BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Reception has ceased

Has anyone encountered any reception issues in the last ten days or so where their previously working 436HP no longer receives anything? My ten-month old unit had been working wonderfully across all bands with weekly database updates but then reception started to disappear. At first, I thought agencies in my area went encrypted but then started noticing a loss of reception across a whole host departments. As of yesterday, I cannot even receive NOAA transmissions which always works. The display shows scanning but there is simply no longer any reception on any channels.

No changes have been made on the unit or in Sentinel regarding location or range settings; i.e., everything had been working fine before this problem began. I have driven the unit around in the thought that my location was the issue without any improvement.

I have tried resetting / restoring user data as about the last thing I could think of before boxing up the unit and sending it back for warranty service.

If anyone (Upman) has any ideas or if I've missed something, please let me know.

Shep

At least one other user here has had to return his/her x36HP to be repaired due to the receiver 'going deaf'.
Sounds like yours may need the same treatment if you cannot even hear NOAA transmissions.

Or, it could just be that all your services types have been disabled.

Can you receive NOAA transmissions if you manually enter the local frequency without scanning?

What about local FM broadcast stations?

I just returned from a trip where I was playing with the SERVICE types (which I never do). I was trying to "simulate" the old style service search to find marine activity. Never did but I've now found a post here from UPMan from early December that discusses that issue (why they made it harder to find/use is beyond me).

Anyway, when I returned my radio seemed to be mostly "deaf" as well. Several days prior I was listening to a very busy New Orleans site. After returning to the area, I was hearing nearly nothing. I could see it locking onto control channels (or so it seemed). Eventually, I did some zip code based monitoring and it was finally hearing things but nothing I normally listened to. It was only when I got home and was about to rewrite the SD card from Sentinel that I remembered about the SERVICE type settings. I was really ticked off because I couldn't hearing anything. What did I learn from this experience? I will never again play with the SERVICE types.... I just leave them all on as I have done from day 1.

Sorry to say however this doesn't sound like the problem you are having since you are not even receiving weather broadcasts. Sounds like a return for warranty service is in order.

May want to try a different antenna just in case.

All, Thanks for the great suggestions. I tried a different antenna with no luck. The service types issue sounded intriguing as well as selecting some different zip codes. Unfortunately, the displaying just kept scanning and never locked in on anything on any band. I reckon I will ship it off while still under warranty.

If it isn't receiving NOAA broadcasts, all other programming factors will be moot.

Friend of mine had to send in his 436, it also went deaf. According to his work order they replaced Q2 and Q3 on the circuit board.

Sorry for my "very rookie" question/suggestion but, would squelch have anything to do with the OP's problem?

Unlikely, but worth a shot...

All, Thanks for the suggestions. I shipped my unit back to Uniden where, according to the online invoice, parts used were Q2 and Q3 (see post from Wise871 above) in the repair. Uniden identified the problem as "No Channel Reception" which might be a handy title for future forum posts. Delivery is expected in a couple of days.

What are Q2 & Q3 parts? Resistors....capacitors......anyone know?

Might be a bad batch in the scanners on whatever those parts are?!?

Blackink said:

What are Q2 & Q3 parts? Resistors....capacitors......anyone know?

Might be a bad batch in the scanners on whatever those parts are?!?

Click to expand...

Generally "Q" is used to represent a transistor. Just a guess, tho.

Could also be a transistor used as a diode.

My battery was saying battery error,I rehit the radio with firmware 1.02.03 and its fine now.Try it if you need the link ,pm me.I would recommend when you are done,try to rehit your programming through sentinel make sure all service types are on when you try it.Stranger things have happened.


link >>>>>>>>>>>http://www.openuniden.com/files/firmwares/436/


plug in your scanner,dont open sentinel,look for the drive letter,search for firmware folder,drop the firmware file in and eject the scanner .
should load the fimrware nd you should see a bar then it will power off and then scan.

Interesting...I wonder if this is why my 436 is deaf, not to mention the broken clock...This radio is a mess.

As a wrap up to my thread, the unit was returned from the Uniden repair shop sooner than originally scheduled and, after about of week of use, is working better than new. What I mean is that when it was new and for the following ten months, the unit worked, well, okay. This was my first trunking scanner and there was a bit of a learning curve to better understand the statewide system. Once that was figured out, I was successful in monitoring what I wanted to hear. I did lots of tinkering with ranges and location settings to get what I thought was the best reception but it always seemed like it just was not as good as it ought to be. Only when the unit went completely deaf and was repaired did I learn what I had been missing. With all the previous settings in place from before being sent for repairs, this unit is receiving with significantly better performance! So, to Blackink's post above about a bad batch? Maybe so. And, coincidentally, since the Q2 and Q3 repairs, the battery charge seems to last longer. I will be testing that aspect now.

Thank you SADave for this posting. I just bought a new BCD436HP and have spent the last three days trying to figure out why the radio would not pick up any reception, including NOAA Weather. It was dead on arrival and I kept re-programming the radio to see if I was doing something wrong. Now it seems I am faced with sending it back to the retailer to get a replacement radio, which could have the same reception issues, or send it directly to Uniden for repair. Although I understand new radios may have some issues, I am disappointed that I may have to swap it out for another or get this brand new radio repaired. I love the design of the radio and the computer aided features that I have been able to learn quite well over the last three days in my efforts to hear one peep from the radio.

Handle it with the dealer. That's likely faster.

And to eliminate any programming issues, you can try holding on a channel and hit 162.55 CHANNEL (using your local WX channel). That is "VFO mode".

Thanks Voyager, I am sending it back to the retailer for replacement. I just didn't want to deal with a repair of a brand new radio. I used the strongest signal with NOAA Weather and got nothing.

This just happened to my 536HP. It went from working great to deafness with no warning of impending doom.

Is there any root cause that people know of, such as front end overloading or static discharge? Power surge? Like to prevent it from happening again.

I'm one month out from losing warranty coverage, so I guess I'm happy it happened now rather than later. It's already in the mail.

One thing I noticed - I opened up the scanner for the first time ever and noticed some lack of quality control. There was what appeared to be a huge thumb print swirl on the circuit board. Near to the solder joints for the antenna was what looked like somebody spilled flux on the circuit board.

This is all in addition to my WiFi dongle dying the week before.