Getting City of Denton...but not Denton County

[scanny_mcscannerton]

Good evening!

I have a Uniden BCD325P2 that I am trying to program to receive a few Denton county agencies on. I am programming with FreeSCAN.

Started out by putting Denton PD and FD in there (Motorola Type II Smartnet) and had no issues at all. However, when trying to input the Denton County ones, I am running into issues. I am not receiving anything at all.

I don't think that I have made an error inputting data as I copied and pasted everything over using the Easy Grab functionality in FreeSCAN. Honestly, I think it might have something to do with the type of trunked system that I am selecting. I cannot be sure of this however.

The Radio Reference database shows Denton County as a Project 25 Phase II trunked system. That's different than the city's Motorola Type II. But I don't show "Project 25 Phase II" as a choice in the drop down menu in FreeSCAN. My choices are...

Mot 800mhz type I
Mot type II/P25
EDACS narrow/wide
EDACS SCAT
LTR
P25 standard (Digital XT)
P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT)

I have attached screen shots to show you what I am looking at. Any help appreciated. I feel like I need a graduate degree to program this thing.

Thank you.

 

[Remington12G]

Good evening!

I have a Uniden BCD325P2 that I am trying to program to receive a few Denton county agencies on. I am programming with FreeSCAN.

Started out by putting Denton PD and FD in there (Motorola Type II Smartnet) and had no issues at all. However, when trying to input the Denton County ones, I am running into issues. I am not receiving anything at all.

I don't think that I have made an error inputting data as I copied and pasted everything over using the Easy Grab functionality in FreeSCAN. Honestly, I think it might have something to do with the type of trunked system that I am selecting. I cannot be sure of this however.

The Radio Reference database shows Denton County as a Project 25 Phase II trunked system. That's different than the city's Motorola Type II. But View attachment 84283View attachment 84284View attachment 84285I don't show "Project 25 Phase II" as a choice in the drop down menu in FreeSCAN. My choices are...

Mot 800mhz type I
Mot type II/P25
EDACS narrow/wide
EDACS SCAT
LTR
P25 standard (Digital XT)
P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT)

I have attached screen shots to show you what I am looking at. Any help appreciated. I feel like I need a graduate degree to program this thing.

Thank you.
View attachment 84283


View attachment 84284

View attachment 84285

To listen to Denton County P25 found here: Denton County Trunking System, Denton, Texas - Scanner Frequencies

The system type needs to be a P25 Standard (Digital XT)

 

[hiegtx]

Good evening!

I have a Uniden BCD325P2 that I am trying to program to receive a few Denton county agencies on. I am programming with FreeSCAN.

Started out by putting Denton PD and FD in there (Motorola Type II Smartnet) and had no issues at all. However, when trying to input the Denton County ones, I am running into issues. I am not receiving anything at all.

I don't think that I have made an error inputting data as I copied and pasted everything over using the Easy Grab functionality in FreeSCAN. Honestly, I think it might have something to do with the type of trunked system that I am selecting. I cannot be sure of this however.

The Radio Reference database shows Denton County as a Project 25 Phase II trunked system. That's different than the city's Motorola Type II. But View attachment 84283View attachment 84284View attachment 84285I don't show "Project 25 Phase II" as a choice in the drop down menu in FreeSCAN. My choices are...

Mot 800mhz type I
Mot type II/P25
EDACS narrow/wide
EDACS SCAT
LTR
P25 standard (Digital XT)
P25 One Freq Trunk (Digital XT)

I have attached screen shots to show you what I am looking at. Any help appreciated. I feel like I need a graduate degree to program this thing.

Thank you.
View attachment 84283

The Mot Type II/P25 system type, that you selected in FreeSCAN, is what you should use if you were setting up the 396T, which was introduced about 15 years ago. For the successor models, the 396XT and 325P2, you should use P25 Standard (Digital XT), as already noted by Remington. If you were programming directly on the scanner, without using software, you would choose P25 Standard.

However, even programmed correctly, you might still be unable to monitor the system, without trying a few other steps. The Denton County system is simulcast, meaning that there are several towers, all with the same set of frequencies, transmitting the same radio traffic at the same time. While all of these transmissions, are identical, these signals will arrive at your location at different times. While the time differential is very small, it still is enough to affect the scanner's ability to hear the system correctly. The Mot Type II system, used by the City of Denton, is an older, analog, system that does not exhibit the same simulcast issues that the newer digital systems do.

The 325P2 is a good scanner; I have one myself. But, it is not designed for simulcast systems, and thus has the problems you are seeing on the county's Phase II system.

The only real choice you have, other than switching to either one of the Unication pagers, or Uniden's SDS series of scanners, is to try and work around the issue by modifying what you are doing with the antenna. For simulcast, in some cases, using less antenna, even to the point of no antenna at all, or using a paperclip, may help. You could also try using the attenuator on the county system. This would reduce the signal strength the scanner is getting, hopefully dropping the out of synch signals too low to affect you, while leaving enough signal to hear the system from only one site. Your other tactic would be to use a directional antenna, so that the scanner is receiving signals from only one site. But that is not a satisfactory tactic when using the scanner away from home.

For more on Simulcast Distortion, see this article in the Wiki:
Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

Here is a map of the tower locations for the Denton County layer of the system.


Here are the locations for the Lewisville Simulcast layer:

However, that might not carry all of the Denton County radio traffic.

To try to confirm whether your issue is simulcast, first correct the system type as noted above. Then, take your 325P2 and drive to within a quarter mile of one of the Denton County sites. That close, the strong signal may be enough to verride the conflicting, out of synch, signals from the other towers. If that enables you to receive the system, then you'll need to try what was suggested for dealing with the simulcast distortion. Good luck.

 

[rvacs]

Hey my thought is - try going to Butel.nl ARC-XT has a free trial and may be a little easier for you. Interfaces with RadioReference with your login. Just an idea.

Not saying anything negative about Freescan - just sometimes some programs fit better for some than others.... Like Mercedes and BMW.

 

[hiegtx]

Hey my thought is - try going to Butel.nl ARC-XT has a free trial and may be a little easier for you. Interfaces with RadioReference with your login. Just an idea.

Not saying anything negative about Freescan - just sometimes some programs fit better for some than others.... Like Mercedes and BMW.

Software is not the likely issue here. Simulcast, unfortunately is. The OP, as I've already noted, needs to correct the system type for the Denton County P25 system, but that's an easy fix in FreeSCAN.

While ARC-XT is a supported software program, FreeSCAN will do whatever the OP needs on his 325P2, unless the DMR and/or NXDN upgrades are going to be added. If or when that is done, then FreeSCAN drops out of the picture. As far as 'paid' software goes, I prefer ProScan. ProScan offer all of the programming options that ARC-XT does, and also includes virtual control and logging, whereas to get that in the ARC series, the Pro version would have to be purchased. The cost of ARC-XT Pro is just shy of $20 more of the cost on ProScan ($50). Plus ProScan also covers many more Uniden scanner models than ARC-XT. ProScan also has a free trial period, so the OP could try either or both before buying if additional software is desired.

 

[IAmSixNine]

I worked in Lewisville for a while and i never heard any Denton Co. traffic on the Lewisville sites 1-2. But that was a few years ago and things could have changed since then.