Bartonville,IL PD/Fire

jimijodie · Mar 30, 2015

Hello all, recently Bartonville Police and Fire switched over to Harris P25 phase 2. I bought a Uniden BCD436 so I can monitor them and others that will soon be added in the Peoria,IL area. My problem is that I cant seem to catch every transmission and if I do its somewhat garbled even sometimes so bad it can't be understood. My signal strength is at 5 bars. Is there something I can do that will help, settings ETC.?

Thanks

llwade · Mar 30, 2015

what is your location. Are you using antenna that came with radio or a roof top.
I am in Chillicothe & bartonville PD/FD are loud & clear.

jimijodie · Mar 30, 2015

Im in Bartonville, the posts Ive been reading makes me think its the scanner, what model are you picking up Bville on ?

jimijodie · Mar 30, 2015

I bought a ducky antenna from Radio Shack

jimijodie · Mar 30, 2015

My State police and other p25 sites work good, but the new Bartonville one does not

cubn · Mar 30, 2015

When I've driven on 474, I've had a really weak signal by Bartonville and I have a 396T with stubby 800 mhz antenna. That may be an area that is having bad multipath issues that our scanners can't handle.

JFDoering · Mar 30, 2015

Bartonville P25

The Harris P25 Phase 1 simulcast system used by Peoria County is more difficult for scanners to deal with than the Motorola P25 simulcast system used by the State Police in Peoria County. Many users have found that less antenna works better than more antenna, something counterintuitive for scanner users. The coverage for Harris P25 portable radios is excellent.

jimijodie · Mar 30, 2015

So maybe I should switch to a stubby but wouldn't that hurt my other non dig channels? I bought a Radio Shack antenna, maybe that made it worse. Is it going to stay phase 1 or will it ever change to phase 2 ?

Thanks for the info

kraziebill · Mar 31, 2015

The original contract was for it to go phase 2 "after a few years", but that was when it was supposed to go online June 2010. My guess is at some point it will go to phase 2, but not anytime soon.

And yes, since this system is simulcast (multiple towers transmitting the same signal) a less antenna or a directional pointing at only 1 tower works best. But this usually means you are dedicating one scanner for this system.

jimijodie · Mar 31, 2015

So in a sense the scanner is getting to good of a signal for this system ? With Peoria City and County switching over soon there won't be much left on the old system in this area right ? Would say say this bcd436 is overkill as far as doing phase 2 ?

kraziebill · Mar 31, 2015

the 436 is over kill as far as phase 2 (for now). But eventually StarmCom and probably this system will go to it. I have the bcd396t and bcd996t (as well as the 436hp) and can hear the new Peoria system just fine.

jimijodie · Mar 31, 2015

kraziebill said:
the 436 is over kill as far as phase 2 (for now). But eventually StarmCom and probably this system will go to it. I have the bcd396t and bcd996t (as well as the 436hp) and can hear the new Peoria system just fine.

Does one or the other scanner sound any better on the Peoria County ETSB system ?
StarCom sounds great on my 436 . Reading all the sensitivity comments I may be selling this new 436 for a different scanner if the stubby I get don't correct it.

jimijodie · Mar 31, 2015

JFDoering said:
The Harris P25 Phase 1 simulcast system used by Peoria County is more difficult for scanners to deal with than the Motorola P25 simulcast system used by the State Police in Peoria County. Many users have found that less antenna works better than more antenna, something counterintuitive for scanner users. The coverage for Harris P25 portable radios is excellent.

Would you have any idea what the best brand and model of scanner picks up the Harris system the best ?

jimijodie · Mar 31, 2015

llwade said:
what is your location. Are you using antenna that came with radio or a roof top.
I am in Chillicothe & bartonville PD/FD are loud & clear.

What scanner are you using to pick Bville up ?

jimijodie · Apr 1, 2015

So I bought a 800 mhz stubby antenna and it works great for the ETSB Harris P25 system...... except for when Im in my downstairs living room. But around town today it picked up the system good.

Bartonville,IL PD/Fire

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