Morris County & the new BCD436HP

[APX8000]

If you keep this up it's going to cost me about $600 !

 

[W2SJW]

Well, I set up the 436 to record for over 4 hours at work today, and didn't get a single hit from Hillsborough. I was site-locked on the 700MHz site, and holding the PD Dispatch channel the whole time.

You guys will have to make due with Somerset County Services from the NJICS...

Uniden BCD436HP Performance - P25 Phase-II (TDMA) on 700 MHz - YouTube

 

[Sybex7254]

Anyone else having issues received Morris County P25 TRS in the last day or so? No bars, nothing on 3 different scanners. Was fine 2 days ago. Even just took a ride up by the Netcong State Police barracks and heard nothing on my BCD396XT but the State Police TRS and NJICS were 5x5.

Zero changes to the scanners so just wondering if something changed in my location?

 

[Sybex7254]

5 minutes after posting this...my BCD536HP started to receive. Not sure what happened but it seems to be working again.

 

[RocketNJ]

Nothing was down on the system.

 

[AC2OY]

It dosent sound like their under water like my 800 does with p25 phase 2. I have to see if I can figure how to program in a system like that. I suppose Newark Fire Department would be a good test. It does sound fantastic though!!

 

[RocketNJ]

Just a clarification on above post. Morris is not phase 2. Newark Fire on the PSIC system is phase 2.

 

[ff75]

Rocket I have had the same problem that started a week ago with reception of the Morris county system. Where my HP1 is I always received them with no problem then just stopped hearing anything. Had to move the radio and that is still spotty at times

 

[RocketNJ]

Since you are in Newark you are probably hearing the Randolph site which is at a very high location. It is possible with the weather we had recently that the antennas were coated with ice, reducing the signal you are receiving.

Did you notice if the loss or reduction of signal correlated with a storm or right after?

Remember, the system is not designed to cover out of county.

 

[W2SJW]

I will have to second FF75's reduction in signal - and I do agree that it is almost 100% related to ice & snow on the antennas. I thought something has happened to my 436...

 

[RocketNJ]

Damn ice........

Can we file a complaint with Mother Nature?

 

[Sybex7254]

OK...something is certainly changed on the Morris County P25 system and I don't think it's being caused by ice or snow.

Used to be, back when Uniden release the last set of Firmware to "fix" LSM for the BCD396XT, BCD996XT and the HP-1, that only my BCD396xt and HP-1 would receive the TRS and only with the stock antenna's. My BCD996XT, which was connected to a Scantenna on the roof no longer picked it up, even with the back of set antenna.

Flash forward....

I now have a BCD536HP. At first, this radio didn't receive well connected to the Scantenna and I had top use the back of set antenna, which sucked because I was limiting myself on what I could receive. Now, whatever has happened in the last week or two, the BCD539HP is connected tot he Scantenna and receiving the TRS 5x5...full bars! My BCS396XT and HP1 occasionally get some Bars but it flashes on and off and neither radio decodes any audio although it sometimes will stop on the talkgroup.

NOTHING has changed on my end. Neither radio has been reprogramed, etc. I am about 2-3 miles from the Mountain Ave Antenna in Ledgewood and have never had reception problems in the past. I even went for a drive around the county yesterday with the HP-1 and didn't hear a peep! I had it connected to my external antenna on my vehicle and also used the Stock antenna...nadda. Both continue to work fine with every other systems, both conventional and trunked. Just cannot receive the Morris County P25 system any longer.

While I'm happy my new scanner is working well and my investment paid off (well I did sell my Radio Shack PRO-197 to cover some of the cost. And BTW THAT radio only received the Morris County system using the back of set antenna.) I am frustrated that I now have two other radios that cannot receive the system I listen to mostly and am considering selling both and getting a BCD436HP but see from this thread, that radio too may have issues depending on your location.

Any feedback on the BCD436HP reception of the Morris County P25 TRS in the last week or two is appreciated.

 

[W2SJW]

I'm listening right now, and the signal here in my part of Warren County is much improved. Every transmission is 100%...

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Coolant113]

I monitor the Morris County P25 system from Hackettstown. I have full bars all the time and the audio is wonderful on my 436 and 996. Very weird that your having that problem so close to a antenna site.

 

[Sybex7254]

Well not so much a problem close to the antenna site. I drove from Succasunna to Newton on Saturday and heard nothing so perhaps it is radio related although I've changed nothing on either radio in months.

AlI I can do is reset each to factory defaults and start from scratch again to see if there's any change.

 

[tomn2tsr]

I received a 536 this past week. I am in Kinnelon and I have not had the same experience as W2SJW

At home, near the high school, (which as far as I can tell is about 2 miles from the Kinnelon site), with the stock antenna, 3-5 bars of signal strength, but, many missed transmissions and much choppy audio. In my opinion, it is unusable as a receiver for monitoring in this scenario as very little of the traffic is intelligible.

I want to say that it is performing the same as my 996t and 396XT, but, I haven't used them at home in a while. I'll try to get them home to do a comparison.

I'll also try to use the attic-mounted Discone on the 536 and rate the performance.

 

[tomn2tsr]

The discone seems to perform the same.