New Bern - Craven County

[hagensieker]

Curious if anyone else has any issues with New Bern Public Safety and Simulcast. I have the following radios:
SDS200
SDS100
HomePatrol2
BCD325P2
Whistler TRX-1

And with SDR's and DSD+ I can track Trunked systems
Likewise with Raspberry Pi and an SDR using OP25 software

New Bern Public Safety is Simulcast (2 towers) and I have issues with the Uniden BCD325P2 and Whistler TRX-1. All others track fine.

Oddly enough I'd like to buy and play with more scanners but don't want to buy anything else that suffers from Simulcast issues.

Out of the box the Uniden BCD325P2 was all but un-listenable to. Tweaking the P25 threshold and turning on the P25 Low Pass filter settings have let me at least catch most of the calls with just a touch of distortion. On a scale of 1-10 I think I went from a 3 to an 8.5 or 9.

A year ago I lived in New Bern proper and my Whistler TRX-1 was useless on New Bern Public Safety. Now I moved out of town slightly towards Pollocksville and the TRX-1 does fine with the NBPS system with minimal distortion.

Curious if they are any other New Bern or Craven Country listeners here who have issues / solutions.

 

[chance6021]

Interested in the replies.

I'm guessing we live in the same area and I gave up trying to listen on my 996xt.

 

[waterbwuk]

I believe the SDS's and those Unication pagers are the only ones that can handle simulcast distortion (aside from SDR's).

A year ago I lived in New Bern proper and my Whistler TRX-1 was useless on New Bern Public Safety. Now I moved out of town slightly towards Pollocksville and the TRX-1 does fine with the NBPS system with minimal distortion.

This sounds right. The weaker the signal, the better your scanner is going to handle simulcast distortion. I monitor a simulcast system and I can't even receive the audio properly unless I completely remove the antennas.

Edit: Someone with more technical knowledge about simulcast can answer this better, but if I understand correctly then the way to receive simulcast properly/better is to "weaken" the signal enough to where you are only receiving traffic from one site. Obviously quite hard to do if you live in the middle of a city and are surrounded by the simulcast sites.

 

[hagensieker]

I believe the SDS's and those Unication pagers are the only ones that can handle simulcast distortion (aside from SDR's).



This sounds right. The weaker the signal, the better your scanner is going to handle simulcast distortion. I monitor a simulcast system and I can't even receive the audio properly unless I completely remove the antennas.

Edit: Someone with more technical knowledge about simulcast can answer this better, but if I understand correctly then the way to receive simulcast properly/better is to "weaken" the signal enough to where you are only receiving traffic from one site. Obviously quite hard to do if you live in the middle of a city and are surrounded by the simulcast sites.

Only problem with removing the antenna is losing the analog channels I follow as well. My end goal was to take the cheaper 325P2 and put it in the man shed without concern of it getting covered in wood dust. I actually have the 325P2 performing quite well no with a Manual P25 threshold of 7 set and AGC on and Low Pass Filter on.

 

[cjross2008]

The City only has one tower and that’s by hatteras (by the intersection of Oaks Rd and Glenburnie rd). Now a few settings have changed that aren’t in the DB. Give me few minutes and I’ll email you.

 

[chance6021]

The City only has one tower and that’s by hatteras (by the intersection of Oaks Rd and Glenburnie rd). Now a few settings have changed that aren’t in the DB. Give me few minutes and I’ll email you.

I'm in River Bend and should have a good signal, however I constantly get drop outs. Is there something you can share with me as well?

 

[cjross2008]

The system was a pain on the 996XT when I had it. Make sure your firmware is up to date and all 11 channels in the DB are loaded.If that doesn’t work shoot me a pm and we will go from there.

 

[chance6021]

I pulled down again from RR and loaded it as is so you know what I am working with.