Nypd vs fdny

[Danny37]

On multiple radios and scanners I have programmed for NYPD and FD/EMS the recieve audio is really noticeable. On the PD side, the audio is loud and firm but on the FD & EMS side it's very low. Is there something I'm supposed to do on the programming side to equalize the volume for FD and EMS? I know PD has a 12.5 channel step while FD and EMS have a 6.25 channel step on their frequencies.

 

[GTR8000]

Channel step is irrelevant; the key is the deviation. NYPD is still wideband, while FDNY/EMS is narrowband.

When programming a scanner, make sure NYPD is "FM" while FDNY/EMS is "NFM" or "FMN" or whatever your scanner calls narrowband.

For a real radio, make sure the TX deviation is 5 kHz for NYPD and 2.5 kHz for FDNY/EMS. That will change the RX spacing to 25 kHz and 12.5 kHz respectively. Just note that with an XTS/APX, you won't be able to change the deviation if the conventional personality is RX Only (which of course it is, since you wouldn't have TX enabled on channels you're not authorized to TX on), so disable the RX Only temporarily to change the deviation, then remember to set it back to RX Only when you're done.

 

[GTR8000]

PS - I was speaking in broad terms with my last post. In fact, there are some NYPD channels that are narrow and some FDNY that are wide. Make sure to check the database, it's pretty accurate.

Where you see FM set that TX deviation/RX spacing to 5 kHz/25 kHz, and where you see FMN set that TX deviation/RX spacing to 2.5 kHz/12.5 kHz

 

[Danny37]

Thank you so much, I was wondering why I couldn't do anything with my xts5000 but now I know. I'm too tired to load up the software to make the changes but I'll update it tomorrow.

 

[GTR8000]

A good rule of thumb is that if a channel's audio sounds much lower than most other channels in the same scanner/radio, change the setting to narrowband and see if that helps. On the contrary, if a channel sounds too loud/over-modulated, try setting it to wideband.

"Narrowband" = NFM or FMN in a scanner, 2.5 kHz TX deviation/12.5 kHz RX spacing in a radio
"Wideband" = FM in a scanner, 5 kHz TX deviation/25 kHz RX spacing in a radio

And just to throw a curve ball into the mix...most 800 MHz analog channels should ideally be set for 4 kHz TX deviation/20 kHz RX spacing in radios. There's no in-between setting to match that in a scanner, so wideband FM should be used.

 

[Danny37]

This may be odd but I finally made the changes. On my xts5000 there's an obvious difference, however on my vertex radios vx-824 and vx-800 didn't notice a difference at all. In fact, recieve audio sounds a bit more noisy on the vertex radios.