WinTone, Frequency Counter 1.01, and Xcorder

[Schnoor1648]

I am using several software applications on my computer with my receiver. WinTone, Frequency Counter 1.01 and Xcorder all seem to work well. What I would like to do is record some audio of a fire page out and then play the audio file from Xcorder through the Frequency Counter 1.01 and display the paging tones. I have been able to record radio audio on Xcorder, but I seem to be unable to play it through Frequency Counter 1.01. Does anyone have any helpful suggestions on how I can make this work?

 

[pro92b]

Open the volume control, select properties and then recording. Click OK and make sure Wave Out Mix is selected.

For best accuracy your recording should be sampled at 44.1 kHz and 16 bits mono. I have never been able to get sufficient accuracy out of Counter. It varies +/- 1 'LSB' which in this program is about 0.4%. Others have reported better results.

I don't know how to get Wintone to display single tones above the CTCSS range. If you find a way, post back here.

Cool Edit has been the most accurate program for tone decoding in my experience, as long as the sampling and bit count are maxed out.

 

[Llwellyn]

Yes, your soundcard has to be able to mix its outputs ("Wave Out Mix" as referred to in the post above for most soundcards) in order to sample something at the time you're playing it back. Not all soundcards can do this; also, you will want to learn what set of tones you are trying to decode; it's very helpful to have a chart of only the valid tones since, once again depending on the soundcard, the software counters aren't the pinnacle of accuracy. The various tones are all very similar across the different vendors; if you know you're looking for Plextron tones vs. Motorola tones vs. GE tones, you'll save yourself some time.

 

[Al42]

For best accuracy your recording should be sampled at 44.1 kHz and 16 bits mono. I have never been able to get sufficient accuracy out of Counter. It varies +/- 1 'LSB'

No frequency counter is more accurate than +/- 1 LSB - that's just how counting a frequency works. The only way to get more accuracy is to make the LSB .01 Hz, or .001 Hz or ... All counters that count to .1 Hz have the same inherrent error; +/- 1 LSB +/- the accuracy of the time base.

 

[pro92b]

The Counter program displays down to tenths of Hz but it jumps about +/- 2.7 Hz on a 600 Hz tone (in one step). This is evidently the resolution of the program but the display shows digits that apparently cannot be resolved. My reference to LSB was the closest analogy I could think of to describe the behavior.

 

[Schnoor1648]

WinTone, Frequency Counter 1.01, and RecAll Pro

Thank you very much! The Wave Out Mix is the trick. Now I have been trying all three of these together:

-Frequency Counter 1.01

-WinTone 2.02

-RecAll Pro

I have been feeding audio from a Yaesu FT-8800. What is interesting to do is record an audio clip. Then to play it back and watch WinTone display the PL tone and Frequency Counter display the audio tone. It will be interesting to see if this can properly decode Motorola Quick-Call II fire paging tones.

 

[Llwellyn]

You will be able to track the quickcall tones pretty easily; they're usually far enough apart that you'll still be able to distinguish them accounting for the accuracy problem. A good ear will help too. Make sure you get a QCII chart, and make sure you're keeping track of the reed tones as well as the frequencies. You'll probably see patterns emerge with the reed tones which will help you determine things you're missing.

I just finished doing our county's QCII tones; 40 stations worth plus some special calls. It'll take you longer with the counter but you should still end up with good results.

 

[cpohlad]

Anyone know where I can download a copy of WinTone? I googled it and found a site, but the FTP site must be down.

 

[Al42]

Anyone know where I can download a copy of WinTone? I googled it and found a site, but the FTP site must be down.

http://www.funkmeldesystem.de/download/wintn22.zip

 

[Audiodave1]

Hello,

My old method for decoding fire tones for the upcoming BC396 tone-out feature.

I record the tones of a local conventional tone-out channel in .wav from ARC250 software (.WAV format) for a day or so. forget real time....

I then play them back from Windows media player into a program called FFT Properties while it is in record mode:
http://www.teemach.com/FFTProp/

Set FFT properties to record about 8 seconds as you have to hit record on FFTP then play on WM. (I actually got it down to about 5 seconds for a 4 sec tone sequence)

Stop WM player after the 2nd tone is finished.

Then I setup and play a loop of the 1st tone in FFTP and activate the program frequencyCounter.exe
http://www.tetrascanner.com/freesoftware.html

Maybe it's just my machine but if you have frequencyCounter.exe running (decoding) while playing the signal into FFTP from WM you get errors galore! Too many things accessing the soundcard at one time. I have to close out of everything and start over. I should also mention you need a full duplex soundcard to make this work.

Any "ticking" in the looped signal will confuse the counter program and I have found that moving the start and end loop points a few ms can solve this. I usually loop as much signal as I can, not just a 250ms slice. If it's a 2 second tone I'm looping 1.8sec or so.

After play it in, note it then go the 2nd frequency and do the same thing.

It takes some juggling but once you get going you can ID a freq pair in 1min

This FFT properties will also let you determine the gap, if any between 2 tone freqs.

I should also mention you need a full duplex soundcard to make this work. You must have good, unclipped recordings and good levels into FFTP (not clipped or overloaded) for FC.exe to work well.

This is not easy folks but the best method I have come up with in my short time playing with it.

New method;

After writing this post I downloaded software called Cooleditpro 2.0 from Adobe.

There is a 21 day free trial.

It is MUCH more accurate than the above combination. Accurate to .01Hz but you may find the frequency of the tones transmitted is slightly off...I was surprised....

Anyhow, just record your tone out audio, play it back with CEP click your cursor on the 1st tone, (you don't have to play it) Open the Analyze menu function and it will display the frequency. Click on the 2nd part of the tone and the you are done!


Dave