Listening to DMR (dPMR/MotoTRBO/etc)

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Scotty
Posts: 739
Joined: Sun Dec 20, 2009 2:50 am
Location: Sydney and surrounds

Listening to DMR (dPMR/MotoTRBO/etc)

Post by Scotty » Sun Feb 23, 2014 9:07 am

Over the last month I've been spending a bit of time listening to DMR/dPMR frequencies - something I didn't realise was possible until only recently. There is not much info on these forums about the methods to decode this info apart from a post in the software section.

I've been using DSDPlus (DSD+) for the audio decode on DMR voice frequencies with great results. NXDN voice decode is also possible, however not as clear. I run DMRDecoder alongside to decode system information to display colour codes/etc.

DMR and NXDN is certainly gaining a foothold in Sydney, and Grants Digital PMR listing in this section has greatly assisted in finding/confirming active sites.

Many of the digital voice frequencies are part of trunking networks, which makes following conversations harder to track, especially during busy times. Reminds me of when analogue trunking systems first started appearing all those years ago and how monitoring became that little bit more challenging. That being the case, does anybody have any suggestions on how to more effectively monitor these digital trunked networks?

It certain gives hope that there will be a scanner in the future that will decode DMR tier 2 and 3. As DMR is an open standard I see their inclusion as similar to that of P25 monitoring in scanners, or maybe more LTR monitoring ability. The push would need to come from the US, and it does seem that DMR (specifically MotoTRBO) is growing over there. However as it's not generally used by public safety users (more commercial/industrial users) which is the majority of the scanning marker, I can't see it happening in the immediate short term.
Last edited by Scotty on Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

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cartman
Posts: 2179
Joined: Wed Aug 13, 2008 12:54 pm
Location: Liverpool, NSW, Australia

Re: Listening to DMR (dPMR/MotoTRBO/etc)

Post by cartman » Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:06 am

Grants list is quite out of date
I have been meaning to update it
Matt1983 seems to be the king of the signal sniffers in my experience
Professional Scanner nut. Ibis bin chicken of radio scraps
Scanners:
Uniden 325P2, Whistler TRX-1, GRE PSR800 x 2, Uniden 780 x 3, Uniden 796, Uniden 396 x 2, Uniden 246,
Software:
DSD v2.368, Unitrunker, Trunkview

lxth7
Posts: 77
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2010 7:47 pm

Re: Listening to DMR (dPMR/MotoTRBO/etc)

Post by lxth7 » Sun Feb 23, 2014 11:05 pm

Many of the digital voice frequencies are part of trunking networks, which makes following conversations harder to track, especially during busy times. Reminds me of when analogue trunking systems first started appearing all those years ago and how monitoring became that little bit more challenging. That being the case, does anybody have any suggestions on how to more effectively monitor these digital trunked networks?
Using a trbo radio gives you the selectivity to monitor certin talkgroups.

citabria
Site Admin
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Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 8:22 pm

Re: Listening to DMR (dPMR/MotoTRBO/etc)

Post by citabria » Mon Feb 24, 2014 9:18 am

cartman wrote:Matt1983 seems to be the king of the signal sniffers in my experience
I though John Hopoate was ;)

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freqwaves
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Joined: Sun Feb 14, 2010 2:46 pm

Re: Listening to DMR (dPMR/MotoTRBO/etc)

Post by freqwaves » Tue Feb 25, 2014 8:28 pm

It will be good to see a handheld unit come out with all these features.What you have to do at the moment is not very portable.
Listening to a computer is not as fun as hearing it coming from a scanner.

John.

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