BCD436HP/BCD536HP: BCD436HP CPS Help

[pauln123]

Hey all! I'm very new at this so please bare with me here!

I purchased the Uniden BCD436HP and in my eagerness to try it out I plugged it in to see what I could listen to. After putting in my postal code I was able to listen everything from Fire, EMS, Police dispatch, etc. I caught a chat between two officers trying to coordinate a K9 traffic stop on a car which was cool! However after doing some listening I decided to go on the computer download the Sentinel software, then I plugged the scanner and updated the database and firmware and now I only get police dispatch chat and never the officer-officer anymore as I did before updating the firmware and database. I've been through a lot of settings and hours of trying to get it to work once again. Any help or suggestions would be super appreciated!

TL;DR Listened to officers chatting with eachother, updated scanner and now I can only pick up dispatch. Tried many different things but can't get it to work. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[mciupa]

My 536HP also has an updated Sentinel database, but my HomePatrol-II has an Oct. 1. 2017 version in it.

Do you remember the database date on the 436 before you updated it? Maybe an older version will work for you.

 

[pauln123]

My 536HP also has an updated Sentinel database, but my HomePatrol-II has an Oct. 1. 2017 version in it.

Do you remember the database date on the 436 before you updated it? Maybe an older version will work for you.

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it! I didn't manage to note the database date before I updated. How would I go about downloading an older database?

 

[jonwienke]

Turn on all Service Types, and double check your location settings. All scanner settings are overwritten when you write to the scanner from Sentinel.

 

[mciupa]

Thanks for the reply! I really appreciate it! I didn't manage to note the database date before I updated. How would I go about downloading an older database?

If someone could send you a .hpe file, you could upload it to your scanner.

I'll send you the file to your e-mail address, upload it as a Favourite List, put ID Search ON and see if it helps. Give me a minute to send it.

 

[pauln123]

Turn on all Service Types, and double check your location settings. All scanner settings are overwritten when you write to the scanner from Sentinel.

Thanks for replying! I appreciate the help. I have all services set to on, location set to my current postal code, range of 20.0 Miles. I can listen to Fire-Tac frequencies but I only seem to pick up Police-Dispatch. That seems to be the only one that is giving me issues but I could be missing something.

 

[jonwienke]

How large of an area is covered by your postal code? Have you tried entering your actual GPS coordinates instead?

 

[pauln123]

If someone could send you a .hpe file, you could upload it to your scanner.

I'll send you the file to your e-mail address, upload it as a Favourite List, put ID Search ON and see if it helps. Give me a minute to send it.

Thanks I got it! I will try it out, not exactly sure how often they communicate. Do you know why I would be expiriencing this? I'm trying to find a reason it wasn't working so that I can learn from my mistake.

 

[pauln123]

How large of an area is covered by your postal code? Have you tried entering your actual GPS coordinates instead?

It covers a fair bit of area (postcode map for reference below) so I just entered my GPS coordinates now. How often do police communicate with eachother typically? I'm wondering if I should hear them chatting right away or if they communicate a few times an hour or so.

Boundary Map of Postal Code T2W (Canada)

 

[jonwienke]

That totally depends on what is happening. If there is a major incident going on, there will be continuous chatter. But if things are quiet, you may only hear traffic every few hours when dispatch checks on officers to verify they are OK.

 

[Jay911]

Oh geez. T2W covers a huge area (almost all postal codes that include a rural segment do), and the point the scanner uses is probably the centerpoint, which puts your location out in the middle of the Tsuut'ina First Nation. I suspect you're in Calgary so it may not give you what you want even if you have the range set to 20 miles.

I absolutely guarantee you should be hearing more than "something every few hours when dispatch checks on officers" - Calgary is a city of 1.2+ million, there's always something going on.

If mciupa is sending you a file, give that a try and see what you get. I would also suggest instead of using the postal code, try this lat & long (which will put your location roughly in the center of the part of Calgary that T2W covers): 50.945406, -114.106174 Use a range of 20 miles same as before.

 

[robertmac]

Lots of activity today on some CPS channels

 

[pauln123]

Oh geez. T2W covers a huge area (almost all postal codes that include a rural segment do), and the point the scanner uses is probably the centerpoint, which puts your location out in the middle of the Tsuut'ina First Nation. I suspect you're in Calgary so it may not give you what you want even if you have the range set to 20 miles.

I absolutely guarantee you should be hearing more than "something every few hours when dispatch checks on officers" - Calgary is a city of 1.2+ million, there's always something going on.

If mciupa is sending you a file, give that a try and see what you get. I would also suggest instead of using the postal code, try this lat & long (which will put your location roughly in the center of the part of Calgary that T2W covers): 50.945406, -114.106174 Use a range of 20 miles same as before.

Thanks for the reply, I appreciate it! I changed my location to my lat and long last night and have been listening for a bit since. The problem is I don't have much experience to be able to tell if there is something wrong or if it's normal. When I first tried it there was quite a lot of officer-officer chatter or Law Talk as it showed and after updating the scanner I haven't had anything from Calgary Police other than Law Dispatch. Did I manage to jump in at the right time to catch a rare communication or should I be hearing more as I'm sure they would use their radios often enough for me to hear one. You know what I mean?

EDIT: I took a quick 18 second video of what I've encountered for the most part
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K7c86-vv5QBW9DW3weSzNmg1SJ5Y2D8F/view?usp=drivesdk

 

[BC_Scan]

Paul , what I see on this is that you have all nine systems in one file ( by that I mean each tower is all crammed into one system) my preference and a more advanced one is assign each tower ie: Bankers hill, one system , Broadcast hill # 2, etc, that way when you are in range of that system from ie mobile you will hear whatever is on there, as long as the criteria is met from what others have said here.
I realize that is a big ask but what happens now is that the scanner is wasting time looking for the control channel it cannot hear from your location, thus missing out, so say you live furthest away S7 it is trying to scan that tower you are out of range of. ,consider manually programming the system on a new template with Sentinel once you get the hang of you will be happier.

 

[Jay911]

Actually Paul is scanning the full database (or at least a favorites file derived from it), and it is set up correctly. All 9 sites should be inside one system. The GPS/location info will determine which sites get turned on or off.

It's only picking up Bankers and Broadcast Hill because he's set the range to 20 miles. If it were reduced, he'd probably only get the two closest towers to him.

It's possible the one time you heard them was the one time they were on that channel. It's not unusual for crews to move to a different channel for a period of time and then not use it again for a long while.

A lot of police "side channels" (i.e. non-dispatch channels) are encrypted these days. Scanners are designed to not receive encrypted comms on purpose.

For what it's worth, the second time B5 shows up on your screen and stays there for a few seconds, one of the icons in the lower right corner of the screen is LNK. That means the scanner is receiving data ("link" information) about the radio system. That usually happens after a voice transmission is over. I also notice that it is being received on Forest Lawn. That's a little distant from your side of the city - I would expect things would be better for you on Fish Creek or South Health Campus, maybe Broadcast Hill in a pinch.

What I would try at this point is reducing your range from 20 miles to 0 miles. Without making the explanation too complicated, what 0 miles means is "use the range information already stored in the database". Some people think that the range should be how far away from your location you want to hear about things, but that's not the right idea. The database already has range data set for almost every channel - when you make your range 20, you're adding a lot more stuff that is normally only receivable from farther away. Long story short - odds are good that your scanner is spending time trying to pick up distant signals, rather than listening to the tower(s) nearest you for comms.

So reduce your range to zero and see how it works.

 

[jonwienke]

Here's a good article to read on how Location Control works:
How it Works: Location, Location, Location

Make sure your location is set to your actual GPS coordinates, and unless you have a really good outdoor antenna, don't set Range to more than 5 miles.

 

[jonwienke]

Paul , what I see on this is that you have all nine systems in one file ( by that I mean each tower is all crammed into one system) my preference and a more advanced one is assign each tower ie: Bankers hill, one system , Broadcast hill # 2, etc.

That is absolutely the wrong approach for programming multi-site trunked systems. It requires that individual talkgroups be programmed multiple times--once for each site the talkgroup uses. It's also pointless, because Location Control toggles sites on and off, not just Departments. You can also manually toggle individual sites within a system with Avoids and quick keys.

Your approach was necessary with older scanners such as the 996 that had memory limits that precluded inputting an entire system. But it makes zero sense to program a x36 scanner that way.

 

[pauln123]

Actually Paul is scanning the full database (or at least a favorites file derived from it), and it is set up correctly. All 9 sites should be inside one system. The GPS/location info will determine which sites get turned on or off.

It's only picking up Bankers and Broadcast Hill because he's set the range to 20 miles. If it were reduced, he'd probably only get the two closest towers to him.

It's possible the one time you heard them was the one time they were on that channel. It's not unusual for crews to move to a different channel for a period of time and then not use it again for a long while.

A lot of police "side channels" (i.e. non-dispatch channels) are encrypted these days. Scanners are designed to not receive encrypted comms on purpose.

For what it's worth, the second time B5 shows up on your screen and stays there for a few seconds, one of the icons in the lower right corner of the screen is LNK. That means the scanner is receiving data ("link" information) about the radio system. That usually happens after a voice transmission is over. I also notice that it is being received on Forest Lawn. That's a little distant from your side of the city - I would expect things would be better for you on Fish Creek or South Health Campus, maybe Broadcast Hill in a pinch.

What I would try at this point is reducing your range from 20 miles to 0 miles. Without making the explanation too complicated, what 0 miles means is "use the range information already stored in the database". Some people think that the range should be how far away from your location you want to hear about things, but that's not the right idea. The database already has range data set for almost every channel - when you make your range 20, you're adding a lot more stuff that is normally only receivable from farther away. Long story short - odds are good that your scanner is spending time trying to pick up distant signals, rather than listening to the tower(s) nearest you for comms.

So reduce your range to zero and see how it works.

That makes sense. I adjusted the range to zero and I managed to pick up some chatter finally! I think that was it. I must have been missing everything because of the range and location. Thanks for taking the time to explain this to me! I adjusted my location (lat and long) for my current location ~20km North and I still notice it's still cycling through all of the sites as they seem to have a range that spans the entire city (Site Ranges Listed: https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=204). Is there a benefit to reducing the ranges of the sites? I notice the Airport site has a range of 2.5 Miles while almost every other site has a range of 20-30 Miles (all listed in the above link). Maybe running a seperate favorites list for different quadrants of the city? What would be the best route to take?

 

[UPMan]

If you are at a fixed location and can determine which site(s) are being received best and/or carrying the radio traffic you desire to hear, create a FL and assign Site Quick Keys to each site, then disable the SQKs for the undesired site(s).

 

[Jay911]

If you're actually north of Calgary (I thought you were in the SW near the Nation), you can eliminate almost all the sites. You can do what UPMan said, and it should work well for you. Alternatively, you can "lock out" or "avoid" the sites in the Sentinel software.

If you're north of the city, or even in the NW part of the city, I would try to turn off all the sites except Spy Hill. That site is very tall and in a prime location to cover that area. The other sites are intended to cover other parts of the city. Since you mentioned the Airport - that one is for the airport property only, more or less, which is why it has such a small range. I'm sure you can imagine that they try not to have particularly tall towers around the airport.

One last thing we should discuss is how trunking works with regards to what conversations are carried on what sites (as UPMan hinted at above). Many systems including this one are designed so that conversations are only carried on a tower site if there is someone there to hear it. The trunk system knows this by having radios register which channel they're on when they connect to the tower. Obviously, scanners don't transmit to the trunk system, so they won't be able to do this. Only if the tower you're scanning has a radio affiliated to it that wants the same channel you want, or if the system administrator programs the system to push that channel out to the site regardless of if anyone is using it on that site, will you hear the comms.