Hello,
I searched and could not find a previous thread about this, but I've heard a lot of chatter in the forums on the topic. I'd like to get some ideas on fixing it.
I monitor our local SO both for work and pleasure. They are on a countywide VHF P25 Simulcast, multi-zone system (Placer County, CA, CIRN in case you're wondering). It worked very well for a long time, but over the last year, I started to notice a loss in reception on the P25 side. I was a little slow to catch it, because they simulcast the primary dispatch channel on an analog frequency as well, which I usually monitor away from the truck, so I didn't catch the issue in a timely manner. It became readily apparent when I started focusing on the P25 system, because they were threatening to turn off the analog simulcast.
Here's what it is doing: It receives very well, as long as I am within 1/2 mile to a mile of an actual site. Once I get out past that range, I lose the P25 signal (I can tell by also monitoring the analog side). There are places where I will get P25 reception, but just in pockets, and sometimes from the mountain top zone, when I am clearly closer to a local tower. I think these are just ducting locations where I happen to get a really strong signal, like maybe it's overriding surrounding noise.
There has been a lot of mention in the forums that the 996P2 really chokes on monitoring simulcast VHF P25, and I've heard speculation that it has to do with overloading the receiver, heterodyne from multiple sites, etc etc etc. Anyone have any ideas on how to test and/or fix this? And if it is a known issue, is there a fix/patch in the pipeline?
Also, I monitor several P25 systems both here at home and over several states when I travel, and they seem to monitor fine (I don't have an analog backup to monitor, but I don't seem to lose conversation threads on them). BUT, they are all 700/800 systems, not VHF.
Ideas?
Thanks in advance.
David
I searched and could not find a previous thread about this, but I've heard a lot of chatter in the forums on the topic. I'd like to get some ideas on fixing it.
I monitor our local SO both for work and pleasure. They are on a countywide VHF P25 Simulcast, multi-zone system (Placer County, CA, CIRN in case you're wondering). It worked very well for a long time, but over the last year, I started to notice a loss in reception on the P25 side. I was a little slow to catch it, because they simulcast the primary dispatch channel on an analog frequency as well, which I usually monitor away from the truck, so I didn't catch the issue in a timely manner. It became readily apparent when I started focusing on the P25 system, because they were threatening to turn off the analog simulcast.
Here's what it is doing: It receives very well, as long as I am within 1/2 mile to a mile of an actual site. Once I get out past that range, I lose the P25 signal (I can tell by also monitoring the analog side). There are places where I will get P25 reception, but just in pockets, and sometimes from the mountain top zone, when I am clearly closer to a local tower. I think these are just ducting locations where I happen to get a really strong signal, like maybe it's overriding surrounding noise.
There has been a lot of mention in the forums that the 996P2 really chokes on monitoring simulcast VHF P25, and I've heard speculation that it has to do with overloading the receiver, heterodyne from multiple sites, etc etc etc. Anyone have any ideas on how to test and/or fix this? And if it is a known issue, is there a fix/patch in the pipeline?
Also, I monitor several P25 systems both here at home and over several states when I travel, and they seem to monitor fine (I don't have an analog backup to monitor, but I don't seem to lose conversation threads on them). BUT, they are all 700/800 systems, not VHF.
Ideas?
Thanks in advance.
David