Atlanta P25 and Uniden 996T Performance

[jthorpe]

My scanner is no longer compatible with rebanding now that it's downgraded. Uniden is on crack for two reasons. #1. you CAN downgrade. #2. They NEVER fixed this issue. APPARENTLY at some point they had the capability to do so, but didn't do so. The old version of firmware works fine on P25 simulcast. The BC796D sounds AWESOME on simulcast, so why on earth have they continued to sell scanners that are NOW INFERIOR on P25, then now not support them?

It's like as soon as they went to the XT, they wiped their hands clean of the 996T et .

I WILL NEVER AGAIN BUY UNIDEN.... and will encourage all of my friends to buy GRE or another brand. While they have great features, those features are useless if you can't hear anything.

 

[nunyax]

Yep, my P25 audio is 100 times better on the VIPER Simulcast system then it was with any other version of firmware. I just followed the normal steps you would use for a firmware upgrade, and it worked great. The version of BC_VUP that I used is 2.0.0.7. Took about 10 minutes for it to complete. It took my scanner from 3.something to 1.04.12

By doing this downgrade, I went from 90% choppy audio to 100% perfect audio. NONE of it is choppy now. The RSSI indicator is stable again etc. The bad thing is that when rebanding occurs, I'm screwed because I don't believe this version will support it. I wish upman could make it possible with this version but I don't think they are going to be touching the 996T anymore.

My 396T is still at v1.13.17 and it scans the rebanded Walton County, GA system just fine (not much to hear thanks to encryption but it does decode the non-encrypted stuff well.) I think most if not all Atlanta area P25 DTRS's are "explicit mode" systems which include all information needed to determine voice frequencies on the control channel. If you need rebanding support for an "implicit mode" system where you have to supply the system’s band plan for the scanner to correctly determine voice frequencies, firmware v1.11.03 was supposed to provide the ability to add P25 band plan setting for implicit mode systems.

If you can use this older firmware instead of v1.04.12 you may be able to handle any rebanded system without having to use the v3 firmware. Hope that helps.

http://www.grove-ent.com/396info.pdf - v1.11.03 info.

 

[jthorpe]

Hey thanks for the information. I appreciate your post. I will remember this when we complete rebanding out here and see if it works. I hope it will.

 

[jcanupp]

Has anyone else changed their firmware, and if so..how? BTW, the 1 week turn around promised my Uniden...NOT!

 

[jcanupp]

Well.....after much debate, Uniden returned my radio and said there was nothing wrong with it. I really want to downgrade my firmware like you guys recommend. My attempts are failing. Please advise me of where to get the files and how to uplaod them. ARGH!!!! Help please!!!!

 

[nexus]

I have a 996T in the car with the latest firmware (upgraded to it last week when they completed the rebanding here in Mississippi) and I took a trip to Atlanta this week, just got back yesterday, and the entire time I was there I monitored Atlanta on the simulcast and had absolutely no problems listening to anything. I was monitoring ZONE 1 through 6 dispatch and surveillance and ACIC 1-3 and the AFD talkgroups. I drove to Lakewood, DeKalb, Buckhead, all over down town and everything else in between. No issues at all.

 

[MTS2000des]

and that's fine but none of those areas you mentioned are anywhere near me (southern Cobb county near I-285/SR280). We are also talking about portable scanners with heliflex antennas not mobile units with external antennas. I bet your experience would be much different with a 396XT, even with a high performance 800MHz antenna.

 

[suttles1972]

and that's fine but none of those areas you mentioned are anywhere near me (southern Cobb county near I-285/SR280). We are also talking about portable scanners with heliflex antennas not mobile units with external antennas. I bet your experience would be much different with a 396XT, even with a high performance 800MHz antenna.

I will put this to a test on 09/09/2009. I will be using a Scanner Master 800Mhz antenna with 2.5db gain, with my 396XT. I will be driving inside my car, enroute to Florida, on vacation. I will reveal my findings as soon as I reach my destination.

 

[rmiller818]

Inside the perimeter monitoring Atlanta isn't a problem it seems. (at least in my experience)

 

[cavitt]

I have been using the 396XT for a couple of months now... mostly in and around Cobb and Fulton (some DeKalb). I've been pretty disappointed with it. My Cobb reception is no better, and IMHO a bit worse, than the 396T. I have the luxury of running both at the same time occasionally (the 396T has in-car duty, the XT goes out) and there really is no discernable difference in reception or sound quality. I haven't tweaked the 396XT much (and I'm not sure if there's much to tweak). The T is running the latest firmware.
I'd love to try some of the other models, but have too much programming time invested in the Unidens. RC

 

[b7spectra]

I've had the opposite. I had a Pro-96 and all I would get on it was motorboating on the P25 systems. My 396XT has a 1/4 wave 800 antenna on it and everything comes in loud and clear. Granted, from NE Cobb I can't hear DeKalb or Atlanta on it, I have no problem with it in my truck. My 396XT even seems, at times, to out preform my 996T with an external antenna!

Have you tried "tweaking" the settings with software?

 

[suttles1972]

I will put this to a test on 09/09/2009. I will be using a Scanner Master 800Mhz antenna with 2.5db gain, with my 396XT. I will be driving inside my car, enroute to Florida, on vacation. I will reveal my findings as soon as I reach my destination.

Well after traveling through 285 S and N, to and from Florida, I'm afraid my experience is like the others. It seems is if the area of Cobb Galleria has no signalling for the Atlanta system. I actually didn't receive a clean transmission until I got to the 285-I20 junction with my mobile antenna. Now returning from Florida, I used the NMO mounted antenna on my car. And in the same area, I experienced the same problem. However, the scanner going deaf started in the Vinings area and continued until I reached the 285-I75 junction, just to completely discontinue signaling altogether from Atlanta, driving a mile on I-75 N. It seems to me that this area is blocked by signalling from Atlanta or the signalling is too weak and only works best in the inner city limit of Atlanta. And this is much different from the Cobb-P25 system, which seems to come in loud in clear around 285, in Clayton County, near the airport. Sorry for my delay in responding. My experience once I got to Saint Augustine Fl was a disaster. Some hoodlums lash two of my tires, as well as 5 other guest, at the hotel, we stayed in overnight.

 

[MTS2000des]

Well after traveling through 285 S and N, to and from Florida, I'm afraid my experience is like the others. It seems is if the area of Cobb Galleria has no signalling for the Atlanta system. I actually didn't receive a clean transmission until I got to the 285-I20 junction with my mobile antenna. Now returning from Florida, I used the NMO mounted antenna on my car. And in the same area, I experienced the same problem. However, the scanner going deaf started in the Vinings area and continued until I reached the 285-I75 junction, just to completely discontinue signaling altogether from Atlanta, driving a mile on I-75 N. It seems to me that this area is blocked by signalling from Atlanta or the signalling is too weak and only works best in the inner city limit of Atlanta. And this is much different from the Cobb-P25 system, which seems to come in loud in clear around 285, in Clayton County, near the airport. Sorry for my delay in responding. My experience once I got to Saint Augustine Fl was a disaster. Some hoodlums lash two of my tires, as well as 5 other guest, at the hotel, we stayed in overnight.

right where I live. Cobb's prime site is on top of the Riverwood office building right near 285 and Riverwood parkway, gives good coverage into Atlanta and around 285 on the west side.

I remember when ATL's old 7E00 used to get all the way into Gwinnett county and as far south as Coweta co on portables. Now they don't have coverage to far up I-85 and it drops off dramatically past S. Marietta pkwy.

Of course when that day comes when everyone joins this big cooperative and we have one large Smartzone OmniLink trunking system, we'll have metro wide coverage. I'll believe this when I see it. 5 years into this digicrap and we still don't have it.

We played this game since 1990 when Motorola pushed analog 800 smartnet on everybody.