Uniden BCT15/996 Receive Sensitivity

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Rob_K

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I'm sure this has been covered somewhere but my search skills came up with no results...

I am a Uniden Fan. I have a 996XT, 396t, 396xt (2) bct15s and a bct15x.

I have the 996XT, (2) BCT15s and the BCT15x hooked up to a DA being fed by a ST-2 antenna.

The BCT15s are all used for online feeds and the 996xt is used for my normal listening. One of the crossband repeaters I listen to is 464.85, PL 141.3 PL.

This comes in crystal clear on my BCT15. It will not come in on my 996XT or my 396XT with a rubber duck. I have tried turning the PL off and I swapped my antenna patch cables between the working and non-working base units. No change.

Someone suggested it may be a sensitivity issue. If this is the case (or whatever the issue is), does anyone have any suggestions? Is there anything I can do?

Note: I have not tested on the other 2 BCT15's because they are used for other feeds. The UHF frequency I'm trying to monitor doesn't have a lot of traffic and testing might take some time.

Thanks in advance,
Rob
 

JamesO

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Also beware that some splitters/DA do not have good isolation and local oscillator and images can leak back out the antenna connector and possibly cause issues with the other connected devices.

Might need to test and disconnect/turn off the other scanners and also check the DA/splitter specs and/or connect the questionable scanners directly to the antenna for a quick test.

Also consider local adjacent/co-channel interference as well.
 

saleen49

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Sounds just like the issue I am having. I monitor several agencies with a BCD996XT and a BCT15X. Made a few changes to the setup and can no longer pull in an agency located a mile from me with the BCD996XT. Recieving just fine on the BCT15X and also a BCT8 that I sometimes use. I lack the technical know how using these radios. I switched everything back the way it was and still nothing. Scratching my head with this!
 

JamesO

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Sounds just like the issue I am having. I monitor several agencies with a BCD996XT and a BCT15X. Made a few changes to the setup and can no longer pull in an agency located a mile from me with the BCD996XT. Recieving just fine on the BCT15X and also a BCT8 that I sometimes use. I lack the technical know how using these radios. I switched everything back the way it was and still nothing. Scratching my head with this!

Best to post a picture or diagram of how things are set up and list what components are being used. I have also been doing this long enough that simple things like bad connectors, bad connections and even mismatched cables with different Velocity of Propagation can act as filters or traps causing mismatches and standing waves.

If the radios work fine individually, then the problem is with the connecting cables and/or passive/active multiport devices.

Be careful as satellite and CATV splitters or Amps have some very specific filtering and/or return path elements that could cause certain bands on the radio to be non responsive.
 
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