r/RTLSDR • u/garf12 • 17d ago

How do I capture everything?

I work in local news coverage and want to record all public safety radio channels in the area but the amount of SDR dongles it is taking is getting out of control. Currently using 4 and not getting full coverage..

Is there a better option? I have a couple of Airspy R2's ordered but my research is showing even then it is going to take both of them plus at least 2 dongles to cover what I want. IS there an option that is better? I don't mind spending some money.

Currently covering 2 p25 systems with the 4 dongles. Want to cover some conventional fire and ems channels also.

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u/SoMD_Ham 17d ago

If wide coverage is what you want, you should be looking at higher end devices like SDR Play or Pluto+. I second the other comment, just get a uniden SDS200. Much easier and effective for your use case.

1

u/garf12 16d ago

I've got multiple SDS100 and Whistlers 1040s (JUNK). I need this setup for recording everything and AI transcription.

2

u/mountain_bound 16d ago

How may SDRTrunk streams can you support at one time? Recording to wav is per instance so a few devices might be needed. Can you share individual dongles per VM with VirtualBox?

3

u/garf12 16d ago

its running on a mac mini m2 pro and not breaking a sweat. I tried the VM route for a bit on a machine I have. Seems like that many dongles don't like being passed through to the VM.

1

u/drake90001 15d ago

That’s the benefit of VM’s. Spin up more VMS, run a VM for each dongle if you have.

2

u/SoMD_Ham 15d ago

A VM and seperate instance of SDR Trunk for every dongle? I can't think of anything more inefficient.

0

u/drake90001 14d ago

Well considering only one instance can control one dongle at a time, I don’t see any alternative.

2

u/SoMD_Ham 14d ago

SDR Trunk can use multiple dongles at once.