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Quoted:
It works but it sucks as a scanner. You need SDR# (free) and another piece of free software called DSD+ to decode APCO-25 ( digital mode most police use, people usualy call it encrypted) This is the place to find out about doing this. Scroll through the "Featured Articles" tab as well as the "Quick Start" tab. I have been playing with these for a couple years. FWIW: I played around with the RTL-SDR dongles but eventually went with a Fun Cube Dongle. It costs WAY more than an RTL-SDR dongle (around $200), but I wanted to be able to listen to HF as well as VHF/UHF. If you are into scanners, this isn't an issue for you. The subject of antennas can get heated. I would recommend a Discone antenna (Google that). This is what one looks like. The reason I recommend this antenna is that it is extremely broadbanded and will cover the entire frequency range you can receive with an RTL-SDR Dongle. And it is omni-directional meaning it works equally well in all directions. In these discussions, you generally get someone who recommends an antenna with "gain". IMO, this is counter-productive to scanner listening unless you are only interested in something in one specific direction. FWIW: if all you are interested in is listening to a scanner, this is a hellava lot of work to do that. They are a lot of fun to play with and if you are a radio geek like I am, they are very worthwhile. But................ again, it is a lot of work just to listen to a scanner. |