Difference between revisions of "Scanner"

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(Created page with "In April 2015 we revieved a Uniden 996T Digital Scanner on long-term loan by a very generous member of the public. This is a top end scanner that can receive the P25 digital m...")
 
(updated page to reflect the current SDR-based scanner system)
 
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In April 2015 we revieved a Uniden 996T Digital Scanner on long-term loan by a very generous member of the public. This is a top end scanner that can receive the P25 digital mode used by our local emergency services and elsewhere across our state. We have an Icecast server to stream a feed from this radio so members can listen in remotely.
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In 2015, Bloominglabs received a donation of a Uniden P25 digital police scanner, and we shared that audio online via an Icecast feed for many years. However, technology evolved, and while we still have the Uniden scanner at the space we now have a more modern and feature-rich scanner feed built from Software Defined Radios (SDRs). It's now possible to listen to live scanner audio as well as archived audio, without missing any radio traffic.
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http://bloominglabs.no-ip.org:8000
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== Troubleshooting ==
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=== Listening Links ===
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If for some reason the scanner icecast feed goes down this is how to toubleshoot it.
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* First, verify the scanner is turned on. It should start scanning immediately after it's powered on, if not then make that happen.
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https://openmhz.com/system/bmgsafet - this is probably the easiest site to use
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* Once it's scanning it should periodically output some audio.
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** If there's no audio, make sure the volume knob hasen't been turned down.
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** If there's audio coming directly out of the scanner then the audio output cable may have been unplugged, verify the audio cable on the back of the scanner is plugged into one of the audio outputs.
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* The audio output cable on the back of the scanner goes to an input on the grey audio control box on the top shelf (lots of buttons and LED's).
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** Make sure audio is coming out of the small black speakers connected to the audio control box, unmute it if needed (mute does not stop the scanner feed)
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** There is a labeled volume knob which may need to be turned up to audibly hear it, this has no bearing on the scanner feed though
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** If someone has monkied with it you may need to hit the buttons to select the audio input the scanner is connected to. You also need to hit the recording output button on the bottom row to match.
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* Audio from the recording output of this box is fed into a Raspberry Pi with a Berringer USB audio card. This should all be resting on the top shelf of the radio desk.
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** The RPi is ip 192.168.1.4 (hostname "tong") and uses darkice to read in the audio.
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** The RPi streams the audio to 192.168.1.7 (hostname "zoidberg") which runs our icecast server.
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* Additionally, there is another component that updates the stream name. The scanner has a serial output which is connected the the RPi (tong). There is a script on tong that reads this and updates the icecast server on zoidberg.
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https://radio.bloominglabs.org - this site has some advanced features and more closely resembles a traditional scanner interface
  
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* If zoidberg reboots, it should start icecast on boot and be ready to stream to clients.
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Both feeds contain radio traffic from in and around Monroe County, Indiana including many agencies in Bloomington as well as some state agencies and the occasional federal agency.
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* If tong reboots, it should restart darkice on boot and start streaming the feed. It should also restart the stream name updater as well, but this may not be tested yet.
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* The last leg is a port forward from the Linksys router from TCP port 8000 to port 8000 on zoidberg.
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=== Technical Details ===
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At Bloominglabs:
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* 3x RTL-SDRs with indoor antennas
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* Intel NUC running Debian GNU/Linux
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* [https://github.com/robotastic/trunk-recorder Trunk Recorder] software (sends recorded audio to both OpenMHz and radio.bloominglabs.org)
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In the cloud at radio.bloominglabs.org
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* VPS running Debian GNU/Linux
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* [https://github.com/chuot/rdio-scanner Rdio Scanner] software

Latest revision as of 20:01, 7 September 2022

In 2015, Bloominglabs received a donation of a Uniden P25 digital police scanner, and we shared that audio online via an Icecast feed for many years. However, technology evolved, and while we still have the Uniden scanner at the space we now have a more modern and feature-rich scanner feed built from Software Defined Radios (SDRs). It's now possible to listen to live scanner audio as well as archived audio, without missing any radio traffic.

[edit] Listening Links

https://openmhz.com/system/bmgsafet - this is probably the easiest site to use

https://radio.bloominglabs.org - this site has some advanced features and more closely resembles a traditional scanner interface

Both feeds contain radio traffic from in and around Monroe County, Indiana including many agencies in Bloomington as well as some state agencies and the occasional federal agency.

[edit] Technical Details

At Bloominglabs:

  • 3x RTL-SDRs with indoor antennas
  • Intel NUC running Debian GNU/Linux
  • Trunk Recorder software (sends recorded audio to both OpenMHz and radio.bloominglabs.org)

In the cloud at radio.bloominglabs.org

Retrieved from "http://www.bloominglabs.org/index.php?title=Scanner&oldid=4877"
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