BTW. everybody be very careful when you buy the SDR dongles, there are loads of chinese fake ones around which for sure do not work like the real ones. So, I recommend googling and researching the matter before you order anything. And additionally you will need a good antenna and probably some adaptors, software etc. too. Its fun but requires some studying. I am a novice on the matter but will give it some more thought and practice at some point when I have time from my other weird things.Did a little more research of what the RTL SDR receivers can actually do. I could have saved myself the $500 i spent on my new Uniden scanner. All i wanted was to be able to receive our local police/fire/ems that went digital apco-25 a few years back. Turns out, with the proper software, my $15 SDR dongles can do that!
Set up was relatively easy, but i had to build the “decoder” library (.jar file) on linux and copy it over to MacOS in order for it to decode the signals. Guess now i can take my Uniden BCD536HP and mount it in the truck. No longer need it in the house now that my iMac is handling the indoor scanning duties.
To do yet: Add in frequencies for local Ham along with fire/ems/police for other nearby areas.
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Screenshot shows scanning and decoding of my local police/fire/emsCheers
This is a good site to start: https://www.rtl-sdr.com/
And this book might be helpful to a beginner: https://www.amazon.de/dp/1514716690/
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