SDR digital decoding with DSD or DSDplus?

delta_charlie

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
May 12, 2008
716
155
Hi all, anybody tried decoding digital using SDRsharp, NooElec sdr dongle with the R820T chip and DSD or DSDplus? I have been trying for a while with dismal results. I have a decent antenna, Hustler DCX discone up 15 feet. It pulls in tons of analog and when I try digital the signal is strong but not next door. Does the signal have to be setting the receiver on fire to get a good decode? Any ideas or things I should check to try and figure out why it's not working well? Thanks, DC
 
  • Like
Reactions: N6BY
Hi all, anybody tried decoding digital using SDRsharp, NooElec sdr dongle with the R820T chip and DSD or DSDplus? I have been trying for a while with dismal results. I have a decent antenna, Hustler DCX discone up 15 feet. It pulls in tons of analog and when I try digital the signal is strong but not next door. Does the signal have to be setting the receiver on fire to get a good decode? Any ideas or things I should check to try and figure out why it's not working well? Thanks, DC
Found a good read at: https://sites.google.com/site/policescannerhowto/
Looks like my inlvl my be too low, it is set using the AF gain. Look near the bottom of the page. I will post a follow up if changing it helps. Later, DC
 
Found a good read at: https://sites.google.com/site/policescannerhowto/
Looks like my inlvl my be too low, it is set using the AF gain. Look near the bottom of the page. I will post a follow up if changing it helps. Later, DC
I tried adjusting the gain and got the inlvl to abt 30%, it helped some but I'm still not getting better then 20 > 50% decode on the strongest signals. I have tried everything I can think of and still can not get it to work well.
 
I tried adjusting the gain and got the inlvl to abt 30%, it helped some but I'm still not getting better then 20 > 50% decode on the strongest signals. I have tried everything I can think of and still can not get it to work well.

I realize that my reply here is about 8 weeks after your last post. If you are still having problems maybe I can help.

I get very good results with a Bearcat BCD996XT with a discriminator tap running to my PC's sound card. With DSDplus I can hear almost all MotoTRBO transmissions (2 channels at a time with headphones!) I really like DSDplus, but I sure wish they would release the source code so I could experiment more with it.

Like you, delta_charlie, I also have a NooElec R820T, but I have not yet tried it with DSDplus. Maybe I can find time to give it a try this weekend and will let you know.
 
Reviving this old thread for those who use DSDPLUS.

I personally use DSDPLUS 2.176 Fast Lane on many tapped Pro-2004 / Pro-2006 scanners to get DMR/NXDN among others.
 
I used to use DSDPlus with an SDR, but I wanted portability.

So I bought a Uniden SDS100 scanner with the DMR upgrade. I'm very happy with it since now I don't have to start my computer every time I want to monitor DMR or P25.

It does better than DSDPlus as far as speech clarity on digital, but the SDS100 is not that great with analog.

Besides DMR and P25, my favorite feature is that it can record. When you play back recordings it shows you all the channel information. So you can scan a range of frequencies over a long period of time and come back later and see what it picked up. Very good for finding seldomly used frequencies.
 
I used to use DSDPlus with an SDR, but I wanted portability.

So I bought a Uniden SDS100 scanner with the DMR upgrade. I'm very happy with it since now I don't have to start my computer every time I want to monitor DMR or P25.

It does better than DSDPlus as far as speech clarity on digital, but the SDS100 is not that great with analog.

Besides DMR and P25, my favorite feature is that it can record. When you play back recordings it shows you all the channel information. So you can scan a range of frequencies over a long period of time and come back later and see what it picked up. Very good for finding seldomly used frequencies.

Nice scanner indeed but pricey.
For DMR On the go I use an old Pro18 scanner that I bought for $80 and flashed it to the freeware PII / DMR firmware (not the paid whistler one) and works great



Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!
 
  • Like
Reactions: k.r. and Comptech
Reviving this thread again. I just set up a single RTL dongle with DSDFastlane, and it works great. Twenty dollar dongle, 10 bucks for the fastlane upgrade and I have a 30 buck SDS200. I use a upgraded Pro 668 for mobile.
 
  • Like
Reactions: k.r. and KE4EST
***

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)