Anyone Able to Hear Indianola/Warren County PD?

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I come to you, pleading for help. I'm ready to pull my hair out.

RadioReference was a big help to me years ago when I got my first radio. It didn't last long, though, and my local PD (Indianola/Warren County) went to a P25 Phase II system and my radio went silent. Given the world lately, I decided to buy a new scanner, the BCD536HP, so that I could know what's going on in my city. I chose that model primarily because it claimed to be easy to program, but I can't get it to tune in at all to Warren county through the ISICS system. We've poured over the manual, watched videos online, read forums, etc., but can't figure out what we're doing wrong. The only thing I can imagine might be holding it back is that it might need a firmware upgrade and a go at Sentinel programming, but I don't want to go too far and not be able to return it if I'm not going to be able to pick up Warren county. The last thing I need is a $500 paperweight.

So there's the background. Now my main question. Am I chasing unicorns? According to the database, it doesn't appear that Warren County/Indianola should be encrypted. Do I need to keep at it and figure out what I'm doing wrong? Can no one hear them, or is it just me? Please help.
 

iascanguy

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I can hear the Warren County ISICS site from Des Moines and the SO is not encrypted so you should be able to hear it ok.
Are you hearing any radio traffic when listening to what you have programmed?
How did you program the scanner, manually or are you using the database? If you are using the database, make sure it is updated in the radio using Sentinel.

Donald
 
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Thank you, Donald, for responding and letting me know that there is hope, at least. :)

We've tried both using the database and discovery, and when that didn't work we tried manually inputting a range to search, 769.0000 - 771.0000, to give it a chance to find Warren County. Nothing came through but static, if we were lucky.

The only thing coming through ISICS is Polk County. When I set up a trunked discovery using ISICS, it asks which site and gives me several options but not site 44 (Hooper) Warren County. It shows these site choices:

Knoxville, Newton, Site 26, Site 46, Site 6, Site 62, Westcom Simulcast, and Dallas County Simulcast.

I feel like if I could select Site 44, I'd be up and running, but it's not there.

Kari
 

iascanguy

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That sounds like the database in the scanner is out of date. To check-Menu, Manage Full Database, Information. The current date for the database is 5/31/2020.
By the way, the current control channel for site 44 is 770.40625, hold on that using the search range and see if the scanner will lock on to that.

Donald
 
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The scanner will lock onto 770.4062MHz and has NFM after it with "P25 NAC:4C0h" flashing. The letters DAT are there along with 4 reception bars, so it should be getting a signal (from my understanding) but I still don't hear anything. The database says it's from 7/15/18. I'm running Linux on a Mac, there's no OS X Sentinel app and my Linux Wine emulator doesn't see the radio. I'll borrow my son's Windows laptop when I can pry it away from him and try to update the database and firmware. Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Kari
 

iascanguy

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Just checked my 536 and in search, when held on a control channel, it only displays what you found. It doesn't follow any talkgroups so that's why you don't hear anything. Not sure if I knew this and forgot or never noticed it! At least you know you have a good signal.

Donald
 
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Thanks for trying to help, but I think we're just going to return it. My husband doesn't want to risk it not working and becoming a headache. Once I've done a firmware update it won't be "new" anymore and I need it to still be in right out of the box condition.

Kari
 

imbruski

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Thanks for trying to help, but I think we're just going to return it. My husband doesn't want to risk it not working and becoming a headache. Once I've done a firmware update it won't be "new" anymore and I need it to still be in right out of the box condition.

Kari
Kari,
Don’t give up, I went the same problems you’re talking about. Steep learning curve but you can do it. 1st - look at marksscanners.com for easier to read operating instructions and programing. 2nd - there are several programs with free trials to program the 536, I use BuTel but to each his own. 3rd - I live in Carlisle and use the WESTCOM/DES MOINES site, works better than HOOPER for me.
Bruski
 

Romak3

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Indy and county are alive and well. You can still get fire and rescue on analog. I'm in Indy with a TRX-1
 
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I started packing it up to send it back and my husband interrupted me just as I was about to process it on Amazon and print up a shipping label. He clarified that he doesn't want to mess with it anymore but that he was okay with me trying to figure it out, even if it means that we can't return it and can only end up getting Polk County when all is said and done.

Thanks for the encouragement, guys. I guess I'll re-unbox it ;), take some caffeine and Xanax and pull up that Marks Scanners website to get studying. Really wishing I was more technologically adept about now.
 
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Sweet relief, but wowzers!! was that a pain. I just thought I'd drop in and give an update and a massive thank you for the advice and encouragement. Phew! I ended up booting into OS X and installing Sentinel through Wine and updated straight to the card. I couldn't get the app to install into Windows 10 because of a .NET Framework 2.0 issue, despite following all suggestions online.

Anyway, the update did the trick, so apparently we weren't doing anything wrong in trying to set it up. I've not heard much from Warren County, but it is coming through occasionally now. Funny that some of ISICS is loud and clear and others sound like they have marbles in their mouths. That'll be my next challenge. Learning curve, indeed. Ugh.

Kari
 

mws72

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Sweet relief, but wowzers!! was that a pain. I just thought I'd drop in and give an update and a massive thank you for the advice and encouragement. Phew! I ended up booting into OS X and installing Sentinel through Wine and updated straight to the card. I couldn't get the app to install into Windows 10 because of a .NET Framework 2.0 issue, despite following all suggestions online.

Anyway, the update did the trick, so apparently we weren't doing anything wrong in trying to set it up. I've not heard much from Warren County, but it is coming through occasionally now. Funny that some of ISICS is loud and clear and others sound like they have marbles in their mouths. That'll be my next challenge. Learning curve, indeed. Ugh.

Kari

Your last statement about audio quality sounds like simuclast reception. Do you scan more than one site?
 
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Michael,

It was a long and very stressful night, and I was so relieved by morning to have not corrupted the micro SD card that I didn't go any further into programming it. I let it scan ISICS in general and watched to see what came through. I think i might have heard a hallelujah chorus when Hooper and Warren County flashed across the screen. When it locks onto Warren County, they have been loud and clear, so I'm happy. I'll worry about fine tuning after I get over the trauma. ;)

Kari
 

drdeputy

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Sweet relief, but wowzers!! was that a pain. I just thought I'd drop in and give an update and a massive thank you for the advice and encouragement. Phew! I ended up booting into OS X and installing Sentinel through Wine and updated straight to the card. I couldn't get the app to install into Windows 10 because of a .NET Framework 2.0 issue, despite following all suggestions online.

Anyway, the update did the trick, so apparently we weren't doing anything wrong in trying to set it up. I've not heard much from Warren County, but it is coming through occasionally now. Funny that some of ISICS is loud and clear and others sound like they have marbles in their mouths. That'll be my next challenge. Learning curve, indeed. Ugh.

Kari

Kari...just an FYI, if you ever want to use Windows 10 directly, the way to get .NET 2.0 working is available. In short, it's already part of your Win 10 install, just not enabled. You go to .NET 3.5 (which includes .NET 2.0) and enable it...wait, then you're good to go with Sentinel in your Windows 10 box. Now you tell me about Wine! I've never tried it, but it would be nice to use Sentinel on my Mac....and yes, I'm aware of other ways (parallels, bootcamp, etc) but don't want to go that way.


Forrest
 
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Forrest,

I appreciate the advice, but unfortunately, my son's computer disagrees. ;) I kept searching online at the time for the solution and already had seen that. I let the computer install Framework .NET, only to see that it installed 4.something (5?) and the app needed 2.0. So I followed Microsoft's instructions on installing the older version, but it would stop halfway through and error. Repeatedly. So I researched that problem. The one solution that was hailed as working was to uncheck the newer version in the computer settings, which would allow the older one to install. Relieved, I did that, but ran into the same error. There are no words to express how much I despise Windows.

I had already installed Sentinel using Wine through Linux running on my Macbook, but it wasn't finding the micro SD card. Researching any other options, I'd seen reference to Wine on Mac and success installing Sentinel. I'd been used to the Linux version of Wine for years, but it never phased me that Wine was available for OS X. I followed the instructions on: Installing Uniden Sentinel on Mac OS X with Wineskin | John’s Tech Blog and it worked perfectly. I was confused by the last couple steps, but it wasn't hard to muddle through it on my own. The only thing to note is do not connect the radio itself because it can corrupt the files. You have to pull the card and access it with a USB card reader.

Kari
 
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