396 FM radio, Audio "Blink"???

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Boomeranger

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I've been listening to football on the local FM radio stations and at random times, while holding on 94.1 FM, the audio will go silent for seconds at a time. The signal strength remains full.

I tried another station on 93.3 FM and the same thing happens.

Being random, it can't be prioritys, close call or anything that polls on a regular basis. No weather SAME priority.

It's only occuring in the 87-107 FM band.

It's happening using the AC adapter. I haven't tried it on batteries alone.

Anything documented about this random audio "Blink"?

Is it a bug? Any thoughts?

Thanks,

Andy
 

DaveIN

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Make sure you using WFM in the broadcast band.

Setting the System Frequency
Modulation
Srch/CloCall Opt
Set Modulation
Auto - the scanner uses the default modulation for
the frequency band.
AM - the scanner uses AM (amplitude modulation) for
the frequency band.
FM - the scanner uses FM (frequency modulation) for
the frequency band.
NFM - the scanner uses narrowband FM for the
frequency band.
WFM - the scanner uses wideband FM for the
frequency band.
Note: The default setting is Auto.
This setting controls the modulation method used for
the frequency band. In most cases, if you leave this
set to Auto, the scanner automatically selects the
correct modulation type for the system you are
programming.
 
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Boomeranger

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DaveIN said:
Make sure you using WFM in the broadcast band.

DaveIN,

It defaults to WFM correctly. I just spoke of FM Radio (as in plain ol' FM radio reception).

It's nice to have FM reception in the scanner again.

It's some other kind of weirdness.

All the best,

Andy
 

Boomeranger

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And again on 98.1 WOGL FM Philly.

It's entirely sporadic!!! The time between "blinks" and the duration of them.

Tune your 396T to your favorite FM music station and let it rest there for 1/2 hour.

Help out if you can. before I bother the Uniden folks with a bug report.

Thank you,

Andy
 

slicerwizard

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Andy, fix the system's P25 level. Set it to 8 AUTO or thereabouts. That should eliminate the IMBE decoding of your favourite rap tunes. :)

Now you know why the 996 has a per-channel analog/digital flag. Gotta love the design choices they made for the 396.
 

Boomeranger

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DaveIN said:
98.1 is in the "broadcast band" (88 - 108 MHz). It needs to be WFM, not FM.

DaveIN,

Did you read my reply??? You and the other guys didn't read my replies, just the title!

Why do I bother...
 

DaveIN

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Guess you better send a bug report to Uniden then. ;)

Edit: another thought, it could be that your radio is out of tune in the frequency range and need to be sent back to Uniden for alignment.
 
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Boomeranger

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slicerwizard said:
Andy, fix the system's P25 level. Set it to 8 AUTO or thereabouts. That should eliminate the IMBE decoding of your favourite rap tunes. :)

Now you know why the 996 has a per-channel analog/digital flag. Gotta love the design choices they made for the 396.

But... but... I'm listening to "Oldies" on 98.1. What could P25 possibly have to do with the problem I'm having??

Andy
 

UPMan

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If your P25 setting is way out of whack (like being set to 0), then it will too-often look to the scanner like it is receiving data, which will cause the audio to mute while the scanner attempts to decode. "0" is really just in there for some testing situations, but it does occasionally get mis-set to that by a mechanism not yet discovered (but I suspect bad settings being put into one of the PC software packages and then uploaded to the scanner).
 

Boomeranger

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UPMan said:
If your P25 setting is way out of whack (like being set to 0), then it will too-often look to the scanner like it is receiving data, which will cause the audio to mute while the scanner attempts to decode. "0" is really just in there for some testing situations, but it does occasionally get mis-set to that by a mechanism not yet discovered (but I suspect bad settings being put into one of the PC software packages and then uploaded to the scanner).

UPMan,

The audio "blink" doesn't happen on any other frequencies. It's verifiable in the 87-107 band.

I thought it might be an antenna issue but that's not the case.

All other aspects of the scanner are absolutely perfect!

Andy
 
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