BC-796D - Having Problems with Digital Trunking

[KT4HX]

I just started using my 796D and am having problems trunking two digital systems on my way to work (namely Prince William County and Fairfax County, Va). It works fine with my local analog EDACS, analog Motorola systems and conventional. When I try to track the two aforementioned systems (ID Scan), it stops on activity and displays the active talkgroup ID, but I get no audio, or at most a burst of noise or a burst of data. I went over my programming and all seems to be correct - though obviously I have something amiss. I can attach a file with my programming for those two systems later when I get home, but thought I would go ahead and post this now in case someone has any ideas of what could be causing this. I did play with the audio settings, but that had no impact. Appreciate any ideas.

 

[AZScanner]

I just started using my 796D and am having problems trunking two digital systems on my way to work (namely Prince William County and Fairfax County, Va). It works fine with my local analog EDACS, analog Motorola systems and conventional. When I try to track the two aforementioned systems (ID Scan), it stops on activity and displays the active talkgroup ID, but I get no audio, or at most a burst of noise or a burst of data.

Experiment with the RX Mode. When programming 800MHz channels, the scanner will default you to NFM. While that is fundamentally correct, I've found that FM seems to work better than NFM when you are having trouble decoding digital - I'm not sure why, but it does. Also, keep your squelch very low - just above the point where it stops on an empty channel. It still won't work 100% of the time, but I think you will notice an improvement. I did.

HTH's
-AZ

 

[KT4HX]

Experiment with the RX Mode. When programming 800MHz channels, the scanner will default you to NFM. While that is fundamentally correct, I've found that FM seems to work better than NFM when you are having trouble decoding digital - I'm not sure why, but it does. Also, keep your squelch very low - just above the point where it stops on an empty channel. It still won't work 100% of the time, but I think you will notice an improvement. I did.

You are correct, it did default to NFM. I will reprogram those two systems for FM tonight and see what happens on the drive in tomorrow. Appreciate your comments.

 

[KT4HX]

Ok, changing from NFM to FM and adjusting the squelch had no impact. I tried to attach my .mem file, but am unable to - IE keeps bombing out for some reason. Any other ideas of what could be causing the lack of audio for the two digital systems while analog EDACS and Motorola trunking works fine, as well as conventional? Thanks for any advice......Alan

 

[AZScanner]

Ok, changing from NFM to FM and adjusting the squelch had no impact. I tried to attach my .mem file, but am unable to - IE keeps bombing out for some reason. Any other ideas of what could be causing the lack of audio for the two digital systems while analog EDACS and Motorola trunking works fine, as well as conventional? Thanks for any advice......Alan

Hmmm - did you enter the control channels only, or all the channels? If your doing CC only, make sure the CC plan is correct on both systems. I noticed my 796 will still try to CC-trunk even with CC mode off, and it's hit or miss at that point. If you are not using CC mode, make sure you have all the frequencies in the system programmed in.

Let us know what happens.

-AZ

 

[KT4HX]

I have all the channels programmed in, and control channel is turned off. I again tried to attach my mem file here, but IE keeps closing when I attempt that. Perhaps I can send it to you in an email attachment and you can look at it that way. Again, thanks for brainstorming on this....Alan

 

[KF4WQB]

Have you verified that the digital card is enabled? MENU -> 3: System -> 0: P-25 Card -> 1: Enable

I monitor both Prince William and Fairfax daily with my BC-796D, and since you can receive analog systems fine, I'll bet your card's disabled.

Matt

 

[vsny]

hey KT4

I hope that was a "typo" on your last post...control channel should be on not off..

 

[jasonmrule]

I hope that was a "typo" on your last post...control channel should be on not off..

He has all freq's programmed so the control channel only mode should be off.

 

[AZScanner]

I hope that was a "typo" on your last post...control channel should be on not off..

He has all freq's programmed so the control channel only mode should be off.

I'd give this a try anyway. He may be missing some and is unaware. CC Only mode will find them.

Also good tip on the digital card - the default setting out of the box is on, but worth a check.

As for attaching the mem file, that would only help if someone in your area is willing to try it. Won't do me much good out here in AZ - sure I could load it, but I won't hear anything!

Also a voice quality check is in order. Since you have all the freqs, manually scroll thru them until you are receiving a digital signal and then adjust the voice settings as directed in your manual (The 796 has an autotuning routine you can activate to simplify this process).

Another worth while thing to do if all else fails is to take it somewhere in your area that sells them, like a ham radio shop. Let the uber-geeks behind the counter have a play with it - the hammies out here at our local HRO are a great resource and always willing to lend a hand.

-AZ

 

[KT4HX]

First off, let me say thanks to everyone that has responded. Now, to go through the various suggestions. The control channel is not enabled as I have all the frequencies programmed in as they are shown in the RR database. If I am missing frequencies, then it would be because the database is incomplete.

I recall checking that the apco 25 card was enabled before, but double-checked just to make sure.

AZ - I didnt expect you to monitor the systems, only to look at the way they are programmed and perhaps you could see something blatantly wrong that I am missing.

Tomorrow, I will check by trying to lock into one frequency and play with the audio settings. At present, they are at the default levels. Since I am out of range at home, I have to wait until I get to work and will see what I can do there.

Again thanks to all, and I will keep you posted.........Alan

 

[leonzo]

I have the same scanner, live in Fairfax County and have no problem monitoring either system, so if you still are having problems send me an email at leonzo@hotmail.com and I will try to assist you directly or we can meet halfway between your place and mine and work out the problem.

 

[KT4HX]

Ok, all is well now. As I suspected and others have suggested, I finally corrected the problem by playing with the audio quality settings. I had done this earlier unsuccessfully (obviously did something wrong). But this morning while stuck on US 1 (nothing new there!), I had the chance to play with it. Finally got locked on a TG in Fairfax and starting scrolling throught he audio quality settings and bingo it came in. Played more to adjust the quality, as I did with Prince William. Interesting that you can cross a threshold whereby no audio comes through. Anyway, alls well that ends well. I do appreciate everyone tossing in suggestions. They are very much appreciated and just shows what a great little community we have here on RR..........Alan

 

[AZScanner]

Ok, all is well now. I do appreciate everyone tossing in suggestions. They are very much appreciated and just shows what a great little community we have here on RR..........Alan

Coolness! Glad to hear you're up and running! Now you can experience the joy of setting the voice settings each time the system hiccups! :lol: OK, maybe not but here in AZ they are still playing with things, plus the county system uses a different setting than the city ones do - since they share the same band you have to compromise between them... I hope Uniden can fix that shortcoming in the next digital scanner and make the voice setting SYSTEM specific, not BAND specific.

It's an otherwise great scanner though. It seems to reject interference better than the GRE, which in my area is the difference between hearing the comms or hearing digital data noises. A definite step up over my aging 250D.

-AZ

 

[KT4HX]

[quote="AZScanner]Coolness! Glad to hear you're up and running! Now you can experience the joy of setting the voice settings each time the system hiccups! :lol: OK, maybe not but here in AZ they are still playing with things, plus the county system uses a different setting than the city ones do - since they share the same band you have to compromise between them... I hope Uniden can fix that shortcoming in the next digital scanner and make the voice setting SYSTEM specific, not BAND specific.

It's an otherwise great scanner though. It seems to reject interference better than the GRE, which in my area is the difference between hearing the comms or hearing digital data noises. A definite step up over my aging 250D.
-AZ[/quote]

Well as you can imagine the DC metro area is fairly RF rich as well, plus I do like the fact that Uniden utilizes metal cases. I have had a 780 for quite a while and really like it (unfortunately my local EDACS is going to upgrade to ProVoice sometime within the next year). As for the 796D, its just all in getting used to it. or so it seems. I got spoiled with my Pro-96 by not having to make any such audio adjustments. I will be interested to see how people compare the Pro-2096 to the 796D. Again thanks for all the advice......Alan

 

[Voyager]

The control channel is not enabled as I have all the frequencies programmed in as they are shown in the RR database. If I am missing frequencies, then it would be because the database is incomplete.

You really should use CC only mode. If you do, and they add new frequencies, your scanner will automatically tune to them.

Joe M.