Adams County

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aplycon

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NW Adams County, CO
Hi All,

I just purchased a BCD436HP, my first digital scanner. It's been at least a decade since I've done my own scanning, and a lot has changed. Since the Adams feed disappeared online, I decided to invest in my own device.

So, I've added a favorite list from Sentinel to the 436, and Denver County channels are coming in fine. I want AdCom channels to come in though, and I can't seem to get it to work. On the FRCC channels, the scanner just keeps saying "ID Searching", and no cities are coming through. I paid for the ProVoice upgrade (even if I didn't need it) and nothing has improved. Any suggestions?

Thanks
 
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Spitfire8520

I might be completely clueless! =)
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Jun 29, 2009
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Location
Colorado
Try to analyze FRCC Site 5-022 North Metro Simulcast using the built in function of the scanner.
  1. Menu
  2. Analyze
  3. System Status
  4. Input System Name (this can be left blank)
  5. Select System - Front Range Communications Consortium (FRCC)
  6. Select Site - North Metro Simulcast

It should display system information and a S(ignal), Q(uality), A(ctivity) graph. Ideally you want to the Q to be as high as possible. If you have an high S, but the Q is super low (below the halfway point), then you might be encountering an issue known as simulcast distortion. Unfortunately this means that you will need to play around with the scanner a lot (eg. moving it, settings, antenna, etc) to try to get it to perform better. The linked page covers a lot of things people have tried to make it better.

If your Q is pretty good, then you might not have the scanner programmed correctly. You will want to use the North Metro Simulcast site to monitor everything in the North Metro area.
 

aplycon

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Joined
Jul 18, 2012
Messages
6
Location
NW Adams County, CO
Thank you Spitfire, I have tried to lock on to the North Metro Simulcast site. The S goes up and down, Q and A are sparse. I purchased copper tape for the battery compartment (I saw in other discussions this helped), and two different portable antennas (though not a yagi) to try to improve signal from inside my house, to no avail. I looked at where the FRCC sites are in Adams, and I'm smack in the middle of them all. I've tried playing with squelch levels, I've tried going into my backyard. I've adjusted digital threshold to manual 9. Reception is sparse and uber frustrating considering the cost of the 436.

Any other guaranteed suggestions by local users for getting reception at my home? FRCC and DTRS are probably the two most important systems for me based on my location. Denver city/county actually comes in pretty well. I also can't seem to get any reception for DEN, their P25 public safety network, even when I was driving near there.

I'm considering returning the 436 altogether. How do so many local scanner sites get posted online if this problem affects everyone?
 
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scanlist

Scanning since the 70's to today.
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Greeley, CO
Set the squelch level to 2. Digital threshold to 7. This seems to be the best settings in my dealings with the 2 Weld simulcast sites up here in Greeley. And the 436 does drop transmissions though not as frequently.

The Denver P25 MARC site on Mt Morrison is actually the current Public Works system it does simulcast some public safety Talk Groups when someone on the system is monitoring them. Typically Parking enforcement radios are affiliated to them. You need all 15 frequencies of the site as the system likes to rotate the control channel through them.

The copper tape over the battery door is only useful in the 400 MHz ranges.

Unfortunately the 436 suffers from LSM distortion and with the number of simulcast sites for site 22 the scanner is not going to cope very well with it.

Currently the Unication series G4 or G5 pagers work remarkably well with the simulcast sites in the area. I have no problems receiving site 22 up here with one
sitting on my desk while none of various digital scanners at my disposal can lock on
to it.

The hope is the forthcoming Uniden SDS-100 will be the best option for scanning
simulcast systems.
 

natedawg1604

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Premium Subscriber
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2,726
Location
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...

Any other guaranteed suggestions by local users for getting reception at my home? ...

Yes, you COULD (hypothetically) get a Moto XTS 5k in Non-Affiliate scan mode. It's cheaper than the SDS100, however you have to really know what your're doing and follow the instructions very, very (very) carefully. That is a guaranteed solution, my XTS 5k works 100% of the time on FRCC no matter where I am (as long as I'm within the coverage area).
 

scanlist

Scanning since the 70's to today.
Joined
Jan 20, 2002
Messages
2,109
Location
Greeley, CO
Add there will be a Whistler scanner option later this year as well. Chances are they may have a better price on their options when those models become available.

Sure an MT5K works exceptionally well however all that is involve in order to make it work and what is required for a non RF/moto tech person is overwhelming.

For those technically inclined it's not a big deal. For someone new or, in this case, returning to the scanning hobby it becomes rather complicated.

A unication G4 or G5 does require a bit of a learning curve for programming it with the free software provided. Once mastered it becomes quite simple actually. Since the Unication paging receivers do not transmit It does not need workarounds in order to avoid potential bricking by the radio system operator.

Just a take from one that's been in the hobby way too long.
 
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