Nothing yet!
Sorry, were you asking me ?
No simulcast in my neck of the woods so I can't comment.
The problem DDan is having is probably a Q's that Uniden should be able to address. ?
BCD996XT still at ver. 1.04 ??
- Thread starter rvacs
- Start date
- Status
Sorry, were you asking me ?
No simulcast in my neck of the woods so I can't comment.
The problem DDan is having is probably a Q's that Uniden should be able to address. ?
You would think so but they refuse to acknowledge the problem.
I'd say this problem we (there are several of us with this issue and not just DDan) are having is definately something that firmware can fix.
It was added with firmware in the T models after their initial release and then removed againwith the XT digital models.
The P25 decode screen on the XT still shows the exact same info as the same screen on the T model but it is locked at "auto" on the XT models.
They just need to unlock the threshold voltages like the T's offered so a user can set those thresholds manually.
I myself noticed (and posted) about this very shortly after the "new and improved" 996XT was released but never ever received any offer of help from Uniden. That was what, I forget now when the XT was released. I just know I purchased mine less than a month after it was released.
batcave5588
Newbie
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2009
- Messages
- 3
I was told by a uniden rep that they have to pay royalties to Motorola to use the new frequency codes? he mentioned something about phase 2 not being out or something intill 2013 so im going to assume that we will not see a firmware upgrade intill it make seance financially for uniden to pay the royaltys, beings phase2 is still very limited. That is also assuming current scanners are capable.
shelleys1
Member
I'm really not going to get any more involved in this discussion other than what I'm going to post right now...so I'll say it and you can take it for what it's worth....
Simulcast systems can be and in some cases (read often) are inherently difficult. It doesn't matter if they're Moto or any other manufacturer and it (once again) often doesn't matter what receiver (scanner or even transciever) one is using - the transmissions can be problematic. They can range from being very difficult to hear to garbled to bringing an entire system down! This isn't always the case but it certainly comes up and, over the past few years it's been an ongoing "annoyance" (and worse) with some departments which have chosen to simulcast.
So, this isn't *just* a problem with your (or my) 396XT! (And I, thankfully experience it very infrequently.) This has it's roots much deeper and often the majjority of the problem lies with the system one is trying to monitor.
There are those times, of course, when our other scanners can hear and our 396XTs cannot, so for those of you who are so terribly upset about it, I have a great suggestion...sell yours!! There are MANY people out there who would love to buy it! Then buy yourself a different scanner.
BTW, I have no problem with my HP-1s - you could buy one of those. So quit complaining - just sell your scanner and buy a different one.
Shell
Simulcast systems can be and in some cases (read often) are inherently difficult. It doesn't matter if they're Moto or any other manufacturer and it (once again) often doesn't matter what receiver (scanner or even transciever) one is using - the transmissions can be problematic. They can range from being very difficult to hear to garbled to bringing an entire system down! This isn't always the case but it certainly comes up and, over the past few years it's been an ongoing "annoyance" (and worse) with some departments which have chosen to simulcast.
So, this isn't *just* a problem with your (or my) 396XT! (And I, thankfully experience it very infrequently.) This has it's roots much deeper and often the majjority of the problem lies with the system one is trying to monitor.
There are those times, of course, when our other scanners can hear and our 396XTs cannot, so for those of you who are so terribly upset about it, I have a great suggestion...sell yours!! There are MANY people out there who would love to buy it! Then buy yourself a different scanner.
BTW, I have no problem with my HP-1s - you could buy one of those. So quit complaining - just sell your scanner and buy a different one.
Shell
C'mon Shell! Selling is not an option! At least not for me.
I love my XT series scanners and would not give them up for anything!
They are by far, better scanners than the GRE line for myself anyway. I do use my XT scanners for most of our areas VHF stuff which as you know is the majority of what we have here.
The XT radios work fantastic for that. The GRE's are poor due to pager signal problems.
I also have the HP-1 and I also like it a lot. I find that it is a good receiver to just have running in the background and also recording which is a fantastic feature.
I do not, however, agree with your statement that there is nothing wrong with the XT radios. Why do all of my other radios, including Unidens very own older T model, receive the P25 simulcast systems fine while the XT's do not?
That tells me there is indeed something wrong with just the XT series in the way they attempt to tune a P25 simulcast datastream.
I don't care where I am at, when I can sit the T and XT side by side and hear the P25 signal clear as a bell on the older T model or on any digital GRE but not at all on the XT series, there is something wrong with the XT's P25 design plain and simple. I'm not sure how you can argue with what I'm seeing and stating here. I see this 100% of the time when I do a side by side test using the same antennas and other equipment.
In Unidens defense, I was monitoring some activity last evening that went from St. Louis County out to St. Charles County. Our county helicopter was sent to St. Charles county. For some reason, I put the St. Charles sherriff frequency into a digital GRE. St. Charles county sheriff is a single channel P25 signal in case you did not know that.
I left the XT Uniden on the counties channels as they were still working the call as well.
Our counties Air One came up on the single channel St. Charles county channel in P25 mode. That was cool! After a few seconds, things went all goofy and it sounded exactly like they went encrypted.
So I quickly put St. Charles counties P25 freq into the XT Uniden and it decoded the signal clear as a bell! Why this happened is beyond me as I’ve used the GRE before for this single channel out of St. Charles. Perhaps the signal was being messed with from a pager signal near me. That is very likely. That is why I generally do not use the GRE’s here for anything other than 700 MHz and higher systems as they desense or overload from the (local to me) paging signals.
IMHO, the XT series are great radios but they "can" suck at decoding P25 simulcast systems for some users. For those systems, I use a GRE or the T model Uniden as my fix.
Having multiple radios is not an option for many due to cost usually and for those users, I may agree with you that selling and replacing with something that does work may make the most sense. I personally will be taken to the grave with my radios - all of them! I find a way to make the most from each one regardless if it has a specific problem. I’ll just use it for what it does best and forget the rest. I still use old xtal scanners for our highway patrol! They are fantastic for that! Not for much longer though. I’ll find another use for them though when that time comes.
With all that said, I do wish Uniden would address this and make the manual settings from the T models available in the XT models. I can only hope but at the same time, I can live without as I have many other radios to choose from. Of course the above wish is only valid if they can do this with firmware.
edit: Shelly, I sent you a PM unrelated to this thread!
Last edited:
Highpockets
Member
It would be nice if they sneaked one in for the XT models in between the upgrades/bug fixes for the HP1-E.
zzdiesel
Member
These facts are why I bought a GRE PSR-800 this round. It seems to have a newer feature than my 996XT from what I've read.
A workaround for a manual P25 threshold adjustment is possible. If the default thrshold setting for automatic threshold setting could be changed, we could always set the current P25 Level setting to 200 to disable the auto adjustment.
zzdiesel
Member
Fenix, I just got a new 800 last week. I'm starting to wish I had bought a 500 now. The memory card is so frustrating. I have corrupted the card 3 times just by trying to add & delete channels & TG's.
This thread is about problems with the Uniden XT scanners. If you want to discuss GRE scanners can you please start threads in that forum?
zzdiesel
Member
He was asking about recommendations. I gave him one.
I realize that but his question was the thread hijack and your post just continued the thread jack. Neither of them were related to the current firmware for the XT scanners which is the subject of this thread.
zzdiesel
Member
Okie Dokey!!!
Highpockets
Member
Subject of the thread, but not much to talk about, nothing mentioned by Uniden as far as that subject goes.
Highpockets
Member
The BC125AT is just hitting the shelves and they are already talking about an update to add the 7.5 kHz step.
The XT models are still sitting on the back burner.
The XT models are still sitting on the back burner.
- Status
