How to work out / set the ppm value of your Software Defined Radio using SDR# - calibrate frequency 

Excellent. I hope you enjoy the fascinating world of radio. It never ceases to amaze me what you can pick up!

I'm pleased to be of assistance Bryan. Thank you for your comments.

Amazing how the timing works out Paul. Welcome to the hobby!

@@FrugalRadio Thanks. I'll be leaning on you for a while, I think. Probably getting it before the end of October for my birthday. Until then I'm using an XHData D-808, which got me back into shortwave recently. Regards from Brum.

Yes, getting settled back into life here. All is well. Best wishes to you out in NS!

Welcome to the channel. Have fun with your SDR!

Hey, no problem. Glad the video was useful to you!

Thanks John.

You're welcome William!

Hello Ewan. Yes, calibrating an AirSpy would indeed be different. I've owned a few of their devices (and still do), but have not need to calibrate any of them. I'll add it to a list of future potential videos and film it if I do the procedure!

Hi, and welcome to the channel! Great to have you tracking along. POCSAG signals tend to be very strong, and if you are in the city itself you'll likely just need a small antenna. I successfully decoded pagers for years using the small magnetic whip that came with a very inexpensive generic dongle. I'd recommend just experimenting with whatever antennas you already have. Happy decoding!

Very true. These old SDRs without TCXOs function best in a stable temperature environment. Changes in temperature will affect the drift. I had one placed in the attic. Throughout the day the air temperature up there changed a lot, and made this old SDR unusable without correcting the PPM. Newer ones handled it just fine. Now I use the old one on a room downstairs where the temp doesn't fluctuate. Works much better!

@@FrugalRadio I've thought about insulating one to use outdoors at the antenna for the higher frequencys to cut down on loss and cost.

Make sure you use one with the crystal oscillator if you do!

@@FrugalRadio I see a small Styrofoam beverage cooler in my future sdr tinkering lol 73's. KQ4BKO

At least you aren't up here in Canada! You'd be subject to an outdoor temperature swing of 176F between Summer & Winter!

First thing is to check the fashion setting on your SDR. Try setting it somewhere from 28-32. Also make sure you are using an antenna tuned for VHF. Try to find a good strong VHF signal to try, preferably something that is constantly transmitting, like a NOAA weather channel. Once it is sounding good, try the other VHF frequencies you want to monitor.

Yes, you're absolutely correct. The generic dongles are prone to drift over a 30 minutes period. However you can set it initially, then go back and adjust it as it warms up.

No. For the generics you just need to work out the value and enter it once. Maybe after 20 minutes of using the device you'll see some drift and can adjust again, but then it should stay relatively stable. If you have an RTL-SDRv3 or SAMrt dongle, you won't need to do it at all.

Then theres this ? ? ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YW2clAQ3HAs.html

Hi @Joe Cizin. I've never had Sally, and my wife avoids the radio room like the plague, so I don't know what you mean ;-) As for the ultimate mobile rig - I'll post a video of some of my shacks, including my old car at some point. What I would have wanted to add was a Panasonic Toughbook, linked up to multiple SDRs in the trunk (boot). I never quite got to that part of the project when running the ex-Police Ford Crown Victoria. Once I get my next ex-police vehicle, I might try and set that up. I did have several Uniden BCT & BCD radios mounted, along with a 2m/70cm dual band Yaesu rig, in addition to a handheld transceiver and a handheld scanner (mostly used for close call). But I wanted a way to view all the trunked system information. However with data access being much less expensive these days, perhaps that is the way to go. Set up the SDRs at home, and utilise some kind of data stream to the toughbook, or possibly even an Android tablet. Sorry for the delayed reply!

Out West in Alberta. Are you a fellow Canuk?

@@FrugalRadio . You bet ! I'm in Edmonton !

Ha ha : we're pretty close then!!!

@@FrugalRadio . That's exciting to find a fellow youtuber with interest in Sdr that is close to me ! . I have been trying to decode p25 signals using SDS+ and unitrunker . But it's a challenge making it work for some reason . Still trying to learn about it . Im not sure which p25 signals to try that are not encrypted .

All the Fire departments are in the clear (except Edmonton Fire & Rescue use a few Enc channels occasionally). Depending on which P25 sites you pick up from your location you can get Leduc City Fire Service, Strathcona County Fire, St Albert Fire etc. Shoot me an email via mychannelname@gmail.com (replacing my channel name with... You guessed it!).

Good question! GSM & LTE signals are very wide, and generally the frequencies are not published, so it makes them unsuitable for setting the PPM.

@@FrugalRadio Cool. Thanks for the info :)

Yep - I keep mixing it up!

@@FrugalRadio all for the algorithm!

Interestingly, the Correctional Facilities often pop up on the displays...