PSR 600 issue with P25 system

So out of the blue today I noticed that my GRE PSR 600 and Radio Shack Pro 197 (pretty much one in the same units) stopped picking up transmissions on my county's P25 system. No here is what is puzzling to me: I have a Uniden BCD99XT in my vehicle and when I headed out to run some errands today, it was picking up the P25 system with no issues what so ever right along side my house. Speaking to the staff at my fire dept, they also noticed that the pro 197 we have in the station was not picking up the P25 system as well today.

I have done master resets on both of my personal units and tried another PSR 600 that I have to program for a friend and still cannot get anything. I have been able to get some gargled sounds when I lock in on the primary control channel for the system but that's about all.

I know the P25 system is up and functioning as my portable works with no issues. I also tried a Uniden BCD396XT and also had no luck picking up anything on that. I did notice a local feed in my area using a 996xt is running just fine. Really seems odd that all the sudden these units would stop picking up any transmissions on the P25 system when they worked flawless just a day before.

Any insight or thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated

This is just a guess but as the GRE scanners are more prone to problems related to strong out of band interference your problem may be related to a new radio transmission in the area.

Just for the heck of it you might try tuning in the control channel and then turn the attenuate off and on to see if that makes any difference in receiving the control channel.

Shawn

If you are monitoring this system ...

New Jersey Interoperability Communications System (NJICS) Trunking System, Statewide, New Jersey - Scanner Frequencies

The traffic may have moved to phase 2 TDMA - which is not supported by the PSR500 or PRO197. Encryption is another possibility.

You can run a program like Pro96Com or Unitrunker with your PRO-197 to confirm this.

I believe he's referring to Mercer County Interoperable Public Safety Radio System being his county's P25 system.

That being said, I can't really think of anything that may affect your ability to listen so greatly besides what Shawn has already mentioned. The license looks like it was modified in late 2013 to add a 3rd site to the simulcast, but it seems like a fairly long time for them to build the site if it only came online recently.

A relatively quickly way to check to see if your scanner is properly decoding P25 is to TUNE to the control channel and read the display for information. It should display a bunch of information, one of which will be a decode percentage. If you're getting a low percentage (or a blank display), then that would definitely indicate some type of trouble with decoding.

He said its working on his 996xt so cant be a phase 2... but good question to ask about explain the problem if he was listening to that system

Unitrunker said:

If you are monitoring this system ...

New Jersey Interoperability Communications System (NJICS) Trunking System, Statewide, New Jersey - Scanner Frequencies

The traffic may have moved to phase 2 TDMA - which is not supported by the PSR500 or PRO197. Encryption is another possibility.

You can run a program like Pro96Com or Unitrunker with your PRO-197 to confirm this.

Click to expand...

Is the programming in the 396xt the exact same as the 996xt (cloned)? what antennas are attached? does the 396xt have the original antenna (cheap basic overall antenna).

Griggs said:

I have a Uniden BCD99XT in my vehicle and when I headed out to run some errands today, it was picking up the P25 system with no issues what so ever right along side my house. I also tried a Uniden BCD396XT and also had no luck picking up anything on that. I did notice a local feed in my area using a 996xt is running just fine.

Click to expand...

Ok to answer some questions here as I am still having no luck resolving this.

- The system in question is the Mercer County Interoperability P25 Phase 1 system as previously mentioned.
- My home units are run through a discone rooftop antenna, but have switched out to standard base antennas just to see if there were any issue there, no results.
- Vehicle 996XT runs off a NMO roof mounted UHF whip antenna
- Did try the tuning feature on the GRE and was getting no readings on the percentages, which leads me to believe there is a decoding issue.
- All units are programmed via RR web import for the said P25 system.

I have brought the 396XT to work with me today, which is still well within range of the system, and that still will not pick up anything on the P25 system. Is it possible that there could have been some changes in the P25 system itself??? I find it hard to believe any changes were made as my dept issued portable on this P25 system is working fine.

My 600 went DEAF on anything above T-Band.
I kept it for FEDERAL monitoring Only.

Can you get the Weather ? That would help rule out a Bad Antenna (Short)

Do you get anything in SEARCH/TUNE using 800-900 Mhz ? vs being in ScanMode?

Griggs said:

Ok to answer some questions here as I am still having no luck resolving this.

- The system in question is the Mercer County Interoperability P25 Phase 1 system as previously mentioned.
- My home units are run through a discone rooftop antenna, but have switched out to standard base antennas just to see if there were any issue there, no results.
- Vehicle 996XT runs off a NMO roof mounted UHF whip antenna
- Did try the tuning feature on the GRE and was getting no readings on the percentages, which leads me to believe there is a decoding issue.
- All units are programmed via RR web import for the said P25 system.

I have brought the 396XT to work with me today, which is still well within range of the system, and that still will not pick up anything on the P25 system. Is it possible that there could have been some changes in the P25 system itself??? I find it hard to believe any changes were made as my dept issued portable on this P25 system is working fine.

Click to expand...

Are the 600/197 set to single site or roam?

Eng74 said:

Are the 600/197 set to single site or roam?

Click to expand...

I believe they are set to single site.. Should it be set to roam? I was unsure of that.

Did the control channel frequency change?

According to this screen shot from June 2014, there are several possibilities.

500.4625 and 500.65 appear on the screenshot, but aren't in the database or license. (confirm boxes are unchecked)

talkpair said:

Did the control channel frequency change?

According to this screen shot from June 2014, there are several possibilities.

500.4625 and 500.65 appear on the screenshot, but aren't in the database or license. (confirm boxes are unchecked)

Click to expand...

The current RadioReference page for the Mercer County Interoperability P25 Phase 1 system shows 500.45000 as the primary control channel frequency and 508.48750 as the alternative control channel frequency.

Shawn

Griggs said:

I believe they are set to single site.. Should it be set to roam? I was unsure of that.

Click to expand...

Since there is only one site to that system , single site. There had to be a control channel change that happened. I bet the 996XT has all the channels loaded in and it may or may not be set for CC only. Check on the 996xt what it is using for the CC and make sure that channel is in the other radios.

Eng74 said:

Since there is only one site to that system , single site. There had to be a control channel change that happened. I bet the 996XT has all the channels loaded in and it may or may not be set for CC only. Check on the 996xt what it is using for the CC and make sure that channel is in the other radios.

Click to expand...

Problem solved!!!! I didn't even think to check the control channels, but added them all in and that solved it! Thanks for help all!