BCD396xt Stopped Receiving P25

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Tim

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Greetings...

I have a fairly used BCD396XT that I use for my radio feed on Broadcastify. The system that it monitors is a P25 (Phase 1) system. Yesterday, It suddenly stopped receiving any P25 signals. It is now acting like an analog scanner when it receives a P25 signal. This occurs in both 'Search Mode' and regular scanning (And yes the audio setting is either 'Digital' or 'All'). I searched the web & RR Forums with no luck. I don't necessarily wanna spend another $300 on a radio just for my Broadcastify Feed. Anything I might missing?


Tim
 

devicelab

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Turn the unit off and then hold down 2, 9, HOLD keys... while turning back on... perform a CPU reset and test it out.
 

devicelab

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Did you reload the codeplug? I would do the reset and just do a custom search for one of the control channels and see if it decodes it... if it does then you know it's working at least... (and not a codeplug error.) If you have a analog Motorola Type II control channel you could try decoding it too.
 

Tim

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Did you reload the codeplug? I would do the reset and just do a custom search for one of the control channels and see if it decodes it... if it does then you know it's working at least... (and not a codeplug error.) If you have a analog Motorola Type II control channel you could try decoding it too.

It does receive Motorola II system just fine. I am not sure how to 'reload the codeplug'. Is that someone that would need to be done internally, I take it?

Tim
 

kruser

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Did you reload the codeplug? I would do the reset and just do a custom search for one of the control channels and see if it decodes it... if it does then you know it's working at least... (and not a codeplug error.) If you have a analog Motorola Type II control channel you could try decoding it too.

"codeplug" is a Motorola term.
 

ofd8001

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Are there any other P25 systems in receiving range that you can try? If you get something/anything, that says your scanner is working properly and it is some kind of programming issue with the desired system. Also you might check Uniden's repair site. They have a flat repair rate of $89.95, shipping included. So that isn't as bad as the $300.
 

tvengr

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I just checked with my 396XT. Using the Uniden BC_VUP_V3 firmware updater, you can rewrite the firmware even if you have the latest version. That should answer the question if your firmware is corrupted.
 

JamesO

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The 396XT units seem to have a component that fails fairly often that will knock out everything above 29 MHz as I recall. Try the NOAA Weather channels and then try the CB Bands or anything below 29 MHz and see what happens. Not sure if this is a mixer, switching component or a amplifier stage that often fails.
 

tvengr

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One other thing to check is the P25 adjustments. Normally, they are hidden in the menu. Press in and hold the HOLD button in while you turn on the scanner until the display comes up. The screen will flash through all of the colors. Under Settings, you will find P25 Adjust Mode and P25 Adjust Level. I find that the Adjust Mode set at 11 and the Adjust Level set at 50 works well. If you have choppy audio, try varying the Adjust Mode.
 

Tim

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One other thing to check is the P25 adjustments. Normally, they are hidden in the menu. Press in and hold the HOLD button in while you turn on the scanner until the display comes up. The screen will flash through all of the colors. Under Settings, you will find P25 Adjust Mode and P25 Adjust Level. I find that the Adjust Mode set at 11 and the Adjust Level set at 50 works well. If you have choppy audio, try varying the Adjust Mode.

I am not really sure how to explain it, but I did the pressing 'hold' key and turning it on and that seems to have done the trick. The radio is picking up P25 again and trunktracking. When I went to the adjust mode/level settings they were already at 11 & 50. Thank you very much 'tvengr'.
 

tvengr

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I think I know what was wrong. Before you fixed the problem, was HOLD flashing on the screen? If you press the HOLD button for about 3 seconds, the scanner is put into system hold mode. That locks it on one system and you cannot receive anything else. Pressing the HOLD button for 3 seconds again will take you out of system hold if you are already in it.
 
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