Listening to Digital Trunked Radio Communications Using Unitrunker, DSD+ Plus, VB-Cable 

Whew! Just finished the whole series. Hit a few road-bumps along the way...nothing too major, but sometimes his display and screens were different from mine. The VB cable software costs a few dollars now. Excellent job explaining all this!!

Followed your video series and was able to successfully listen to my local p25 phase 1 police department...Thank you!!!!

Extremely good explanation of the setup for trunked scanning with two SDRs. Thank you!!!

Well, Ho Lee Crap, your series on this subject has taught a dummy like me to make this all work!! Thank you good sir. Also, I watched about 100 other people out there on this subject. Your series, explanations and delivery of the instructions (omg this matters SO MUCH!) were the best around.

WOW one hell of a learning curve. The videos was very helpful As Andrew said some screens are different now but if you pay close attention you will get through it. the VB cable will email you a link after you pay $4.00 you must cut and paste the url to download the software. After you set up unitrunker you must put in a trunked frequency to get that popup window. I guess you cant hear simple digital channels. Steve make a video teaching us to setup simple digital listening.. Good Job on your last 5 videos Thanks for the crash course thumbs up.

OUTSTANDING....Just got my RTL-SDR in the mail today and was freaking out at first???...once I saw your tutorial steps 1-5 ...Now I'm on rock and roll....Thank You....Easy to follow...GREAT instructions...Turning my kids on to it who are going to do disaster relief work in the Caribbean after Hurricane Maria where everything thing is FUBAR.

Just received two dongles and thanks to you I am monitoring the Davidson Co Trunk right now :)

Very informative series which had me up in running within 20 mins start to finish

This was a great series Steve but it would be so good if you had the time, I know it takes time to make and edit a single video let alone a series but an updated one would be really helpful for many people that are new to all this. If not we understand and thank you for what you have done.

Thank you for doing this. I'm waiting on my second dongle, but as soon as it arrives, guess who will be watching these videos again. I can't believe it took me a month to find all this out. I'm blaming myself here due to my propensity to not find help when I need it and endlessly experiment with different configurations of whatever software I am using. I'm an old dog, and you know what they say about old dogs learning new tricks. Heh, Cheers!

Thank you so much for all your help! Excellent work! God bless and, "Never work to hard"!!!

hey man i do research on any wireless or any thing that have to do with frequencies . I never saw a video like yours .you explain every single thing and that helps me a lot. keep doing this kind of videos

where he gets sound at 0:54, I get all the same symbology but no volume. Is there a volume adjustment somewhere in all these programs?

I got it working holy shit!!! I'm a total newbie and it's working. You're the best man!!

Thanks very much Steve for this series. You deliver information in a very reassuring and understandable way. I have one SDR dongle that I've been using in analog mode. I'm so excited to know that I can add a second and digitally decode trunked audio so inexpensively! I really didn't want to buy a super expensive digital trunking scanner.

Steve - THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, for this video series. Your in depth videos are so easy to follow. Your explanations are so thorough and you present things so well. I'm looking forward to following your series on installing sdr on the Rasberry PI. I'm sure I will have trouble as long as I have your video series to follow.. I will also be checking out to see what other interesting videos you have. Thanks Again.

came across these videos and found them very informative. I plan on setting up a rtl-sdr system on my PC. Thanks

Great video series man! I followed it to the T, and was up and running in no time. Thank you!

YES Linux please... would LOVE to have it in my R/V!

Very nicely done. I've got everything set up, and I'm seeing the list of sources and actions updating, but I'm not getting any audio. I hear audio if I just run SDRSharp, so I know stuff is working to that degree. More investigation is needed. Thanks for a very concise and well-planned educational series.

Thank you so much for this information. Does anybody know if you can plug the "fixed" signal from an analog radio to the computer, and keep my only SDR for the scanner like shown in the video?

Thank you so much for this video series , I was up and running in no time.

Excellent video series with a very detailed and easy to follow "How To". I am also interested in a Raspberry Pi installation.

This is pretty cool, worth the cost of the dongles. Very helpful videos. Thank you. It has been some time since you posted these, just FYI some of the sites changed a little bit, but, easily managed.

thanks for the videos. Excellent editing on each one; i know it takes ALOT of hours to do. Much appreciated. Amazon is out of both links w/without antenna. I'm thinking of just ordering direct from China on their worldwide website, and waiting for delivery. What say you?

Well it’s 2021 so hopefully this still works l have hanging out to do but got side tracked. Was going to try and do it on my raspi 3b+ but never got around it. I am wondering if this system will work on a Raspi 👍🇦🇺

Awesome series. Now off to Amazon to order some hardware. Thanks.

I have only onde dongle, configured 2 VFOs it seems working, but DSD+ is not decoding... help please.

I love the idea of setting up a portable version of this with a Pi. Would you use the same hardware as far as the antennas? I may try that out sometime, I have an old Pi sitting around

hi just want to say thank you very much for all your help and taking your time to explaining slowly it took me tow weeks before i got mine to work the other guys are junk i have one problem at time it clear and muffle can you PLEASE help me with that but i as say before great job and how can i get the voice to work with SDR sharp

Not sure if it was asked but, can I sit on one talk group(example northern district) and just hear that talk group thru this?

The tutorial was awesome. I got everything set up and running in the time it took to play the videos. Now, if you don't mind, I have a question. I live in downtown Chattanooga, TN. About 50% of what I am hearing is beeps and what sounds like a female computerized voice that is unintelligible. Are these signals that are to far away? I have both identical devices that you have shown in the videos and the same antennas. Thanks again for the help.

There are a bunch of SDR related videos out there and this is the best. Why? It's complete, step by step and most of all, it works. There were a few minor hiccups, but nothing serious. For instance, Zadig is no longer included with the DSD download. Get it here: zadig.akeo.ie/ I use Windows 10. Again, thanks so much to Steve for taking the time to do this series. It takes a lot of effort and his teaching skills are superb. Larry KN4XW PS - It's working for P25 phase 2.

Definitely interested in the Raspberry Pi project! Keep us up to date.

Great series thank you, where were you two months ago when I was learning to set this up. I have got mine all working and named all the call groups plus locked out some groups and priortised the ones I wanted. Plus tweaked DSD with the config file. A sixth video on tweaking the setup with some of these features would be beneficial for the advanced users.

Nice Work. I have local PD on analog and State Patrol on trunked. Is there a way to setup to listen to trunk and scan set of analog frequencies at the same time? I have 2 RTL-SDRs.

Hi. Does your setup allow you to selectively monitor specific talk-groups on the trunked system or does it only scan all talk-groups ?

Great work Steve. You've helped me no end. Thank you. Subscribed.

I have been trying to get into HAM and figured this would be a rather cheap start to SDR. I'm getting wave-forms on DSD+ and hits on the Site box with 9 channels attached/associated with the control channel. I however can not get the sound to come through any set of headphones or speakers. I have changed them in the audio output tab for each device on Universal Trunker and verified that they are turned on in the control panel sound settings. I'm not sure what the issue is. DSD+ command prompt window doesn't update, and shows the data below. (I know it isn't command prompt but looks similar enough lol). Any help would be greatly appreciated. I enjoyed your video series even if I can't get mine to work it was worth watching...... over and over and over again. DSD+ 1.101pt DSDPlus -h for help summary Appending synthesized audio to file 'DSDPlus.wav' 0 frequency records loaded 0 radio records loaded 0 group records loaded 0 site records loaded 0 network records loaded audio input device #1 = 'CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual ' audio input device #2 = 'Digital Audio Interface (AVerMe' audio input device #3 = 'Line (AVerMedia Live Gamer HD 2' audio input device #4 = 'Microphone (Realtek(R) Audio)' audio input device #5 = 'Microphone (Razer Nari Essentia' audio output device #1 = 'Speakers (Razer Nari Essential)' audio output device #2 = 'Speakers (Realtek(R) Audio)' audio output device #3 = 'CABLE Input (VB-Audio Virtual C' audio output device #4 = 'Speakers (THX Spatial - Synapse' audio output device #5 = 'C27F390 (NVIDIA High Definition' audio output device #6 = 'C27F390 (NVIDIA High Definition' audio output device #7 = 'Realtek Digital Output (Realtek' audio output device #8 = 'VIOTEK GN27DW (NVIDIA High Defi' audio input device #1 (CABLE Output (VB-Audio Virtual ) initialized audio output device #1 (Speakers (Razer Nari Essential)) initialized D-STAR decoding enabled NXDN4800 decoding enabled NXDN9600 decoding enabled DMR/MotoTRBO decoding enabled P25 Phase 1 decoding enabled X2-TDMA decoding enabled ProVoice decoding enabled Mono audio decoding initiated; press Esc to exit...

Thanks a lot for making these videos. I learned a lot and they are very well made.

Thank you very much Steve!!! just ordered another set!!

okay so I spend hours getting it to work only to figure out I had an old version of unitrunker, and so now I followed your entire tutorial, and I can hear radio voices of officers etc, but How do I change the channel from police to Sheriff dept, etc? How do I change the channel within the frequency?

A good serious of videos and some good tips. Some items of software have been updated and this should be borne in mind when following the links.

Hey Steve, pretty sure you covered this in one of the videos, but I missed it. When do you put the dongles into your computer, and can I use a USB hub to do that? Thanks.

Hi Steve: Great videos! I have been able to get the control channel etc. on my first Noo R820T Dongle but I cannot get the 2nd dongle to open. Both dongles have been tested and they are good. Can you suggest any fix for getting the second dongle to open? Thanks, John

Can't thank you enough for doing these videos. Very cool. Think it would work for P2 and simulcast? I have it all set up, and dsd+ is showing audio, but I have to go into the sound settings, and click on "listen" on the Cable A output, and it's just static. Thank you again for uploading the videos.

Hi, steve On my fixed site i don't have health is still 0. What can i do to fix it.

Thank you so much for this video working 100% P.S. how can I use sharp with this to see water falls ?

I'm confused.. I thought last video was #4, where we seen unitrunker configured, and I thought vid. 5 was going to show DSD+? I guess I'll look around for another video. The unitrunker vid was helpful, thanks.. You may want to put vid. numbers in your titles.

This is a fantastic guide, but doesn't work with the Fastlane version of DSD+. Can we get a similar guide for that? P25 Phase II will only decode in the paid version of DSD+ and I can't figure out how to make it work with Unitrunker. Google says you can use the FMP files to make it work without Unitrunker at all, but figuring out how to make that work is so cryptic I feel like I need a CIA database to figure it out.

Thanks for that, fortunately I live 100 m from major GRN Tower, so tiny antennas will be fine ( Grid square qf55mv) How can I individually select a service, specifically Sutherland and Illawarra Rural Fire Service,Sutherland SES, NSW Australia? they are on 400 mhz band, thanks Barry

Wow it works! Awesome...signals are weak but hey awesome help,,been over a year or two that I've tried to get this to work, I am overjoyed :)

Great series. Thank you very much.

Thank u thank u thank u soooo soo much, thank u for the time u put in to help us noobs, i look foward to the raspberry pi setup

My Unitracker wont send a signal out thru the Digital Output to the DSD+ via the VB-Audio Virtual Cable, but if I switch over to the Audio Output using the VB-Audio Virtual Cable, than the DSD+ will hear the digital signal fine... Any ideas??? --- I am trying to monitor a Public Safety P25 Phase 2 system....

Great video series Steve. Quick question..... I setup everything as described but the audio still seems very warbled... Any settings I can play with to adjust audio?

Very informative. Great job!

I really want to say thank you for this tutorial video everything works well

Hi Steve! Thanks for this great series. I do have a question... I did everything you instructed with 1 device and 2 VCO's. It worked fine. Now I have 2 devices and set it up like you showed us. I don't see or hear any difference. Please explain. Thanks!

Is there anyway using the one or two RTL-SDR to listen to just one talkgroup (one police dept) . On a project 25 phase 2 trunking system. The problem is I’m using SDR trunk and there’s so many different talk groups talking at the same time it’s very hard to understand or pick out the group that I want to listen to.thank you

Great videos, very informative.

How do you tune in to specific talkgroups?

Can I use UniTrunker for TETRA system?

Set this up. Still works.

What about adding software to record the calls for later playback? And, is it possible to add a third, fourth or more SDR to be able to record multiple conversation from the same control channel?

Need some help here! I'm with you all the way to the start dsd+ When it opens the 1R dsd+ panel says Initiating FMPx link using link ID 20001... FMPx link error = -5 [Server is not listening on selected link ID] then crickets

Steve thank you for your video series. Awesome! I have one question. When I hear a transmission come in it usually sounds very clear but then after is about 3-4secs of heavy static and then it goes silent until another transmission comes through. How do I get rid of that? It's very annoying and makes listening very hard.

Well done, Well explained.

Having trouble getting Unitrunker to work...btw,I see you have a third receiver named "debug" as seen in older tutorials, you don't address that in the video...?

Excellent series

Hi Steve great videos! Can you help me please? I am not able to get P25 audio working properly with GQRX + DSD on Linux. I can see the P25 data going through my console. But I get no decoded audio from DSD. When I open the audio program "pavucontrol" I don't see a playback option for DSD.

You do some great videos! Thanks.

Hey Steve, when I make my UniTrunker settings for Receiver Fixed and Receiver Scanner, the RTL Device set for Bulk-In, Interface:00000001 has Status "Could Not Open!". When I try switching the receiver settings for RTL Device to the other setting for each device, whichever devide has the "Bulk-In, Interface:00000001" setting with have status "Could Not Open!" I have all my other settings matched to your tutorial. What am I doing wrong?

Trunked channels all have names, is there a place in the software to put them? I didn't see that.

After setting up unitracker no windows pop up. it looks like its decoding but no health or anything plus DSDPlus is using my microphone cause the microphone icon on the bottom right of my screen says "DSDPlus - shortcut is useing your microphone." please help :(

Hi Steve, have you found a way to track specific talk groups, like only police or fire or EMS? Thanks.

would ddsd be able to show phase 2?

In my "universal trunker", I am only being given one option for my RTL device on both fixed and scanner and its the same bulk interface 000001 thing. What am I missing? Thanks for the vid.

Steve, I followed all of your instruction. I start up Truncker with both the Receiver and scanner dongle. All sorts of data coming! problem is when I start DSDplus it sill not go any further than start up. It stops after loading the devices but no decoding and no audio. I've spent hours double checking my settings. Help!

why do i need the second one [scanner] receiver I already have found some frequencies on air# wrote them down and i can do this without another one? if im not correct tell me why is there the scanner receiver

just learned about sdr's yesterday. Looking forward to getting one..or 2 Thanks for the video's . Any models better than one ?

Steve, I am in Australia, I would like to be able to listen to 2 separate services, the State Emergency services & the Rural Fire service. They are on UHF. How can I set up different services to listen to, thanks for your series, Baz, VK2FP

Outstanding. THANKS

Ok... Everything looks good and followed everything in the videos. Issue is I'm getting mostly digital with some voice audio signal on the scanner side. DSD+ is running and is decoding as needed to get the digital signal. Need help to decide what's going. Using Windows 10

Can you use other brands of SDR dongles in the same way as you did with these?

Great series, thanks for your time and effort. kp3a

the best video i have seen,,however i am having an issue with listening to EDACS 96 1 all info shows working with no sound dsd plus isnt showing wave motion when i see a keyup,virtual cable is set default and speakers are working

I noticed on your video on the scan vco tab on status it says listen. Mine says parked. Can u explain this cause I think this is why I'm not hearing nothing and no wave file is flowing. I also wondered if it had something to do with the scan dongle not getting a strong enough signal. I have to use a low noise amplifier to boost one antenna to receive the control frequency. But I noticed on yours didn't have no Health under scan vco. ??

Good bless you bro Bro if one rtl sdr Can use it to decode hd frequency or one rtlsdr dongle and other hackrf

Can you set talk groups just to scan?

Hi Steve what OS on Windows do you recommend to make all this function?

Can I use a SDR Play RSP DX with Unitrunker?

How do you whitelist the talk groups for your local PD?

I seem to have it working but the DSD audio output is usually unintelligible. When I've used DSD with SDR# it was the same. Is it because I'm on an early-gen i5 and maybe that's just not beefy enough to decode properly? Oh, and also, I'm using 32-bit Windows 7.

does it already have something like this on the market?

got everything working and when i go to sdr sharp it wont let me choose a device for input for the rtl, if i open sdr sharp FIRST it will, but then unitrunker will not open properly. if i open unitrunker first both fixed and recieve rtl sdrs and DSD+ work but sdr sharp wont do anything

Is there anyway to listen to one specific talk group? And not the whole system

So cool way to go buddy :) .

I'm getting a TON of noise coming in with the voice channel other than the. Dispatch. What can I do to fix ???

decoding still not working ...dsd+ oscilloscope is showing activity but its not decoding..Any ideas?