The Wonderful World Of Windows

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Now that I have a proper Windows laptop again I had forgotten how much stuff out there is Windows only.  Here’s a quick list of stuff that I can really only do or do best with Windows.  This list is unique to me and the toys I dabble with:

  • Police Scanners – I’m a scanner geek and the two most popular brands of scanners are Uniden and Whistler (arguably).  Neither one provides any programming software or firmware update tools in anything but Windows.  Advanced 3rd Party Software such as Proscan or others is also Windows only.
  • RTL-SDR – While you can most certainly do RTL-SDR stuff on Linux and Mac the most fun software such as DSD+ or the most intuitive control software, SDR#, is Windows only.
  • CNC Machines – I have a NextWave Shark HD500 CNC machine.  All firmware tools, and  control software are Windows only.  The very best CNC software is from a company called Vectric and is called either VCarve or Aspire.  All variants of VCarve and Aspire are Windows only.
  • Vinyl Sign Machines – I have a Roland GX-24 vinyl sign cutter. While there are various Mac or Linux software offerings the very best pro sign making software solutions are Windows only.  (Flexi, CoCut, etc.).
  • Laser Engraving and Cutting –  The very best software for Lasers is Lightburn which in fact is cross platform and offers Mac and Linux versions.  The Mac versions have USB issues and the Linux versions are just buggy in my opinion.   While I can generally work Lightburn to my laser via the Mac version OVER ETHERNET, when I need to move one of my more portable lasers around the best reliable method is to use the Windows version.

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Uniden SDS100 Proscan Server Audio

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USB Sound Card

I have a Uniden SDS200 which has an ethernet jack and it is a breeze to set the scanner up as a server over my network using the excellent software, Proscan.  That includes streaming the audio across the network.

My SDS100 is a slightly different animal and it requires a a physical connection via USB so that Proscan software can see the scanner.  That won’t carry your audio though,  so it needs a separate physical connection from the Line Out (headphone jack) on the SDS100 to the controlling computer.

I don’t know about your laptop or computer but mine DOES NOT have an input jack for a microphone.  So what you have to do is add a USB sound device that has a separate microphone input.
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How To Select The Proper Police Scanner

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So you want a police scanner?  There are definitely some things to consider before you get one. And in this day and age the old saying goes “There’s an app for that”.  There are multiple apps you can download for your phone, and they work, but they also have some considerations.

First and foremost, that stream to your app IS SOMEONE ELSE’S SCANNER.  It’s that simple.  And that stream is reliant upon their internet, and your internet.  An app may work for you but if you clicked through on a blog about Police Scanner Selection you’re likely here because you want your own scanner.   Let’s get to the considerations.

How Much Is This Going To Cost

It depends.  Modern Digital Trunking Radio systems require expensive hardware to turn that digital signal into voice.  Radios capable of following trunked radio systems are going to cost you probably at least $250 and probably more like $500 for a decent one.  That being said, if you live in small town USA where they use Analog FM radios or you just want to listen to the local airport control tower you just need an Analog radio which are CHEAP and can be found used for hardly anything on eBay or Facebook Marketplace.

First you need to know what you are up against.  The search begins at RadioReference.com Database pages.  Select your State and then your County.

RR Database for Craven County NC

From here you select the systems you want to monitor.  All my trunked radio systems above are some kind of digital communication so I need a digital trunking radio.
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Police Scanners – Hear More

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I have several police scanners and if you turn them all on side by side you’d be amazed that some seemingly pull in more calls than others.  Even if they are configured identically.  Everyone wants to hear EVERYTHING.

There are lots of variables but essentially here is John’s Rule Of Police Scanners:

“The more stuff you try to listen to, the more likely it is you’ll miss more stuff. “

Even in sleepy New Bern, North Carolina there is lots to listen to.  And most police scanners these days have a zip code search.  Put your zip code in and it pulls in EVERY POSSIBLE THING from the RadioReference.com databases.  As your SCANNER tries to SCAN through that massive list it will be searching elsewhere when some call comes in on a system you actually want to hear, and it will miss it.  Some scanners allow you to set Priority on systems, so all is not lost……but then it becomes a lot more complex than just putting your zip code in.

Let’s talk about some things we can do to improve listening and hear more of what you want to hear.
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Selecting a Software Defined Radio (RTL-SDR)

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RTL-SDR’s are COOL.  The list of things you can do with them is almost too long to list here.  But know that it ranges from “listening to the radio” to hardcore scientific atmospheric experiments, and everything in between.  Hackers can open your car door or garage door with them and private detectives can record the radio signals from your tire pressure monitors to prove you were somewhere you shouldn’t have been.  Remember the day when they used to have to sit for hours in a car and take your picture?  No more.

I recommend to anyone that will listen that they should have an RTL-SDR in their emergency kit.  When I went through Hurricane Florence in 2018 in New Bern NC all local communications went down INCLUDING the NOAA Weather Radio Station.  How’s that for a kick in the pants?  I watched TV anchors walk off the set due to flooding in their studios.  But the police and firemen and Linemen were still out there and I was listening as they restored power to my area.  Also having an RTL-SDR during a violent Hurricane KEPT ME ENTERTAINED and kept my mind off of things.  AM radio was my best way to stay informed but be warned that some of the SDR’s below need up converters (more hardware) to listen to AM radio or some geek skills to enable the device to listen to frequencies below 24 MHz.

Anyway…….how do you select what SDR you buy?  There are lots of them out there and I’ll hit some quick pros and cons on selecting them. If you go to Amazon and search, this is usually the first one that pops up.   The RTL-SDR Blog Version 3.

 

It may be one of the better general purpose receivers and is relatively low cost.  Let’s do some pros and cons.  There pros and cons are for FIRST TIME USERS AND BUYERS.  Not for old pros.

 

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Radio vs. RTL-SDR

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I live in Hurricane country and it is hurricane season.  Everyone tells you to have a radio in your storm preparation kit, but they don’t specify WHAT radio but sometimes they will say “Weather” radio.  A decent weather radio will set you back $30 or so.  But then that doesn’t get you the local news.  So an AM/FM/Weather radio that is decent will set you back even more.  There are cheaper ones than I just linked, but not cheaper by much.

During Hurricane Florence in New Bern, NC the local TV stations bugged out and the NOAA weather station was damaged and stopped transmitting.

Power was out and there was widespread flooding.  And an almost across the board loss of LOCAL communications.  At this point you are left with the Ham Radio folks.  Also most people probably aren’t aware the AM radio signals can be heard for HUNDREDS OF MILES at night.  So if your town loses all communications, the next one over probably didn’t.  Or that big city 200 miles away inland didn’t.

Below is the AM band at 1AM from my location in Eastern NC.  660 AM is WFAN in New York and it is coming in crystal clear.  It is routine to listen to Louisville, Clevland, New York, Boston, Detroit, Atlanta, Canada, etc.  You can see how many signals there are of good strength.

AM Radio at 1 AM Eastern North Carolina

Anyway, even supposing you have a multi-band radio that doesn’t help you when most everything goes off the air.  Where are you going to get your information?
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Using an SDRPlay RSPdx Over The Network

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Using an SDR device over your local network is pretty handy.  If you are like me your antenna connection for your SDR is in one place.   If you want to play “radio” you have to do it in that one place formerly known as “The Ham Shack”.  No more.  The Ham Shack can be anywhere in the house now.

Using an SDR over the network is nothing new but the various methods have pros and cons.   Essentially I want to be able to roll through 0 KHz to 1800 MHz from anywhere in the house.   In my previous blog I used an Airspy HF+ Discovery to stream to a Mac computer.  That worked perfectly but the Airspy HF+ does HF (plus a little more).   It doesn’t go 0-1800.

But my SDRPlay devices (RSPdx, RSP1a, and RSPDuo) do.  SDRPlay has some network Server software called RSP_TCP and let’s just call a duck, a duck shall we?  It’s crap.   It has limitations and it seems to be an abandoned project.  Go to their Github page and nothing has been done to the code for a couple of years.

But the folks at SDRPlay came up with an awesome solution to remote control a couple of years ago (which is probably why they bailed on the RSP_TCP project).

It is called VirtualHere.  I’ll try to make the explanation of that it is as simple as possible.
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Listen to Airspy Spyserver on a Mac

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It’s been a hot minute since I played with my RTL-SDR’s.  I have an Airspy Discovery HF+ which is an amazing piece of hardware, however it plays best with Windows software, specifically SDRSharp (SDR#).

The trouble is I spend most of my life on a Mac computer.   On the same download page I linked above for SDRSharp is program called SpyServer.  You can set up your Airspy HF+ Discovery to serve up radio over your network.

The trouble with that is the best software client to do that is SDR# which is Windows only.  So in order to make it work on Mac here is what we will do.
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Driving Miss Acer

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This is about Windows drivers.

I bought a cheap laptop from Walmart, an Acer A514-54-501Z.  While going through the system and deleting all the crappy extra programs they put in these things I noticed that many of the system drivers had a date of 2021 or earlier.  Only 1 or 2 drivers even had a date of 2022 and for a fact I know one was causing the computer to Blue Screen (wifi driver) which certainly prompted an update from Acer.   However, if I go to the Acer Support page I’m given a driver to download for my MediaTek Wifi module however if you go to MediaTek OEM drivers it isn’t even close to the latest driver.

Here’s what happens.  Let’s say you make laptops and you make some real cheap for the Walmart and Target crowd.  You make a profit, but not a big one.  You are NOT going to keep a crack team of software engineers on staff to maintain this laptop in an up to date, pristine status.   You find a driver that works, is stable and it STICKS.  They don’t update them UNLESS THEY HAVE TO, and by have to I mean that they receive tons of complaints or crash data.

Or if their high end computer has the same component and gets updated, maybe they’ll push it down to the bottom tier.  Like it or not, that is just the way it is.

I ran a program called Driver Booster 9 and it found TWENTY FIVE drivers that needed upgrading, including that MediaTek Wifi driver I mentioned earlier.
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Windows 11 Networking Not All Computers Showing

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I was having an issue where only a 3 of my networked computers were showing in the Windows Network Neighborhood (or at least they used to call it Network Neighborhood).

All computers on the network were visible from all my Mac and Linux computers and running software such as LanScan showed everything proudly announcing itself on the network.  So the problem pretty clearly was with Windows 11.

This is a blog where I wish I specified a FIX to the problem but the truth is, I’m not sure what fixed the problem, but this blog may not be a total waste to anyone else with this problem. 

First of all, I’m not new to the geek stuff, but I am newly returned to Windows.  I bought an Acer Aspire 5 laptop specifically to run a program called Vectric VCarve Desktop for my CNC machine.  Also my CNC machine firmware can only be updated from a Windows computer. Also since I design my SVG files on a Mac and store them on a couple of servers  I HAVE TO HAVE NETWORK ACCESS WITH MY WINDOWS LAPTOP WHILE I’M IN MY WORKSHOP TRYING TO CNC SOMETHING.

Let’s dig in.
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