lots of 0 byte and 44 byte wav files, no actual recordings

[thefinn93]

I'm trying to get this working in my local area (Seattle, WA), which, according to this, uses a "Motorola Type II SmartZone". A little Googling tells me that SmartZone and SmartNet are effectively the same thing, so this should work? But I wouldn't be surprised if I got that wrong.

Anyway, what I do know: I can tune my RTLSDRs using GGRX and similar to the frequencies listed on the radioreference.com page and can clearly see something on the control channel, and hear people talking on some of the other frequencies. I set up trunk recorder with two of the SDRs using the config below. I have also tried setting the errors to positive instead of negative, it doesn't seem to seem to affect much.

{
  "sources": [
    {
      "center": 852177000,
      "rate": 2048000,
      "error": -10725,
      "gain": 50,
      "digitalRecorders": 2,
      "analogRecorders": 2,
      "driver": "osmosdr",
      "device": "4",
      "serialNumber": "00000004"
    },
    {
      "center": 854685500,
      "rate": 2048000,
      "error": -25747,
      "gain": 50,
      "digitalRecorders": 2,
      "analogRecorders": 2,
      "driver": "osmosdr",
      "device": "0",
      "serialNumber": "00000000"
    }
  ],
  "system": {
    "control_channels": [851412500],
    "type": "smartnet"
  },
  "talkgroupsFile": "talkgroups.csv"
}

Any help/ideas/things to try?

[thefinn93]

I should mention that I also get a lot of this sort of thing in stdout:

[2016-05-03 11:37:01.819434] [0x000007f8a1b69b78] [error]       Control Channel Message Decode Rate: 0.142857/sec
[2016-05-03 11:38:07.831536] [0x000007f8a1b69b78] [error]       Control Channel Message Decode Rate: 0.0151515/sec

[zeryl]

When I see this, it's due to a lack of "lock" on that channel. Normally I'm either too low on gain, too far off on the frequency/correction, or trying to watch too much bandwidth.

On Tue, May 3, 2016 at 1:39 PM, Finn notifications@github.com wrote:

I should mention that I also get a lot of this sort of thing in stdout:

[2016-05-03 11:37:01.819434] [0x000007f8a1b69b78] [error] Control Channel Message Decode Rate: 0.142857/sec [2016-05-03 11:38:07.831536] [0x000007f8a1b69b78] [error] Control Channel Message Decode Rate: 0.0151515/sec

— You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub https://github.com/robotastic/trunk-recorder/issues/43#issuecomment-216624673

[thefinn93]

hrm alright. Well I've amped up the gain pretty high, and I think the error is correct, so maybe I'm trying to watch too much bandwidth? How would I set that? I have RTL2838s, which can (supposedly) do ~2MHz each, but I'm also not seeing anywhere that I can actually set that, unless it's the rate value, but I thought that was the number of samples per second that it takes?

[dreinhold]

If you are seeing the Control Channel Message Decode Rate: 0.142857/sec error then you are not getting anything. That message come up for values < 10.0

You should be seeing these for voice calls: [2016-05-02 20:18:19.912545] [0x00007f1c7c23e780] [error] Trying to record TDMA: 8.57713e+08 For TG: 4144

For the bandwidth, yes change the rate, go down to like 1M until you can lock onto the control channel.

[robotastic]

Yep - folks are right. If the decode rate message is showing up, that means that the signal is not being received correctly. It sounds like you have things configured correctly. I haven't had a problem running the RTLSDR with 2MHz. The rate value is where you set that. Are there any other systems nearby you could try instead?

[thefinn93]

Any other trunked radio systems? I'm not aware of them.

[robotastic]

Sorry - I meant are there any other Smartnet radio systems nearby that you could try listening to instead?

Sent from my iPhone

On May 3, 2016, at 11:13 PM, Finn notifications@github.com wrote:

Any other trunked radio systems? I'm not aware of them. I have a web SDR thing I could setup if people want to check it out...

— You are receiving this because you commented. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub

[thefinn93]

yeah none that I know of. I'll look around

[thefinn93]

So, after much time wasting and frustration I have determined it to be some voodoo with the computer I was using. I'm not sure if it was the OS (Ubuntu 15.04) or the hardware, but I tried again in a different box (a Mac Mini running Debian Sid) and it worked! So I'm gonna close this.