Stereo feed question

[kd5wzr]

Hello. I'm trying to set up a stereo feed. I'm using a Uniden Bearcat BC-296D for the Police side and a Radio Shack Pro 95 for the Fire/EMS side. The wiring diagram is the same as in the Wiki pages except I do not have external speakers connected to the unused connectors or inline audio isolators.

The problem I'm having is that the Fire/EMS side is correctly isolated to one channel but the Police side can be heard on both the Left and Right channels. In other words, I can fade out the Fire/EMS channel but NOT the Police channel.

Any thoughts?

 

[richtidd]

Hello. I'm trying to set up a stereo feed. I'm using a Uniden Bearcat BC-296D for the Police side and a Radio Shack Pro 95 for the Fire/EMS side. The wiring diagram is the same as in the Wiki pages except I do not have external speakers connected to the unused connectors or inline audio isolators.

The problem I'm having is that the Fire/EMS side is correctly isolated to one channel but the Police side can be heard on both the Left and Right channels. In other words, I can fade out the Fire/EMS channel but NOT the Police channel.

Any thoughts?

It sounds like you are but to make sure, please see here for:
Setting up your Broadcasting Station

The speakers are only need if you are using the headphone or speaker jack & want to listen to the scanners locally.

Make sure you are using the correct cables.

I also see you are broadcasting at the incorrect bitrate for a stereo feed.

You are at 16kbs vs 32kbs.

The result is your feed does not sound as good as it can.

Best is to change to 32kbs.

Note: RR Branded version of ScannerCast for stereo (two radio) feeds:
Currently there is a bug in the RR Edition of ScannerCast that we supply for your feed.
The bug has to do with the RR branded version of ScannerCast working in stereo (two scanner) feeds.
Currently it is not working properly for stereo feeds.
It set's the incorrect bit rate to 16kbs vs 32kbs so your stereo feed does not sound as good as it can..

If you are setting up a stereo feed, I recommend you use: RadioFeed Setup Instructions by Proscan.org.
Like the RR branded version of ScannerCast, RadioFeed will auto config to your RR account and feed.
Once downloaded & installed, simple as:
1 - Log into RR/BCFY and select your feed to broadcast.
2 - Select the correct sound card.
3 - Select stereo. (Presets bit & sampling rate to correct settings)
4 - Press connect.
Basic RadioFeed Stereo Set Up:
Under Server Type, select RadioReference.
Press on RadioReference Auto Configure.
Log into RR (Enter your RR user name & pass).
Press Connect.
Select your feed to broadcast under Description.
Press Set.
Select the correct sound card.
Select stereo. The correct bit rate & sampling rate are preset.
Under the Options Tab, select these boxes: Are you Sure, Start up, Check for newer versions. Others are you like.
Under Source Select Tab, Press connect. You should now be broadcasting.
RadioFeed can also be used for a mono feed instead of ScannerCast if you like. Just select mono.

 

[GordonE]

If you swap the connectors (so that you're switching which audio channel each scanner is connected to), do you still hear the police scanner on both channels or do you then start hearing only the Fire/EMS scanner in both?

If, after you swap the scanners, you still hear police in both channels, I wonder if the problem is some sort of audio ground loop which is resulting in the audio being heard on both channels instead of just one.

If, after swapping the scanners, police is correctly isolated but Fire/EMS is not then I would suspect that there's something wrong with the cable/splitter you're using.

 

[kd5wzr]

GordonE: switching the cables results in Police on both channels and Fire/EMS on the opposite channel from before.

richtidd: I'm aware of the 32 bit issue. I'm using DarkIce in Ubuntu for streaming, and I get an error message when I try to set it to 32 bit. I haven't found a solution for that yet, either. I'm not sure if it's a software encoder problem or if my soundcard is the problem.

Edit: Also, thanks for your quick responses.

 

[kd5wzr]

I think I've solved the 32 bit audio problem at least. I used the sample config file at Live Audio/Ubuntu Darkice - The RadioReference Wiki . However, I changed the following line from:

bitsPerSample   = 16/32     # bits per sample. 16 for mono feeds, 32 for stereo feeds

to:

bitsPerSample   = 16     # should be 16 for most sound cards regardless of number of channels

I think that the bitsPerSample means bits per channel. If you have 16 bits per channel on a 2 channel stream, that gives you a 32 bit stream. But, if you put 32 bitsPerSample, LAME would try to combine that into a 64 bit stream, and it can't do that.

I have no idea if that's right, but it does appear to work--it's not throwing the "specified bits per sample not supported" error that it gave before. If that's correct, mods, you may want to change the Wiki page.