No, I'm not in SA. The Provoice and DMR additions were due to a trip that I'll be taking, not for local, but as mentioned-
- I have this issue (lack of reception) with every system in my area-law enforcement, fire, airband, military that I want to listen to-and even stuff just to test like hospitals, railroads and businesses. Every system, band and frequency range has horrible reception.
- I have the same lack of reception in other parts of the metro area, state, country, on every system that I've traveled to with the radio-even when updating and customizing favorite lists for those areas.
- The scanner is performing much worse with reception than a lower cost scanner in terms of reception (but the cheaper one has less frequency range) under the same conditions.
So due to the above, system level tweaks would not help the situation as they would logically ruled out-I need either general tweaks or setting changes that will affect all systems/frequency ranges, addressing of bugs or recommendations for equipment improvements like a better antenna. I saw something this afternoon while researching indicating there were a bunch of bugs with the BCD436 when first rolled out but couldn't find much specific information. One would think that those had been addressed at this point(?).
Without knowing your actual location (city, or at least county in Texas), there's no way to see if any specific 'problem' systems have been noted in your area. But since you indicate issues with a variety of systems, in various areas, then there is always a possibility there is a problem with your specific scanner. I have two 436HPs. One was 'early production', purchased when these models were first introduced. The second one was purchased a couple of years later.
The initial, "chronic" problems were three-fold'
The initial production units had problems with the real-time clock retaining time & date settings. This was related to the component that is supposed to keep those correct.
At the same time, a number of these scanners were showing signs of the display dimming over time.
Both of these issues were noted in both the 436HP & the base/mobile 536HP.
The other issue that received a fair number of comments were poor Uhf reception due to interference internally generated in the scanner. This was found to be counteracted by placing foil tape on the inside of the battery compartment cover.
The date/time and dim display issues (on both models) were addressed with a service repair that Uniden initiated, paying shipping both to & from for the end user to send them in to Uniden. Those issues were corrected long ago in production, and no more multiple reports of chronic problems on these specific units have been posted since then.
The Uhf interference/insensitivity eventually boiled down to adding a capacitor on the main system board, C-1. This also was corrected during the manufacturing process, and is no longer an issue. The repair process of the date/time & display issues on the 436HPs required the replacement of the main system board, so many (if not most) of those sent for the time/display repair got the updated PC board.
My 'early production' 436HP was sent to Uniden during the service campaign, There have been no further problems with it. My second 436HP, purchased after these specific issues were noted & addressed by Uniden both in the repair process, and later changes in the production process, has had no issues at all.
There have been no other widespread issues on these models since the above issues were resolved. That does not imply that any specific scanner could not have some sort of problem, only that there have been no other recent posts regarding a particular issue on an number of individual scanners.