Better close call performance

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mike619

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Hi I did not know where to post this question but I was wondering what I could do to optimize recieving close call hits on my BCD396XT more effectively if I am near a business or construction jobsite I mean for instance I read that if you use a certain antenna it will block other bands out can anyone help?
 
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rbm

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There are a number of things that will make a difference with CC.

One thing......
If there is another strong, nearby signal, CC won't happen.
Paul explains that in this post:
http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tech-support/329776-close-call-questions.html#post2542192

You'll need a decent antenna to get enough signal for a CC hit.
In my car with a mag-mount antenna I normally get hits that are 1/8 to 1/4 mile or so away.

At home, with an outside antenna and a pre-amp mounted at the base of the antenna, I'll get cars from several miles. Airplanes at 32,000' a few miles away.
I typically get more than 100 CC DND hits every day.

If you don't have any very strong signals nearby that would prevent it, a good outside antenna should give you a mile or two.

If you're scanning channels that are frequently active, you may miss most CC hits.

Rich

Edit:
I don't normally have CC active on the scanners that I log.
I did find a few old logs from last year where I did log some CC hits.
That scanner is loaded with very active local PD, Fire, and EMS frequencies so there wasn't a lot of time left for CC DND to do it's thing.

You'll notice that the RSSI (signal strength) is typically close to the max of 500 for a CC hit to happen. The RSSI is the right most 3 digits for each CC hit in the log file.
In that log file you can see Air, and MilAir hits along with the normal Fire, PD, EMS etc.
(A few P25 hits as well.)
 

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mike619

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Would turning a band like say all of the close call bands off but leave one on say UHF would I get better hits in that band?
 

pinballwiz86

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Would turning a band like say all of the close call bands off but leave one on say UHF would I get better hits in that band?

Yes, you would get better performance. Each segment that is left on consumes 10-20 milliseconds of time.SO. If you know the frequency will be in business VHF/UHF. I would leave just 4 and 6 on, on your BCD396XT and turn 1,2,4,7 off.
 

rbm

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Here's one of the reasons I don't turn CC DND on in those scanners I'm logging.

I turned CC DND on one of the scanners today.

For hours tonight, there was an E6B orbiting over New York state and locking up that scanner. ;)

They had a wideband orderwire signal up on 338.950 MHz all night and that will give me CC hits from lots of miles away. (50+ miles)

By the way, if you haven't seen this before, you may find it interesting.
It's from a few years ago and shows what happens when you get a CC hit on more than 20 scanners at the same time. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSPOaHaf-Qk

Rich

Here are a few of the hits, there were HUNDREDS of them.

Date, Time, Duration, RelativeTime, Radio Info
==========, ============, ==========, ============, ==========
2016/07/21, 20:49:54.586, 000001.846, 00:02:32.711, 03389500, 450
2016/07/21, 20:50:18.062, 000000.540, 00:02:34.558, 03389500, 443
2016/07/21, 20:50:18.939, 000000.542, 00:02:35.099, 03389500, 447

Date, Time, Duration, RelativeTime, Radio Info
==========, ============, ==========, ============, ==========
2016/07/21, 22:44:41.241, 000010.295, 00:13:10.069, 03389500, 220
2016/07/21, 22:44:54.771, 000085.798, 00:13:20.364, 03389500, 209
2016/07/21, 22:46:23.173, 000006.991, 00:14:46.162, 03389500, 218
 
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