Carroll county 800 system into 996p2

[powerhouse]

I am trying to program a neighbors Uniden 996P2.
He only wants Carroll County Fire, Police, and county roads as well as Baltimore County Fire and Police.
I have programmed these into his radio using FreeScan but it will only receive Baltimore County.
We live in Manchester, Carroll County and it picks up Balto. Co. fine but nothing on Carroll Co.
I have made sure he has the latest firmware upgrade, 1.11.07.
I assume it's because Balto. Co. is Phase 1 and Carroll Co. is Phase 2.
I am guessing it's got to do with the "system type" in Freescan.
Carroll County is programmed as MOT800Mhz Standard (Type2), and Balto. Co. is programmed as Mot P25/P25 Standard.
I"m not sure how these systems should be programmed.
Is there anyone who can shed some light on how to properly program Carroll County's 800MHz, Phase 2 trunk system into his BCD996P2 unit?

Thanks
powerhouse
AB3JP

 

[maus92]

I am trying to program a neighbors Uniden 996P2.
He only wants Carroll County Fire, Police, and county roads as well as Baltimore County Fire and Police.
I have programmed these into his radio using FreeScan but it will only receive Baltimore County.
We live in Manchester, Carroll County and it picks up Balto. Co. fine but nothing on Carroll Co.
I have made sure he has the latest firmware upgrade, 1.11.07.
I assume it's because Balto. Co. is Phase 1 and Carroll Co. is Phase 2.
I am guessing it's got to do with the "system type" in Freescan.
Carroll County is programmed as MOT800Mhz Standard (Type2), and Balto. Co. is programmed as Mot P25/P25 Standard.
I"m not sure how these systems should be programmed.
Is there anyone who can shed some light on how to properly program Carroll County's 800MHz, Phase 2 trunk system into his BCD996P2 unit?

Thanks
powerhouse
AB3JP

Program the Carroll County system as P25 Standard.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I'd say Simulcast distortion is likely the issue here since Manchester is within range of two (maybe 3) cells on the Carroll County simulcast. Feel free to try the multipath mitigation methods in the wiki linked below, you may or may not have success. The Uniden SDS100 or SDS200 were designed with simulcast systems in mind and can best mitigate the effects of simulcast distortion

Simulcast Distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

wiki.radioreference.com

 

[powerhouse]

I had a thought and got out my SDS100 and checked the programming on it.
Carroll County is set up just like Balto. Co. so I reprogrammed the 996 just like my SDS100.
It did at this point pick up a Westminster Police transmission but that was all so that is some progress.
Both units are now set up as P25 standard as maus92 suggested and I believe it is in fact a simulcast issue as Whiskey3JMC suggests because I have both units side by side, locked on to Fire Main 1 dispatch and both units squelch set at 2.
The SDS100 is picking up a signal but the 996 is not.
The 996 has a telescoping antenna on the back and the SDS100 has a Radio Shack 8oo mhz. rubber antenna.
Thanks for the reply's.

 

[maus92]

The issue was setting the radio to recognize a 9600 baud P25 trunking protocol vs. a 3600 Motorola protocol. That allowed the radio to track the frequencies per control channel data, and to decode the digital voice data into something audible. But as @Whiskey3JMC points out, Carroll County is a simulcast system, and the 996P2 is not optimized to receive this topology. How well your friend will be able to use this radio highly depends on his exact location relative to the various tower sites that his radio can receive. The only way to find out it have them test it out.

 

[tvengr]

Give this file a try. Save the attached zipped file to your computer and extract. Open the extracted file with FreeSCAN. System is on system quick key 5. Group quick keys as follows:

GROUP QUICK KEYS:

1. CarrCo Interop

2. CarrCo Fire/EMS

3. CarrCo EMS/Hosp

4. CarrCo Correctns

5. CarrCo Sheriff

6. Local Police

7. Westminster PD

8. MD State Police

 

[powerhouse]

I will give this a try tvengr.
This will give me an opportunity to see the correct programming as well.
Thank you.

 

[tvengr]

I don't have county roads in that file. Let me know if it works and I will do another file adding county roads.

 

[powerhouse]

I tried your file but the scanner says nothing to scan.
Is that because the system type in your file is P25 Standard(DigitalXT)?

 

[tvengr]

The system type and site type should both be P25 Standard (Digital XT). That is the correct setting. The system is on system quick key 5. Press 5 on the scanner keypad to toggle it on and off. I am hearing radio traffic on the same file I created for my 996P2. I created the file using ARC XT software. I downloaded the file from my scanner into FreeSCAN to convert it to a FreeSCAN file. Your scanner has the same exact programming.

 

[powerhouse]

I tried the file but it wouldn't pick up anything. In fact the scanner said "Nothing to scan".
I changed the system type in FreeScan to P25 and reuploaded it and now it can pick up some transmissions.
It's weird that you can pick it up on your 996P2 but I can't on this one unless I change the system type.
I'll try it agin when I get a chance to see what I'm doing wrong.
Thanks for your help.

 

[tvengr]

P25 Standard (Digital XT) are the correct settings for both system type and site type in FreeSCAN. If you pressed 5 on the scanner keypad and you still get Nothing to Scan, you did not upload my file to the scanner. You may experience simulcast distortion on the Carroll County system, but that will not give you Nothing to Scan.

 

[tvengr]

So far today, I have heard Carroll Co Fire, EMRC. Detention Center, Sheriff, Westminster PD, and MD State Police. The file I attached was downloaded directly from my BCD996P2 into FreeSCAN. I double checked all of the set4tings in the FreeSCAN file and cannot find anything wrong. I can't imagine anything happening in the zipping and extracting process. Also, refer to my previous post #12.