SDRTrunk - p25 decoder test release

[chudgoo]

Your method works perfect and is exactly what I want the wildcard for. Now this works like I want as in everything is blocked except for what I want to monitor (whitelist). I tried this method a while ago and it didn't work. Every talkgroup was blocked from the ***** entry so it ignore my other aliast groups/lists.

Thanks,
Craig

So wait, did it work or didn't it?
In my testing, using the 'block all and poke holes' approach I am still see quite a bit of "leakage".
I'm going to try the more labor intensive blocking I used before and see if it addresses it.
(manual editing of the playlist.xml file to list every single TGID that i want to block)

 

[Chewmeister]

So wait, did it work or didn't it?
In my testing, using the 'block all and poke holes' approach I am still see quite a bit of "leakage".
I'm going to try the more labor intensive blocking I used before and see if it addresses it.
(manual editing of the playlist.xml file to list every single TGID that i want to block)

When using the release from yesterday, the **** Do Not Monitor wildcard (block all) approach and then creating "whitelist" alias groups (poking holes) has been working great so far. This includes a very heavy voice traffic site in my area which is a great test for the leaks. Prior to this update, I would sometimes get leakage of the blocked talkgroups, and had to resort to creating "blocks" of wildcards like I mentioned in a previous post. I have both the single **** entry and the labor intensive playlists. I no longer notice any difference using either playlist with the latest release. I hope this is not a fluke that will go away with a restart or update because this how I like it to behave.

However, I am running into an issue where a Do Not Monitor talkgroup "collides" with an active whitelisted talkgroup. You can see this while looking at the voice channel pop-up bar. The "blocked" talkgroup's info will overwrite the existing talkgroup for a second or so. The audio instantly mutes (stops decoding), which is indicating to me a real collision occurred between the two TGs and is not a display issue. The loss of audio remains until the call ends and a new call starts. I may experience these "collisions" several times in an hour under normal use. This issue has been going on for a while now, perhaps, since I started using SDRTrunk.

 

[Chewmeister]

chudgoo,

Please let me know if the labor intensive method works for you. Also, are you running the latest (August 1) version of SDRTrunk now?

The wildcard **** is still working for me as it should. I can see all the talkgroups rapidly changing from "Group Call" to "Do Not Monitor" in the events window before they actually pop up on the channel display. But, in addition to the occasional collisions between the blocked and whitelisted talkgroups mentioned above, I just experienced a blocked talkgroup popping up on the channel display. It happened quickly between whitelist calls, and there was no audio with it. The whitelisted audio was fine throughout this episode. The events window showed the talkgroup as a group call at first, as they all do, then switched to do not monitor as is expected. I believe that is why there was no audio decode with it.

I originally thought the voice channel pop-ups TGID, RID jitter and sometimes general lag effects were related to a display issue. Now I am thinking these are side effects and the lag issues are created elsewhere.

Denny mentioned before these may be caused by Java 8. I have some time today to play around today. I will visit the Oracle site and hopefully download the latest version of Java 7 and replace Java 8. It still may be a Java issue, but at least I can check to see if Java 7 works better.

The version of Java 8 currently running is:

java version "1.8.0_101"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_101-b13)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.101-b13, mixed mode)

I will reply back with the results.

 

[Chewmeister]

Java version 7u80 installed, but unable to start SDRTrunk. It crashes immediately before even the application logs for both SDRTrunk and windows get created.

I am back to using Java 8u102 and everything works again.

 

[chudgoo]

So here is how I currently have the aliases built out.
LAPD is 3 TGIDs
LAFD is 6 TGIDS
BLOCK ALL has contained ****, ******, and both.

And yet I'm still seeing (and hearing) a lot of calls for TGIDs that weren't explicitly allowed.

What does the Alias List field under each Channel do?
I have all five control channels active and when I have BLOCK ALL, LAPD or LAFD assigned to the active control channel, nothing changes. I'm still seeing 'leakage'. (Though I'm pretty sure it's a user error causing it)
Any ideas?

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

 

[Chewmeister]

So here is how I currently have the aliases built out.
LAPD is 3 TGIDs
LAFD is 6 TGIDS
BLOCK ALL has contained ****, ******, and both.

And yet I'm still seeing (and hearing) a lot of calls for TGIDs that weren't explicitly allowed.

What does the Alias List field under each Channel do?
I have all five control channels active and when I have BLOCK ALL, LAPD or LAFD assigned to the active control channel, nothing changes. I'm still seeing 'leakage'. (Though I'm pretty sure it's a user error causing it)
Any ideas?

Imgur: The most awesome images on the Internet

You are far braver than I!

I can only tolerate one CC, as in a site, enabled at a time. Otherwise, there is just too much voice traffic for me to listen to.

As for aliases, I create an individual list for each control channel (site) even though some talkgroups are affiliated to neighboring sites as well. Being I have just started creating the alias items for this site, I have created only one group under this site called Carver - Scott Co for the Carver - Scott Co Simulcast site. As I grow this site, I will break this down into seperate counties or even agencies, so I can organize/filter them better. The next step is to create the alias, or agency, to place the trunkgroup(s) for that agency in. Some of these have over ten talkgroups assigned where others may only have one. This way I can quickly enabe or disable agencies I want to monitor.

I have attached a snapshot of this configuration below filtering out the other sites to demonstate what I have said. I included in the image my configuration for the block all entry. You may want to try removing the ****** entry for radio IDs to see if that is causing the problem. As you can see, I have only entered the **** wildcard for talkgroups. If I need to filter radio IDs in the future, I may need to create a different alias list to add them in.

 

[Chewmeister]

Oh, one more thing. On the channel tab, you would then select the list name you created as in my case above would be MN ARNER T104. Then when you fire up that control channel, SDRTrunk will load up the alias list(s) assigned to that list name.

 

[chudgoo]

Oh, one more thing. On the channel tab, you would then select the list name you created as in my case above would be MN ARNER T104. Then when you fire up that control channel, SDRTrunk will load up the alias list(s) assigned to that list name.

Ah! Ok... that might be my misunderstanding then.
I've basically got two main issues that I'm sure are my fault.
Aliases and channels...

I assumed that when you left the alias field blank under the channel, it would use ALL of the alias lists instead of specifying one. (BlockAll, Cops, Fire being my three)

On the channel front, because my system rotates the control channel duties every couple of hours, I assumed that enabling all of the control channels was the only way I could follow it.
Or am I completely misunderstanding that aspect as well???

 

[Chewmeister]

Ah! Ok... that might be my misunderstanding then.
On the channel front, because my system rotates the control channel duties every couple of hours, I assumed that enabling all of the control channels was the only way I could follow it.
Or am I completely misunderstanding that aspect as well???

Ahh, that explains the control channel usage. What I would probably do then is create a list name of <whatever it is> then create the seperate groups under that list name. In your case those would be LAPD, LAFD, and BLOCK ALL. When finished you could assign <whatever it is> to each of the control channels. That way the alias list should follow the CC changes.

 

[Chewmeister]

On the channel front, because my system rotates the control channel duties every couple of hours, I assumed that enabling all of the control channels was the only way I could follow it.
Or am I completely misunderstanding that aspect as well???

I do not think in your case, having all the control channels enabled should do any harm. You should only see one orange one (the others greyed out) at a time.

 

[Chewmeister]

Ah! Ok... that might be my misunderstanding then.
I assumed that when you left the alias field blank under the channel, it would use ALL of the alias lists instead of specifying one. (BlockAll, Cops, Fire being my three)

I have made an alias list for each Control Channel. When I do the drop down for the alias list in the channel tab, I do not have a blank selection to choose. There are only selections for the lists I created.

With that in mind, I do not think blanks are an option for the channel tab like they are in the alias tab to include everything. This could be your problem.

 

[DSheirer]

That's correct -- each channel uses only the aliases from the alias list that you attach/assign to that channel. You can attach the same alias list to multiple channels.

You can organize your aliases and move them to different lists or groups by simply typing a new list or group name for an individual alias, or selecting a group of aliases and using the multi-editor to change the list and/or group for all of them at once.

When a call occurs with a RID or TGID that is not specifically listed in your alias list, I check each of the wildcard RID and TGIDs until I find a match. So, if you have a talkgroup of ABCD and you have wildcards of A*** and ****, it will match against the first one that it finds in the list.

I've been thinking about assigning a weighting to wildcards so that they can be ordered from most specific to least specific like:

ABC*=10 (one wildcard digit)
AB*D=11
A*CD=12
*BCD=13
AB**=20

Then I can attempt to match a RID or TGID to the list of wildcards by finding the best match first. But, that's not the way it currently works.

Denny

 

[chudgoo]

So I've been playing around with your idea and have come up with this setup.
It seems to be working much better now... though the vast majority of the non-security traffic fairly quiet at night.

I'm amused to no end about the "Security" icon, btw... (it's a little tough to make out, but it's a tiny little Rambo!)

 

[Chewmeister]

Hi Denny,

Thanks for verifying my understanding of how these wildcards work with SDRTrunk.

When a call occurs with a RID or TGID that is not specifically listed in your alias list, I check each of the wildcard RID and TGIDs until I find a match. So, if you have a talkgroup of ABCD and you have wildcards of A*** and ****, it will match against the first one that it finds in the list.

This part is very important to me, as with the latest release, I finally have the wildcards working. The ability to add a DO Not Monitor **** wildcard to the list followed by additional talkgroup items I want to monitor sure streamlines the process and is similar to how other hardware/software works.

I've been thinking about assigning a weighting to wildcards so that they can be ordered from most specific to least specific like:

ABC*=10 (one wildcard digit)
AB*D=11
A*CD=12
*BCD=13
AB**=20

Then I can attempt to match a RID or TGID to the list of wildcards by finding the best match first. But, that's not the way it currently works.
Denny

I like the weighting wildcard idea. It should improve performance some, especially with lists that contain a lot of wildcards. I know my old alias list with just 70 to 80 wildcards ran noticeably slower than when the wildcards were removed.

It appears that the occasional jitter and delay of the TGID & RID being populated on the voice channel pop-ups is not only in that display. Every now and then I see one of the Do Not Monitor talkgroups pop-up immediately after a voice channel call ends. The audio of the renegade TG is muted when this occurs. Sometimes this happens in the middle of the call taking over the current call in progress (uses same voice channel bar). As expected, it knocks the decoder silly, muting the audio until the call ends, and everything resets for the next call.

I have an i7 laptop with 16 GB of ram, so I doubt I am running low on resources. I have a feeling the jitter issue and renegade TG takeover are related though. They both have delay issues in common.

I really like the changes you made to version 0.3.0. The layout allows for easier navigation.

One last item. I checked the website and notice no one has requested this yet. While working in the alias section today, I thought it would be nice to be able to right click on the newly created talkgroup and add an alias name to the talkgroup to replace the TGID that appears in the voice channel pop-up and logs. Same goes for the RID. I am not sure of the character limitations you would have, but 12 to 16 characters is more than enough. If no alias name is included, everything could default to the TGID and RID as it does now. I know you have a lot of other things to do so this is a low priority wish list item.

Thanks for all the hard work you put into this project,

Craig

 

[Chewmeister]

So I've been playing around with your idea and have come up with this setup.
It seems to be working much better now... though the vast majority of the non-security traffic fairly quiet at night.

I'm amused to no end about the "Security" icon, btw... (it's a little tough to make out, but it's a tiny little Rambo!)

Ha!

I like how creative you are. Rambo for security is original and funny. The garbage truck for the block all is exactly how I view those unwanted talkgroups.

It looks like you have everything working. I hope that tomorrow when the voice traffic increases, the talkgroup issue is solved.

 

[DSheirer]

It appears that the occasional jitter and delay of the TGID & RID being populated on the voice channel pop-ups is not only in that display. Every now and then I see one of the Do Not Monitor talkgroups pop-up immediately after a voice channel call ends. The audio of the renegade TG is muted when this occurs. Sometimes this happens in the middle of the call taking over the current call in progress (uses same voice channel bar). As expected, it knocks the decoder silly, muting the audio until the call ends, and everything resets for the next call.

I'm adding a ticket to figure out a way to reduce/eliminate the call piggy-backing (two calls merge together).

One last item. I checked the website and notice no one has requested this yet. While working in the alias section today, I thought it would be nice to be able to right click on the newly created talkgroup and add an alias name to the talkgroup to replace the TGID that appears in the voice channel pop-up and logs. Same goes for the RID. I am not sure of the character limitations you would have, but 12 to 16 characters is more than enough. If no alias name is included, everything could default to the TGID and RID as it does now. I know you have a lot of other things to do so this is a low priority wish list item.

I'm not sure I'm understanding where you want to add the alias name to ... in the channel panel the matching alias name is displayed to the right of the RID or TGID value and it should also be in the event logs. Aliases are not included in the decoded messages log.

 

[rjdj2000]

Denny,

Is it possible you could create a 'beta' in the download section? I have tried installing everything and configuring things to try to compile it myself but for the life of me I cannot seem to get something right. Or could someone possibly share what they have? Would like to try the newer version as I have been running the beta 0.2.8 24/7 for months straight... and it has been running quite well. Only have to mess with the PPM once and awhile or reboot the program as it gains too much memory but not to the point it crashes.

 

[cpetraglia]

Same here. I spent hours trying to compile with no luck.

Thanks,

 

[webstar22]

Will this system Bell FleetNet - Ontario Provincial Government Zone 2 Trunking System, Southeast Zone, Ontario - Scanner Frequencies work with SDRTrunk?

I setup the site etc.. and in the spectrum I could see the voice channels going on and off and the control channel had a steady stream as there was comms but the app pretty much did nothing else.

There is a dummies guide to set this all up I am not seeing someplace.

 

[chudgoo]

Denny,

Is it possible you could create a 'beta' in the download section? I have tried installing everything and configuring things to try to compile it myself but for the life of me I cannot seem to get something right. Or could someone possibly share what they have? Would like to try the newer version as I have been running the beta 0.2.8 24/7 for months straight... and it has been running quite well. Only have to mess with the PPM once and awhile or reboot the program as it gains too much memory but not to the point it crashes.

While you're probably not on Mac, I just wanted to put this out there.
The instructions that worked for me (in getting the 0.3.0 alpha built) were:
Open up Terminal and...

Install homebrew:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install git:
brew install git

Install ant:
brew install ant

Clone into SDRTrunk:
git clone https://github.com/DSheirer/sdrtrunk

Go into sdrtrunk directory and build using Ant:
cd ./sdrtrunk/build/
ant

Unzip the zip file created above to your home directory:
unzip ../product/sdrtrunk_0.3.0-alpha1.zip

Go to directory and run sdrtrunk:
cd sdrtrunk/
bash ./run_sdrtrunk_linux.sh

(using the linux launch script as it seems to work fine)

Windows instructions probably follow the same lines I would guess...