Deaf DMR

[TongSlinger]

Does anyone have any idea if DMR is sensitive to interference stemming from being to close to other electronics. I have seen several people stacking their scanners so I would think it would be unaffected by other scanners. I have been through 2 BCD996P2’s and 2 SDS200’s that are deaf to DMR only 15 miles away. They have been programmed as single frequency channels. They are both setting on top of my computer and are within 3 feet of satellite internet modem and an old linksys wireless access point. I returned both to uniden and bought replacements. All four are behaving the same way. There are several WiFi devices in the home including Phillips hue and WiFi Gosund Sockets. There is a fair amount of RF running around in my house. Could this somehow be interfering with my DMR? The BCD996XT setting in the cluster of scanners is unaffected. I can see the hits using 996XT but no sound from either DMR scanners mentioned. The 996XT just pushes digital audio out of the speakers. This has been trouble shot before by others in this group and eventually I was told to send them back in to uniden (which I did) or accept the fact that the scanners just would receive the channels. I just can’t accept that the scanners don’t work for what they were designed for. Does anyone have ideas? Help needed
TIA

 

[n1chu]

First thing I’d do is relocate your scanners away from your computer and wireless hubs, etc. It certainly isn’t helping when we knowingly place the scanners atop or close to suspected RF interference devices. Please tell me you’ve already tried this before asking here, and what were your results? Next I’d look at an outside antenna (a discone either in the attic or some other dead space away from anything you suspect would be emitting RF is an alternate location if you can’t mount one outside. If you are able to get an outside antenna mounted, be sure to run lightning protection to help protect the building against strikes. It is required and part of any installation. (Inclement weather is usually a problem with scanner owners as we want to monitor storm related problems-it goes against cautionary rules that say we should be disconnecting our outside antennas and throwing the feed lines out the window during thunderstorms... to protect our receivers from damage. But using an inside antenna is the best bet at times like these.)

 

[buddrousa]

Please link to the systems as most DMR problems are setup problems.

 

[IAmSixNine]

Unfortunately with a digital signal any interference will render the 1s and 0s and drop the data packets. So your less likely to get a clean signal and decode anything with lots of interference.
As @buddrousa mentioned move the scanners to a different location and test.
I will also add that many DMR systems, especailly on site business ones tend to be lower powered as the freqeuncy can be shared in a particular area. But that is subjective to lots of stuff. I just know in my area lots of businesses use DMR and lower power repeaters.

 

[bearcatrp]

Suggest you take one at a time outside and see if its still deaf.

 

[Ubbe]

The BCD996XT setting in the cluster of scanners is unaffected. I can see the hits using 996XT but no sound from either DMR scanners mentioned. The 996XT just pushes digital audio out of the speakers.

What's the signal strenght on that 996XT that can receive the signal?
You use only the included telescope antennas at the back of the scanners?
Try with the 996P2 and enter the same frequency as the 996XT receives and listen to the signal in analog mode. It should be able to receive with the same quality and signal strenght. Then change the 996P2 to mixed mode analog/digital and if the signal are pure and clean enough it should switch over to digital and start to decode the DMR data into voice if it is voice data and not just idle data or GPS or messages being transmitted.

/Ubbe

 

[smithken]

Have you purchased and installed the DMR upgrades?

 

[TongSlinger]

Sorry it took so long to get back to everyone. I have been trouble shooting the issue. I finally found the problem. I have a Hughes net satellite modem that has apparently gone off the rails. It was spewing so much radiation that that it blanked the entire house, even a small radius around the outside of the house. It took a few days to get through all the suggestion and I appreciate them. They helped in the elimination process. Thanks again to all for the assist. I'm up and running again.

 

[buddrousa]

Glad you found it and posted it to help others with the same symtoms.
If we would have said that was your problem to begin with you would have never thought of it.

 

[TongSlinger]

I was sure it an interference issue after 4 radios had the exact same problem. i could move the scanners around the house and they still didn't work. it was suggested that i take it on a road trip. That showed the problem was defendant in the house. Moving things around the house with no improvement had me stumped. I've had the Hughes net modem a while and it was the last thing i expected. When it off the rail it only effected Digital DMR performance. P25 Digital still performed. I learned when you chase interference there's nothing off the table. Again I thank everyone for the assist, I couldnt have done it without the assistance!!!

 

[buddrousa]

Thanks for the update as stated many times by several users you the user have to put in work to fix some problems.