BCD396T & Rebanding??

[DARRELL]

Albertville, Alabama completed upgrading and rebanding their public safety Motorola radio system last week. Their old frequencies were 856.7625, 857.7625, and 858.7625. The new rebanded frequencies are 856.7625, 855.8375, 854.8375, 853.3000, and 851.3250. The system was also upgraded to a digital Motorola SmartNet system.

Now the problem...The 396 will only trunk track 856.7625, 855.8375, and 854.8375 when the control channel is one of these three frequencies. It will not track 853.3000 or 851.3250. However, it will track all of the frequencies except for 851.3250 if the control channel is 853.3000. The 851.3250 frequency will not act as a control channel.

I have also tried monitoring the system with the control channel only option. I get the same negative results. The only successful way to monitor all the voice channels is to program the system as all conventional and lockout the control channel.

I have a friend who is experiencing the same problem with a Radio Shack PRO-96. I am assuming this is a rebanding issue?? I was curious as to whether anyone else is experiencing such issues and could offer input with this problem. Also, does Uniden have a plan to address rebanding issues and when will the problems be addressed?

 

[DaveIN]

Darrell,

Looks like you have won the prize for being the first to be monitoring a rebanded Motorola system.

Now it will be up to Uniden and GRE to start the rebanding firmware process.

Do you (or know someone who) run Trunker or UniTrunker on the system?

 

[DARRELL]

DaveIN,

I do not know anyone who runs the UniTrunker or Trunker on the system.

I hope that the manufacturers will address the rebanding firmware issues soon. They claim their scanners will support it. I have discouraged several people to hold off on purchasing a digital scanner to track this new system until we can see what solutions are going to be offered by the scanner industry.

I never thought my hometown would be one of the first with a rebanding issue!!

Darrell

 

[DaveIN]

A handful of EDACS systems have already rebanded, however only the frequencies need to be reprogrammed. This is the first Motorola system that I have heard of actually using rebanded frequencies.

You mentioned that it would track "some" of the frequencies. Is it actually displaying the talkgroups? What is the current frequency in use for the control channel?

That's why it would be helpful to get some Trunker data.

 

[UPMan]

You also mention that it has switched to being a "digital system." Do you mean that it is a P25 Standard System (i.e. uses a P25 control channel)?

 

[northzone]

Darrell,

Looks like you have won the prize for being the first to be monitoring a rebanded Motorola system.

Actually, Vacaville California rebanded about 6 weeks ago. The Uniden and RS radios no longer track it (I have tried BCD996T, BC898T, Pro-433). This was and still is an analog trunked system.

Also, Northern California is not just moving all freqs down 15mhz. They are shifting them all around in order to make room for the new Contra Costa County 800 system.

 

[UPMan]

Northzone: PM sent.

 

[DaveIN]

Anyone else see *active* rebanding on their local Motorola system? I.e. the system will no longer trunktrack with the current control channel and is trying to tune the radio to a new frequency, but no audio can be heard.

EDIT: I have added a post to the trunking forum with some helpful links.
http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?p=752094#post752094

 

[DARRELL]

The Albertville system is a Motorola SmartNet. I have it programmed as a Type II system since it is not a P25 system. However, all the subscribers are digital. There are no analog users at present on the system.

The control channel rotates between 856.7625, 855.8375, 854.8375, and 853.3000 on a daily basis. 851.3250 will not be used as a control channel. The scanner will trunk track all four but will not track voice on 853.3000 or 851.3250. Those two frequencies will not be displayed even when there is voice communications on them. No talkgroups appear on the display either.

I think I mentioned earlier that system will also not track voice communications on the two frequencies when the system is programmed as control channel only.

 

[naSTI]

396 Firmware Memory Size is the Enemy

Not trying to hijack the thread but need to think out loud here as this issue comes up.

I think this is where we're probably at:

The 396 does not have enough firmware memory for all of the features/upgrades/fixes we'd all really like to have, as we've seen from Paul's update.

I believe this might be the reason:

Instead of just ONE Channel-to-Frequency Table, the radio will now have THREE:

1) The original 800Mhz NPSPAC Table
2) The NEW 800Mhz Table for affected areas with reconfigured systems.
3) The NEW 700Mhz Table for the new 700 rebanding.

It appears the enemy of the 396 ever getting the 996 feature of Digital-Only receive mode, eliminating the "Motor-Boating" digital sounds, effectively comes from the fact they do not have enough space to load the firmware with this function *AND* have the all of these tables loaded at the same time.

Even if they are not tables and are subroutines in the code with the formula to get the appropriate derived offsets from the reconfig/reband, you would still need to add the menu item for the user to select when creating a new 700/800 Mhz trunked system.

However, it seems like the 996 has enough space to fit all of this.

Woe is us, fellow 396'ers!
:-(

 

[Statevillian]

Well, at least I have my GRE500...That's a good thing.
My 396 will barely be better than my Uniden330....That's a bad thing.
And there is nothing on the drawing board for a replacement for the 396...and that's a bad thing.

Maybe Uniden is working on The Uniden 1 and it will be slightly larger than the 396 with everything we have wanted and needed and will have a menu where we can pick and choose what we want to actually load into the scanner....right out of the box...just by going to the Uniden site. Don't need EDACS...don't load it. Don't need certain display features....don't load it. Then we'll all be waiting and it will take our minds off the current situation. I just KNOW there will be some booty smoocher who will skim my post and we'll be hearing all over the place about the unpcoming....Uniden One!!!!!!!!!! radio rumor. Watch your inbox Paul!

 

[slicerwizard]

It appears the enemy of the 396 ever getting the 996 feature of Digital-Only receive mode, eliminating the "Motor-Boating" digital sounds, effectively comes from the fact they do not have enough space to load the firmware with this function *AND* have the all of these tables loaded at the same time.

You can't be serious? A few bandplan tables (700 MHz and rebanded 800 MHz) take up so little space that they aren't even worth considering. Even the extra code to handle them is trivial - the firmware is already written to handle numerous system types and this just adds a couple more to the list.

 

[DickH]

Actually, Vacaville California rebanded about 6 weeks ago. The Uniden and RS radios no longer track it (I have tried BCD996T, BC898T, Pro-433). This was and still is an analog trunked system. ...

For the PRO-433, you can try this. In the Trunk Programming Menu, select Control Channel Only, then select Band Plan 2 (PL2). I don't know if it will work, but it will be interesting to find out.