Hey Joey-
Not hijacking your thread but I am having nearly the same challenges with York County's P25 Simulcast (9 sites) as well.
Scanner Frequencies: York County Public Safety Trunking System, York County, South Carolina
Programmed as:
P25 Single Freq Trunk - 868.7750
P25 LP On
CC Disabled
Only difference is that I have 5 solid bars and have the same symptoms sitting next to the tower on 77S. I can't imagine this to be a signal issue but then again I am a newbie. I would love to discover any 396XT radio settings that improve the listening. Doing the HOLD on Control Channel results in solid 5 bars throughout. Occassional CC noise but long periods of silence as well. I have the same disruptions. Could this be due to the Simulcast issues?
While scanning, I see similar symptoms but I do hear intermittent voice. Display jumps from DAT to LNK and back. Audio is solid, then choppy, then returns to solid. Almost as if I am missing every 3rd word. I see the no voice issue similar to yours on E talkgroups but that is to be expected. The TGs you are locking on aren't encrypted right?
I haven't had much luck with the Simulcast thing. Luckily the smart folks on this forum have alerted me to the threads with similar issues with P25 simulcast systems. Ultimately seems to point to "confusion" of signals from 2 or more towers. There is a really good wiki post at
Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki if you haven't seen it.
How far are you located from your tower? Are you closer to one site than another?
Best solution to date:
1) Directional Ant
Sorry I don't have an answer but will certainly keep trying.
-Jim