A Tutorial on using SDRAngel for DMR, D-Star and Fusion Reception with an RTL-SDR

At the end of last month we uploaded a post highlighting the SDRAngel software, which is a general purpose SDR program with some interesting features such as built in digital speech decoders for DMR, D-Star and Fusion. This avoids the need to pipe audio into a separate digital speech decoder program such as DSD+. SDRAngel also has transmit capabilities which makes it useful for SDRs such as the HackRF, PlutoSDR, LimeSDR etc.

Now over on YouTube and his blog K2GOG has uploaded a video tutorial about using SDRAngel. The tutorial starts with installing SDRAngel and explaining that you'll need a 64-bit system and OS to run it. He then goes on to show how to do FM reception and finally how to do digital speech decoding.

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Bradley

Is there a debug type window for the digital modes to see real and /OR raw decoded digital information .Thanks Brad

Pedro J. Saavedra

I hear voices in DRM but coded. That is, I decode them wrong and it is impossible for me. I don’t know but I haven’t been able to decode them yet.

Pedro José Saavedra Macías

Hello colleagues, I am trying to decode DMR with SDR Angel but it cuts me off and it is not decoded well. Because it can be? I also see that my DSD Demulator module does not have the Discriminator. Why? Thank you 😉

Probir Debnath

I have followed the instruction and confirming mine is 64bit and 64bit os. The sdrangel folder has been placed in the program folder. NOW i start the sdrangel software. when i play – it says “entry point error”. IS IT COMPATIBLE WITH HACKRF

Ken Dorsey - KA8OAD

I can’t get SDRAngel to open my HackRF One. I am able to select it as a sampling device but when I click the play button I receive a message “Could not start sample source”. I do have the Zadig drivers installed and it works using SDR#. I am running Windows 10 64 bit on a 64 bit CPU. Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions, I’d really like to get this working for its TX capabilities.

Linton

Got excited however turns out SDRANGEL is a real CPU hog 🙁

Ed

After lots of work, I got the OpenGL loaded into my Intel HD graphics driver. It’s an older laptop, that had the last driver in 2011.It took me most of a day & I am not quite sure how I did it.
To check OpenGL status, use OpenGL Extensions Viewer 5.0

Ed

Jerry Whelan

Neat – I am trying to learn the ins-and-outs of DMR on ham radio, wife bought a Radioddity GD-77 for my Christmas present and I am finding SDRANGEL useful for interpreting the digital packets that are otherwise invisible to me. Took a while of learning how SDRANGEL settings interact before I was able to get consistent decode and recognizable audio recovery from my HT’s transmissions. Looks like there are some one-shot capture controls useful for capturing and analyzing the “request permission to transmit” packet sent to a repeated, I would like to learn how to set up a triggered one-shot capture for that purpose.

Jerry AB3SX

Shehzad

Hi All specially AD5NL,
Thanks for guide line to update graphic driver , I have update the drivers , now I can see the SDR angel but when I select the source rtlsdr , SDR angel crashes , following is the error – Is it possible to have solution ?

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: sdrangel.exe
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 5a22f2df
Fault Module Name: inputrtlsdr.dll
Fault Module Version: 0.0.0.0
Fault Module Timestamp: 5a22f229
Exception Code: c000001d
Exception Offset: 0000000000012fc2
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: a73c
Additional Information 2: a73c15c17f024440055629b7f7aefc8a
Additional Information 3: 211e
Additional Information 4: 211e7e4683063bbbeee225ec55f5d830

Robert

Well I still can’t get SDRAngel on my computer . I did what the Tutorial video said to do . I put a folder marked SDRAngel into program files and tried to unzip the program into that file . It unzips half way then stops .
Now in the Tutorial video he did say that something might be needed something more , but I can’t catch what he said . Does any one know what was ????????????????

Stef

Hello
Can anyone tell me if the SDRPlay RSP1 is compatible with SDRAngel under windows.
Indeed I am under Windows 7 64 bit and after having launched SDRAngel, when I go under select sampling device I see only ” file source ” or ” SDRdaemonsource ” I do not see my SDRPlay . I do not understand What to do .
Can you help me ?
I apologize for my english, I’m french 🙂
Thank you

John

Hi Stef
I am using Windows 7 64 bit with an rsp1 it works 👍 great. You need to first install sdruno which will load the drivers for the sdrplay. Make sure it works with sdruno first, then sdrangel should see it.
Cheers
John

Robert

Now nobody has said anything about the six programs under the SDRAngel program down load . Do they get down loaded with the SDRAngel Program ????????????????????

Robert

Thank You Carl .

AD5NL

Hi Robert, Shehzad:

I recommend going to the github project page and looking at old issue tickets: https://github.com/f4exb/sdrangel

As noted, there is a known issue with OpenGL compatibility with Windows that can cause start up issues. I would bet a shiny nickle that is your issue.

Solution is to upgrade display driver, possibly new graphics card (the requirements are less in Linux for some reason, so you could also try a virtual environment).

Eduoard, the developer of sdrangel, has been fairly helpful in my experience. I also comment a lot on issues there (my handle is: texasyojimbo). I like to help test and analyze code, even though I am not a programmer.

Shehzad

Hello K2GOG
SDR Angel Ver sdrangel64_v3.8.5 and sdrangel64_v3.8.6 both crashes at start up . Is it possible for you to help .

Error Message SdrAngel has stopped working
Running Windows 7
64 Bit Operating System
RAM 4 GB

AD5NL

Hi Shehzad,

I am a user of sdrangel and sometimes contribute to bug hunts.

I know that one issue that can cause issues for sdrangel on Windows is the OpenGL driver version requirements.

Generally, you are going to want to have at least OpenGL 4.3 (some graphics card drivers such as the one I own still work with only partial 4.3 support).

I know that for me, the old (2010) drivers for Intel HD Graphics 4000 do not work, and cause sdrangel to crash on start; but when I use the newer (2015) drivers, the program starts up just fine.

As strange as this may sound — you might want to check to see if there are updated graphics drivers for your system.

Robert

I would love to test the decoding programs on sdrangel I can’t get it to run on my computer .The person that made this program made it so hard to get it to run , that most people with some software ability can’t get it to run . To start with why did he need a another unzip program , what was wrong with winzip that is on every body’s computer . When I went to the website to down load sdrangel I found six programs under it . Do those six programs get down load with it ????????????? now I unzip the sdrangel in the 7Z folder it show’s SDRAngel exe then when I move it to anther folder than it becomes becomes SDRAngel applications . When I click on it , It doesn’t load up , their just isn’t anything . I have never had any problems like this with other programs . This is why I bang my head on the desk and berate programmers .

AD5NL

I am not sure why he chose 7zip either, but I am a big fan of 7zip myself so I haven’t complained. Perhaps it is a pro-FOSS bias; using 7z means you are a 1337 h4xx0r.

Also there could be IP or export issues with ZIP or something, who knows. Eduoard probably has a good reason.

Frank Howell

Actually, winzip is NKT on everyone’s computer. I haven’t used it in 10 years.