Help with bcd396xt

[FFemtKilroy]

So I have a Uniden BCD396xt portable scanner that I use to listen to my fire dept. and surrounding towns. I've been noticing that I can barely hear anyone around me. I only catch words and half sentences. I've had my squelch high, and didn't know if that was a problem. I'm not exactly sure yet what squelch does, but besides that my other problem is portables. My station mostly uses portable radios on a call and I can't hear anything they say.

Is their anything I can do to either get some better reception for surrounding towns, or pickup any portable radio talk? And all my frequencies are right, and my squelch is at 13 if any of this helps.

Thank You.

 

[KE4ZNR]

and my squelch is at 13 if any of this helps.

Thank You.

Holy Moly. 13?? Back that sucker down to 2 or 3 and you should be golden
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[CaptainEqs]

I'm not exactly sure yet what squelch does

I think you have a pretty good idea NOW, di ba?

The squelch lets you keep the volume up, but cuts out static by setting a "threshold" which requires a certain signal strength to get over, like lifting a weight.

 

[DJ88]

Regardless of the squelch setting, if your town or any of the surrounding towns use simplex fire ground frequencies, reception may be poor or even nil, depending on the power output for the frequency and how far away you are from the transmitting units. Simplex frequencies are far more difficult to receive on a scanner than repeaters, as the signal from a repeater travels much farther.