396XT getting choppy audio

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stevenknaz

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I am fairly new to the scanner world and have recently gotten a 396XT for Christmas. I live in the Ft. Worth area and am attempting to monitor Johnson Co., TX simulcast on the Fort Worth Region P25 system. At times, the audio is choppy or nonexistent. Sometimes my screen will show that it is receiving from Johnson Co SO but I hear no audio at all. Any ideas? Close call is off, attenuater is off, WX is off. I removed all of the frequencies except the control channel. Do I need to add all of those back in? Is there something I am doing wrong? Thanks in advance!
 

stevenknaz

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It is not allowing me to send a PM...I think you may have to be a premium subscriber. Any other way I can contact you? Email perhaps?
 

stevenknaz

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Thanks! I tried sending and it wouldn't let me and posted a reply, but I am not seeing it here either...
 

KevinC

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Thanks! I tried sending and it wouldn't let me and posted a reply, but I am not seeing it here either...

Since you are new you are moderated until you post about 4 messages.
 

stevenknaz

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I discovered that my delay setting was set to 0 in the P25 sys settings....bumped it up to 5 seconds and seems to be responding much better now. Thanks to Linn for helping me out today!
 

Boatanchor

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I discovered that my delay setting was set to 0 in the P25 sys settings....bumped it up to 5 seconds and seems to be responding much better now. Thanks to Linn for helping me out today!

Press FUNC then Volume until you get the P25 diagnostic screen up.
It will show ERR (0-100) when receiving P25 and the P25 Mode setting (typically 8-13) at the bottom of the screen.

What does yours display when you are receiving P25?

On my local Trunk and conventional networks, I get best decode with the P25 level set to '8'. It may be different for you though.

Setting the Delay to 5 will cause the scanner to delay returning to the control channel for 5 seconds after a voice channel goes quiet or briefly fades out while you are mobile. Setting the delay too long can cause other problems though. It's usually best to leave it as short as possible or Zero, if you can get away with it.
 

ofd8001

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Sounds like the P25 Simulcast distortion gremlins at work. Your scanner is receiving multiple towers and it's having trouble decoding the audio.

In addition to the above suggestions you might try:

1. Setting the attenuator ON.
2. Removing the antenna (in some places, my 396XT receives our local P25 simulcast better without an antenna, as wierd as this may seem).
3. Tinker with the P25 Adjust Mode and P25 Adjust Levels. (These are "custom fit" things and settings that work good in one place may not be so good elsewhere).
4. Sometimes moving your scanner to another location can be helpful (even just a few feet can make a difference).
5. There's a post elsewhere that says Loose Squelch has been reported to improve simulcast reception.
6. Be sure you've got the most recent firmware loaded in your scanner.
 

wtp

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not the 0 delay

if delay is set to 0 the radio will scan again with the slightest drop in signal and could put you on another group talking. the best (imho) is 2 second delay
delay is different from hold
hold is for the entire system to hold and scan
if you scan just one system then set hold at 255
if you scan many systems then set that to 0
have fun.
 

stevenknaz

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Thanks everyone for your help! I thought I had a pretty good handle on the situation last week until it started with the digital pixelation sounds again. I think I have tried every combination possible on the P25 settings. Some days it works and others nothing. Really frustrated after spending so much money on this thing. I am getting close to selling it on eBay and being done with it. I enjoy listening but so frustrated that I haven't even turned it on in 2 days until this morning. Of course, I have the same problems as before. Changed the delay down to 1 second as when I put it on 0 it does nothing but scan. With some sort of delay, it at least will show me which channel is pixelating. I am at a loss.... My brother has the same scanner, lives in the same area, and has no problems. Thinking I am going to restore the entrie scanner to factory settings and start over. Maybe I have someone else on or some setting that is causing the problem....NOT A CLUE.....
 
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