Trunk Recorder setup frustrations

[JustPlainMike]

I've been playing around with a Raspberry Pi 4 (both 4GB and 8GB flavors) and Trunk Recorder for a few months now trying to perfect the setup and recording of calls. I have two systems in my area that I'd ultimately like to feed to both Broadcastify Calls and OpenMHZ if indeed the software allows for both. I feel like I'm 95% there, but there are still a few issues. I've tried several different methods for setting it up:

Raspberry Pi OS
With this setup I've had the most success. I'm able to follow the setup instructions and start recording calls. However, they all end up being WAV format. It is my understanding that Broadcastify Calls requires MP3 or AAC format to upload to them. During the setup process I notice that the fdkacc program will not install. Is this what is causing the files to not record in the proper format? Is there another way to install it or another fix to get the right format for the files?

Ubuntu
After rereading the install instructions I thought perhaps the problem was using Raspberry Pi OS and not Ubuntu, so I went ahead and attempted and Ubuntu install. After several tries I got Ubuntu working and seemingly had everything setup to start with Trunk Recorder. I'm not sure if this is pure coincidence or a cause for the problem, but around the time I plugged in a flash drive to the USB port to test recording calls, the Pi disconnected from my network and I was unable to get the connection back. This was my only attempt so far using Ubuntu.

Docker install
I also attempted the Docker install using Raspberry Pi OS. I'll admit, the instructions to get this version running are completely confusing to me as I've never used Docker before. Maybe I'm missing something simple.

Any help getting this to run correctly would be greatly appreciated. I'll provide any additional info about my setup if requested. I do have one other issue with Trunk Recorder dealing with changing control channels, but I'll save that for a later discussion.

 

[10-75]

You might be better asking your question here: trunk-recorder/Lobby

 

[blantonl]

I've got a Wiki article which should get your started on some of the problems you are experiencing

If you are only getting WAV files - the problem is you didn't properly install some of the prereqs

Broadcastify-Calls-Trunk-Recorder - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[JustPlainMike]

I just tried the Ubuntu method again from a fresh install of Ubuntu. I followed the prereqs in the wiki the same as I did the first time. It appears that everything is installing correctly unless I'm missing something. Still only getting WAV files out of it. I may just have to head over to the Gitter page and see if anyone there can help. Not gonna lie, I feel a bit intimidated reading the discussion over there as it seems to be more developers working things out there and less plain old end users like me.

 

[10-75]

I have installed TR numerous times and never had an issue getting the m4a files. Lately, though, I can't get it to work either so I think there is some type of issue in the latest build....

 

[JustPlainMike]

I asked on Gitter and did get a response. Figured I would post it here in case it helps with people attempting to install it in the future. Apparently if you are not actively uploading to either Broadcastify Calls or OpenMHZ, Trunk Recorder will not save the files as M4A locally, only WAV. I went ahead and started uploading to OpenMHZ to test it out and it is indeed true. The only bad thing is if you continue to save the files locally it then saves them as both M4A and WAV. I don't know if it's possible to only save the M4A format. I'm going to see if I can get some feedback on the quality of the feed and possibly tweak it if needed before attempting to apply for uploading to Broadcastify Calls.