996 stopped picking up TG's

Lizbit · #1 (**permalink**) 12-11-2007, 10:22 PM

This is odd. I have a 396 and a 996 side by side. The 996 was doing great, but then I discovered our county, which recently went from convention to digital Apco 25, had some new TG's I wasn't familiar with.

So... I used the free version of Arc, as I have done before, and updated it on the computer. Plugged in the 996 via USB, deleted what was previously stored in the 996, and dropped in the new.

Now, only conventionals are picked up. Not one digital Apco 25 is coming in. The 996, with a little bunny antenna, is picking it all up, however.

Confirmed: TGID's are all in, I compared them, and the frequencies, with the 396. Confimred they are not locked out. Both 396 and 996 are in "scan" mode, not search. Everything seems to be carbon copy. So what's going on? Where's my digital stuff?!?!

If I don't figure this out soon, I'll be pushin' up daisies. I've really worn myself out trying to solve this. Thanks for any suggestions.

Lizbit · #2 (**permalink**) 12-11-2007, 10:44 PM

Got it. How I found it:

I opened my profiles using Arc software for the 396 and the 996, side by side, on the monitor. Checked settings, side by side. Tada - there it was. The 396 was correctly set with Apco 25, but somehow, the 996 got changed.

Thought I'd leave this post on here for anyone else that might have the same issue.

UPMan · #3 (**permalink**) 12-12-2007, 09:56 AM

Did the Auto Threshold set itself to "0"? (I've seen this reported a couple of times, just want to confirm that is what happened to you.)

Lizbit · #4 (**permalink**) 12-12-2007, 01:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by UPMan

Did the Auto Threshold set itself to "0"? (I've seen this reported a couple of times, just want to confirm that is what happened to you.)

*ducking* I'm really not sure what you are asking. I looked at the Arc software and the only thing I find about thresholds says "Apco 25 Threshold" with a drop down box, and I can select Auto, Manual or Default. It is Auto set at 8. (I have no idea what this means).

I do not know how to tell if the auto threshold set itself to zero. The only change I made to correct the problem (of not picking up TG's) was change the System Type from Motorola Type 2 to Apco 25. I do know one thing for sure - I did NOT change the thresholds, or the System Types, myself. Perhaps in the process of adding additional talk groups... well, no, that's not possible either. I have four Apco 25 systems that somehow got changed from Apco 25 to Motorola Type 2, while I was adding the new talk groups. The mystery is how that happened. I know for a fact I did not accidentally change the system types.... nor would I have. I know they are supposed to be set at Apco 25.

Also, still not sure about this - when programming the 996 manually and using the buttons (i.e. not using the computer), I was unable to find in the menus where to change the system to Apco 25. I tried to do that manually rather than hook it up to the computer again, but wasn't able to figure that out.

mfn002 · #5 (**permalink**) 12-12-2007, 01:19 PM

I noticed once after programming my 996 that it suddenly "duplicated" a trunked system, but wouldn't monitor it AS a trunked system. Instead, every time the scanning sequence hit it, the scanner would "hang up" on the data channel as if it were just another conventional frequency. What was more, the system was not assigned any key and did not appear to even exist when I checked it on ARC996. I ended up having to clear EVERYTHING off the scanner and reprogramming it back in. I still can't figure out why this happened, or how.