BCD996T Optimizing P25 performance

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Airdorn

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Hey all..

I recently got my first digital scanner, a BCD996T and I absolutely love it. I think I might buy stock in Uniden.

So anyway, I'm a little confused about optimizing the P25 performance because the manual's instructions are very vague. Dare I say, the instructions are poorly written.

What I see when I am monitoring a Motorola digital system and I push the tuner + volume, is the following:

ERR: (numbers) 8 AUTO
T 1.43 1.65 1.87

I noticed that while a channel has activity, the number next to ERR: starts 'high', maybe around 60 or so, and slowly drops down some. Also, those numbers at the bottom change a lot. I am assuming the left-most number is the "low" range of something, the right-most number is the "high" range of something, and the middle one is the average of some mysterious something.

So what's the name of the game here? It says in the manual to turn the knob to make the decode threshold (whatever that is!) start level as close as possible to the system's optimum threshold (the middle number?), but the manual writer really isn't very clear which numbers are which.

When I change that 8 down to something like 2 (to get close to that 1.65), then the scanner stops monitoring that system and I get a bunch of noise.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I'm a complete noob with this digital scanning stuff.

Thanks in advance!

Airdorn
 

thewenk

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My understanding is the new firmware update due out shortly willt make this tuning fully automatic, with no need to manually adjust it.
Dave
 

scanbc780

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You are looking for the lowest err number. If you change it to manual you can see where the err # is at its lowest whether it be 9,8,7,6 etc. I know when mine is on Auto it will usually move its way to 0 or very close even if I move it around 8, 7, or 6. any lower or higher it isn't able to decode, just as your is doing.

As I understand it, changing this number when its on Auto just creates a starting point for the scanner, then it auto corrects from there anyways. So for example if you set it to 7 and its on auto, the scanner starts with 7 and automatically adjust from there. So just set it to where you get the lowest on error (ERR) and leave it there, on auto of course. Don't worry to much about the 3 decimal numbers below that.
 
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kb9hgi

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Airdorn said:
Hey all..

I recently got my first digital scanner, a BCD996T and I absolutely love it. I think I might buy stock in Uniden.

So anyway, I'm a little confused about optimizing the P25 performance because the manual's instructions are very vague. Dare I say, the instructions are poorly written.

What I see when I am monitoring a Motorola digital system and I push the tuner + volume, is the following:

ERR: (numbers) 8 AUTO
T 1.43 1.65 1.87

I noticed that while a channel has activity, the number next to ERR: starts 'high', maybe around 60 or so, and slowly drops down some. Also, those numbers at the bottom change a lot. I am assuming the left-most number is the "low" range of something, the right-most number is the "high" range of something, and the middle one is the average of some mysterious something.

So what's the name of the game here? It says in the manual to turn the knob to make the decode threshold (whatever that is!) start level as close as possible to the system's optimum threshold (the middle number?), but the manual writer really isn't very clear which numbers are which.

When I change that 8 down to something like 2 (to get close to that 1.65), then the scanner stops monitoring that system and I get a bunch of noise.

Can anyone shed some light on this? I'm a complete noob with this digital scanning stuff.

Thanks in advance!

Airdorn

Easier to read manual for the 996T this helped me out alot when I got mine.
http://myweb.cableone.net/marksscanners/996/996.html#create site
 
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