Range (Miles)

darkness975 · Dec 7, 2018

So, I know I am in a bad location at the moment for scanners (fairly wooded area in a valley/gully) but I am trying to squeeze the most out of them. I have been tinkering with my HomePatrol 2 VS my BCD325P2 , first thinking maybe simulcast issues were causing some channels that come in fairly well on the 325P2 to not come in as well on the HP2. This could still be the case.

But I am also messing with range. What do people typically set the mile range to, for those of you that are trying to monitor the largest geographical area as possible (as opposed to those who only monitor a limited area like a single city or section of a county) ?

I am at work right now but I believe my HP2 is set to 15 or 20 miles range? Not sure about the 325P2 ...

Cheers!

phask · Dec 7, 2018

There is no range constraint setting on the 325, it's how YOU program it.

Range on the other Uniden's has zero input on reception, rather it filters what is loaded.

hiegtx · Dec 7, 2018

darkness975 said:
So, I know I am in a bad location at the moment for scanners (fairly wooded area in a valley/gully) but I am trying to squeeze the most out of them. I have been tinkering with my HomePatrol 2 VS my BCD325P2 , first thinking maybe simulcast issues were causing some channels that come in fairly well on the 325P2 to not come in as well on the HP2. This could still be the case.

But I am also messing with range. What do people typically set the mile range to, for those of you that are trying to monitor the largest geographical area as possible (as opposed to those who only monitor a limited area like a single city or section of a county) ?

I am at work right now but I believe my HP2 is set to 15 or 20 miles range? Not sure about the 325P2 ...

Cheers!

Range on Uniden's Home Patrol series of scanners is based on the range that you set in the scanner itself, plus the range of the system as shown in the database here on RadioReference. If you have a ten mile range set in your scanner, and the system has a ten mile range in the database, that system would be enabled anytime you were within 20 miles of the system's location in the database.

For more information on range, see How it Works: Location, Location, Location.

As phask noted, the range on the HP series only determines what systems and sites are enabled to be scanned, and has zero effect on the transmission quality. Are you using the exact same antenna on both the HP-2 and the 325P2, and if using antennas on the scanners themselves (as opposed to an external antenna), are they next to each other when you knotice the difference in reception?

jeatock · Dec 8, 2018

A scanner with software defined 'range' is based on the theoretical distance from the RR or other database and your programmed location, not the actual level of RF energy available. If there is not enough RF because of blocking or attenuation the theoretically in-range transmitter will not come through.

Radio 101:

To hear any transmission, the receiver ($100 scanner or $10,000 digital public safety radio) needs to hear the remote transmitter with a certain level of RF signal above the local background radio noise floor present at that particular location.

If there is not 'enough' RF in the air, no antenna marketing hype or radio magic will pull a weak signal from just above the radio noise floor. Not gonna happen. The only option is putting more antenna at a higher elevation.

If you want to hear a transmitter that is too weak to be received, your only option is more antenna to gather more signal without gathering more noise. The only way to reject noise is RF notch filters to reject everything but one narrow frequency. That is how commercial and public safety systems work, and you will never see a 'UFO-inspired' antenna attached to a mission-critical system.

A $100 radio on a $10,000 antenna will out perform a $10,000 radio on a $100 antenna every day and twice on Sunday.

UnidenSupport · Dec 10, 2018

jeatock said:
A scanner with software defined 'range' is based on the theoretical distance from the RR or other database and your programmed location, not the actual level of RF energy available. If there is not enough RF because of blocking or attenuation the theoretically in-range transmitter will not come through.

Radio 101:

To hear any transmission, the receiver ($100 scanner or $10,000 digital public safety radio) needs to hear the remote transmitter with a certain level of RF signal above the local background radio noise floor present at that particular location.

If there is not 'enough' RF in the air, no antenna marketing hype or radio magic will pull a weak signal from just above the radio noise floor. Not gonna happen. The only option is putting more antenna at a higher elevation.

If you want to hear a transmitter that is too weak to be received, your only option is more antenna to gather more signal without gathering more noise. The only way to reject noise is RF notch filters to reject everything but one narrow frequency. That is how commercial and public safety systems work, and you will never see a 'UFO-inspired' antenna attached to a mission-critical system.

A $100 radio on a $10,000 antenna will out perform a $10,000 radio on a $100 antenna every day and twice on Sunday.

very well said.

Range (Miles)

darkness975

Latrodectus

phask

Member

hiegtx

Mentor

jeatock

Member

UnidenSupport

Uniden Representative

Similar threads