DSD For Windows Basic Setup - Easy Instructions Noobs Guide

[sammy3417]

Ok thanks Chick x

[2I0RGM]

Hi There,

Can I just say first of all, this is a great write up, very straight forward, however I am having some problems that I can't seem to sort out.

I'm running DSD1.6, with SDR Sharp and an RTL-SDR dongle. I have VAC set up as the default recording device in windows.

When I run DSD1.6 I'm only presented with the following text: "Audio In/Out Device: /dev/dsp" and I don't have all the scrolling text on the CMD page that I should be getting.
Can anyone shed any light on this? As far as the DMR signal goes, I can hear the signal with my Uniden UBC3500XLT scanner and I can see the signal on the SDR Sharp waterfall. I have experimented with volume levels etc, but no joy.

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!! 2I0RGM

[sammy3417]

could you put some screen shots on of your set up... your sound card settings... what OS you running ?

[2I0RGM]

Hi there, thank for your reply. I certainly will at some stage today or tomorrow.

I'm running windows 7 64bit. I should say that I'm only using a trial version of VAC and I understand that audio in the vac is interrupted every few seconds with the trial version, however according to the tutorial I was following I was told it may just cause errors in the audio decoded, but mine isn't working at all!

In SDR sharp, I have the bandwidth set to 12.5kHz, filter order set to 10, and the filtered audio setting off. Also I have made sure the output SDR sharp audio runs to the VAC.

In the windows sound settings, I have ensured the default recording device is the VAC and it's set at a level of about 10.

When DMR signals are received, the audio scale in windows sounds settings for the VAC can be seen moving so I'm fairly confident I'm putting the received DMR audio into the VAC from SDR Sharp correctly.

I'm using dsd160 with Cygwin.dll. I tried dsd141 and the same thing happens.

I'm not even sure what "Audio Input/Output Device: /dev/dsp" means.
Any help would be much appreciated. Thank you.

[sammy3417]

I have the same set up and I can tell you it was a pain to get going... I have SDR, with VAC and DSD... Have you tried running DMRdecode..this is a good way to see if you get a sync and color code, DMRdecode has sound input settings you could try.... Just to add Microsoft released their updates on patch Tuesday and as a result of this my SDR software wouldn't receive any sound and ceased working! I did a system restore and undone the updates..... as a result of this, it started working again! Have you had any updates from Microsoft within the last 10 days? if so try a system restore then run your SDR,VAC and DSD software and see if it works now after trying this

[2I0RGM]

Many thanks for your reply.

I haven't had any updates on my computer over the past 2 weeks or so.

I'll certainly give DMRdecode a go and see how I get on.

I'll post my findings.

Many thanks
2I0RGM

[m0mst]

Hi All

Firstly I just wanted to say thanks to all who have posted info, tips and helps regarding DSD.

After a month on and off playing around I now have an very good system, which is decoding with hardly any errors, and perfect audio.

I started this project as I installed a DMR system at work, and it just set off the nosey person in me. The system we run is very low power, and around 10 miles from me. The signal at my radio end is a s1 - 2 at best, depending on weather. Setup is as follows.

Radio/s - Kenwood D710 or Yaesu FT817 - All audio via 9600K packet audio out
Interface - Old PS2 keyboard cable, hot 96K audio sliced, 10k Resistor then a Stereo or Mono switch to audio cable.
PC - Win 7, Quite beffy with a SoundBlaster XFI Xtreme Gamer.
Antenna - Diamond V300 At 49Ft AGL, 22Ft above Apex.

If I had to chose the most important section of the above list it is without doubt, the SoundBlaster Card. When I started playing around I used the onboard HD audio, worked but always had high error rates, talking maybe 20= and audio so garbled at best. Changing to the sound blaster (£8 of ebay second hand) has improved everything no end. I know get usually no =, maybe sometimes 2 -3. DMR Decoder it is now very rare to see any red comments. Also I have noticed PDW pager decoding has improved massively, all modes I can get are 100% decode.

I may post a guide or two to my setup as well as the steps I took, but going to take me some time.

I will attached some screen tomorrow showing the setup in brief.

Night All

Dan

[SilverShadow]

Great to hear you got it working and having fun with it Dan

And I'd look forward to reading any guide you might do, I'm using the standard soundcard fitted with my PC but would like to try something better for DSD, do you have any recommendations, would one of the Vintage Creative Labs Sound Blaster ones on ebay be any good compared to my PC's AS Rock one?

[moj]

Well im still trying but all i get is the dreaded garbled voice ,i,ve tried inverted and standard with the dsd- xr or dsd -fr switch but i can,t get nothing decoded as yet ?

i know its working by the dmr decoder display where its showing the channel colour code and other info etc but on dsd i,m gettting no joy , its actually starting to send me mad now

i,m trying this on my windows 7 ultimate 32 bit on my laptop with a yupiteru mvt7100 with the tap fitted and also tried with my funcube dongle pro + connected to my outside antenna and both the scanner and dongle are being separately tested on the same laptop and all i get is just hear garbles !

i know the discriminator tap is working aswell because its working fine decoding posag pager messages so i,d love to know where i,m going wrong even after reading all these easy startup guides on this forum i,m still stuck .


any ideas what i,m doing wrong ppl ??

[sammy3417]

Mate had the very same problem, had a tap fitted to my UBC330XLT... I was at it for a very long time..turned out it was my tap. Get yourself a a RTL dongle (eBay Item number:111068586783) ?then download Virtual Audio Cable... then just look at the previous posts on this subject..keep at it mate, but bin the scanner tap thing! Use the dongle and software well worth £10