BCT15X Signal Issues

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nplamers

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Dec 4, 2013
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Fort Worth, TX
Good morning to all,

I have a quick question about my BCT15X. I use this scanner for both trunked and conventional systems. I have used two different antennas. One 800 MHz 4 inch Radio Shack antenna, and a much higher range scanner/ham radio car mount antenna (which I currently use). My question is this: When I am listening to some trunked stations, mostly police stations, the signal bars will constantly cycle between full signal and 0 bars. The bars will flash on and off. It does not seem random because it usually happens when someone keys the mic. Usually, I can hear the dispatcher describing a call and then says "Break" and releases the PTT. When he/she is supposed to activate again, the bars start flashing on and off. Its not only the dispatcher, its other officers responding to the dispatcher sometimes as well. Usually they respond with their callsign to acknowledge the call, but right when its supposed to happen, the signal bars flash rapidly. This only happens to police channels, even with different cities, but different channels under the same set of control channels will still work. FD and our local transit system communications work fine. But, even under the same control channels and simulcast network, only police channels have this issue. Is this normal? Thanks for any help.

Nick
 
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So Far Away....
If its a TRS and your scanning the Control Ch and the Voice Ch,the bars will rise when it cycles by the CC..If your scanning Voice Ch's you will only see the RX bars jump when there is a signal being RX'd..
 

nplamers

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Dec 4, 2013
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Location
Fort Worth, TX
I'm sorry. I'm not too familiar with some of these terms. TRS? And I know I am scanning control channels in the process of scanning the entire simulcast. Is there a setting or way that I can fix this?
 

localknitwits

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Mar 31, 2014
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Location
buzzards bay, ma
TRS - Trunked Radio System,

Yes, the bars flash when no communication is going when scanning a trunk system because its picking up the control channel.

If you lock out the trunking system and just have a conventional channel enabled you will only see the bars when someone is communicating.

I'm not sure how or if you can to set the unit to ignore the reception strength indicator on the control channel while scanning a trunked system on the bct15x.

Maybe someone else will chime in.
 

JoeyC

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Dec 19, 2002
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3,523
Location
San Diego, CA
When you say the "bars will flash on and off" are you saying that you are missing the reply transmissions? because of this?

Does this scanner require a custom bandplan or a firmware update to monitor a rebanded TRS?
 
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