BC396 - Close Call - I have never received one hit

[Don_Ch]

I have been in a parking lot 100 feet from the 3 fast food places with drive thru's - no close call hits.

I have never received a hit anywhere. I checked the settings and all is OK.

Is it possible the scanner is defective ?

In what cases should I get expect a hit ? Can I test the feature ?

Thanks for any responses.

Don

 

[wolter]

Fast food drive thru's are very low powered. I've never had a hit even when driving through them, or when standing only 10 feet away from the clerk. But someone else may have had luck.

You can expect a hit when one signal is much stronger than the constant RF floor level, which requires you to be relatively close to the source.

Here's a few of ideas: Try in a department store or mall--the thick walls of the building help to block outside RF. (Target & Mervyns are two great examples.) Or go to a local Rat Shack and have them key up an FRS radio. Or swing by a nearby airport--the automated terminal information service (ATIS) may be enough. (Realize, though, that not every airport has ATIS--search the band for it first.)

Regardless, I wouldn't give up just yet.

 

[KT4HX]

I agree that fast food joints don't seem to be a good place to obtain "hits". I have gone thru a drive-thru with an Opto Scout and never gotten a hit. Or have been inside standing close to a person talking on the drive thr system and never gotten a hit. I can recall the days when they weren't so low powered though. I used to be able to hear the McDs drive thru from about 2 miles away as the crow flew! That was over 10 years ago though. I would take the thing to one of the big stores like Walmart, Target, or to the mall. You should get something there. Good luck.

 

[KT4HX]

DELETE

 

[billybob]

I got my first hit driving by a local airport and captured the ATIS.

 

[DaveIN]

I agree that fast food joints don't seem to be a good place to obtain "hits". I have gone thru a drive-thru with an Opto Scout and never gotten a hit. Or have been inside standing close to a person talking on the drive thr system and never gotten a hit. I can recall the days when they weren't so low powered though. I used to be able to hear the McDs drive thru from about 2 miles away as the crow flew! That was over 10 years ago though. I would take the thing to one of the big stores like Walmart, Target, or to the mall. You should get something there. Good luck.

I got a hit at Burger King on the 398 and then did a Quick Save. I was able to hear it two blocks away and then picked up Mcdonalds later on the same frequency :shock:

 

[W4KRR]

I have been in a parking lot 100 feet from the 3 fast food places with drive thru's - no close call hits.

I have never received a hit anywhere. I checked the settings and all is OK.

Is it possible the scanner is defective ?

In what cases should I get expect a hit ? Can I test the feature ?

Thanks for any responses.

Don

100 feet? No wonder you didn't get a hit! With fast food places, you need to be really close by, as they are very low powered, probably only a watt or less. Just tonight, I got a hit, not with my BC246T, but with my PRO-97 using Signal Stalker. The hit came when I was within about 20 feet from the drive thru window. And the BC246T is even less sensitive with Close Call than the PRO-97 and Signal Stalker.

 

[KT4HX]

I got a hit at Burger King on the 398 and then did a Quick Save. I was able to hear it two blocks away and then picked up Mcdonalds later on the same frequency :shock:

Thats pretty good Dave! I haven't gotten anything from fast food in quite a while. I just got a 396 myself and havent really tried out close call, but will give it a shot soon while ordering. I am sure I will get something at the stores though, I used to with a Pro-83 all the time.

 

[whooey]

Ive had better results w/my 396 than the 97!!!!

All kinds of two way comms and the sistas at mickey D's talkin about the customers 'rides'.

No complaints w/ CC here boys and girls!!! :twisted: :evil:

 

[Llwellyn]

It's also possible that some of the fast food systems are using spread-spectrum technology which would definitely stop you from getting any hits. There's a couple of different methods, and they are super-cheap to deploy in a system. Even some $20 cordless phones are FHSS now.

If it's spread-spectrum, it's never going to be on the same frequency long enough for you to get a closecall hit.

I've been out of that particular field for awhile now (thank goodness!) so I don't know if that's in common use, but it's cheap enough now I'd be surprised if most of the newer Panasonic and 3M systems don't have it... especially the Panasonic systems. You practically can't buy one of their phones anymore that isn't DSSS.

 

[Voyager]

Fast food drive thru's are very low powered. I've never had a hit even when driving through them, or when standing only 10 feet away from the clerk. But someone else may have had luck.

Wolter, you are saving me a lot of post time tonight.

Usually you will get a hit in front of the counter near the transmitter (and rarely ANYWHERE else due to the low power) on those intercoms (IF they use RF intercoms - many places still do not).

Same applies to: Baby monitors, cordless phones, wireless mics, or any other flea power transmitters.

Joe M.

 

[Voyager]

I got a hit at Burger King on the 398 and then did a Quick Save. I was able to hear it two blocks away and then picked up Mcdonalds later on the same frequency :shock:

Thats pretty good Dave! I haven't gotten anything from fast food in quite a while. I just got a 396 myself and havent really tried out close call, but will give it a shot soon while ordering. I am sure I will get something at the stores though, I used to with a Pro-83 all the time.

Remember, once saved to the Quick Save system, the criteria changes significantly - it drops to the squelch threshold of the scanner rather than the 15-20 dB above the noise floor required for a Close Call hit. The two cannot be compared. You will always hear a signal much farther than you can get a Close Call hit from it.

Joe M.

 

[myhdsport]

close call

Hello!
Maybe you can try it on some cheap $5 kids walkie talkies. I only had a BC (borrowed) for a few days, but I got several hits from inside my house: not all were where I actually heard voice transmissions, but some were. I had it set to beep and light up for close call; neat feature-just I have already spent the big cash on the pro-96. What is the Signal Stalker(seen in a reply to this post)Will it work on my pro-96?-- if someone will be kind enough to explain.-thanks-

good luck--
harleyGal
-michelle

 

[KT4HX]

Signal Stalker (SS) is very similar to Close Call (CC). SS is a GRE attribute that is found on a few Radio Shack scanners (such as Pro-83, Pro-97, et al), while CC is Uniden's (such as on the BCD396T, et al). The Pro-96 does not have the SS feature, (nor CC for that matter), so you are out of luck there.

 

[myhdsport]

close call/signal stalker

O I C-was hoping it was a downloadable feature-thanks anyway!
harleyGal,-michelle

 

[KT4HX]

Well I got my first hit today! lol Was eating breakfast in Cracker Barrel (country store type place for those that dont have them), and noticed they were using FRS radios. So turned on CC and bingo! So at least I know it works fine.

 

[Skylab]

I got a close call off my 900mhz cordless phone. But the radio had to literally be 24 inches from the radio to get a hit.

I was at the horsetrack this week, and took the scanner. Got numerous hits along the 450-470mhz area. Some signals were CTCSS and some DCS...decoded both instantly, and even showed the repeater finder icon.

 

[W4KRR]

Well I got my first hit today! lol Was eating breakfast in Cracker Barrel (country store type place for those that dont have them), and noticed they were using FRS radios. So turned on CC and bingo! So at least I know it works fine.

Yep, the Cracker Barrel here also uses FRS radios. CC works for me there as well.

There's a couple of other local restaruants (Outback Steakhouse and Smokey Bones Bar-B-Que) that use what appear to be cheap FRS radios. But Close Call showed them to be business band frequencies on 464.550 and a PL tone of 67.0. Must be a company that markets these radios to restaruants, as both were using the same frequency and tone!

 

[Voyager]

Signal Stalker (SS) is very similar to Close Call (CC). SS is a GRE attribute that is found on a few Radio Shack scanners (such as Pro-83, Pro-97, et al), while CC is Uniden's (such as on the BCD396T, et al). The Pro-96 does not have the SS feature, (nor CC for that matter), so you are out of luck there.

Actually, Signal Stalker IS Close Call (found in the Uniden-made PRO-83)

Signal Stalker II is the GRE version (found in the PRO-97) that works differently. It will 'Close Call' down to the MHz segment and conventional search that segment.

Joe M.

 

[KT4HX]

Thanks for the clarification Joe.