BCD325P2/BCD996P2: BCD996P2 programming problems

[tvengr]

I just bought a BCD996P2 and it appears to have this problem too. I'm trying to receive (from RadioReference) name=Durham-Prime Site,

You may be suffering from simulcast distortion. The 4 towers of the Durham Prime Site all transmit on the same frequency at the same time. You may need a SDS100 handheld or SDS200 base/mobile. Try turning on the attenuator. That may reduce the number of towers you receive and improve the control channel decoding. Also, try varying the length and orientation of the antenna and moving the scanner around the house. You may find a sweet spot that works OK. Take your scanner mobile near to one of the towers and see if it works OK. If that solves the problem, simulcast is probably the issue. The SDS100 and SDS200 are the only scanners specifically designed to receive simulcast systems.

Locations

#	TWR ID	Type	Antenna Height	Structure Height	Elevation	Address
1	1058762	TOWER	146.0	152.0	109.0	1811 CAMDEN AVE
2			0.0	0.0	0.0
3	1058763	TOWER	122.0	122.0	137.0	INT OF RDS 1622 & 1004
4	1004866	TOWER	76.2	80.8	106.4	917 E NC HWY 54
5			0.0	0.0	0.0
7		TOWER	54.8	54.8	168.4	1701 COLE MILL ROAD

 

[nn4jw-2]

Thank you for the reply. I'll try some of your suggestions. The SDS100 and SDS200 are a little too rich for my blood though.

 

[nn4jw-2]

In playing with this BCD996P2 some more the only thing I've figured out is that I needed to set the system type (for Durham-Fayetteville) to P25 One-Freq Trunk as there are some analog TGIDs in there. That allowed me to hear more TG's but the problem of releasing the the scan lock and resuming scan in about 2 seconds remains regardless of any Delay or Hold times I can set. It is decoding P25 TGIDs ok as well, just resuming scan while audio is present.

It is almost as if the Delay is being set to -2 no matter what you do. I even tried to set it to -10 to see what happened. No change.

I should also mention that I have an old Radio Shack Pro-96 programmed with some of the same TG's and it works fine sitting about 12 inches from the Uniden with both on short rubber duckies with no evident simulcast issues or inappropriate scan resumes.

 

[tvengr]

Please delete!

 

[dispatch235]

You should program both the control channel and alternate or alternates for each site. If the control channel changes to an alternate, you will lose the site.

1 (1)

023 (17)

Lawson

Clay, MO

155.355

169.6625c

171.2625a

171.650

172.4625

The Uniden SDS100 and SDS200 are the only scanners that can use site NAC. I don't see any P25 conventional frequencies in Caldwell County.

Your control and alternate frequencies are both in the range where the problem lies in the newer 996P2's.... I have the same issue with any frequency above around 169.xxx mhz on the MOSWIN towers on my 536hp's. The only fix is when the guru's at Uniden issue either a firmware update or recall on a hardware part.

 

[tvengr]

In playing with this BCD996P2 some more the only thing I've figured out is that I needed to set the system type (for Durham-Fayetteville) to P25 One-Freq Trunk as there are some analog TGIDs in there. That allowed me to hear more TG's but the problem of releasing the the scan lock and resuming scan in about 2 seconds remains regardless of any Delay or Hold times I can set. It is decoding P25 TGIDs ok as well, just resuming scan while audio is present.

The correct system type is P25 Standard. Set site hold to 0 seconds and scan delay to 2 seconds. Make sure that you did not set the delay time to -2 seconds. If set to a negative value, you will hear a talkgroup for 2 seconds and then it will resume scanning.

 

[nn4jw-2]

After spending close to 20 hours trying all the suggestions (thank you to everyone) I decided that the correct fix was to just return the scanner to Amazon this morning.

As the scanner is it is completely useless for me and I won't be risking that Uniden can or will be fixing the problem (if it's simply a firmware issue) before the return window closes or even any time soon. Right now my old Pro-96 decodes the system I want to monitor just fine.

 

[werinshades]

After spending close to 20 hours trying all the suggestions (thank you to everyone) I decided that the correct fix was to just return the scanner to Amazon this morning.

As the scanner is it is completely useless for me and I won't be risking that Uniden can or will be fixing the problem (if it's simply a firmware issue) before the return window closes or even any time soon. Right now my old Pro-96 decodes the system I want to monitor just fine.

It's not a firmware issue, it appears to be a simulcast distortion issue based on some of the posts and this is not the correct scanner for that. Plenty of reading material throughout these forums if you'd like to understand it better: Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

If/when you want optimum results, look into the SDS100/SDS200 when you're ready to give it a go again.

 

[nn4jw-2]

It's not a firmware issue, it appears to be a simulcast distortion issue based on some of the posts and this is not the correct scanner for that. Plenty of reading material throughout these forums if you'd like to understand it better: Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

If/when you want optimum results, look into the SDS100/SDS200 when you're ready to give it a go again.

And a 19 year old Radio Shack Pro-96 with a firmware upgrade to receive P25 works better than the Uniden? And no, that's not a recent firmware mod. I've had that mod on the Pro-96 for maybe 15 years now.

First, I live south of all the Durham, NC transmitters - not in the middle where simulcast would definitely be a problem. I'm about a mile South of the southernmost tower. Both the Uniden and the RS were on short rubber duckies inside my ham shack. The Pro-96 worked like a charm. The Uniden would sometimes start decoding properly but then immediately resume scan. If the transmission was long enough it would re-lock and resume scanning several times on the same transmission. The BCD996P2 NEVER held scan lock. Not once. Meanwhile, the Pro-96 would receive the whole transmission without losing scan lock. Attenuation settings on the Uniden made no difference except that then I'd receive NO signals.

The Uniden acted exactly the same switching between the rubber duckie, an indoor scanner antenna and a rooftop outside antenna. It would never hold scan lock. The time to losing lock was always consistently under 2 seconds.

NO combination of hold and delay options (and I tried each and every one of the suggestions made here) made any difference as far as holding the signal.

Occasionally I would hear a garbled decode that could well have been a simulcast issue on both scanners.

While I can easily believe that the Uniden BCD996P2 unit would be prone to simulcast issues I don't believe that's got anything to do with the scan lock problem especially since I never heard it hold scan lock even once. If an SDS200 didn't have the scan lock issue that wouldn't prove that the BCD966P2's scan issues were caused by simulcast reception, especially since the Pro-96 receives properly and (presumably) should be suffering from any simulcast related problems as well.

 

[werinshades]

The If an SDS200 didn't have the scan lock issue that wouldn't prove that the BCD966P2's scan issues were caused by simulcast reception,

That would be a symptom of simulcast distortion issues, but I understand it's not the answer you were hoping for. Many of us here have been tormented with reception issues as you describe, so you have options. Good luck on your decision.

 

[JoeBearcat]

This issue only affects the band segment 171.200-174 MHz.

There is a test firmware that was just 'released', but I am having trouble finding existing testers to test. I have contacted a couple of the original reporters of this issue, but I do not have the firmware file for them to try yet.

 

[w1032003]

The new firmware for the 996P2 did fix the issue with the p25 above 170. There are no problems that I can detect with the scanner.