Anybody in Portland Metro w/ x36HP?

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shonc182

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Curious who in the area has one of these scanners. I have had mine since day one and found the simulcast performance to be abysmal when compared to an old BC785D.

I have tried a lot of things and was curious if I may have missed something in the setup. Looking for anybody having any success. I would describe my problems as 'delayed unmuting'.

20140321 200654 - YouTube
 

DickH

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Curious who in the area has one of these scanners. I have had mine since day one and found the simulcast performance to be abysmal when compared to an old BC785D.

I have tried a lot of things and was curious if I may have missed something in the setup. Looking for anybody having any success. I would describe my problems as 'delayed unmuting'.

20140321 200654 - YouTube

It sounds as if the disconnect tone is disabled and you are hearing the squelch tail.
You might also try tightening the squelch, although it may not have much affect on a trunked system.
 

shonc182

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You're right, tightening the squelch did 'seem' to improve things. Prior to the firmware upgrade the squelch tail was horrible, but it is greatly improved. However it has made the original problem worse. I am starting to believe that Uniden focused on getting better with the digital stuff at the expense of systems like ours, here. I have seen plenty of discussion in the forum, but no real resolution. Hoping for a silver bullet by a local that got this whipped.
 

OregonScanner

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I've looked at the Uniden forums and one suggestion was to set the modulation type for the site to FM. By default, the radio treats 800MHz trunked systems as "Auto" which means that it will force the system to be narrowband FM which the Portland system is not. The Portland system and all the other neighboring 800MHz systems use FM modulation. I have the 436HP and I just imported the Portland system into the software and sure enough it was set to "Auto" instead of FM in the Sentinel software.
 

shonc182

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I've done all the possible fixes that I could find - messing w/ the squelch, changing modulation, P25 wait time....plus a couple others that I can't recall off the top of my head. It's definitely better than it was out of the box in a lot of ways, but this doesn't seem to be curable.
 

DickH

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I've done all the possible fixes that I could find - messing w/ the squelch, changing modulation, P25 wait time....plus a couple others that I can't recall off the top of my head. It's definitely better than it was out of the box in a lot of ways, but this doesn't seem to be curable.

Is there anything in the menus like Disconnect Tone?
 

boycesm

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They have one that says end code for | analog | analog+digital | Ignore |
Its towards the bottom of | Edit Sys Option |
Shot in the dark I recently purchased a BCD436HP.
 

shonc182

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Have tried on both analog and ignore with no apparent affect. Currently set to analog.
 

jeb2942

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I picked up a 536 last week and had a chance to put it next to a 785D today trying to duplicate your setup and I didn't find any issue between the two radio's. I am on the latest firmware as you are just have a later serial number. Both are in sync.

I haven't done anything special with the settings.

Jim
 

shonc182

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I picked up a 536 last week and had a chance to put it next to a 785D today trying to duplicate your setup and I didn't find any issue between the two radio's. I am on the latest firmware as you are just have a later serial number. Both are in sync.

I haven't done anything special with the settings.

Jim

That is interesting. Are you scanning the full database or FL's?
 

OregonScanner

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I have a 536HP and I went from Albany up to Newberg yesterday and it scanned the Salem A and B systems just fine. But when my 536HP started scanning the Washington County simulcast starting just south of St. Paul in Marion County, the scanner started displaying the voice channel on the screen in place of where the channel name tag should be for some talkgroups. Then it stopped on the control channel and sent control channel audio to the speaker and just stayed there. I hit avoid and it treated it as a control channel lockout and wouldn't scan that site. So I turned the scanner off and then back on and it was fine...scanned perfectly without cutting the first bit of audio off each transmission like some people are having. Great in Newberg too. I did NOT experience this traveling through the same area on my way back to Albany.

What's strange is that my 436HP did something similar but with the Salem B site in the exact same area going north. Locked onto the cc in scan mode and displayed the cc freq on the screen where the channel name should be. Turned it off and back on and it was great and no it didn't do it when I went south through the same area.

I have a video of the 536HP doing this...I'll try and post it later.
 

pdxbofh

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The stock antenna sucks - I put my old Radio Shack 800 on and that made a huge difference.

Also, (you may have already done this) if you're usually in range of the simulcast system, lockout the other sites. (So it doesn't waste time scanning other sites)

I've generally had good luck with squelch set around 5 - BUT - I live 20 miles away so you may want to set it a little higher.

Just some ideas.

Will
 

Ufoldfirst

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Curious who in the area has one of these scanners. I have had mine since day one and found the simulcast performance to be abysmal when compared to an old BC785D.

I have tried a lot of things and was curious if I may have missed something in the setup. Looking for anybody having any success. I would describe my problems as 'delayed unmuting'.

20140321 200654 - YouTube


In your video, it sounds just like my BCD436HP versus my BC340CRS.
The 436 sounds like it plays the audio a couple seconds after the transmission actually began, very delayed! Drives me crazy!!
-Side by side, holding same local freq., THE BCD436HP AUDIO IS LATE TO THE PARTY, digital or analog channel does not matter. In fact, the WSP Vancouver P25 is the worst!!!

But my biggest gripe is always missing the first SEVERAL seconds of every broadcast on every channel. (Who? What unit? What did they say????)
Ridiculous when a $500 scanner can't do what an old $89 scanner can.
We can't ask every radio user to key the mic seconds before speaking. BUT we can expect our best technology scanners to play what is broadcast.

---
Digital audio delay with home theater: digital audio over digital optical output or HDMI - pause program, when resuming play, there is a several second delay before audio is heard. This is not present with analog audio.
--- Is this the same digital audio delay going on with this new BCD436HP scanner???
If so, why do the analog channels have delay too? Is it because the scanner is digital?

Any help would be appreciated!


--
P.S. - I have read this whole thread and gone through all my settings as everyone has already suggested.

Chris
 

OregonScanner

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I set up a BCD436HP next to a Whistler WS1080 and on the Clackamas County simulcast and the Multnomah County simulcast the uniden missed the first couple of words on some transmissions while the WS1080 was perfect.

For example, a unit on Washington Co South Police 1 did a traffic stop and the dispatcher replied by saying "at 2:33" meaning 0233 hours. The uniden didn't pick this brief transmission up at all but the Whistler did. Other times I just hear mic clicks on the Uniden when really it was the end of a really brief transmission that it didn't pick up. Wow...
 

Ghostman6

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You can make a Motorola radio scan just like a scanner. You get the better voice quality with awesome reception. It wasn't Motorola's idea but it works much better than a normal scanner.
 

DickH

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You can make a Motorola radio scan just like a scanner. You get the better voice quality with awesome reception. It wasn't Motorola's idea but it works much better than a normal scanner.

How do you get it programmed?
 

DickH

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I just read the rules (under "Policy") and I didn't see anything about it. I don't think making a Motorola portable capable of receiving a trunk system without officially affiliating to the system would in any way be illegal, just as a scanner can monitor the system without being affiliated.

I'd like to expand on the reason for my question. In addition to scanners, I have a city-issued Motorola portable. Driving around the city, there are many spots where the scanner is completely dead, caused by front end overload from cell phone towers, while the Motorola doesn't miss a syllable.
Some people may be able to afford to buy a Motorola so I think they ought to be able to use them in Portland if they wish. That is my personal opinion.
 
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