and yes it might be the antenna it the stock one but im geting a roof top one may get a lot more signal up there
Have you tried extending the antenna to different lengths? Your system is approx 860 MHz. A quarter wave at that frequency is about 3.25 inches. Try collapsing the antenna all the way. If that doesn't help, try setting it at a half wave, or 6.5 inches. Try other lengths too, and make note of the results. Try moving the radio to a different room. Try setting the radio by a window. Try a second floor room if you can. You'll soon learn what works better, and what doesn't. It can take some time and experimentation. Simulcast P25 systems are somewhat notorious for poor digital decode due to signal distortion. It's because you've got signals coming at you from two or three directions, and they don't arrive at precisely the same instant. The radios that your public safety officials use are expensive and designed to work with the system. They deal with the distortion issue much more effectively than our consumer grade scanners do. It's just the state of the technology at the moment. The BCD536HP is one of the best models out there for dealing with the issue, so stick with it and you should find improvement, assuming simulcast distortion is the issue. It could be other things, but the things I've suggested won't cost you a dime, and you'll pretty quickly know if you're on the right path. Ultimately you might need a rooftop antenna, or at least something better than the stock antenna. Many folks have seen significant improvement by using a Yagi type antenna tuned for the 800 MHz band. These are directional. By pointing it toward your nearest tower you maximize that signal while minimizing the others, thereby reducing the distortion problem. You might not even have to put it on the roof for it to be helpful.
Hope that helps.
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