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Radio Dispatcher Console

A web-based dispatcher console for HamVoIP / AllStar repeater nodes running DVSwitch. Provides real-time monitoring of DMR and analog activity, talkgroup tuning, network switching, Allstar node control, Trunk Recorder call playback, and RTL-SDR scanner integration — all from a browser on your local network.

Features

  • Live TX monitor — callsign, DMR ID, talkgroup, and network displayed in real time via SSE push
  • DMR talkgroup tuning — tune BrandMeister or TGIF talkgroups with name lookup and favorite management
  • Network switching — one-click toggle between BrandMeister and TGIF via DVSwitch scripts
  • Allstar / IAX2 control — connects to your Asterisk node as an IAX2 client; link/unlink remote nodes, send DTMF commands, monitor connected nodes
  • Allstar audio — streams decoded ulaw audio from the IAX2 session to the browser
  • Service management — restart STFU, Analog Bridge, or MMDVM Bridge directly from the UI (API-key protected)
  • Last heard log — recent activity merged from MMDVM Bridge and Analog Bridge logs; timestamps shown in browser local time
  • Live log tail — view the last N lines of any service log in the browser, including the watchdog log
  • DMR and Allstar favorites — save and recall talkgroups (per network) and Allstar nodes, persisted across restarts
  • Node connect/disconnect toasts — centered popup alerts for Allstar node link/unlink events with configurable duration and optional audio chimes
  • DMR talkgroup change toasts — popup alert when the active talkgroup changes
  • Trunk Recorder integration — receives call uploads from TR, plays audio in-browser with a scrollable call log, auto-play mode, per-system display labels
  • RTL-SDR scanner integration — live relay of an rtl-airband-scanner instance with full channel management, audio playback, and synchronized display (see below)
  • Audio controls overlay — accessible via the 🎧 button in the title bar; per-source volume, LP/HP filters, and squelch tail

RTL-SDR Scanner Integration

The dispatcher connects to a separate rtl-airband-scanner instance over its WebSocket control API and HTTP audio stream, relaying everything to the browser.

Scanner bar

The SDR bar shows the current scanner state at a glance:

Element Meaning
Pulse dot Green when squelch is open (signal active)
Frequency Active channel frequency in MHz
Label Channel label; shows 🔒 suffix when held
SCANNING No active signal / scanner is sweeping
dB badge Signal level relative to threshold
HOLD badge Displayed when scanner is locked to a frequency

Scanner bar buttons

Button Action
⏭ Next Force immediate advance to next channel
⊘ Skip Toggle current frequency in/out of scan rotation (highlights orange when skipped)
🔒 Hold Lock scanner to current frequency; click again to release
⊞ Channels Open channel management modal

Channel management modal

  • Add — add a new channel with frequency, label, bank, mode, channel width, CTCSS/PL tone, sub-audio HPF, squelch RMS, and gain
  • Edit — inline edit any channel field
  • Skip toggle (⊘/▶) — include or exclude a channel from the scan rotation
  • Hold toggle (🔒/🔓) — lock or release hold on a specific channel
  • Delete — remove a channel
  • Scan banks — enable/disable scan banks; bank toggle buttons appear automatically when more than one bank is defined

Audio

SDR audio is streamed as WAV via the dispatcher's HTTP proxy and played through the Web Audio API with:

  • Volume slider
  • LP Cut — low-pass filter cutoff (500 Hz – 8 kHz, default 3 kHz)
  • HP Cut — high-pass filter cutoff (0 – 600 Hz, default off)

Display activation is automatically synchronized to audio playback using the scanner's audio_stats stream — no manual lag adjustment needed. The display shows the active channel when you hear it, and clears when the audio tail drains.

Configuration

# Base URL of the rtl-airband-scanner app (no trailing slash)
SDR_SCANNER_URL = 'http://192.168.1.100:8080'

The dispatcher connects to SDR_SCANNER_URL/ws for control events and proxies SDR_SCANNER_URL/stream for audio.

Requirements

  • Python 3.10+
  • HamVoIP / Asterisk node with DVSwitch (MMDVM Bridge, Analog Bridge, STFU)
  • IAX2 peer configured in /etc/asterisk/iax.conf (for Allstar section)
  • websocket-client Python package (for SDR scanner relay)
pip install flask flask-sock websocket-client

Installation

Quick install (systemd service)

git clone https://github.com/mostlychris/dispatcher
cd dispatcher
cp config.example.py config.py
# Edit config.py — see Configuration below
bash install.sh

install.sh writes a systemd unit file, grants the required sudo systemctl restart permissions via /etc/sudoers.d/dispatcher, enables the service at boot, and starts it immediately.

Manual run

python app.py

UI available at http://<host>:9090 (or whatever LISTEN_PORT is set to in config.py).

Configuration

Copy config.example.py to config.py and fill in your values. config.py is gitignored and never committed.

# Audio monitor WebSocket URL (leave empty to disable)
AUDIO_WS_URL = ''

# Allstar / IAX2 — must match your iax.conf peer
ALLSTAR_HOST   = '127.0.0.1'
ALLSTAR_PORT   = 4569
ALLSTAR_USER   = 'iaxrpt'
ALLSTAR_SECRET = 'your_secret'
ALLSTAR_NODE   = '12345'

# API key — required by the browser for service-restart endpoints
API_KEY = 'generate_a_random_string'

# Flask listen port
LISTEN_PORT = 9090

# DVSwitch script paths
DVSWITCH_SCRIPT       = '/opt/MMDVM_Bridge/dvswitch.sh'
CONNECT_TGIF_SCRIPT   = '/opt/MMDVM_Bridge/connectTGIF.sh'
CONNECT_BM_SCRIPT     = '/opt/MMDVM_Bridge/connectBM.sh'

# systemd service names
STFU_SERVICE          = 'stfu.service'
ANALOG_BRIDGE_SERVICE = 'analog_bridge.service'
MMDVM_SERVICE         = 'mmdvm_bridge.service'

# DVSwitchPlayer WebSocket port (browser-side audio player)
DVSWITCHPLAYER_PORT = 8080

# Trunk Recorder
TR_API_KEY  = 'CHANGE_ME'
TR_AUDIO_DIR = '/var/lib/dispatcher/tr-audio'
TR_MAX_CALLS = 5000
TR_SYSTEMS = {
    # 'mysystem': 'My County P25',
}

# RTL-SDR scanner (no trailing slash)
SDR_SCANNER_URL = 'http://192.168.1.100:8080'

Generate a random API_KEY:

python3 -c "import secrets; print(secrets.token_hex(16))"

Allstar IAX2 peer (/etc/asterisk/iax.conf)

Add a peer for the dispatcher to connect as:

[iaxrpt]
type=user
context=iax-client
auth=md5
secret=your_secret
host=dynamic
disallow=all
allow=ulaw

Trunk Recorder integration

The dispatcher accepts call uploads directly from Trunk Recorder using the same multipart HTTP format as rdio-scanner, so no custom scripts are needed — just point TR's built-in uploader at the dispatcher.

Trunk Recorder config (config.json)

"uploaders": [
  {
    "url": "http://<dispatcher-ip>:9090",
    "key": "CHANGE_ME"
  }
]

CHANGE_ME must match TR_API_KEY in config.py. The dispatcher receives calls at POST /api/call-upload (the same path rdio-scanner uses).

Adding multiple systems

Each call upload includes a short_name field from Trunk Recorder. The dispatcher registers systems automatically on first upload. You can give them friendly display names in config.py:

TR_SYSTEMS = {
    'countyp25': 'County P25',
    'fire':      'Fire Dispatch',
}

What happens on each call

  1. Audio file is saved to TR_AUDIO_DIR
  2. Call metadata is added to the in-memory ring buffer (newest first, max TR_MAX_CALLS)
  3. An SSE event is pushed to all connected browsers
  4. The Trunk status bar flashes and updates with system + talkgroup
  5. If Auto-play is enabled, audio plays immediately in the browser

Audio storage

Audio files are stored in TR_AUDIO_DIR (default /var/lib/dispatcher/tr-audio). When the ring buffer reaches TR_MAX_CALLS, the oldest call's audio file is deleted automatically.

Watchdog

watchdog.py is an optional cron script that monitors the three DVSwitch services and restarts any that have died. It writes a structured log to /var/log/dispatcher-watchdog.log, which is visible in the app's log viewer under the Watchdog tab.

Install the cron job on the dispatcher host:

# Run as root (needs systemctl restart privileges)
*/2 * * * * /usr/bin/python3 /opt/MMDVM_Bridge/dispatcher/watchdog.py

The watchdog only acts on services that systemctl is-active reports as inactive — it does not restart services just because there is no active radio traffic (USRP silence is normal and expected).

Note: If your logrotate configs use systemctl reload for STFU, Analog Bridge, or MMDVM Bridge, change them to systemctl restart. These services exit cleanly on SIGINT (exit code 0), which bypasses Restart=on-failure in systemd and leaves them dead until manually restarted.

Architecture

The entire application is a single file (app.py) — a Flask server with the complete HTML/CSS/JS frontend embedded as a string and rendered by the / route.

UI layout

Section Status bar shows Controls
DMR TX pulse, mode badge, connection state, active TG Network switch, TG tune, favorites
Allstar RX dot, connection badge, local node, linked node Connect/disconnect, PTT, node linking, DTMF
Trunk Recorder Call pulse, system, talkgroup, duration Auto-play toggle, volume, call log
SDR Scanner Signal pulse, frequency, label, dB, HOLD badge Next, Skip, Hold, Channels modal

Backend layers

Component Description
usrp_listener() Daemon thread; binds UDP 31002, receives USRP PTT packets from Analog Bridge
tg_refresh_loop() Daemon thread; reloads TG name lists from /tmp every 5 minutes
AllstarManager Wraps IAX2Client; handles connect/disconnect, fans PCM audio to WebSocket listeners
IAX2Client (iax2.py) Self-contained IAX2 client — NEW → CALLTOKEN → AUTHREQ/AUTHREP (MD5) → ACCEPT
_sdr_relay_loop() Daemon thread; maintains WebSocket connection to scanner, relays events to SSE clients, mirrors scanner state
SSE stream (/api/stream) Fan-out queue per browser client; pushes real-time events for all sources

Data files

File Purpose
favorites.json Per-network favorite talkgroups (persisted)
as_favorites.json Saved Allstar node favorites (persisted)
last_state.json Last tuned TG, network, and time (survives restarts)
tg_names_cache.json Snapshot of TG names from last successful load

API Reference

Method Endpoint Description
GET / Single-page UI
GET /api/stream SSE stream (all real-time events)
GET /api/status Mode, active TG, service states, connection state
GET /api/lastheard 20 most recent heard entries
GET /api/log/<key> Tail log; keys: mmdvm, analog, stfu, watchdog; ?lines=N (max 500)
GET /api/favorites DMR favorites dict
POST /api/favorites Add DMR favorite {tg, network}
DELETE /api/favorites/<network>/<tg> Remove a DMR favorite
GET /api/as_favorites Allstar node favorites list
POST /api/as_favorites Add Allstar favorite {node, label}
DELETE /api/as_favorites/<node> Remove an Allstar favorite
GET /api/tune_history In-memory tune history (cleared on restart)
POST /api/tgif Switch to TGIF network
POST /api/bm Switch to BrandMeister network
POST /api/tune Tune talkgroup {tg}
POST /api/restart Restart STFU service (requires X-Api-Key)
POST /api/restart_ab Restart Analog Bridge (requires X-Api-Key)
POST /api/restart_mmdvm Restart MMDVM Bridge (requires X-Api-Key)
GET /api/allstar/status Allstar connection state and active RX flag
GET /api/allstar/nodes List currently linked nodes
POST /api/allstar/connect Connect to configured Allstar node
POST /api/allstar/disconnect Disconnect IAX2 session
POST /api/allstar/link Link remote node {node, mode} (monitor/transceive)
POST /api/allstar/unlink Unlink remote node {node}
POST /api/allstar/command Send DTMF command string {cmd}
GET /api/debug/abinfo Dump raw ABInfo JSON
WS /ws/allstar-audio Raw 16-bit PCM at 8 kHz (ulaw decoded)
POST /api/call-upload Trunk Recorder call upload (multipart: key, audio, call JSON)
GET /api/tr/calls Recent TR call list (newest first, max TR_MAX_CALLS)
GET /api/tr/systems Registered TR systems with display labels
GET /api/tr/audio/<filename> Serve a stored TR audio file
GET /api/sdr/state Current SDR scanner state snapshot
GET /api/sdr/stream Proxied WAV audio stream from scanner
POST /api/sdr/skip Toggle frequency in/out of scan rotation {freq}
POST /api/sdr/resume Force immediate scan advance (next channel)
POST /api/sdr/hold Toggle hold on a frequency {freq}
PUT /api/sdr/channel Add or edit a channel
DELETE /api/sdr/channel/<freq> Remove a channel
POST /api/sdr/bank Enable/disable a scan bank {bank, enabled}

Endpoints marked requires X-Api-Key must include the header X-Api-Key: <your API_KEY>.

Removing the Service

bash uninstall.sh

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Flask web console for monitoring and controlling DMR radio networks (MMDVM, TGIF, BrandMeister)

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