BCD 996xt issues

[ELMWOOD175]

Hello everyone.
I have a Uniden bcd996xt and in the past have loved this scanner. Up into recently it had been flawless and had excellent reception. In the past few weeks strange things have been going on with the radio. The radio is not locking on to many of the ID's that I have programmed in using Freescan. When it does lock on something it seems very garbled and hard to understand. The antenna and connections are fine as I can get weather channels etc all fine. It seems the 800mhz frequencies are not being recognized as I will do a 800 search and it doesnt hit anything. If it does stop on one its quite with a pause and continues to scan. I opened it up and the bnc connection is not showing a bad solder. I live in Washtenaw county MI. I get a few things from them but the other day I made a Lenawee county list from freescan and nothings hits. Others in my area are getting hits. Do scanners go bad after a period?
Thanks for any help

 

[tvengr]

First, make sure that the attenuator is not turned on and the squelch is set to minimum. Can you please attach your FreeSCAN programming files for Washtenaw and Lenawee Counties and I will take a look at them for any problems. You will have to send the files to a compressed (zipped) folder to be able to attach them.

 

[wtp]

is there any coax involved ?

 

[ELMWOOD175]

First, make sure that the attenuator is not turned on and the squelch is set to minimum. Can you please attach your FreeSCAN programming files for Washtenaw and Lenawee Counties and I will take a look at them for any problems. You will have to send the files to a compressed (zipped) folder to be able to attach them.

Thank you

 

[ELMWOOD175]

is there any coax involved ?

Yes but other non trunked stations work. Weather , Airplanes etc

 

[wtp]

old coax tends to start loosing the higher frequencies first.
if more than 5 years outside, replace it.

 

[tvengr]

One thing I have found so far: The Lenawee Co system is set to the wrong system type. Instead of P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT), it should be P25 Standard (Digital XT).

 

[ELMWOOD175]

One thing I have found so far: The Lenawee Co system is set to the wrong system type. Instead of P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT), it should be P25 Standard (Digital XT).

Ok thank you

 

[hiegtx]

]

One thing I have found so far: The Lenawee Co system is set to the wrong system type. Instead of P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT), it should be P25 Standard (Digital XT).

As tvengr noted, the Lenawee system in FreeSCAN is set as the wrong type. But I also noted comments on the county database page that public safety was projected to move to MPSCS around 1/6/2020. There is a thread in the Michigan forum regarding this county and it's switchover to MPSCS.

Thank you
[/QUOTE

Looking at your programming files, I see that both counties in question use a Simulcast site. A description of Simulcast, along with the hurdles it presents in trying to monitor such a site can be found in the Wiki.
Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

Lenawee County site locations:

RR Database Home

The most complete database of radio communications data

www.radioreference.com

Washtenaw County Site locations:

RR Database Home

The most complete database of radio communications data

www.radioreference.com

On your Washtenaw file, I see that you have the same site entered three times, once each for the listed agencies. You're better off to just enter the site once, and put the agencies in the same system, separated out into corresponding groups. Scanning the site individually for every programmed agency slows down your scanning speed measurably. It's best to scan it only once.

 

[tvengr]

Washtenaw Co seems to be set up OK. When not receiving a talkgroup is there a frequency or NFM displayed? Both of the county sites are simulcast which can cause problems in most scanners. A control channel having trouble locking and garbled audio are both indications of simulcast issues. Also, a number of the law enforcement talkgroups are encrypted which will cause garbled audio. I would go ahead and delete the encrypted talkgroups unless you want to know when they are active. If you lock out the encrypted talkgroups, they will not be available when scanning. You can still scroll to them while holding to check for activity. I would suggest you try reorienting and adjusting the length of the antenna. You can also try turning on the attenuator to try to reduce the number of simulcast towers you are receiving. If you have a strong signal, remove the antenna and insert a paper clip in the connector. You can also try moving the scanner to a different location in the room. If the scanner begins working again, you probably have simulcast problems. If that is the case, you can try a directional antenna pointed at the nearest tower.