going digital in Wichita

[shocker81]

You know I am not so sure a fancy antenna is going to help that much with digital. I have a discone antenna seven feet above my roof and it did not make any difference on my Pro 196's. I have two Pro197's sitting by my recliner and they just have the metal telescoping antennas mounted and the Sedgwick system comes in great.

 

[rkm6460]

Well, after a couple of days of tweaking the new Home Patrol 1 and getting rid of everything except the Project 25 channels for Wichita/Sedgwick County, we still get pretty poor reception. Things that do come in do so clearly, but not anywhere near the traffic we had on the analog scanner. I'm thinking maybe we are in a bit of a dead spot near 119th St. and West Central. I ordered a replacement antenna off of eBay that should be here this week. Sure hope that does the trick as this is a little irritating!

 

[titothefixer]

Hello all,

Glad to see I'm not the only one having issues. My 396xt is basically silent, as are both my 996t's that are (trying to) running the SG/WFD feed.

I've been told it's due to signal overload, basically from any point in town you're getting signal from at least 3 towers. My first directional Yagi antenna arrived today and I hope to get it up this weekend. I'm told this is the best solution and at this point I'm willing to try anything.

I'll keep everyone informed as to my progress.

I was having some of the same issue you were on my 396xt. Have you tried turning down the gain? I'm currently downtown and picking up a lot more after adjusting it to -2. I'm still getting the random high error rates but it is a lot better. Hopefully this helps!

 

[dgruver911]

No solutions, just an observation...made a trip to east Wichita yesterday with my PSR500...settings: Att on, Threshold Hi 80 Threshold lo 70 (which seems to get the best results from Newton, and that's not saying much) custom TT table...

Picked up next to nothing from Newton to the K254 exit, then all of a sudden signals started booming in...keep in mind there is a tower less than a mile east of there. But it wasn't consistent, most transmissions would be almost complete, others would be very broken. This continued east on K96 and down Rock Rd to 13th and back.

One additional quirk I noticed, as we were leaving back north on I135 again near K254, I would have a very good signal and just move the scanner 4-5 inches to one side, and the transmission would disappear. Move it back, it would return. . Got north of K254 and it went totally silent again.

 

[rkm6460]

We have noticed the same thing. My wife is the scanner junkie...I just configure and update. While it hasn't been good, it is better where I sit in our living room than it is where she sits in our living room. In fact, on her side table, it can go totally silent for hours. Besides trying a new antenna that will be here this week, I guess we will just keep moving it around to find a sweet spot of some kind. Frustrating!

 

[shocker81]

Well after we have our little get together today at the Braum's at 1:00 P.M. I am going to take a little travel around the area's with my Pro 106 and see what I can hear. I will be going to Butler County first. I am going to Augusta and then El Dorado . Then I am going to go up to Newton via K196. And I may travel on up to Hutchinson via K50. I may come back through Kingman after I leave Hutchinson. The map for the Sedgwick County system shows it should reach just South of Newton but some of Butler County and Reno County is included in it. I will give a full report on my findings later this evening on this forum. I have come to one conclusion though. The Digital transmissions are clearer than the analog's were. There is no static or weak signals just the irritating breakups and dropouts. But I think the digital communications caught the scanner industry by surprise. They were not ready for it yet. So hopefully one of these days the radio techs for Uniden and Gre and the others will figure this digital thing out and make the proper adjustments to put out a good product that eliminates the problems we now have totally. But we are not alone in this problem area because I had talked to several State Troopers about the digital transmissions when they first converted over to it and they said they hear the same things we do such as the gurgling sound, the dropouts and the broken conversations and their radios cost thousands of dollars and they are not any better than our $500.00 scanners. So we will just have to wait and see what the technology guru's can do with it and we will just have to accept what we have and be glad we have as much as we do and enjoy it as best we can and look forward to better days in the world of scanner monitoring. You all have a great day today and a better tomorrow and if you would like to join us at the Braum's at 1:00 P.M. today at Harry and Rock you are more than welcome to join us. And if we need to do this again at a later date I am up for that also. Talk to you later.

 

[bear780ks]

Same thing is happening with the radios here in Reno I've heard the Techs here doing radio adjustments and then the officers have to reboot there handhelds to update to the adjustment..

 

[fletch550]

Need some Help

I have a BCD 396XT,and it was working find then I notice that I wasnt getting Fire or EMS.I have BCTool and Freescan that I have used to program everything in and it seems to downloadd,fir, everything into my scanner ok but only here a couple of channels when I turn it on.I have spent all weekend pulling my hair out trying to figure what I am doing wrong.(I do live in Wichita)Any ideas? Thanks John (im not getting wichita PD,,fire,ems only like 1 sedgwick county channel)

 

[pete424]

I am a bit confused. Is my RD Pro 106 going to work now or not?

 

[shocker81]

Yes it will work fine. I would be happy to clone mine to yours if you wish. I cloned one here in Haysville last night after my radio road trip. Just let me know.

 

[Taz305]

What is everyone setting their scanner settings at for the RS PRO106 if you live in Sedgwick County? I mean Dewell, Super Track, Multi Site, Custom settings, Threshold Hi & Lo, Check All CC's, etc. I have the ARC 500 software if that helps or matters.

Thanks for any and all help.

 

[frog760]

The new P25 simulcast system is causing all kinds of frustration for us. NO scanner or antenna will fully solve the problem. I have a BCD396T, HomePatrol-1, and BCD536HP. All are programmed the same--Sedgwick County, Kansas State, and some Local Conventional. The new 536 (just set up this AM) works the best. It sits on my home desk with a Radio Shack magnetic mount car scanner antenna on the window sill a few feet away. The 336 and HP-1 are hardly receiving--very hit and miss. There are soooooo many factors when dealing with this new system--scanner, antenna, location, weather, buildings, terrain, fridge temp, tire pressure, shoe size--hope you get the point that it could be anything. So, for me, the solution was a $614 new scanner.

 

[bear780ks]

Hey Frog if it's ok to ask were did you get your 536hp at a Local shop here in the area or Mail order?

 

[titothefixer]

Hey Frog if it's ok to ask were did you get your 536hp at a Local shop here in the area or Mail order?

I know it's not the same model but it is similar. I got my 436HP from Hamstation today. It's working a lot better than my 396XT at my desk currently. We'll see how it works when I get home.

 

[frog760]

BCD536HP Dealer

Hey Frog if it's ok to ask were did you get your 536hp at a Local shop here in the area or Mail order?

Hamstation also. Got it UPS ground Mon PM--been sick and couldn't play until today. So far, so good--a bit skeptical about the upcoming Siren app (not sure how or if it will work).

 

[rkm6460]

We put a new antenna on our HP-1, just an upgraded rubber ducky I found on eBay. I think it helped a little. Interestingly enough over the last day or so it seems to be getting better, which makes me wonder if they are continuing to fine tune the towers or something. We still don't hear as much as we did on the Pro-164, but at this point I am feeling a bit better about dumping $500 on a new scanner. May look into a different antenna at some point but for now am just going to see how this thing evolves...I have a feeling it is going to keep changing with firmware and RR updates.

 

[shocker81]

I have two Radio Shack 197's sitting by my recliner in the living room with the two telescoping antenna's that come with the radio's pushed all of the way down. The Sedgwick County system works almost perfect. I would rate it at 99.8%. There is always going to be some dropouts and broken conversations. I have two Pro 197's sitting by my bed and they are both hooked up to a discone antenna that is on a old tv antenna pole. The discone antenna is 7 feet above the top of my A roof on my home. The Sedgwick county system works great in there also. It depends on the radio you have, the location in your home the radio is sitting at, the settings on the system and the antenna your're using as to whether you have a good reception or not. And maybe where you are located in Sedwgick County will also determine your reception abilities.

 

[frog760]

BCD536HP

Hamstation also. Got it UPS ground Mon PM--been sick and couldn't play until today. So far, so good--a bit skeptical about the upcoming Siren app (not sure how or if it will work).

Opps! Got mine from bearcatwarehouse.com.

 

[Mirlyn]

I'm wondering if we should put together a "heat-map" of the county as successful reception seems to be highly location-dependent.

I'm just off Kellogg and Maize, nearly dead in the neighborhood. However, perfect reception at Kellogg and Hydraulic. Sitting at the observatory at Lake Afton gives me lots of errors, but everything comes in clear around the lake on the south side of MacArthur.

Going to try pointing a yagi at some of the nearest sites this weekend to see if it improves.

 

[titothefixer]

The signal seems to be coming in pretty well here in the Harry and Oliver area after upgrading to a 436hp.

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