18 Cars Mendham Boro (Morris County)

[RocketNJ]

Since he lives in Mendham, I strongly suggest he only program frequencies from Zone 1 (as per the database). DO it manually and don't use the import tool to input the freqs.

If he puts in all the freqs, the scanner may be locking on a distant control channel and the signal from the distant system may be too weak to unmute on voice.

 

[dwc142]

I'll give this a try when I get home tonight...you guys are great thanks again for all your help!

Regards,
Dave

 

[grodgers]

Did this work for you?

I'm having the same issue - can't get any reception in Mendham/Chester

 

[SCPD]

Awhile back i read in the local paper there were problems with this system in this area, that's why the County is going to put up a antenna in the Mendham / Chester area in the future.

 

[RocketNJ]

The new tower was up and running last year.

If you are located in the Mendham/Chester area then you should only be programming the zone 1 frequencies.

What model scanner? We can give you more info.

 

[grodgers]

BCD396T difficulty

I've tried using ARC396 to pull all of the Morris Country trunk into my BCD396T. I can never keep an entire transmission. The scanner will stop on a channel on the digital trunk and I'll get 1-2 seconds of audio - then nothing - and off it goes.

I just got this yesterday, and am not sure whether i got a lemon or not. My PRO-97 kicks its butt on conventional (chester, hunterdon and mount olive) reception as well as NJ Troop B (analog).

I'm kind of concerned that it doesn't scan the systems anywhere near as fast as the PRO-97.

The PRO-97 had an option of OPEN/CLOSED trunking - meaning you could just program the control frequencies and it would find everything in there - I don't see the option with the BCD-396T.

When I was at the dealer, it was a tossup between the GRE PSR500 and the Uniden BCD396T. The dealer, said they were a tossup, and I went with the brand that I knew from my younger days (bearcat) - did i make a mistake?

I've attached my Mendham.mem file - and also the 4 *.mem's that ARC generated from RadioReference data - could someone please take a look?

 

[RocketNJ]

on the 396, make sure you have wx priority and close call off, otherwise it will do exactly what you describe.

 

[krybka]

grodgers,

What is your location?

Ken

 

[grodgers]

Location

It seems to work now - for whatever reason - maybe I'm just expecting too much with the stock antenna. I programmed it manually - not really sure exactly what happened.

Near the intersection of Fox Chase & Route 24. We're down in a hollow - and I may need to get a better antenna for the house. I'm thinking of putting a base antenna in the attic - I'm relatively certain that will improve the reception by a large factor.

 

[krybka]

A friend has reception problems caused by location. The first thing we did was switch to a different Zone and that helped. We are also experimenting with different antennas. So far the RD-88H seems to be the best. I will let you know what we find out.
Ken
PS - I am in Chester Borough and have great reception.

 

[grodgers]

Chester reception

I brought the scanner to work with me (downtown chester) and it works much better. I get signal strength of 4-5 bars from the MC system.

I think an attic antenna will help me immensely at my home.

Also found that "open/closed" systems on my Pro-97 equates to "ID SEARCH / ID SCAN" on my BCD396T.

I'm just going to have to spend some quality time with the manual.

 

[krybka]

You might want to try this manual: http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/330/330test.html
Much easier to understand.
Ken

 

[grodgers]

Thanks, Ken - that was just what I needed.

Also determined that my lack of reception is most likely due to RFI from my wifi, computer, wireless print server, etc. all within a 4' proximity of where i'd like to listen.