WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hey all,
I thought it might be handy for us Zello users if we had a channel we could quickly advise each other of significant events relating to FRS radio worth listening to. I'm not always listening to the stream, but if someone hears something significant, it would be great to give a heads up via Zello so we can listen straight away. Anyway, Zello users can search the Channels for Perth Fire and Rescue (or simply search Perth Fire and you'll find it).
In fact, it would also be cool if Gav could stream the FRS audio via Zello using the desktop software, as hopefully the VOX function will kill the ongoing background noise that streaming has when there is no actual talking on the channel. It will also allow users to listen back to recent traffic for something they missed.
I may also set up a second Zello channel for Perth WARSUG chit chat, so users can generally chat without needing to use the Significant Events channel.
Anyway, for those who are new to Zello, there is a wiki page and you can download the app for iphone, android and desktop pc. Basically turns your device into a two way radio using ip so it is two-way but anywhere there is internet, not just local or using a repeater!
Oh, and it is free.

This is an interesting service. You might want to add where to get it which is http://zello.com/

Can I assume you can install the PC client, and get it to broadcast like that?

Free for 5 users though, I take it if there are more than 5 users in a channel it needs to be paid?

G'day,
That is for the paid professional use if you want to interface your current two way system with Zello. For users to chat among themselves it is free and unlimited users per channel. For the stream to transmit it is free, obviously the stream Admin would need to set it as a listen only for users. Spend some time searching the channels. It would seem the private groups are the popular ones, and the public ones are pretty much just the usual rubbish people swearing and being racist / rude etc. I think for what we would use it for should be a quick way to broadcast to other members of significant events.

I have created a test/example channel of the 6AR feed "Perth fire and rescue radio feed" but as I am in a bad radio reception area, the audio is poor. Anyone able to create one? It gets rid of that background hiss when no transmission/reception, and records the audio to allow for playback.

If your mobile device isn't logged into Zello, I take it the history isn't available until you start sitting in the channel? So history is saved on the mobile device and not the host I'm guessing?

Hmmm, yeah it seems so. There is a setting as to how much drive space you can allocate to recording messages so I guess it is a local save.

Any idea if the PC client supports multiple streams/channels/inputs?

I believe you can run multiple instances of zello. The Perth Fire and Rescue stream on Zello seems quite stable now (finally). And yes, it is definitely handy to be able to play back the audio of previous transmissions. Surprised the media aren't using something like this for monitoring (well maybe they already are).

Back when I was testing this I couldn't get two instances to run side by side. Any ideas if anyone has it successfully running like that?