I found that having the right signal input to the scanner results in fine audio being decoded from a simulcast signal.
if it is too strong, it is like pouring water into a funnel it spills over the side cause it cannot flow out the bottom fast enough.
if it is too weak, it is like having a candlelight when you should have sunlight.
it is a fine balancing act to get the right signal and have the radio decode the signal properly.
and while a real radio does work better, they too have the same issues, just not as great.
a lot of it stems from our radio front ends being broad as a big barn door, and the real radio having a closet door for a entry to the P25 decoder. the wider the door the more crap comes in.
if you get the front end narrowed up properly it will work just fine.
and it helps of you dedicate a radio to only the system you want to hear. and put a band pass filter in the front end just for that systems range and ignore the rest.
while we as consumers don't always have this ability, hence we have to play the yagi or use a indoor antenna where possible to find the sweet spot for our reception.
I do think with the right DSP code in the consumer scanner we could do a bit better.
At the TV station I had a 996xt on a outdoor antenna (discone) with a stridesberg 8 way multi-coupler to feed 8 scanners.
We had about 75 ft of 7/8 coax feeding this set up.
It would have full signal bars at the radio and not lock on to the control channel.
I tried external pads and the electronic ATT in the radio still no good receive at all.
Then on a lark I tried a old indian trick, had an identical radio with the same program loaded
and a paper clip in the back for an antenna well Like WOW! .... We had half signal bars and the best reception ever.
It goes to show, you don't need full signal to hear the stuff.
It is a fine balancing act to get it to come in good, it is not a one size fits all solution.
Experiment! I say .........
HH
Quote:
Originally Posted by PVPD730
HH and nd5y, thank you both for your input! Looks like this is something we'll all have to unfortunately just deal with unless the scanner manufacturers develop a firmware revision that corrects the simulcast reception issues (not holding my breath on that btw). It was REALLY bad in the South Downtown area last night.
|
Reception
Linear Mode
