Using the multiple VCOs in Unitrunker.for multiple control channels (Duh)

[N2UJZ]

I know it might be kind of "duh" but I assumed this feature was to allow a single dongle to act as "signal" and "voice" receiver but the (Motorola Smartzone Type II) system here spans >3Mhz so I thought I couldn't use the feature..I was wrong. I just can't use it that way.

This morning a lightning strike took out the primary "site 1" control channel. Sites 2 and 6 are in range for me but carry mostly the same traffic so I just had the one site and one VCO. All 3 control channels are within 96Khz (853.6125, 853.700 & 853.7125) so I put 3 VCO's and presto! All 3 sites popped up. and I hear traffic on the two working ones (the main one is still down. Signal is 100% but no traffic)

They are still having major issues -digitized garbledy-gook or no response when dispatch calls a unit. In fact Dispatch just sent a special announcement reminding everyone to keep their cell phone handy since they will be used for 10-74 checks if no response on radio. Some units are using their "Failsoft" & "Wide Area" talk groups since their radios are down.

Anyway it may seem like a no brainer but I didn't find a use for the multiple VCOs until today. And once again, thanks for making this awesome software available! The versatility is amazing.

One improvement might be an enable/disable function for each VCO. When I go back to using one or two VCO's to save CPU I have to re enter all the settings if I turn the third one back on. Simply disabling it would be easier. (All site 6's traffic it always on site 1 but it' there for things like today)

Cheers, -Justin

 

[SCPD]

Thanks Justin.

Setting a signal role's park frequency to zero will prevent it from using any resources.

Also, setting the VCO's role to "Unspecified" will also prevent it from using CPU.

You don't have to remove the VCO unless you just want to the number of tabs displayed to a tidy minimum.

 

[N2UJZ]

Thanks! I'll use the "unspecified" setting for the control channel when not in use it's a good quick solution ( I was thinking of a check box that's just as good though.) Just changing the & of VCO's to 2 had to reset all the settings for the if I brought the 3rd back up.

I just did it and restarted the receiver to disable the broken Site's VCO and keep the settings (I'll see when the site comes back online on my PRO-2096 then re enable it and disable site 6)

So now I'll leave 2 sites on better coverage to the south. Automatically switching between VCO's when higher priority traffic on one is great like if there's something going on on a TAC channel for example and they decide to head somewhere down south.

Site 1 still silent despite 100% decode. Hearing lots of "you're radio's 10-1 give me a 21" That's kinda pathetic that they are using cell phones for dispatch communications. The units hear dispatch asking them to give a 10-21 but if they talk on the radio some units are not able to hit the repeater mostly the city PD downtown and the bad parts of town. Power went out for a minute here during a Thunderstorm after that no site 1. (Fortunately there are plans to put 3 more sites in the county already in the works)

-Justin

 

[dooshorama]

i understand the multiple VCOs as it relates to unitrunker.

this may be off topic - i'm confused about your locality's usage of 3 sites.
is it 1 site with multiple control channels?
or is it actually 3 sites (each with its own control + work channels)?
were all 3 sites active before the damage? or did 2 sites sit idle as backup?
is it the same departments using 3 sites or is it multiple departments/towns?

 

[N2UJZ]

There are 6 sites in the county each had one control channel for each sites (and alternates very rarely used) and a set of working frequencies. I can hear 3 from my location. The other 3 are too far south. For example. If a county SO unit is far out east their communications and also dispatch will be heard by both the east site and the main downtown site. One is near the dispatch location, the other is closer to the unit.

If it is, say, Venice (further South) police dispatch talking with a unit down there they will both be on that site only and not on the Sarasota (Northern) site and I won't hear it. But If it's the Sarasota County Sheriff talking to a County unit down there I can hear both via the northern site.

The reason I can do without the Eastern site even though it's closest to me is because all communications on that site are also on the primary site. (there is really nothing out east (ranches & farms) and that site is to provide better coverage but everything on that site also is on the main site which has more channels and carries the most traffic...but today that site is down.

I don't fully understand why I often see North Port (very far south) police & dispatch on the Sarasota site but I hope that makes sense.

Sarasota Site #1 (North) Site #2 Osprey (not far South) and Hi Hat Site #6 (East) are the ones I can hear from here. I was just monitoring Site #1 with Unitrunker until today I had to make use of the other 2 and found I could use the VCOs to monitor both sites at the same time. (I monitor multiple sites on my PRO-2096 so it's nice to be able to hear both on Unitrunker as well.

Here is the plan showing the whole system Sarasota County Public Safety Trunking System, Sarasota County, Florida - Scanner Frequencies

-Justin

 

[N2UJZ]

I notice is that even with the VCO set to "unspecified" and the decode health etc is zero I can still see activity on the scope for the unspecified VCO so it is stlll receiving a signal but it's not trying to decode it.

CPU running about 35% (3 RTL sticks) Parking it at zero with no signal looks like maybe a slight (maybe 5%) reduction on CPU load but pretty insignificant. It works great.

I think I'll just try leaving all three VCO's & all three dongles on for now. That third RTL is just parked as a standalone receiver for monitoring anything else. (4 virtual audio devices to route to) That makes it very versatile for more than just trunked systems. Pretty awesome IMO. Thanks!
- Justin

 

[dooshorama]

interesting. thanks.

 

[N2UJZ]

I just had a thought as to why North Port police & dispatch are often heard on North Sarasota site. It's where the main county jail is located. So If any one of their units is up this far North all their dispatch communications will be on heard on the northern site. I have their talk groups are locked out though.

A little OT maybe, but it does relate to multi site trunked systems decoding.. Site 1 is back up as of a couple hours ago. Still running all 3 control channels.

It's kind hard to see all 3 windows for each site when it switches. Maybe a small separate window that can be kept on top of everything showing only what is currently being decoded would be a good idea to try in a future release? -Justin

 

[jasonk]

It looks like they are all digital TG's .....are you running the audio through DSD+ ? Thanks for any further explanation on how you monitor this system with the USB Dongles.

Jason

 

[N2UJZ]

Here are screen shots showing the decoding of 3 control channels using one RTL simultaneously by using the 3 VCO's ..The voice one is a 2nd stick routed to DSD.. For each of the 3 VCOs on the signal RTL it's parked to the control channel for that site. If traffic set to higher priority is on one site it will jump to that site's CC.It jumps around quite a bit and uses all 3 control channels to direct the voice receiver.

You can see that some traffic is only on one site. like the jaill and SPD (City dept) since they're downtown near near site 1. SSO (County Sheriff ) dispatch can be seen on all 3 since they have units close to all 3 sites.But it does do a good job of following & switching according to talkgroup priority on each site.-Justin

 

[Amraks]

I see what you are saying..
Example of what is happening

Site 1
Radio's are switched on Channel 22 Chat

Site 2
No Radio's are switched on Channel 22 Chat

But if radio is switched on Channel 22 Chat on Site 2 that channel will be heard while listen to Site 2


Happens on my edacs system as well have to tune to a different site if they certain units switch up to a different channel.

I have figured out that some units keep a car radio on a chat channel while hand held radios are usually kept on their main channel.

this enabled me to listen to Channel 22 Chat with out having to switch Site 2.

Hopefully Unitrunker puts in site preferences if it can work that way.