BC996xt recovered P25 audio choppy on some systems

[W2IRT]

Hi all,
Still getting my feet wet with digital scanning and I have a question about P25 decoding. There are a few Phase-I systems nearby and I'm finding that the recovered audio is very choppy from time to time. Usually it's monitorable with a few missed words or syllables here and there, some systems are beautifully crystal clear and two are just downright difficult to copy.

Even when the transmitting agency sends an open carrier on certain systems I am hearing all sorts of digital "artifacts" (for lack of a better term) in the background. I understand there's a way to adjust the receive parameters but I'm not sure of what to do or where to start.

I must say that I love the receive audio quality when everything's working correctly so I'm hoping this is just a simple adjustment I can make to clear this up. I checked and I'm running the latest available firmware for this radio.

I'm using it mobile and the radio's permanently-installed so I can't really mess with things while I'm driving as you could imagine. Thanks in advance.

 

[JamesO]

Likely a simulcast system, 2 or more transmit sites on the same frequency, this causes multipath issues. Also could be a weak overall signal level with multipath signals causing issues.

 

[W2IRT]

Yes, it is a simulcast. Is there a way around this to make it work correctly? How do the system-native radios handle those same issues. In my case, the signals off the towers are all strong.