I'm new to digital scanners

[blottobox]

I live in Williamston, MI. in Ingham county I have an old Bearcat BD355N and just bought a BCD996P2 during a black friday deal.
I haven't used a scanner since everything seemed to go digital. I got my new scanner programmed and everything seems to be working well except for signals often cut out. My old bearcat still picks up Shiawassee County Fire & EMS very well which I'm assuming are both analog. I programmed them into my new bearcat and it struggles to capture the signals. I've ordered an inexpensive antenna to stick to my mobile home roof. I'm wondering since the old bearcat picks up Owosso/Corunna in Shiawassee county so well, is there some setting I'm missing in the new scanner that's making it such a wimp signal wise.

 

[bearcatrp]

If your area is simulcast, your scanner will have issues. I have the 325p2, which is the handheld version of yours. Mine does pretty good on the open road but get into a simulcast area, it doesn’t do very well. You should post in the Michigan area to get better advice from folks in your state. Also, by getting a better antenna, just makes it worst as it tries to receive from multiple simulcast antennas. Our scanners do well on analog systems and DMR receiving (if you bought the upgrade) if you want real good reception in a simulcast area, get the SDS200. Just sold mine as most of our state went encrypted. Good luck.

 

[RaleighGuy]

Sounds like the issue you are having is that the Ingham site is simulcast and that scanner is not designed for simulcast.

 

[RMason]

As others have mentioned, simulcast is a possibility.

Another thing to consider is that the priority modes will cause interruptions in the received signal. Check to see if you have any of these turned on:

Close Call​

Weather Alert Priority​

Priority Scan​

 

[Chris0516]

The 996p2 comes w/ P25, but. Is not Simulcast-capable

There is only one P25 system listed in your county: Michigan's Public Safety Communications System (MPSCS)

The one tower in your county, on that system is Simulcast.

In the neighboring counties, of:

Clinton-Simulcast
Eaton-Simulcast, (non)Simulcast
Jackson-Simulcast
Livingston-(non)Simulcast
Washtenaw-Simulcast

so, You could try the (non)Simulcast towers in Eaton n' Livingston counties

Also, Disable weather alerts and Close Call