RTL-SDR Tutorial: Listening to TETRA Radio Channels

NOTE: There is now a plugin available for SDR# that will decode TETRA fairly easily. It is still in beta and misses a few features found in telive. Check it out in this post.

TETRA is a trunked radio communications system that stands for "Terrestrial Trunked Radio". It is used heavily in many parts of the world, except for the USA. Recently, a software program called Tetra Live Monitor (telive) was released on GitHub. This software can be used along with the (patched) Osmo-TETRA software to monitor and listen to unencrypted TETRA communications.

Below we show a tutorial on how to listen to TETRA communications using a RTL-SDR RTL2832U software defined radio. This tutorial is based heavily on the telive_doc.pdf file that is written by the author of telive and included in the telive git download. Please refer to that pdf file for further details on how the software works. We have modified their tutorial slightly to make it a little easier to understand. As this code is still under heavy development if you have trouble please check their PDF file for modifications to the procedures.

Again, we reiterate: This tutorial is not a substitute for a thorough reading of the documentation. If you have trouble setting this software up, please refer to the telive documentation first, before asking any questions. It contains a comprehensive FAQ section which solves most of the common problems. The documentation can be found directly at https://github.com/sq5bpf/telive/raw/master/telive_doc.pdf. There is also a discussion at http://forums.radioreference.com/digital-voice-decoding-software/302347-tetra-decoding.html.

Decoding and Listening to TETRA Tutorial

Most of this tutorial is performed in Linux and we assume that you have some decent Linux experience. We also assume you have some experience with the RTL-SDR dongle and have a decent antenna capable of picking up TETRA signals in your area. If you don't have a RTL-SDR dongle yet see our Buy RTL-SDR dongles page.

Note: As of October 2016 there is now a Windows port of the Telive decoding software available. This may be an option for you if you prefer to run in Windows. More information here.

First, we will need to find some TETRA signals. The easiest way to do this is to open SDR# or another program like GQRX and look for them. TETRA signals are continuously broadcasting with a bandwidth of around 25 kHz. In most European countries they can be found at 390 - 470 MHz. In some countries they may be found around 850 MHz or 915 - 933 MHz. There may be several TETRA signals grouped in close proximity to one another. See the example images below.

 
A Zoomed in TETRA Signal
A Zoomed in TETRA Signal
 
TETRA Signals Zoomed Out
A Grouping of TETRA Signals Zoomed Out

An example audio clip of a TETRA signal recorded in NFM mode is shown below.

Once you have found some TETRA signals, record their frequencies. Now close SDR#, or whatever software you were using and boot into Linux. In this tutorial we use a 32-bit Ubuntu 14.04 virtual machine running on VMWare Player as our Linux system. Some of the commands may vary if you are using a different system.

Install the software

Note: There is now a telive live Linux image available. This will allow you to boot via a USB drive straight into a Linux OS with telive preinstalled. If you want the easy way out, or have trouble with the install script below, then try this image.

Note 2: As of October 2016 there is now a Windows port of the Telive decoding software available. This may be an option for you if you prefer to run in Windows. More information here.

This install script will automatically download the software and all the required prequisites including the RTL-SDR drivers. If you have problems consult the documentation or try a manual install. Instructions for the manual install are shown at the end of this post.

sudo wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sq5bpf/telive/master/scripts/install_telive.sh
sudo chmod 755 install_telive.sh
./install_telive.sh

Running the Software

  1. Open a terminal window and browse to ~/tetra/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src and run ./receiver1 1.
    cd ~/tetra/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src
    ./receiver1 1
  2. Open a second terminal window or tab and open a specially sized xterm window using the following.
    /usr/bin/xterm -font fixed -bg black -fg white -geometry 203x60
  3. In the xterm window, browse to ~/tetra/teliveand run ./rxx.
    cd ~/tetra/telive
    ./rxx
  4. Open another terminal window or tab and browse to /tetra/bin and run ./tetrad.
    cd /tetra/bin
    ./tetrad
  5. Open another terminal window or tab and open GNU Radio Companion by typing the following.
    gnuradio-companion
  6. In GNU Radio open the telive_1ch_simple_gr37.grc file which is found in ~/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion.
  7. Execute the flowgraph by clicking on the play button icon on GNU Radio Companion toolbar.
  8. At the bottom of the screen that pops up look for the Frequency: text box and enter the centre frequency of the TETRA signal that you want to monitor. You can also click on the centre of the TETRA signal spikes in the Full Spectrum view to tune to a different signal.
  9. Enter the PPM offset of your RTL-SDR dongle in the ppm: text box.
  10. Finally adjust the SDR Input Gain setting for best reception.
Telive Receiver Window
Telive Receiver Window

At this point you should confirm that you see a strong rectangular TETRA signal in the FFT window that pops up. If you do, switch back to your first terminal window where you ran ./receiver1 1. You should confirm that you see system data scrolling by. If there is no data scrolling by, try adjust the gain and PPM offset in the FFT window.

If data is scrolling and the system is not encrypted you should start to hear voice audio. If a system is capable of encryption, the terminal window with the system data will show Air encryption: 1. However, note that even if it shows this, there is still a possibility that encryption has not been enabled.

Note that for a one channel receiver the frequency you tune to should be a control channel. The control channel frequency is the frequency shown in the top row of the Telive window in the green bar next to the word "Down:". By pressing "t" (lower case T) in the Telive window you can toggle between the usage identifier window and the frequency info window. By looking at the frequency info window you can find neighbour networks.

If you want to log all voice communications you can by pressing "shift+R" (upper case R) in the telive window. This will log .ogg audio files to /tetra/out. You can also enable a text log by pressing "l" (lower case L) which will to /tetra/log/telive.log. More options can be found by entering ? (question mark).

Telive is also capable of decoding SDS messages, which are used to send short text messages or radio locations. If the TETRA system you are monitoring does send radio locations via SDS, then these can be automatically exported to a KML file which is stored at /tetra/log/tetra1.kml. If you open example_google_earth.kml, then Google Earth will periodically read from /tetra/log/tetra1.kml and give you an updated map of location. You can also set the TETRA_KML_INTERVAL environment variable which defines how often the location file will update. The default is 30s, but be aware than decreasing the time can slow your system down.

If you happen to close the GNU Radio FFT window and want to run the program again, you will need to restart the ./receiver1 1 program in the first terminal window.

To see how to monitor two or four TETRA channels simultaneously, refer to the telive_doc.pdf PDF file.

TETRA Decoding Windows
TETRA Decoding Windows
Listening in to TETRA radio

OLD MANUAL INSTRUCTIONS

Don't use these instructions unless you cannot use the automatic script install for some reason.

Install the RTL-SDR Linux Drivers

If you haven't done so already, follow the instructions at http://sdr.osmocom.org/trac/wiki/rtl-sdr to install the Linux RTL-SDR drivers. Remember to blacklist the DVB-T drivers on Linux.

Install Prerequisites

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install vorbis-tools
sudo apt-get install sox
sudo apt-get install alsa-utils
sudo apt-get install libncurses-dev

Note that if you use a different Linux OS, then some users have reported needing to also install the following extra dependencies:

sudo apt-get install git-core autoconf automake libtool g++ python-dev swig libpcap0.8-dev
sudo apt-get install cmake git libboost-all-dev libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-0-dev libfftw3-dev swig python-numpy

Install GNU Radio 3.6

The TETRA decoding software requires installation of the older GNU Radio 3.6 (latest version is 3.7). The easiest way to do this is to run Marcus Leech's install script with the -o flag, to indicate that you want the old version:

cd ~
wget http://www.sbrac.org/files/build-gnuradio && chmod a+x ./build-gnuradio && ./build-gnuradio -o

This script will run for a few hours and should install GNURadio 3.6 and all the drivers required to run the RTL-SDR on Linux. Note that if you already have GNU Radio 3.7 installed, we recommend installing 3.6 on a fresh Linux install as the two versions many conflict.

Install libosmocore-sq5bpf

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/sq5bpf/libosmocore-sq5bpf
cd libosmocore-sq5bpf
autoreconf -i
./configure
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Install osmo-tetra-sq5bpf

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/sq5bpf/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf
cd osmo-tetra-sq5bpf
cd src
make

Install telive

cd ~
git clone https://github.com/sq5bpf/telive
cd telive
make
sudo mkdir /tetra
sudo chown YOURUSER.YOURGROUP /tetra
sh install.sh

Where YOURUSER.YOURGROUP should be replaced with the username and group that you are currently logged in to on your Linux system. In most cases it can just be YOURUSER.YOURUSER. Run ls -l in your home directory to see what username and group your files are using.

Install the TETRA Codecs

Note that if you are running a 64-Bit Linux version you will need to set your system to use a 32-bit compiler. The Appendix of the telive_doc.pdf file shows how to do this.

  1. Go to http://pda.etsi.org/
  2. In the top right enter as a search term "en 300 395-2" and click the button to select Search Standards.
  3. Start the search.
  4. Find the search result labelled as REN/TETRA-05059.
  5. Click on the winzip icon (looks like a white page with a yellow file cabinet on it) to the right of the result to download en_30039502v010301p0.zip.
  6. Move this zip file into ~/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/etsi_codec-patches.
  7. In a terminal browse to ~/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/etsi_codec-patches.
  8. Unzip the file, making sure to unzip with lower case letters by using the following unzip command.
    unzip -L en_30039502v010301p0.zip
  9. Use the codec.diff file to patch the codec files you just unzipped by typing the following patch command.
    patch -p1 -N -E < codec.diff
  10. Open the c-code folder.
    cd c-code
  11. Run make to compile the codecs.
    make
  12. Copy the compiled files cdecoder and sdecoder to /tetra/bin by typing the following, or just by copy and pasting them in the Linux GUI.
    cp cdecoder sdecoder /tetra/bin

 


If you enjoyed this tutorial you may like our ebook available on Amazon.

The Hobbyist's Guide to the RTL-SDR: Really Cheap Software Defined radio.

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GRDbas83

So easy to find these tetra menaces where I live, I need a bandstop filter that can block them as they overload my sdr, they are super strong and the whole lot encrypted so of no use to me

Joel

Hi everybody.
I tried to install Gnuradio in my RP3, and this happened.

Starting all functions at: su 11.8.2019 18.23.56 +0300
SUDO privileges are required
Do you have SUDO privileges?y
Continuing with script
Installing prerequisites.
====> THIS MAY TAKE QUITE SOME TIME <=====
Unsupported Debian version 9.9

Joel

Is there any way to get that work or do i need something else than a raspberry pi to run it??

Estdomii

Since i’m from northeastern Europe…
Then i’ve seen something like this on every tetra cahnnel over here… both fields are equal to 1
Registration_required=1
De_registration_required=1
I know that 0 is false and 1 is true
Also Air_interface_encryption=1
TTT with with single and dual mode made no difference…
No group calls no nothing only encrypted voice…
Since they use TETRA in here as a 4th mobile network called “ESTER”
Should i try this method as this post?

Bill

Hello Estdomii,

I’m not 100% sure but if Air_interface_encryption=1 then it is encrypted and you wont be able to decrypt as far as i Know.
I can only relate to the Swedish TEA2 encryption “RAKEL”, which is impossible to decrypt as it is sort of a two-way encryption.

Unfortunatly I think you’re out of luck on this one.

Vic

Hi all
I’m trying to decode TETRA in Debian with a SDRPlay RSP2. I follow the steps above mentioned but when I run the last step in GNURadio I’m in doubt about the file I’d choose (the steps above indicate choose the file ~/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/telive_1ch_simple_gr37.grc but in my installation the path isn’t correct). The likest I found is ~/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/sdrplay/telive_1ch_simple_udp_xmlrpc_sdrplay_rsp1a.grc but I’m afraid it’s for SDRPlay RSP1A.

How can I run these in my system?

Thanks.

Roberto

I installed and all went fine but the running!
When I arrive to the Tetra live receiver, it came grey and does not respond anymore to any click.
In the same time I get “PLL not locked”.
Where I can look to fix it? Obviously using GQRX the dongle work…
Thank you

Roberto

I continued to test and experiment, with no luck.
The manual tell that “PLL not locked” can be a out of range frequency; no fix entering the frequency in the main windows (X then my 462.3000) and impossibility to use the window of Tetra Live Receiver, which not respond.
I get also a message:
The xterm executable “” is missing.
You can change this setting in your gnuradio.conf, in
section [grc], ‘xterm_executable’.

The message will show only once, and I don’t know if I need to fix it (and how!)

Bill

Thanks for a great tutorial, works great!

I just have one issue; when i activate the recording function, i can see that it saves the .ogg file in the terminal window, but it is not there in the tetra folder, so i created the /out folder, still nothing in it.
See below:

Encoding “/tetra/out/20180209/traffic_20180209_164526_idx7_callid0_0_0_0.wav” to
“/tetra/out/20180209/traffic_20180209_164526_idx7_callid0_0_0_0.ogg”
at quality 3,00
[ 98,0%] [ 0m00s remaining] |

Encoding of “/tetra/out/20180209/traffic_20180209_164526_idx7_callid0_0_0_0.ogg” done

FIle length: 0m 39,0s
Time: 0m 00,1s
Ratio: 445,3308
Bit rate: 22,0 kb/s

Does anyone have a solution?

Bill

Solved, it was in the root directory *facepalm*

Ivan

Hi all,
i tried to run it on Pi3 on Exagear but i get this message starting:

Executing: “/home/pi/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/receiver_pipe/top_block.py”

linux; GNU C++ version 4.9.1; Boost_105500; UHD_003.007.003-0-unknown

Using Volk machine: sse4_2_32_orc
gr-osmosdr 0.1.3 (0.1.3) gnuradio 3.7.5
built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp uhd miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy
Using device #0 Realtek RTL2838UHIDIR SN: 00000001
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Exact sample rate is: 2000000.052982 Hz
/root/.gnuradio/prefs/vmcircbuf_default_factory: No such file or directory
vmcircbuf_createfilemapping: createfilemapping is not available
gr::vmcircbuf_sysv_shm: shmat (3): Invalid argument
gr::vmcircbuf_sysv_shm: shmat (3): Invalid argument
gr::vmcircbuf_sysv_shm: shmat (3): Invalid argument
terminate called after throwing an instance of ‘gr::signal’

>>> Done

Ivan

On Lubuntu/RPi3 works fine 🙂

Eduardo

Did you install it with the script or manually?

Ivan

Hi Eudardo,
it wasnt so easy get it running on RPi3.
I tried the “telive live Linux image” on a regular PC and it worked.
After a days of testing i tried copy the telive_1ch_simple_gr37_slow_udp.grc from the “telive live Linux image” (tru a USB stick) to RPi3 and run it from gnuradio and it worked 🙂
Hopefully i helped you!

Ivan

Hi Eudardo,
i forgot to answer your original question 🙂
I installed with the script + the step mentioned above.

Eduardo

I’ll give it a try! Thank you so much.

RB

Were you able to get it to work? What is the process you followed?

gianluca

What´s about encrypted Tetra? Any patch?

VDK

Does anybody know or have source code,to set osmo for DMO (direct mode)? ?

James

Hi, i have tried using Bootable 16GB USB stick for Tetra decoding on my 7 year Laptop, i have problems receiving no audio and nothink showing in Telive monitor window. GQRX is work really well from RTL 820T2 donge any help please ?

Plexx

What is the password to install google heart in live telive

deadport

would like to know the root pass too

michele

read the fucking manual!

Kev

I am getting error bug #528 when i press play in GNU Radio.
What do i need to do to ensure it connects with the rtl2832u device.

Kev

fixed-working now once i plug in the dongle just before launching the play button.

Owen

hello,
the automatic script doesn’t works with opensuse 42.1 , is it possible using it with that Linux?
thank U !

Robert

Hi,
I’ve just installed all steps, and everything works but the sound. I can’t hear anything , and if I check it , that’s appears to me. Can someone help me how to fix it to hear?
thank you

Found 1 device(s):
0: Realtek, RTL2838UHIDIR, SN: 00000001

Using device 0: Generic RTL2832U OEM
usb_claim_interface error -6
Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.

Gisle Vanem

-9 means LIBUSB_ERROR_BUSY. Some other device/program is locking the device?
Does SDR# work?

Gisle Vanem

Edit, I meant “-6 means LIBUSB_ERROR_BUSY”.

a

“Failed to open rtlsdr device #0.” means that the usb dongle is claimed by something else, probably the dvb-t driver. blacklist it (i can’t remember the exact command, but it’s in the telive docs) and reboot and it should work.

btw did you try the bootable usb pendrive image?
http://forums.radioreference.com/voice-control-channel-decoding-software/330221-bootable-memory-stick-image-telive-software.html

no need to set up anything, works right out of the box, and no VM is needed to run it.
you might want to turn the volume down, by default it is set to 100%

michele

you’ve to blacklist some modules, google for it

Albert

Hi, trying to install the software appears…
————————————————————–
INSTALLING Gnuradio
Cannot add PPA: ‘ppa:gqrx/releases’.
Please check that the PPA name or format is correct.
—————————————————————

I’m begginer at ubuntu, and I need help how to resume.

thanks in advance

Fabian

Install gqrx first from the offical site and then run the installer. Worked for me.

Gill Bates

Any chance of porting this to an OS for mentally challenged and undereducated normal people and getting this into a form that doesn’t require a time machine to travel back 50 years to get the degree in programming neurosurgery robots on DIY rocket ships needed to operate this software? Thanks for considering. Linux-only software is modern racism.

What

Cmon guys. You can’t complain about software that is written by a volunteer for free. The fact is if Linux didn’t exist this software would be 100x harder to program and woulnd’t even exist in the first place

killahop

Linux-only software are only way for this.

shady

N O it’s not, i have wavecom and that decodes tetra fine in windows

Maxi

ok, but where did you download the wavecom Software ?

Lukas F.

He’s probably just a troll

adam

I just want to comment that this is shitty instructions that dont work..

“failed to find package ‘libzmq1-dev

Thanks for wasting 3 hours of my life fo

adam

go back to looking at kids

Kris

HI, and thanks for this tutorial. Finaly found the time to install it and test it (using the install script) … and for most part it went well.
A do have a few questions, and I hope someone can help me:

I’m running Ubuntu 14.4 32bit on VMplayer with maximum number of cores (6) and 4 gb of ram, but when everything is running the fft control window gets frozen (turns to b&w) when decoding a signal. I can only change freq. and ppm at the start, and even then it’s sluggish. Is that normal, and what can I do to make it faster??

Decoding is running despite of the frozen control window, without any evident error messages but I only record very short (1-2 seconds max) voice massages that seem to be encrypted. I am not sure if the whole sistem is encrypted or if there is a problem with decoding the signal due to a slow system. (I have a phenom 1090t procesor with 20gb ram)

Thanks for your help!

Dusan

Change number of cores to 1 and you should see improvement. Also make sure your have vmware tools running

Kris

Tnx … but in the mean time I “fixed” the issue by installing debian (as suggested on the radioreference forum). Under Debian everything is running much much smoother!
But the disappointment is that almost everything is encrypted 🙁

Alex W

hey,
can anyone help me? Starting the receiver1 1 creates the following error :

” Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demod/python-3.7/simdemod2.py”, line 18, in
import osmosdr
File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/osmosdr/__init__.py”, line 26, in
from osmosdr_swig import *
File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/osmosdr/osmosdr_swig.py”, line 28, in
_osmosdr_swig = swig_import_helper()
File “/usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/osmosdr/osmosdr_swig.py”, line 24, in swig_import_helper
_mod = imp.load_module(‘_osmosdr_swig’, fp, pathname, description)
ImportError: /usr/local/lib/libgnuradio-osmosdr-0.1.5git.so.0.0.0: undefined symbol: hackrf_device_list

I tried to find a solution but I didn’t find anything. Can anyone help me?

Cheers

Alex

Dogo

Hi,I installed on mac os El Capitan, Vm were Kali with linux 2.0 . Then I followed the guide . Everything ok, but when I run gnuradio this is the error message:
<>>

Preferences file: /home/user/.grc
Block paths:
/usr/share/gnuradio/grc/blocks
/home/user/.grc_gnuradio

Showing: “”

Loading: “/home/user/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/telive_1ch_simple_gr37.grc”
>>> Done

Showing: “/home/user/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/telive_1ch_simple_gr37.grc”

Generating: “/home/user/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/top_block.py”

Executing: “/home/user/tetra/telive/gnuradio-companion/top_block.py”

linux; GNU C++ version 4.9.1; Boost_105500; UHD_003.007.003-0-unknown

Using Volk machine: sse4_2_64_orc
gr-osmosdr 0.1.3 (0.1.3) gnuradio 3.7.5
built-in source types: file osmosdr fcd rtl rtl_tcp uhd miri hackrf bladerf rfspace airspy
Using device #0 Realtek RTL2838UHIDIR SN: 00000001
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Exact sample rate is: 2000000.052982 Hz
thread[thread-per-block[9]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[5]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[8]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[12]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[11]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[6]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[7]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

thread[thread-per-block[10]: ]: thread_bind_to_processor failed with error: 22

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO…

Someone can help me understand the error ? Thanks.

Erik011

I get exactly the same error message. Everything seems to work fine, but when I hit the playbutton for the flowgraph, the fft runs for a second and then freezes. Did you find any solution to this?

Erik011

Just found out a solution to this problem. In my case it was due to the virtual machine in WM Player was set to 1 processor while my system is an Intel Haswell with 4 cores (8 logical cores).
Changing the virtual machine to 2 processors fixed it! (power off the guest in WM Player, right click your virtual machine, select settings, select processor and set it to an adequate number). Hope this is of any help!

Delta

it works on 32bit Kubuntu 14.04 with GRC from the official 3.7.2.1 ubuntu repo and compiled rtl drivers, except after 2 seconds or so it freezes with error ” file_sink write failed with error 21 ” – i guess this may be a buffer prob, as just running RTL FM from within bash plays ok. but with buffering errors, but in GQRX it works smoothly.. – i’m currently tweaking GRC to try to correct this.. anyone help plz ? am i on the right track ?

Delta

update – if i start GRC on a valid freq – on its own, no tetrad, receiver 1, no telive or no rxx … GRC starts , finds my hardware, looks good and apears to work without any apparent errors.

if i *- then* start tetrad and the other command line tools whilst GRC is running, they don’t error, but sadly they don’t see any output from GRC – i think there is some lack of comms between modules maybe.

so near.. yet so far…. i can taste it !

Delta

actual error message is:
Found Rafael Micro R820T tuner
Exact sample rate is:2000000.052982 Hz

thread[thread-per-block[4]: ]: file_sink write failed with error 21
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

what is error 21 ?

Arild

I tried to get a system running a few weeks ago but got stuck with errors and a non working system. Have anyone made a working VM that they would like to share?

Ignacio

Hi all! Thks for the help in the last post, it works very fine.

The next question is how to decode SDS data, here are the telive log:

20150716 11:58:49 FUNC:SDS [010011110111111111111110000000001011000010010000000001000000001000000000011001111111111101101000000001100000000000000000000000000001000010000000000000000000000000000000000]
20150716 11:58:49 FUNC:SDSDEC [CPTI:1 CalledSSI:4223 CallingSSI:16775170 CallingEXT:0 UserData4: len:64 protoid:02(Simple Text Messaging) coding_scheme:01 DATA:[\x003\xFF\xB4\x03\x00\x00]] RX:1
20150716 11:58:49 FUNC:D-SDS DATA SSI:00004223 IDX:000 IDT:1 ENCR:0 RX:1
20150716 11:58:51 FUNC:SDS [010011110111111111111110000000001001001100000011000000110110010000110100000000000001000010000000000000000000000000000000000]
20150716 11:58:51 FUNC:SDSDEC [CPTI:1 CalledSSI:4223 CallingSSI:16775170 CallingEXT:0 UserData2: 0x30 0x30 0x36 0x43] RX:1
20150716 11:58:51 FUNC:D-SDS DATA SSI:00004223 IDX:000 IDT:1 ENCR:0 RX:1
20150716 11:59:45 FUNC:SDS [010011110111111111111110000000001001001100000011000000110110010000110100000000000001000010000000000000000000000000000000000]
20150716 11:59:45 FUNC:SDSDEC [CPTI:1 CalledSSI:4238 CallingSSI:16775170 CallingEXT:0 UserData2: 0x30 0x30 0x36 0x43] RX:1

the data is 0x30 0x30 0x36 0x43 ? how to decode? thks

Eduardo Falcón

I tried 5 times to get this working but I can’t. When I try to run it, in the first step, (./receiver1 1) I keep getting this error:
mkfifo: cannot create fifo ‘/tmp/fifo1’: File exists
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demod/python-3.7/simdemod2.py”, line 18, in
import osmosdr
ImportError: No module named osmosdr

What can I do?
I saw that Christian said that he installed GRC 3.7 instead of 3.6, so now I’m trying the same. I’ll notice you. Thanks.

Anyway, any help will be huge.

(Sorry for my english)

Eduardo Falcón

For “mkfifo: cannot create fifo ‘/tmp/fifo1’: File exists” error I deleted that file manually and it worked, but still getting
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demod/python-3.7/simdemod2.py”, line 18, in
import osmosdr
ImportError: No module named osmosdr

error. Any help?

enCrypt

Hey Eduardo,

What OS are you using?
I just built this all again onto another laptop with Debian 8.1 64bit over the weekend using a new install script that SQ5BPF (the author of Telive) posted up on Radio Reference here…
http://forums.radioreference.com/voice-control-channel-decoding-software/302347-tetra-decoding.html
He posts the link to his script on page 33.
Because it is now using GNURadio 3.7 there is no need for the long build procedures anymore either 🙂
That whole thread is quite useful actually…

Eduardo Falcón

Thanks.
Finally I got my TETRA decoder working. It’s working on a VMWare machine. Ubuntu 14.04 32 bits, GRC 3.7.

Ignacio

Hi
I’m running the scripts in kali linux (no vm) and get this

BURST
#### could not find successive burst training sequence
found SYNC training sequence in bit #84

In vm works but in ‘real’ linux no, can anyine help me? thks

enCrypt

This normally (for me anyway) means that I either don’t have a strong enough signal or the signal I do have needs fine tuning in the FFT window.
I also got a lot of this when using a VM in VirtualBox. Switching to VM Player was much better as apparently VM Player handles the USB passthrough a lot better.
You dont mention if you’re using an RTL stick or not but might be worth checking that you are using at least USB2 ports and have the latest drivers installed etc….

Ignacio

Thaks for the reply!

I am using Terratec E4000 and works fine in VM but no in the laptop who have usb 2.0. and kali instaled in him. And work in 32 bits, i’´ll try what you mention of the fft window.

thks

Christian

HELP PLEASE! I

Did everything according to instructions. But in point 1 under “Running the software” I always get the following error message:

osboxes@osboxes:~$ cd ~osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src
bash: cd: ~osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src: No such file or directory
osboxes@osboxes:~$ ./receiver1 1
bash: ./receiver1: No such file or directory
osboxes@osboxes:~$ cd ~/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src
osboxes@osboxes:~/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src$ ./receiver1 1
mkfifo: cannot create fifo ‘/tmp/fifo1’: File exists
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demod/python-3.7/simdemod2.py”, line 18, in
import osmosdr
ImportError: No module named osmosdr
EOFosboxes@osboxes:~/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src$

How?

Paul

Hi, you missed the / between ~ and osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src in: osboxes@osboxes:~$ cd ~osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src

Christian

Sorry, but i mean this error message:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demod/python-3.7/simdemod2.py”, line 18, in
import osmosdr
ImportError: No module named osmosdr

Can anyone help?

Christian

I’ve done it! With the 3.7 gnuradio it now works! Yippi!

Jacob

Hi,
this runs with GNU Radio 3.7? Everyone here supposed that 3.7 is not working and as a workaround you have to install the old version (3.6.5 or so)…

How did you get it working?

Christian

I did everything according to instructions. But instead gnuradio 3.6 I installed gnuradio 3.7. And then opened the file telive_1ch_gr37.grc. receiver1 I started with sudo ./receiver1 1, because otherwise I had an error message.

Christian

…and gnuradio I started with Sudo privileges too, because an error message.

Eduardo Falcón

Hey, Christian, does it work for you with GRC 3.7? Sure?

Eduardo Falcón

Okay. I did it as you said. It seems to work, the program runs.
But i can’t see info scrolling.

Eduardo Falcón

Okay. It works perfectly in my pc.

sory_n

Hello..how resolve this problem…all work good, but when i open ./receiver1 1 apear this error:
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “demod/python/simdemod2.py”, line 78, in
tb = top_block()
File “demod/python/simdemod2.py”, line 49, in __init__
verbose=options.verbose)
File “/home/test/osmo-tetra-sq5bpf/src/demod/python/cqpsk.py”, line 260, in __init__
self.receiver.set_alpha(self._costas_alpha)
AttributeError: ‘mpsk_receiver_cc_sptr’ object has no attribute ‘set_alpha’
I tried many ways,but do not I realize that I supposed to do. sorry for my badd english and thank s

fedebr89

Hi,
I had the same error.
To “solve” I brutally commented out two lines in the python source code “cqpsk.py” in order to have:
#self.receiver.set_alpha(self._costas_alpha)
#self.receiver.set_beta(self._costas_beta)

However I’m not sure if this hack compromise the proper functioning of the program.

cjl

Hi, the REN/TETRA-05059 seem to be replaced with REN/TETRA-06132 on etsi.org

Airflow

Hi everybody, I just wonder if I have a AIR ENCRYPTION = 1 system, and I think I shouldn’t get any voice or just sound from it. but I get something like broken voice or wrong decoder noises when somebody’s making a group call. Is this a real air encryption enabled system, or I made some mistake in the settings?

enCrypt

Air Encryption = 1 means that there has been a license for encryption applied to the network as a whole.
However (as is the case with a local network that I’ve been monitoring) that doesn’t mean that every transmission will be encrypted, its just that it has the capability to be if needed.
I actually get (surprisingly) quite a lot of unencrypted comms.
Encrypted stuff does just sound like garbled speech with a few whistles and other strange noises thrown in!
Unencrypted stuff should be nice and clear…

spooks

Dont know about other countries but in the UK attempting to decode a secure home office/public safety TETRA encryption algorithms (TEAs) type radio’s- Airwave tetra base terminal network (O2)- is a serious as carrying a firearm. The area of TETRA security is extensive costing millions of pounds in its development.i would not like to be the person caught hacking tetra.

a

Spooks, first you should have read the documentation that comes with the software. it’s not about breaking any cryptography here.

if it’s encrypted then you can’t listen to it with this software.

if its not encrypted then you can listen to it (even if the people setting up the system managed to convince their clients that it’s somehow “safe”. in this case telive makes a nice auditing tool)

simple as that.

Peter Tasker

HI, HAs anyone ever got this SW to run on a raspberry pi, if I would be grateful for some guidance.

Thanks

Peter
G6VBJ

enCrypt

My HP laptop with dual core 1.2GHz CPUs and 2GB of RAM will not run it so I doubt a Pi would I’m afraid.
Would be nice though 😉

G0FHM

I tried to run it on a Pi 2 last weekend (just to see what would happen). It took an age to install, and at the end of it all, Gnu Radio just froze it. So, I would say that is a pretty comprehensive no! 🙂