396XT: Is this an I-CALL problem?

[blakewilcoxson]

I'm trying to configure my new 396XT for my town's P25 system. At first, I could hear only the road officers, but could not hear the dispatcher's calls or responses. I know they were responding because it showed a different unit ID appearing for the appropriate ammounts of time for a typical response, and always the same one for what was presumably the dispatcher. I know they don't encode their transmissions except for certain situations or certain channels (tg's).

I tried using the ID Search setting instead of ID Scan, but then sometimes I would only hear the dispatcher, other times, I would only hear the officer. Never both sides of a conversation. I've tried the wildcard thing in the ID Scan mode by making a new one with a TGID of i0, but that hasn't picked up aything at all. I'm not even sure if I was doing it right. Do you just listen to only that talk group then?

Anyway, I'm not sure if it's an I-CALL issue, a rebanding issue (they recently rebanded appearently) or something else. I have the latest firmware on it. Can any of you think of a reason why it would show that it's receiving an ID, but not let me hear it? (Besided encoding)

 

[DaveIN]

Welcome to Radioreference blakewilcoxson.

It doesn't sound like an iCall problem. In the ID Search mode you should hear everything on the system, active talkgroups, iCalls, and patches. Make sure your priorities are turned off via the link below.
http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-scanners/128991-uniden-scanners-new-user.html

When true P25 systems are rebanded the radio will populate the custom table for you automatically. If it's a Motorola mixed mode system, then you need to change your custom table for rebanding.

It would help to have more detail, such as the system database entry in the Radioreference database.

Another idea is to post in the state forum where you live to see if others are experiencing the same problem.

 

[blakewilcoxson]

Well I think the more data I try to collect on the problem, the more perplexing it becomes. I let the radio stay on all night while I was researchng the issue on the computer, when all of the sudden I started hear both sides of a conversation. I looked at the UID's and I was hearing a different dispatch console. Then shortly after, I hear the first the dispatch console that I had been unable to hear earlier, but not the patrol unit she was talking to. Then it got to where I couldn't hear pretty much anything. Not the dispatchers, not several of the units, I'd hear maybe one out of ten transmissions that I could see on the screen. Right now, I'm sort of back where I started. I hear a lot of units(not all), and I hear their communication between each other, but basicallyt don't hear dispatchers at all.

I'm wondering if it's possible if some of the frequencies could be wrong as a result of recent rebanding. Would that make sense as an explination? Like is it possible some transmissions are being routed on one freq and the dispatcher's on another? The city I'm trying to add is Joplin, Missouri. The main trouble I'm having is with the Joplin Police Department's p25 system. Conventional systems seem to come in fine. I downloaded all the frequencies from radioreference through freescan. I have turned off wx priority and close call, I didn't see a conventional priority in freescan, just a priority option under the general tab, which I also turned off.

I also read in another thread that someone had a problem with their radio not playing the transmissions it was receiving, and it turned out to be a hardware problem of a chip in the scanner loosing it's flash. Seeing as how I receive these certain transmissions from time to time, would it rule out a hardware problem?

The info on my town's system is here

Joplin Public Safety (P25) Trunking System, Joplin, Missouri - Scanner Frequencies

and here (half way down)

http://www.mokanscan.net/main/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=64&Itemid=163

That's all the info I've been able to come up with. I theoretically should just be able to just create a new profile in freescan, import the city and upload it to the scanner without having to do anything else, right? Also, when freescan makes the file, the file extension is .996 , could that be a potential problem or is that just the extension that the program uses? I tried renaming a copied version with the extension of .396 and it recognized and uploaded it fine, but didn't make a difference.

Also, would it help at all to somehow reset the radio?

Sorry this is such a big post and has so many questions. I'm just trying to put out as much info so maybe one of those things will be the key piece.

 

[blakewilcoxson]

Forgot to ask also, how do you view and edit the custom table in freescan? Is it called the apco band plan?