OKWIN and Pro163/164

[Walt725]

I entered the channel plans just as suggested but still to no avail. I can see the scanner jumping to 86x.xxxx but it is so fast that i cant get all the digits.

I finally brought home my feed radio which is a bc998xt. With Unitrunker I confirmed my channel information I stated above. My only error was that 852.5500 is confirmed as 436 and not 439.

When I downloaded the info from the RR database, it says the channels are something other than what UniT is detecting. There is also one other curious tidbit located in the 996 itself. When you set the band plan you can actually set the polarity as either + or - (has nothing to do with power).
From my research almost every site around uses + polarity which i assume means start at 0 and count up. But as can be seen from my channels and frequencies it is definitely the inverse in this case.

So with the channels from UniT and from the frequencies I determined that:

LO = 851.000
HI = 858.000
OFFSET = 560
STEP = 12.5khz
Now here is the kicker - Polarity had to be set to (-)
If polarity was set to (+) you could see the scanner jumping to the wrong frequencies.

The real scary part is, no software package i use knows about the (-) polarity other than a setting in the BC996 itself.
This is why none of my RS scanners will work with what is really a simple channel plan. (Although I have come up with a kluge).

This site was definitely strange and does not conform to the other sites which I can hear from this location.

Questions:
Has anyone else run into this problem ?
How do we notify the people that wrote ARC300 to see if they can add the polarity setting in the custom BP's?

Thanks for everyone's help.

[ka3jjz]

Insofar as the Uniden scanners is concerned, you can choose the polarity. In FreeScan, make the offset a negative number to change it. I'm unsure about the other packages, though...It's at least worth it to try with ARC300 or the other packages that work with the PRO-163.

Mike

[Walt725]

I just tried ARC-300 and Win97.
Neither will allow you to use a (-) channel plan.
If you enter a negative offset, it jumps back to 0 and if you enter a negative step it gets weird. A step of a -12.5 actually becomes -11.200 or some strange number. Either way the scanner doesn't like it.
I really think its a function of the older RS163/164 radios.

The ARC-XT Pro on the other hand works just fine. Enter a -560 for offset and all is happy.

Also, how do we get the RR database corrected to account for this channel plan on this site?
The site is actually a hybrid of analog and P25 digital. The scanner is picking up both which may account for the strange BP.

[ka3jjz]

Nah, we have lots of other so-called 'mixed mode' systems that don't require weird rebanding bandplans...

We have a special category in our wiki called Regional Programming to take care of documenting situations like this. For example...

Grundy County Public Safety - The RadioReference Wiki

The RRDB would cause the standard rebanding bandplan to be downloaded automagically, and in this case, it appears that's not what is needed.

We can easily attach such data to the OKWIN wiki .

Mike

[ka3jjz]

Originally Posted by Walt725

<snip>
How do we notify the people that wrote ARC300 to see if they can add the polarity setting in the custom BP's?

Thanks for everyone's help.

Walt go to the Scanner Programming software forum, and post something for BuTel (Gommert is the go-to guy here). Make sure you put something in the title that mentions the software and the enhancement you are looking for.

This may also be something for Don S (Win97's author) and Mikey50 (I think that's his ID - he's the author of PSREdit300) - so you might want to make the message more generic - like 'adding a negative offset for these programs...'

That's assuming, of course, that the firmware in these radios can actually handle a negative polarity - there's a chance that they can't

Mike

[Walt725]

Unless someone can show different, the OKWIN- Vinita site works as mentioned above.
851.0000 858.0000 Offset -560 Step 12.5

[DickH]

Originally Posted by Walt725

I just tried ARC-300 and Win97.
Neither will allow you to use a (-) channel plan.
If you enter a negative offset, it jumps back to 0 and if you enter a negative step it gets weird. A step of a -12.5 actually becomes -11.200 or some strange number. Either way the scanner doesn't like it.
I really think its a function of the older RS163/164 radios.

The ARC-XT Pro on the other hand works just fine. Enter a -560 for offset and all is happy.

Also, how do we get the RR database corrected to account for this channel plan on this site?
The site is actually a hybrid of analog and P25 digital. The scanner is picking up both which may account for the strange BP.

When you set the band plan you can actually set the polarity as either + or -
Where do you find the (-)? In the 996 menu or in the program? Which program?

So based on your findings there are some (at least one) system or site out there with a reverse band plan. That means there are at least 5 variations; the one you have found and the 4 I know about using 3 band plans developed by KE7XM in Utah. They are:
Plan 2 then Plan 3
Plan 3 then Plan 2
Plans 1, 2, 3
Plans 1, 3, 2

To summarize:
The PRO-160 & 162 can be re-banded manually using the 3 band plans.
The PRO-163 & 164 can be re-banded only using software, but not a "reversed" site like the Vinita site.
Other Uniden scanners can be re-banded if they have the (+) and (-) capability.

[Walt725]

Dick,
The (-) is in the 996. When you enter the offset, you then either select + or - polarity.
In the software (ARC XT Pro) you can enter a negative offset to accomplish the same thing.

Your summary is correct.

Thanks again for your help.

Walt