BCD296D Problem

[chuckinsocal]

Hi Gang,

I just bought a used 296d which works perfectly except during some transmission the voice will break up. Sometimes it will break for an instant and sometimes for several seconds. When it breaks for more than a second or two I can see the radio go back to the control channel then back to the original voice freq. The transmission is continuous but the scanner is breaking up the voice freq.

My signal strength is consistently 5-6 bars and when working properly the signal and voice are as clear as a bell.

The problem is both intermittent and random with no pattern what so ever.

I've checked all my settings and as near as I can tell, they are all right, but I could be overlooking something.

I'm only scanning one bank and one system, the San Diego RCS.

Anyone have any ideas or any suggestions? Also, does anyone know how to display the firmware version? Would a firmware update bring any improvements?

Thanks for your help on this. It's very annoying.

Chuck Cannova

 

[sjlamb]

Hi Gang,

I just bought a used 296d which works perfectly except during some transmission the voice will break up. Sometimes it will break for an instant and sometimes for several seconds. When it breaks for more than a second or two I can see the radio go back to the control channel then back to the original voice freq. The transmission is continuous but the scanner is breaking up the voice freq.

My signal strength is consistently 5-6 bars and when working properly the signal and voice are as clear as a bell.

The problem is both intermittent and random with no pattern what so ever.

I've checked all my settings and as near as I can tell, they are all right, but I could be overlooking something.

I'm only scanning one bank and one system, the San Diego RCS.

Anyone have any ideas or any suggestions? Also, does anyone know how to display the firmware version? Would a firmware update bring any improvements?

Thanks for your help on this. It's very annoying.

Chuck Cannova

If you are trying to monitor a Motorola Digital Trunk System, the symptoms you described sound very much like you need to adjust the "Audio Quality" settings to match the digital audio of the system you are monitoring. This is a critical setting in order to properly decode Motorola Trunking Systems. Your manual will describe the how to adjust this setting under the section on how to program Motorola Trunk Systems.

 

[scanlist]

As posted above by sjlamb try adjusting the audio quality setting first.

There were instances of problems similar to what you describe with certain talkgroups and updating the radio to the latest firmware from Uniden helped solve this issue. Uniden also released an update for the digital card as well.

 

[chuckinsocal]

Thanks guys for your responses and suggestions.

I fiddled with the Audio Quality adjustments and it worked fine for several hours then reverted back to the same problem.

My firmware is v 3.29 which I believe is the latest version. I don't have the cable required to upgrade the APCO 25 card so I need to find one somewhere. I read in another forum that entering all the frequencies and reverting to that mode might help. I may try that. I also read that it's possible that a stronger signal from another source may be overloading the scanner but I don't think there's anything I can do about that.

I just realized that I am about halfway between two tower sites that transmit on the same freq. Maybe one is interfering with the other?

If it helps any, I'm monitoring this system. It's a splinter system but I don't know if that's relevant or not.

In any case, I don't know what else to check and I'm pretty frustrated right now. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks again.

Chuck Cannova

 

[JoeyC]

Check to see that when you are getting crappy reception it isn't coming from the same frequency(s). I have had one freq in the city system that I have to put ATTenuation on (and not use control channel only mode) because of garbage that mixes and interferes with the regular traffic. I used to have the same problem with one or two of the north zone RCS freqs as well, but since I moved, this problem isn't as bad as it was at a previous residence.

 

[chuckinsocal]

Thanks Joey for that thought. I've started logging freqs but the scanner is behaving today. Last night I attenuated the control freqs and it worked fine for several hours then started losing the voice freqs again. I'm still in ctl channel only mode but if it starts misbehaving again I'm gonna go ahead and enter all the system freqs and try that mode. Sometimes it does sound like the voice freqs are overloaded so maybe attenuating them will help too.

I know there's gotta be a solution somewhere ... just gotta find it. Any other thoughts will be well apprecitated.

Thanks again.

Chuck Cannova

 

[JoeyC]

The only benefit you will have running with all the freqs is that you can attentuate individual frequencies if necessary, like I needed to do, otherwise, there isn't any benefit to not using control channel only mode. Attenuating the control channel doesn't do anything for MY problem, YMMV.

 

[chuckinsocal]

YMMV ???

Since I attenuated the control channel the scanner is now working properly about 98% of the time, a far cry from the less than half the time it used to. I have no idea why, it just is. In fact, yesterday the scanner ran for about 12 hours and the problem surfaced on only two transmissions.

I did read another post, I forget where, where the poster stated that when he ran all the freqs his same problem disappeared. Again, I have no idea why, it just did. I think I'm gonna enter all the freqs in a different bank with just a couple of the most active talk groups and see if that bank performs better. We'll see. I'll post the results.

Thanks again for your comments.

Chuck Cannova

 

[W6KRU]

Hi Chuck. Entering all of the channels couldn't make any difference. The scanner decodes the data from the control channel and sets the scanner to the proper frequency. If that doesn't work you are going to have much bigger problems. My scanner has been better the last several days. Sometimes the dispatchers or the mobiles will tell the other person in the conversation to repeat the transmission because "you were digital" so we are going to hear poor audio sometimes because everyone is hearing it that way.

Did you get your programming cable?

 

[chuckinsocal]

HI Dan,

No, no cable yet. It's not a big deal right now because everything's already programmed and I don't anticipate any major changes.

I've never heard anyone ask for a repeat when my voice freq drops out so I'm pretty sure it's something in the scanner. Like I said, it's working ok about 98% of the time now so maybe that's as good as it gets and I may just have to live with it.

I did program all the freqs into a different bank but I can't get that bank to ID Scan. Gotta go back and revisit what I've done. Probably overlooked something somewhere. I have read where doing that solved the same problem for others so it's hard to say what will or won't work until it's tried.

I'm wondering what version of the APCO 25 firmware I have. Does anyone know how to display that? If I don't have the latest maybe an upgrade will work. Then I will need the cable.

So, for now I'm just going to live with what I got.

Thanks again for your comments. They are appreciated.

Chuck Cannova

 

[davidmc36]

Squelch??

Although this is obvioiusly a different scanner, I ran across this on a trunking FAQ page. I wonder if there is anything related to squelch that may explain what is happening?

Perhaps this has been addressed already, so please forgive the repeat if it has. I may have found an undocumented feature in the 245xlt that was implemented in later versions of previous Trunk Trackers.
While Motorola Trunk Tracking on the 245xlt, pressing the SVC button causes the DATA (with the slash through it) to light on the display. I believe this changes the squelch method used by the TT to address an audio clipping problem that happens while monitoring certain Motorola trunked systems.
The problem was discovered with early versions of the first Trunk Trackers. Greg Knox did some investigating and found the clipping was caused by wideband noise bursts in the sub-audible portion of the voice channel. These noise bursts occasionally cause the TT to think it's receiving the disconnect tone and jump back to the control channel, where it sees that the conversation is still in progress, and therefore moves back to the voice channel…and the cycle goes on. Why this occurs is
somewhat of a mystery, but his best guess was that it is due to distortion in the voice band spectrum getting into the sub-audible portion, possibly caused by the transmitting equipment itself.
A fix was implemented in later versions of the 235xlt and PRO-90 by pressing the SVC button. Now, it appears it has been carried over into the 245xlt. But the manual says nothing about it. Pressing SVC while tracking and EDACS does nothing, only while tracking a Motorola system.

 

[chuckinsocal]

Hi David,

Thanks so much for your response. While the fix as you described it apparently doesn't apply to the 296, your comments caused me to go back and reexamine my squelch settings and after a few minor adjustments, the clipping has totally disappeared.

It's amazing how we can dig so deep for solutions to a problem when the solution lies right on the surface in plain view. Another case of overlooking the obvious.

My blood pressure is now about 10 points lower.

Thanks again for taking the time to respond.

Chuck

 

[W6KRU]

Great to hear Chuck. I'm glad you got it sorted out. I had problems yesterday but they were so intermittent, I didn't even try anything to remedy it.

 

[davidmc36]

Glad to hear things worked out Chuck!

I ran across that article and remembered reading your thread several days before. It took a little digging to find your thread again but I am glad I spent the time to dig it up.

 

[chuckinsocal]

David,

You have no idea how much I appreciate your efforts. Thanks again.

Chuck

 

[davidmc36]

David,

You have no idea how much I appreciate your efforts. Thanks again.

Chuck

No problem Chuck. Nice to be able to give something back. I have been the benificary of the problem solving of others many times.