P25 Phase 2
So in my area, many areas I’m assuming, the public safety has went to a digital trunking system in place of older analog technologies. I wont dare try to explain it let alone fully understand it so I’ll leave a Wikipedia link instead. My whole reason for getting involved is so I could continue listening to my local police and fire. I used an app on my Android phone but wanted to dig a little deeper.
This deeper digging led me to the SDR’s previously mentioned. Getting P25 Phase 2 to work on an SDR proved to be a challenge that I almost gave up on but my persistence prevailed, with the help of the internet of course.
So ultimately I ended up with the ability to use one RTL-SDR as a full on P25 decoder. There are several options that require two SDR’s as well. I ended up buying an Uniden - SDS200 and that’s what I now use. I will post the links that helped me the most below. I will say that DSD Plus Fast Lane is what got me up and running after about a month of messing around with different options. It is a paid option but it was well worth it for me.
Links
I suggest following this channel as it’s VERY informative!