I live in central Illinois and monitor the Starcom 21 system. I own a Gre PSR 500 and a 396XT. The GRE blows the 396XT away in P25 performance. I pick up maybe 50% of the calls on the 396XT that I do on the GRE. I have both radios programmed for 6 towers in the area. Are there any settings I can change to improve the P25 performance on the 396XT? The 396 is quickly becoming an expensive paper weight. thanks
396XT P25 performance
- Thread starter gocubsgo
- Start date
- Status
scannersnstuff
Active Member
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2006
- Messages
- 1,940
not an overly scientific answer, but here goes. this topic has been discussed numerous time's before. i have both the bcd396xt & the psr-500. although i don't monitor much p25 on a full time basis, both scanner's seem to perform equally as well. the post's that i have seen, seem to give the nod to the psr-500 as the top performer on simulcast system's. i will keep both of them.
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)
You need to change your P25 threshold. I have a 106 and 396xt running side by side all the time. And they both never miss anything.
You need to change your P25 threshold. I have a 106 and 396xt running side by side all the time. And they both never miss anything.
I have a PSR-500, 396XT, and a 396T.The local system is three zones of simulcast and tough on all three radios.
I like the voice of the 500 but I can't get it to roam properly, even from home. Sometimes the CC decode drops low enough that it switches cells at home. When mobile i have to drive too far into the other cells before it switches cells. I have the lower limit set to 50. A lot of the TGs are only repeated in their local zone so I know that it has switched cells when it gets quiet.
The 396XT voice goes digital sometimes but its not terrible. I like being able to turn sites on and off with the push of a button. I also like the DMA way of organizing groups as well.
I like the voice of the 500 but I can't get it to roam properly, even from home. Sometimes the CC decode drops low enough that it switches cells at home. When mobile i have to drive too far into the other cells before it switches cells. I have the lower limit set to 50. A lot of the TGs are only repeated in their local zone so I know that it has switched cells when it gets quiet.
The 396XT voice goes digital sometimes but its not terrible. I like being able to turn sites on and off with the push of a button. I also like the DMA way of organizing groups as well.
jcpd9720
Member
To adjust the P25 settings on the 396xt, hold the "HOLD" key while powering up the scanner. The screen will flash all of the colors twice. Now there will be two (2) new options in the settings menu:
1. P25 adjust mode
2. P25 adjust level
Play with these settings until you find what works best for the system you are monitoring. The P25 system I listen to is simulcast, and causes me such a headache, so I know where you sit! The 396xt is an excellent scanner, give it time. None of the problems I have noticed on the P25 are limited to my scanner. Everyone I know with the other brands have the same exact feelings about it!
1. P25 adjust mode
2. P25 adjust level
Play with these settings until you find what works best for the system you are monitoring. The P25 system I listen to is simulcast, and causes me such a headache, so I know where you sit! The 396xt is an excellent scanner, give it time. None of the problems I have noticed on the P25 are limited to my scanner. Everyone I know with the other brands have the same exact feelings about it!
ka3jjz
Wiki Admin Emeritus
This is a good tip - I'm going to add it to the FAQ. It's liable to be asked again 73 Mike
I have my P25 Adjust level set at 200 so the error rate stays at 8 instead of trying to adjust it's self. You can set it to 100 and it will stay at an adjust rate of 11 or back to 50 to self adjust (factory setting).
While scanning press Func then press down on the volume then Func and volume again to watch the error rate to find a setting that will keep the error rate as close to "0" as possible.
Mike
While scanning press Func then press down on the volume then Func and volume again to watch the error rate to find a setting that will keep the error rate as close to "0" as possible.
Mike
moviesean8071
Member
- Joined
- Dec 25, 2008
- Messages
- 19
P25 System... "Slipping"...(?)...
Hi Guys!
Hope someone can offer some suggestions with this issue.
I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 2 P25 Systems I monitor are a transit system that's simulcast which is on 400 MHZ and our police law enforcement system which is on VHF.
I'm not in the strongest area for receiving the 400 MHZ Simulcast transit system. I found I received it perfectly on my 396T, but on my 396XT I was missing conversations, or only grabbing one side of them. I followed the suggestion in the post above to change the "P25 Adjust Level" to 200 and I started receiving the simulcast system perfectly.
Alas, by doing that I seem to have created a new problem: Now, when the "P25 Adjust Level" is at 200, the VHF police system "Slips" for lack of a better word. It starts scanning and moves on to the next system whenever the P25 is unkeyed during a transmission. It doesn't do it all the time, but often enough that it's annoying. I've checked the system hold time, and even tried increasing it, but it makes no difference. I tried gradually adjusting the P25 adjust level downwards to see if the "Slipping" problem would go away, but I had to practically go back down to 50, which removes the benefit on the 400MHZ simulcast transit system.
Is there a way I can keep the P25 Adjust Level at 200 and get rid of this issue on the VHF system? I didn't want to try adjusting "P25 mode", since I don't know the parameters for that, or anything else without asking for some advice on here first.
Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to explain my problem clearly. I hope I did... LOL...
Any help appreciated!
Hi Guys!
Hope someone can offer some suggestions with this issue.
I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 2 P25 Systems I monitor are a transit system that's simulcast which is on 400 MHZ and our police law enforcement system which is on VHF.
I'm not in the strongest area for receiving the 400 MHZ Simulcast transit system. I found I received it perfectly on my 396T, but on my 396XT I was missing conversations, or only grabbing one side of them. I followed the suggestion in the post above to change the "P25 Adjust Level" to 200 and I started receiving the simulcast system perfectly.
Alas, by doing that I seem to have created a new problem: Now, when the "P25 Adjust Level" is at 200, the VHF police system "Slips" for lack of a better word. It starts scanning and moves on to the next system whenever the P25 is unkeyed during a transmission. It doesn't do it all the time, but often enough that it's annoying. I've checked the system hold time, and even tried increasing it, but it makes no difference. I tried gradually adjusting the P25 adjust level downwards to see if the "Slipping" problem would go away, but I had to practically go back down to 50, which removes the benefit on the 400MHZ simulcast transit system.
Is there a way I can keep the P25 Adjust Level at 200 and get rid of this issue on the VHF system? I didn't want to try adjusting "P25 mode", since I don't know the parameters for that, or anything else without asking for some advice on here first.
Sorry for the long winded post but I wanted to explain my problem clearly. I hope I did... LOL...
Any help appreciated!
Is there any guidance anywhere on what these settings do and how to begin to know where to start?
tampatracker
Member
- Joined
- Dec 9, 2007
- Messages
- 1,241
Here you go, hope this helps. http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-scanners/161997-p25-settings.html
- Status
