Interesting to hear that youall are having trouble receiving Scottsdale. I have similar problems, even though I live midway between north and south Scottsdale radio dispatch zones. My experience on
SIMULCAST H
--Phoenix Fire dispatch 1794 and Scottsdale Fire tac channels like K7 and K11. 90 percent intelligible, un-garbled.
--Scottsdale Police north dispatch 3402. 50 percent intelligible, partially garbled. Gets a bit clearer when scanner is on for hours, scanner learns to decode better, and error rate declines below 10
--Scottsdale Police south dispatch 3401. 5 percent intelligible, almost completely garbled, never improves.
THOMPSON PEAK
---Scottsdale Police North Dispatch 3402. 75 percent intelligible, mostly un-garbled
SIMULCAST F TEMPE
--Scottsdale Police has not been broadcast since earlier this year
These are my results with BCD996XT and BCD396XT, discone antenna 20 feet above ground. (A BCD436HP was returned because it received nothing intelligible on any Regional Wireless Cooperative (RWC) systems, sites, or groups.)
My understanding is that simulcasts, like Scottsdale H, are usually broadcast from a web of half a dozen or more locations. If you are standing under one location, you may receive a clear signal because all the others are distant and weaker. However, if you are located somewhere mid-web, many of the signals may arrive within milliseconds of each other and cancel out each other. Professional-grade P25 transceivers are supposed to sort this out, with the help of sophisticated system adjustments. Present and past generations of scanners rarely succeed at this.
Please pass along any suggestions on improving results!
By the way, two BC780XLT's, a BC72XLT, and a BC355N all work fine receiving VHF of Phoenix Fire dispatch and fire-ground frequencies, along with Salt River Fire, DPS, etc.
P25 problems always raise the question of whether the FCC and emergency services nationwide made the right decision handing a virtual monopoly to Motorola beginning many years ago. If you add up the great number of frequencies that P25 consumes, you begin to wonder if there wasn't already enough spectrum to assign conventional frequencies as needed for public safety. Listen long enough to any system and you'll hear the obviously essential tactical or drug or gang-related frequencies, but you'll also find the wasted chat channels for ordering pizza.
Thanks.