in something that has a solid signal for you to receive before attempting ppm adjustment.

Also,
Your screen shot shows a p25 phase 2 decoder. Even if the entity is phase 2, set it up as phase 1.

Specifically it's this unit, an enclosure containing an RTL2832+R820T2. I'm using the antenna that came with it and have it hanging outside above a doorway. I know the PPM says .5 here -- I've experimented tirelessly with that value to no avail. I struggled with Unitrunker and saw SDRtrunk was exactly what I was looking for.

I'm really just trying to find any trunked EMS/police signal I can listen to.

 

[PDXh0b0]

quick install of current version of sdrtrunk

 

[millam]

I have attached a snip of my tuner setup. Can you do the same for your tuner setup?
This is the tuner setup in SDRTrunk after it is started which you know I hope.

Mil

 

[JavaValhalla]

I have attached a snip of my tuner setup. Can you do the same for your tuner setup?
This is the tuner setup in SDRTrunk after it is started which you know I hope.

Mil

Thank you for that!! You and everyone else have been incredibly helpful.

Below is me playing with the gain settings and anything else I can find.

Through this troubleshooting I did notice a behavior. In the playlist editor, if I click my county simulcast then pick a frequency > channel config > play. Not only not hearing anything, the freq label does not show up. If I repeat the process but stop at choosing the county simulcast (not clicking on a control freq or alts) then the label appears. That accounts for the random change I was seeing.

I feel that I should be able to listen to something hear, no? I can see peaks but it seems my dial can never hit it. If do, I have to manually tune it to a stupid value like -100 or +500. I've ran the calibration so many times my Mac's hot lol

 

[dave3825]

First pic shows the noise floor as high as a gallon of gas. Second and third pics show no gain at all and its set for manual. Click that drop down and bump it up to like 327 and see if and signals present themselves on the spectrum.

 

[PDXh0b0]

maybe try this system

 

[rjdj2000]

I've got a MacOS running Windows 10 via parallels. I've also tried this in DragonOS and get the exact same results.

Is your Mac an Intel based mac? If so, skip running parallels and run the macOS version directly. I run one on an older Mac Mini (2012 vintage) on a dual core i5 24/7 and it runs fine. This way there isn't anything getting in the way of the RTL sticks and ports. As others have said, need to get ppm set right in tuner tab along with gain. Any of the RTL sticks I have run anywhere from 50 - 70 ppm. Bet bet is to run like sdr# in windows and put a weather channel freq in it and then adjust the ppm in there for the stick. Then set ppm in sdrtrunk to match.

 

[JavaValhalla]

So tinkering with settings, at one point I got my parallels version of SDRtrunk to start recommending PPM.
That was the first I saw it do that and the last. I don't know what combined settings on gain and sample size I had to where it was giving a recommended PPM.

It seemed like the consensus was to keep the sample sizes to 2.4-2.5. I've gone to .24 and still can't seem to hit what seems to be a receivable station. So let me know if I should be tinkering in there.

Thanks man, I'm sure there's better things you'd rsther be doing than figuring this out.

 

[FreqNout]

Do both rtl tuners have the same s/n? If so, maybe changing one s/n would help?

 

[millam]

He is running 5.0 Beta 3 and I am back on 5.0 alpha 6 so I am going to bow out. Beta 3 did a lot
of tuner changes I think, so I am way behind.

 

[dave3825]

I would try with just 1 rtl dongle to at least obtain a signal on a control channel. What are you using for an antenna?

 

[chrismol1]

I don't claim to be an SDR expert but you're signal looks really crappy/noisy to start to think about decoding. In my case I use an SDR Blog RTL-SDR, for my instance the settings pretty much standard work for mine, Automatic, auto-ppm which usually sets itself around -1.6-1.7
I'd get that antenna away from anything noisy, smart TVs, routers, etc and get it up into a window. It looks to be barely on the edge of a reasonable signal, I think if you'd get it up and away from things you'll have success

 

[JavaValhalla]

First pic shows the noise floor as high as a gallon of gas. Second and third pics show no gain at all and its set for manual. Click that drop down and bump it up to like 327 and see if and signals present themselves on the spectrum.

I don't claim to be an SDR expert but you're signal looks really crappy/noisy to start to think about decoding. In my case I use an SDR Blog RTL-SDR, for my instance the settings pretty much standard work for mine, Automatic, auto-ppm which usually sets itself around -1.6-1.7
I'd get that antenna away from anything noisy, smart TVs, routers, etc and get it up into a window. It looks to be barely on the edge of a reasonable signal, I think if you'd get it up and away from things you'll have success

I'm coming to the conclusion my issue is entirely signal based and my ignorance of antennas to use here. I also have an extreme apology to issue to everyone as the original dipole antenna i was using has a small band labelled around it: 137-174mhz DOH!!

I got a bunch intended for mobile/indoor scanning but I believe I overestimated ability to do that. I have another one, a discone, I've yet to put together. Hoping I could keep trying one of my magnetic base antennas attached outside the house so I can scan while in the AC.

I have the usual 3 antennas that come with the RTL-SDR. My dual-SDR enclosure came with just the dipole for 136-174mhz, I'm putting that to the side since everything I want to listen to seems to be 700-800mhz.

Playing with the gain and sample rate, I again have it auto-adjusting PPM.
I even got a less-than-a-second blip of someone talking - that was the gain set to automatic but again I get all that noise.

Do I need to just give up and put the discone together already? I was hoping to get a little something versus the lot of nothing I'm getting now lol