Win32 TRUNK88 ============= - This is the Win32 console application version of TRUNK88. - The program has been developed for and tested under Windows 98, XP and Vista. It will probably work fine under any Windows version newer than Win95. (Some users have reported proper operation under Windows 95; although TRUNK88 will likely work just fine under Win95, this is not guaranteed) - This program will not work with a data slicer; it requires Windows-compatible sound hardware. If you want to use a data slicer interface, download and install the DOS version of TRUNK88. Program Upgrading - BEFORE UPGRADING TRUNK88, YOU SHOULD *ALWAYS* BACK UP YOUR DATA FILES. COPIES OF *ALL* .CTL FILES SHOULD BE STORED IN A SAFE LOCATION. ALSO BACK UP YOUR TRUNK88.ALERTS FILE. - If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Win32 TRUNK88, just replace your current copy of TRUNK88.EXE with the one included in this update. - DO NOT REPLACE YOUR TRUNK88.CTL FILE WITH THE ONE INCLUDED IN THIS UPDATE; THE INCLUDED TRUNK88.CTL FILE IS FOR NEW TRUNK88 INSTALLATIONS ONLY. Program Installation - TRUNK88 does not come with, nor does it need, an installer program. To install TRUNK88, create a new folder for it and copy all of the zipfile's contents to the folder. You should also download the TRUNK88 Alerts.zip file and copy its contents to your new TRUNK88 folder. Next, create a shortcut to TRUNK88.EXE on your desktop. Verify that the shortcut works by double clicking on it; TRUNK88 should start up. - Note: All files created by TRUNK88 (system control files and log files) will be created in the folder that TRUNK88.EXE resides in, so TRUNK88 has to have write access to this folder. [ IMPORTANT: YOU CAN CUSTOMIZE COLORS DIRECTLY WITHIN TRUNK88 IF YOU ARE RUNNING TRUNK88 UNDER WINDOWS XP. THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS ONLY APPLY TO WINDOWS VISTA AND WINDOWS 7. ] - If you're running a recent version of Windows (Vista or Win7), you can duplicate the custom colors capabilities found in the DOS version of TRUNK88. Custom colors let you tweak colors (e.g. make Color1 [dark blue] a bit less dark) or completely change a color (e.g. turn Color5 [magenta], which I have no use for, into a completely new color - perhaps a dark shade of gray or tan) To customize colors, right click on your TRUNK88 shortcut, click on Properties, then the Colors tab. Select Popup Background, then click on the color you want to adjust (e.g. if you want to change Color5, click on the sixth color box from the left) and then change the Red, Green and Blue color values to what you want. For example, to change the color to dark gray, change all three color values to 70. As you edit the RGB values, the background color in the Selected Popup Colors box will change accordingly. When you're done, click on OK. You can repeat this process for each color you want to modify. The steps above are for Windows Vista and may be different for other Windows versions (Windows 98 does not provide a Colors tab, so you can't customize your colors under Windows 98) You can use the included COLORS.EXE program to help you pick colors. The numbers displayed to the left of each color are the Red, Green and Blue values that will make Windows generate that color. When you run the COLORS program, Windows should automatically switch to full screen mode; when the program terminates, you can press Alt_Enter to return to normal windowed mode. Vista does not support full screen applications, so you can't run the COLORS program if you're using Vista. An alternate source for color definitions is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11_color_names Getting Started - The sound card selection dialogue at program startup is identical to the one found in LTR Analyzer; if your system has more than one sound input device, TRUNK88 will ask you which one to use. If only one sound input device is present, TRUNK88 will automatically select it and start using it without user intervention. - The supplied TRUNK88.CTL file is configured for 60 lines x 100 columns; this provides lots of room for meaningful talkgroup and radio names in the channel activity display, as well as lots of real estate for the background activity display (event log). If your PC can't display 60 text lines (e.g. the bottom of the program screen is cut off), you can adjust the text size with the F11 / Shift-F11 hotkeys while TRUNK88 is running. You can also adjust the number of text lines displayed with the Ctrl + and Ctrl - hotkeys. New User Quick Start - The following text is a cheat sheet for TRUNK88 newbies to get them up and running with minimal headaches - download the Win32 TRUNK88 zipfile (it looks like you already did that) - download the TRUNK88 Alerts zipfile - extract the contents of both zipfiles to a folder (like C:\TRUNK88) - if you want to drive TRUNK88 directly from a DVB-T dongle, read SDR Guide.txt; it explains what additional files, procedures and parameter settings you'll have to deal with - run TRUNK88; if you're feeding TRUNK88 from a discriminator-tapped receiver that's monitoring a 3600 bps Motorola control channel, TRUNK88 should start monitoring the system and you'll see lots of stuff happening. At the top left corner of the screen, you should see the system's four digit SysID and on the right side, you'll see the OSW datastream going by - Note: starting with TRUNK88 4.88, you can also feed TRUNK88 from the headphone / external speaker jack of many receivers; no tap dance required. To properly connect your scanner's headphone jack to your PC, you need a stereo 3.5mm to 3.5mm audio patch cable like this one: http://www.dealextreme.com/p/3-5mm-audio-jack-connection-cable-1-5m-5115 For good decoding, you must: - have a good strong control channel signal with minimal noise / static (note - you can use the Shift-F9 CC Monitor hotkey to listen to the CC audio noise level as you adjust antenna orientation, etc.) - set the Windows Mixer control for your audio input to its maximum level (note - you may have to try various levels as some sound hardware works best with the level set fairly low [20%] ) - adjust your radio's volume control until TRUNK88's audio level meter is in the 50% to 75% range - if you over-drive your PC's sound input (e.g. introduce clipping), TRUNK88 will NOT decode headphone jack audio If you have followed these instructions *exactly* and are unable to achieve solid decoding levels, your radio's audio circuitry may be distorting the signal beyond TRUNK88's current ability to compensate - if you're feeding TRUNK88 via a scanner's Control Channel Dump feature: - press Esc to get to TRUNK88's Command prompt - tell TRUNK88 about your scanner: - Edit Defaults / Input (control channel) parameters / CC Data Serial Port (you press 'D', 'I', then scroll down a few times, enter the comm port number that the scanner is connected to and press Enter) - Esc back to the main Command prompt and 'Q'uit the program (by pressing 'Q' - don't click on the big X in the upper right - ever!); this will save the CC Data port info - rerun TRUNK88; if the scanner is properly connected and sending OSW data to the serial port, TRUNK88 will start monitoring the system. - now would be a good time to set a few system parameters; navigate to System Menu / Edit Settings / Tables, then: - Name of System; you should enter something meaningful, like "Mayberry PS" - System Type; the choices are: 1: Type I 800 MHz system 2: Type II 800 MHz system 4: Hybrid/IIi 800 MHz system 8: 900 MHz system 16: VHF or UHF system - Fleetmap; unless it's an old Type I or Hybrid/IIi system, leave it blank; if it is, press Ctrl-H and have fun... - Bandplan Range #1 / Base; Ctrl-H will list the choices (e.g. if the system uses the standard 800 MHz bandplan, just enter "800.", for splinter, "801.", etc.). If it's a VHF or UHF system, enter the bandplan components (base frequencies, step sizes and offsets); ensure that any unused ranges have their values set to zero - after setting up the correct bandplan values, use the System Menu's Apply Current 'B'andplan dialog to correct any system frequencies that were logged before you set up the bandplan - since most scannerheads like to see those big "TrunkTracker" talkgroup IDs on all of their systems, you'll be going back to the main Command prompt (just press Esc until you get there), then navigating to Edit Defaults / File and display formats / Talkgroup Display Format. Change it to 4 (TrunkTracker) - whenever you Quit the program, TRUNK88 will save your trunking system data to a file; use Windows Explorer and navigate to the folder that you installed TRUNK88 in - you should see an xxxx.CTL file, where xxxx is the monitored system's ID. Right click on the file and open it in Notepad; this will give you an overview of what information TRUNK88 records - no doubt, you'll want to populate your system .CTL file with talkgroup names; it's all covered in the RR2T88 ReadMe file. You'll find RR2T88 where you found TRUNK88: http://home.ica.net/~phoenix/wap/TRUNK88 - if you're migrating from a Unitrunker setup, you can use TRUNK88's System Menu / Import UT XML System File dialog while monitoring a system to transfer your system data to TRUNK88. TRUNK88 will import the system name, zone and channel data, plus all talkgroup numbers, names, colors, lockout flags, priorities, hit counts and last-seen timestamps. All radio numbers, names, colors, priorities and last-seen timestamps are also imported. Note: For each talkgroup and radio color, TRUNK88 will select the closest match in its list of 16 colors. You should adjust TRUNK88's custom color table (Edit Defaults / Backgrounds and colors / Color0-Color15) before importing your data. You can tweak TRUNK88's colors and reimport your data as required. Changes in TRUNK88 version 4.89 - New Features: - DVB-T dongle support TRUNK88 can use a DVB-T dongle as a control channel audio source. No support apps, like SDRSharp, Virtual Audio Cable, etc. are required. See SDR Guide.txt for full details. - Parameter Changes: - Command Line Changes have been made to some command line parameters. Enter TRUNK88 /HELP at a command prompt to view a summary of all supported command line parameters. - New Parameters: - CC Device Type [ CC Device Type ] This parameter controls which type of device TRUNK88 will read control channel data from. Valid values for CC Device Type are: O:WaveIn device (onboard sound / sound card / sound USB dongle / VAC) 1:Serial port (scanner CC dump) 2:SDR (RTL2832U-based dongle with E4OOO/FCOO12/FCOO13/FC285O/R82OT tuner) Note: this parameter can be set via the command line when starting TRUNK88, which can make it easier to simultaneously monitor multiple systems; use "TRUNK88 /HELP" for more details. - CC SDR Parameters A number of new parameters have been added to support DVB-T dongles. See SDR Guide.txt for full details. - Affiliation Timeout Period [ Affiliation Timeout Period ] Units are in hours. For SmartZone systems, this value should match the timeout period programmed into the zone controller. Most systems use a four hour timeout period.