Unitrunker with two NooElec NESDR Mini 2, voice radio wont trunk

[apocdragon]

Ok, I'm going to keep this simple. Can anyone point me to an online help or video on how to use Unitrunker?

I have the control/signal radio working, but for the life of me I can't get the second SDR to actually follow the signal nor have I figured out how to listen in on a specific call group. All the videos I have seen and how-tos I have read only get me to the point where I am now, and that is basic setup.

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

 

[muchomorek]

RTL-SDR Tutorial: Following Trunked Radio with Unitrunker - rtl-sdr.com

 

[apocdragon]

Thanks

I've already gone through that tutorial. I've tried a couple of different versions of unitrunker. The latest one, 1.0.31.10 does not have the listen. I upgraded to see if something was a bug. the 1.0.30.10 doesn't follow either.

 

[muchomorek]

its because you have the preview version, UniTrunker-1.0.30.10.msi has the listen

 

[muchomorek]

what do you have for digital output select?

 

[apocdragon]

For signal, its unspecified. For voice its my virtual audio cable.

 

[apocdragon]

Ok, it looks like I got the trunking working. I ended up blowing out the unitrunker folder that is located in APPDATA. Re-installed and it worked.

One more question, how do I follow only a specific group? right now, it is trunking but it is all over the place

 

[br0adband]

You can't, which is the biggest downside to using SDR hardware right now - there's no software that I'm aware of that will allow you to just say "Ok, monitor this talkgroup and nothing else..." easily. It can be done with Unitrunker (as I understand it, been a year or so since I dabbled with this stuff so things have probably changed since then) but it involves setting the priority on a given talkgroup to a level where it really does have priority over nearly everything else, like giving a specific talkgroup a high priority (in terms of the value) and everything else gets set to 0 or null or something.

Sorry I can't be more specific; my fondest wish is that a "proper" tool for monitoring trunked comms becomes available at some point in time which basically can do exactly what a trunk tracking scanner can do. I suppose it's possible but nobody has done it yet in my experience, but then again maybe it's just not doable, who knows.

 

[rivardj]

In Unitrunker you can listen to only one talk group or specific talk groups, it takes a little work.

- Go to the main Unitrunker window and select the systems tab at the bottom of the window.

- Double click on the system that appears on this tab. If there are more than one listed, pick the one that has more than zero users.

- In the window that opens select the Groups tab at the bottom.

- Turn off each talk group you do not want to hear by editing those lines, put an "X" in the Lockout column.

The system I listen to has 3200 or so talk groups. Locking out all of them would take a good bit of work, that is why I just lock out the ones that I get hits on that I don't want to listen to. I double click on the Hits column header to sort by number of hits to bring the active groups to the top. After your rig runs a couple of days and with a little poking at it you will have it set to your liking.

By the way, all the above information is based on the assumption that you have imported the system from the Radio Reference data base using the tools in Unitrunker.

 

[bharvey2]

The following website tutorial helped me the most in getting SDR# and DSD+ working on a P25 trunking system:

P25 Trunked Tracking and Decoding with Unitrunker and DSDPlus | Jeffrey Kopcak, MBA

The people here on the RR forums helped me in filling in the blanks.

Once you get your computer setup monitoring the local P25 system, you can limit it to specific talk groups. I let the programs run for a few days until I got hits from most of the available talkgroups. Then from the site window, I selected the home button which opens another window. I then selected the GROUP tab, filled in the talkgroups with the definitions provided from RR (yes, I did it manually) and locked out the groups I wasn't interested in monitoring. It was labor intensive but forced my hand in learning to navigate the SDR# windows. "No Pain, No Gain" as the saying goes.

bharvey2

 

[BM82557]

The system I listen to has 3200 or so talk groups. Locking out all of them would take a good bit of work,...

In Unitrunker you can do multiple edits -

"Grid Multiselect

You can select multiple items and edit them all at once as follows. In the grid, select each item by highlighting it (use arrow keys or mouse) while holding down the control key. You'll end up with multiple rows highlighted. Click the Inspect toolbar (the magnifying glass icon). A popup window will appear allowing you to edit the items in aggregate. Set colors, priority, etc. all the same in one pass."

 

[rosecitytransit]

Instead of locking out groups, you can set the priority of the ones you do want to listen to to lower numbers, then on the Options tab set the Listen priority so it's below the priority of the ones you don't want to listen to.

Also, if you click on the Groups prototype button, you can set the settings for newly discovered groups.

 

[VA3HQB]

Im tying to get Unitrunker to work using the latest version.... and Its just not allowing the P25 on the voice channel to function. Tonight, Im going to use the info above to try and figure this out, but all of the tutorials Im fiding are outdated and use versions, information, or settings that are no longer part of unitrunker or have been changed.

I do a screen cast of my setup for an indication of what Im getting as results. But, basicaly, Im able to trunk track with the first RTL-SDR, and everything shows up.. talk groups, calls, and users... but there is no function from the voice channel at all seemingly, It doesnt even seem to change to the frequency that it needs to be on to receive.

 

[bharvey2]

VA3WPN,

A few things that come to mind: Is the role of your voice receiver set to Voice? Also, sometimes I've had difficulty figuring out which receiver is which. Maybe try using each in the signal role to make sure that you're setting each up properly. And, did you determine the correction value for each? that sort of follows with the second item. Also, have you successfully tested your Virtual Audio cable to ensure it is working properly? Since you mentioned that the voice receiver isn't changing, I'd look at the signal role first.

 

[VA3HQB]

I have been banging my head against the wall for this for like 3 days now, I have tried 2 diffrent virtual cable programs, no change. I will go about uninstalling, and wiping everything from the PC, and starting fresh.. this may help with some of the issues. But, I will do jus that check all of my connections, and try to find a method of identification for the dongles. I have done the calibration on them, my offset on each is 22 - 24. so its very close.

 

[VA3HQB]

after going threw some reading, and my software.. the version of Unitrunker I have has no "listen" option.... Is this a problem with my computer or the software? is it a feature that has been removed or have I disabled it? Hmm....

 

[bharvey2]

I'm still using version 1.03. I have a "Listen" option and it is checkmarked if the "Role" at the top of the window set to "Voice". The dongle that is set to "Signal" has a listen drop down menu but it doesn't seem to work. It could be that your running both dongles in the Signal mode.

 

[VA3HQB]

I will most definatly be looking into this, as there is a number of P25 P1 control freq's that I have in my area.

 

[SCPD]

the version of Unitrunker I have has no "listen" option.... Is this a problem with my computer or the software? is it a feature that has been removed or have I disabled it? Hmm....

Please read the first post of these threads. They cover many of the changes done since most of the tutorials were published.

http://forums.radioreference.com/vo...-software/315011-unitrunker-release-31-a.html

... and most recently ...

http://forums.radioreference.com/vo...-software/317880-unitrunker-release-32-a.html

 

[VA3HQB]

Thank you Unitrunker, I am going threw the threads now. I am new to this SDR and Software mixture, I have a lot to learn. I have been able to get the control channel to work, I just cant figure out the voice channel. Thanks again, Back to reading....