Home Patrol 2 issue

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KCFIRE107

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Kansas City
Hello all, I recently purchased a uniden home patrol 2. I downloaded the sentinel software and updated the latest firmware. I changed the small rubber antenna for a better antenna but I’m still having the same issues. When I listen or attempt to listen to my police and fire channels in Kansas City Missouri which uses a P 25 phase one system at this time I will get strong signals, but I’m having problems hearing most of the channels consistently. In fact I can listen to broadcastify or some other Internet-based scanner and hear what’s going on in my city much better than I can with my own scanner in my own house or my own vehicle or my own fire station. So I’m wondering if I have a bad uniden scanner and I need to just return it or if I am not doing Something correctly. Can anyone shed some light on this potentially. Thank you in advance.

Alex
KE0ETK
 

doovenator

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If its the MARRS system it looks like most of law enforcement is encrypted (some doesn't appear to be though). If it sounds scrambled or garbled that's probably why. Fire doesn't appear to be though. I also saw under the Jackson County MO Talkgroups section that its using Simulcast, which most scanners except for the newer SDS series don't pick-up well. Are you scanning by zip, city or favorites list? You might be scanning too much if its trying to pickup multiple sites, which could cause you to miss a lot of transmissions. I suggest building a favorites list and deleting all but the closest site and see if that helps, also try reducing categories to say just law dispatch and fire dispatch to see if that helps. You may also try posting in the Missouri forum to see if folks in there have any insights. https://forums.radioreference.com/forums/missouri-radio-discussion-forum.29/
 

KCFIRE107

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Kansas City
Thanks for the response, yes I have created a favorites list and the total channels I am scanning with fire department and police department included are only 37 channels. And yes I did initially set it up by ZIP Code and honestly it seems somewhat positional. Sometimes if I am on a hill or have a clear line of sight it seems and I am not in a building I get a bit better reception. I think what confuses me is that sometimes I will see a very strong signal on the scanner yet I will not be hearing any audio. Does that mean it may be encrypted?. And none of my fire department channels are encrypted as far as I know and I seem to have the same issue when I try to listen to a fire tact channel, I can see a strong signal but only get about 10 to 15% of the communication. So the uniden home patrol two may not pick up some simulcast channels, is that what you are indicating?. Thank you for the response I appreciate your time .
 

doovenator

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Sounds like it could be a simulcast issue possibly, which the Uniden SDS100 and SDS200 are better equipped to handle. Not impossible for other scanners to hear, but I've heard you miss a lot of stuff (I don't live in a simulcast area myself). As far as encryption goes, you can see on the system page https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=6916 under Jackson Count MO for example, look at the Mode column if its D its only Digital, if its DE its Digital Encrypted, you'll see some law enforcement is and some isn't. If it has a DE don't bother adding it to your favorites list.

Sometimes if I'm on a trunked system it will stop and I won't hear anything but it could have just missed the tail end of a broadcast and it just stayed on for the 2-3 default delay. While its scanning without picking up anything i'll see the signal bars jump around and thats probably just picking up the control channel broadcast, but won't stop unless a voice channel becomes active. If your used to hearing your FD radio don't expect the scanner to be just as good, a couple hundred dollar device thats a jack of all trades can't compete with a multi-thousdand dollar radio that has one job.

I would still recommend limiting the amount of sites added. If you added "channels" or talkgroups from the main database to your favorites list it will by default add all sites... so in your Sentinel software click the system (MARRS) and underneath you'll see the departments you've added and below those are all the sites (each site has numerous frequencies, the more sites the more frequencies, and then its scanning each one of those 37 times for the channels you selected) On the same system page I referenced above go towards the top to System Frequencies section, and on the line below on the right is a link "RR Locations" that will be a map you can reference to find out which sites are closest to where you are, and only leave those in your favorites list. Hope this helps.
 

KCFIRE107

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Jun 11, 2019
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Location
Kansas City
Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to me. You have been a tremendous resource. Thanks once again and have a great day.
 

KCoax

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Some ideas:
1. Check Squelch setting. Found #2 is often the best.
2. When listening to KCMO, only have the KCMO tower selected on scan and avoid the others. Otherwise, the scanner will spend time looking for talkgroups that are not broadcasted on towers in JOCO, CASS, Platte, etc.
3. Is Select Service Types set to what you want to monitor?
4. Is Signal Attenuation on? If so, try with it off.
 

KCFIRE107

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Jun 11, 2019
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Kansas City
Everything you mentioned I have done. The attenuation is turned off the squelch is set to two I am monitoring only Kansas City Missouri fire, or Kansas city Missouri police Department. The only thing that I am unsure of is you suggested picking a specific tower. I do not know how to do that in home patrol two. And I will go ahead and reduce the service types to non-tack, because a lot of the tech channels are digitally encrypted anyway.
 

KCoax

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1. Menu
2. Advanced Menu
3. Advanced Option
4. Edit Favorites Lists
5. Select System
6. Edit Site
7. Avoid (there is only delete site on the scanner).

It is easier to see what you have selected to scan using the free Uniden Sentinel software. On the software you can Avoid the towers you don't want to listen too. On the scanner interface you can only delete them.
 

mancow

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Good luck with MARRS and a home patrol. It's a simulcast hell system. You really need an SDS.
 
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