An old dog new tricks

[mark1]

Who fancies helping to teach an old dog some new tricks lol. I've recently got back into all things radio probably due to this lockdown going on and always fancied trying out an SDR radio. I've purchased an RSPDX made by RSP play, I'm running it with RSPDUO and all going well up to now. I'm more of a HF guy so amateur bands and SWL all working great and loving the waterfall to see stations before I hear them.
So with having all this coverage I thought I'd have a play at scanning as it's got a built in scanner. I've not got a proper scanning antenna yet as wanting to see what's available to hear. At the moment I've got a receiving loop that's suppose to cover up to 200MHz. I can hear 2m ham radio ok but not much else. I've downloaded WTR browser and searched my area but when I look for my local taxi firms only 1 comes up, why not the others? anyway for the one listed it gives 2 frequencies, why is this? one for tx and one for rx maybe? but anyway I've been listening on both quite a bit today but not heard a thing. I've also scanned random parts of frequencies but not getting anything. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Also reading about stuff like DMR, tetra and various other stuff that I can't even remember now lol not quite as easy as the HF bands is it were you just tune in and pick the right mode lol
Any sites for a total beginner.
Thanks in advance

[milly]

"made by" - that would be SDRplay not 'RSP play'
"running it with" - would be SDRuno not 'RSPDUO'

Haven't looked at the scanner in SDRuno for a year...it was pants back then but maybe not they have jumped on the plugins train it has been/will be improved. I prefer other software (though do occasionally use SDRuno for spot HF freqs)

Taxi firm licences won't necessarily be in the name of the company...might be an individual. Many taxi companies use cellphone-based systems instead of licensed radio.
Two freqs will usually mean tx and receive but it doesn't have to. How busy is your taxi firm? Near me they are very quiet recently. Are they using voice radio or a data system.

Maybe if you post in the area based section you'll get more specific localised replies/info.

[mark1]

Hi milly and thanks for taking the time to reply. I can't believe I wrote rsp play and rsp duo lol. You can tell I haven't had it long, too much reading about scanning and stuff, I don't know if I'm coming or going these days lockdown is getting to me I think. All noted on the 2 frequencies listed and the taxi lack of listing. It wasn't so much trying to find them just a case of whether I was using the search correct on WTR because I couldn't see them on there and know they operate local. The one that I tried to listen to as you say might just be quiet because of lockdown still going on. I did pick up my local airport main tower last night, not very well but I could hear it. That might be an indication that maybe my antenna is not so good that high up the bands as I was expecting.
I don't know if SDRuno is the way to go at the moment with regards to all the extra add on's you need to decode rather than just get a dedicated receiver/scanner, it was only because I had it here I thought I'd have a go. First port of call I suppose is to get a better antenna and see how that works out.

[brrailman]

Hi mark1 Why taxis use 2 frequencies is that the base tx on 1 and rx the mobiles on the other.

[mark1]

Hi mark1 Why taxis use 2 frequencies is that the base tx on 1 and rx the mobiles on the other.

Yeah I get that now, cheers buddy