Greetings all!
(Shoutout to @mtindor who's been helping me along with this project...)
I successfully have SDRTrunk up and running, and I'm not sure how I got by without it for so long. Here's the situation I find myself in now...
Some of you may have seen a thread where I was trying to figure out why I wasn't able to maintain a lock on my own county's system while I could easily see and maintain locks on other systems. Frustrating indeed! Following the advice of several folks in the forums, I picked up an Omni-X antenna and an Electroline EDA-2400 amplified splitter. The Omni-X is mounted at the peak of my roof, and I'm using TWS-400 coax between the antenna and the amplifier.
With that set up, I was easily able to get a nice lock on my county's P25 system, and my SDS-200 almost continually had 4 bars of signal strength on the display. SDRTrunk consistently showed between -30 and -11 of signal strength as well. BUT - I was still getting some sort of interference that would disrupt SDRTrunk's lock on the P25 system. Sometimes for 15-30 minutes even!
Until today, the Omni-X and the TWS-400 stopped outside the house, where I brought the signal in on some RG-8X to the amplifier. Just a temporary situation until I brought the TWS-400 all the way inside. Seeing as it was a nice day, I figured it was time to finish the project. I disconnected the TWS-400 from the RG-8X and connected the RG-8X back up to the Discone, which is where it's always been connected. I then ran the TWS-400 inside. Keep in mind that at this point, the amplifier is connected to the Discone. Meaning that everything inside is using that as the antenna.
As I continued to bring the TWS-400 inside and to my shack, I noticed that SDRTrunk hadn't gone offline at all since making the switch. The odd "pulsing" interference I was used to seeing was no longer present. The SDS-200 wasn't happy, as it was only seeing a signal of maybe 1 bar. Sometimes, every so often 2, but for the most part, it was a 1 bar connection. Signal strength on SDRTrunk never gets higher than around -30 or so. But I haven't lost lock once! It's been rock solid!
Now in the process of all of this fun & excitement, I played around with the amp, mixer, and gain controls on SDRTrunk. I could never seem to find just the right setting to make things happy - clearly evident by the fact that I was still losing lock. However, maybe I stumbled onto a good setting for using the Discone?
I should also mention that I'm only about 1/4 mile away from a primary Union Pacific radio site. When they key up on that site, the VHF side of my scanners gets de-sensed. I know there is more than just VHF on that tower, though. Since I started typing this, and thinking back on the day, I don't recall hearing any traffic at all on the UP system other than the automated detector at mile 219.7 - maybe the site is offline for some reason? Could that be what's causing my interference?
At this point, I'm almost afraid to go back on the Omni-X. I'm going to, just to see what happens. But this is really making my head hurt a little bit.
Sean
(Shoutout to @mtindor who's been helping me along with this project...)
I successfully have SDRTrunk up and running, and I'm not sure how I got by without it for so long. Here's the situation I find myself in now...
Some of you may have seen a thread where I was trying to figure out why I wasn't able to maintain a lock on my own county's system while I could easily see and maintain locks on other systems. Frustrating indeed! Following the advice of several folks in the forums, I picked up an Omni-X antenna and an Electroline EDA-2400 amplified splitter. The Omni-X is mounted at the peak of my roof, and I'm using TWS-400 coax between the antenna and the amplifier.
With that set up, I was easily able to get a nice lock on my county's P25 system, and my SDS-200 almost continually had 4 bars of signal strength on the display. SDRTrunk consistently showed between -30 and -11 of signal strength as well. BUT - I was still getting some sort of interference that would disrupt SDRTrunk's lock on the P25 system. Sometimes for 15-30 minutes even!
Until today, the Omni-X and the TWS-400 stopped outside the house, where I brought the signal in on some RG-8X to the amplifier. Just a temporary situation until I brought the TWS-400 all the way inside. Seeing as it was a nice day, I figured it was time to finish the project. I disconnected the TWS-400 from the RG-8X and connected the RG-8X back up to the Discone, which is where it's always been connected. I then ran the TWS-400 inside. Keep in mind that at this point, the amplifier is connected to the Discone. Meaning that everything inside is using that as the antenna.
As I continued to bring the TWS-400 inside and to my shack, I noticed that SDRTrunk hadn't gone offline at all since making the switch. The odd "pulsing" interference I was used to seeing was no longer present. The SDS-200 wasn't happy, as it was only seeing a signal of maybe 1 bar. Sometimes, every so often 2, but for the most part, it was a 1 bar connection. Signal strength on SDRTrunk never gets higher than around -30 or so. But I haven't lost lock once! It's been rock solid!
Now in the process of all of this fun & excitement, I played around with the amp, mixer, and gain controls on SDRTrunk. I could never seem to find just the right setting to make things happy - clearly evident by the fact that I was still losing lock. However, maybe I stumbled onto a good setting for using the Discone?
I should also mention that I'm only about 1/4 mile away from a primary Union Pacific radio site. When they key up on that site, the VHF side of my scanners gets de-sensed. I know there is more than just VHF on that tower, though. Since I started typing this, and thinking back on the day, I don't recall hearing any traffic at all on the UP system other than the automated detector at mile 219.7 - maybe the site is offline for some reason? Could that be what's causing my interference?
At this point, I'm almost afraid to go back on the Omni-X. I'm going to, just to see what happens. But this is really making my head hurt a little bit.
Sean
