Tagged: DSDplus

Scanner School Podcast + Webinar: This is Why You Need an SDR

Scanner School is an online site providing tutorials, podcasts and reviews all about the radio scanning hobby. They are currently planning a Webinar for February 23, 2021 titled "Why Every Scanner User Needs an SDR: The #1 Underrated Tool that should be in your setup". You can sign up to the webinar here. In addition to the upcoming webinar they have also already released episode 165 of their podcast titled "This is Why You Need an SDR". The topics covered in the podcast are listed below.

  • An SDR means that anything normally handled by the hardware of the radio is now handled by the computer, and the physical hardware serves as an interface.
  • The only limitation on the SDR hardware you buy is the frequency range and the amount of RF it can digest.
  • SDR receivers have come a long way since they were first hacked into existence.
  • SDRs used to be difficult to set up, but that’s no longer true.
  • You don’t need advanced computer skills to run SDR software.
  • SDR software can run on PC, Linux, Mac, Raspberry PI, and even Android.
  • An SDR is more flexible and less expensive than a traditional radio.
  • You can turn a $30 USB stick into something as powerful as an SDS200 in an afternoon.
  • All you need to get started is an SDR USB stick, a computer, and the free starter software SDR Sharp.
  • Once you get set up with FM broadcast stations, aviation, and other analog systems, Phil’s SDR course will go into how to set up digital reception.
  • If you download DSD+ Fast Lane or Unitrunker you can monitor trunking systems.

Frugal Radio: SDR Guide Ep 9 – P25 LSM Trunking with one RTL-SDR V3 and DSDPlus

In his latest episode of his SDR Guide series Rob from Frugal Radio provides a walkthrough on using DSDPlus Fastlane to decode trunked P25 with just one RTL-SDR V3 dongle. In the video he explains each of the various DSDPlus windows, and demonstrates decoding of a Simulcast system in his area.

DSDPlus is a program capable of decoding various digital audio protocols such as DMR and P25. The "Fastlane" version is a $25 paid upgrade which allows you to download the latest version that contains more features.

2021 SDR Guide Episode 9 : $25 DSDPlus P25 LSM trunking walkthrough using 1 x $25 RTL-SDRv3

DSDPlusUI Now Available as a Plugin for SDR#

At the beginning of 2020 Annunaki (@StupotSinders) released his third party user interface for DSDPlus. DSDPlus is a digital speech decoder capable of decoding protocols such as P25 P1, DMR, NXDN and more with an SDR such as the RTL-SDR. As it is a command line tool, it can be a little daunting for some users, which is where the GUI comes in handy.

Recently Annunaki has released an SDR# plugin version of DSDPlusUI. This makes it so you can visualize the digital voice signals at the same time as controlling and decoding with DSDPlus. The plugin is available on the DSDPlusUI website at dsdplusui.com. To use it you will need to be using SDR# 1777 or later.

DSDPlusUI as a plugin for SDR#

Radio Analyser: New Program for Plotting DSDPlus Statistics

Thank you to Matthew Cowley for submitting news about his new program called "Radio Analyser". Radio Analyser is a program that imports DSDPlus radio and group files into a postgresql database. The data can then graphed on the web interface allowing you to view talk group and radio statistics. DSDPlus is a program that can be used to listen in to digital P25, DMR and other digital voice protocols with an RTL-SDR or similar SDR.

Matthew writes the following, and some screenshots of the interface and graphs are shown in the slider and the end of the post:

I've been learning Ruby on Rails and as a first project I wrote a project that you host at home which imports the DSDPlus.radios and DSDPlus.groups files and displays their activity in graph form. It will show you total site activity, talk group activity and radio activity.

Scanner School Podcast + Webinar: This is Why You Need an SDR

Scanner School is an online site providing tutorials, podcasts and reviews all about the radio scanning hobby. They are currently planning a Webinar for February 23, 2021 titled "Why Every Scanner User Needs an SDR: The #1 Underrated Tool that should be in your setup". You can sign up to the webinar here. In addition to the upcoming webinar they have also already released episode 165 of their podcast titled "This is Why You Need an SDR". The topics covered in the podcast are listed below.

  • An SDR means that anything normally handled by the hardware of the radio is now handled by the computer, and the physical hardware serves as an interface.
  • The only limitation on the SDR hardware you buy is the frequency range and the amount of RF it can digest.
  • SDR receivers have come a long way since they were first hacked into existence.
  • SDRs used to be difficult to set up, but that’s no longer true.
  • You don’t need advanced computer skills to run SDR software.
  • SDR software can run on PC, Linux, Mac, Raspberry PI, and even Android.
  • An SDR is more flexible and less expensive than a traditional radio.
  • You can turn a $30 USB stick into something as powerful as an SDS200 in an afternoon.
  • All you need to get started is an SDR USB stick, a computer, and the free starter software SDR Sharp.
  • Once you get set up with FM broadcast stations, aviation, and other analog systems, Phil’s SDR course will go into how to set up digital reception.
  • If you download DSD+ Fast Lane or Unitrunker you can monitor trunking systems.

Frugal Radio: SDR Guide Ep 9 – P25 LSM Trunking with one RTL-SDR V3 and DSDPlus

In his latest episode of his SDR Guide series Rob from Frugal Radio provides a walkthrough on using DSDPlus Fastlane to decode trunked P25 with just one RTL-SDR V3 dongle. In the video he explains each of the various DSDPlus windows, and demonstrates decoding of a Simulcast system in his area.

DSDPlus is a program capable of decoding various digital audio protocols such as DMR and P25. The "Fastlane" version is a $25 paid upgrade which allows you to download the latest version that contains more features.

2021 SDR Guide Episode 9 : $25 DSDPlus P25 LSM trunking walkthrough using 1 x $25 RTL-SDRv3

DSDPlusUI Now Available as a Plugin for SDR#

At the beginning of 2020 Annunaki (@StupotSinders) released his third party user interface for DSDPlus. DSDPlus is a digital speech decoder capable of decoding protocols such as P25 P1, DMR, NXDN and more with an SDR such as the RTL-SDR. As it is a command line tool, it can be a little daunting for some users, which is where the GUI comes in handy.

Recently Annunaki has released an SDR# plugin version of DSDPlusUI. This makes it so you can visualize the digital voice signals at the same time as controlling and decoding with DSDPlus. The plugin is available on the DSDPlusUI website at dsdplusui.com. To use it you will need to be using SDR# 1777 or later.

DSDPlusUI as a plugin for SDR#

Radio Analyser: New Program for Plotting DSDPlus Statistics

Thank you to Matthew Cowley for submitting news about his new program called "Radio Analyser". Radio Analyser is a program that imports DSDPlus radio and group files into a postgresql database. The data can then graphed on the web interface allowing you to view talk group and radio statistics. DSDPlus is a program that can be used to listen in to digital P25, DMR and other digital voice protocols with an RTL-SDR or similar SDR.

Matthew writes the following, and some screenshots of the interface and graphs are shown in the slider and the end of the post:

I've been learning Ruby on Rails and as a first project I wrote a project that you host at home which imports the DSDPlus.radios and DSDPlus.groups files and displays their activity in graph form. It will show you total site activity, talk group activity and radio activity.

SignalsEverywhere: P25 Trunking with Just One RTL-SDR and DSDPlus Fastlane

Over on YouTube Corrosive from the SignalsEverywhere channel has uploaded a new video showing us how to set up P25 trunking and decoding with DSDPlus Fastlane and only a single RTL-SDR.

Normally two dongles are required to follow a P25 trunking system. One dongle continuously receives the trunking channel, and a second tunes to the voice channel chosen by the trunking channel. However, the latest DSDPlus Fastlane has a feature that allows one only dongle to be used. It works by tuning back and forth between the control and voice channel. The disadvantage is that trunking information could be missed while tuned to a voice channel, so some calls could be missed.

RTL SDR Setup P25 Trunking With 1 SDR and DSDPlus FastLane

SignalsEverywhere: Setting Up Priority and Groups in DSDPlus Fastlane

In his last video, Corrosive from the SignalsEverywhere YouTube channel showed us a quick guide on setting up a Phase 1 P25 digital voice decoder with two RTL-SDR dongles and the DSDPlus Fastlane decoder.

Now in his latest video Corrosive continues with the DSDPlus tutorial and this time explains how to set up priority and groups. On a trunked radio system there may be many different agencies using the same system simultaneously. Without priorities and groups, you would be listening to all communications in the system, and following a conversation within a particular agency would be difficult. Setting up priorities and groups allows you to filter out the conversations that you are not interested in, allowing you to focus on listening in to a particular agency only.

RTL SDR Digital Radio Scanning Priority and Groups With DSDPlus Fastlane Setup Tutorial

SignalsEverywhere: Using DSDPlus Fastlane for Listening to Phase 1 P25 Trunking

DSDPlus is a popular piece of software often used with RTL-SDR dongles to listen to unencrypted digital voice signals such as P25 and DMR. Digital voice is now commonly used by many Police and emergency services as well as business radio. DSDPlus fastlane is DSD's paid upgrade which allows subscribers to access to the latest releases of DSDPlus early.

Over on the SignalsEverywhere YouTube channel, Corrosive has uploaded a quick video guide that shows how to use DSDPlus Fastlane and two RTL-SDR dongles to set up a Phase 1 P25 voice decoder that automatically follows a P25 trunking channel. The basic process involves running two FMP instances which is a program in the DSDPlus suite that connects to the RTL-SDR's and receives the signal. One DSDPlus instance monitors the trunking channel, and this tunes the second FMP+DSD instance to the frequency currently active in the trunking system.

Corrosive also explains how people who are subscribed to RadioReference can download pre-populated data files that will allow the DSDPlus event log to display talkgroup information so that you can see who is talking to who.

RTL SDR Digital Radio Scanning With DSDPlus Setup FastlaneTutorial

Listening to and Tracking NXDN/IDAS Trunking Systems with two RTL-SDRs

Over on YouTube user radiosification has uploaded a video tutorial that shows how to decode, follow and listen to NXDN/IDAS trunking radio signals. NXDN/IDAS is a narrowband digital voice protocol commonly used with handheld radio terminals.

In the tutorial radiosification explains how to set up DSDPlus and its frequencies text file to automatically listen to and track conversations using the control channel. SDR# is initially used to find the NXDN control and voice channels, which are then entered into the text file. Using this method only DSDPlus and its corresponding receiver FMP is used. Trunking software like Unitrunker is not needed.

Radiosification also notes that the method he presents can also be used for other digital trunking systems such as P25 as well.

How to track NXDN trunking with RTL SDR & DSDPlus