BCD436HP: Help with Discovery

[HandiScratchy]

I am trying to use conventional discovery on the UHF business band and its generally working but I'm not getting voice on dmr channels. I purchased the upgrade and DMR works fine on regular scan. During discovery it records the transmission of what sounds like dmr digital noise. I've also gotten some that sound like nxdn. This is my first scanner (other than sdr) and I've had it less than a week so I'm sure I've missed a setting or something. Any suggestions how to get DMR voice on conventional scans?

 

[HandiScratchy]

Am I fundamentally misunderstanding something simple and everyone's just too kind to tell me it's dumb question?

 

[hiegtx]

Am I fundamentally misunderstanding something simple and everyone's just too kind to tell me it's dumb question?

No, you're not. Frankly, I don;t recall seeing that exact question asked in the same terms before.

My guess (and it's only my guess) is that the conventional discovery process is only looking for activity, not necessarily recognizing a DMR or NXDN transmission.

Try doing a 'limit search' rather than a conventional Discovery search, setting recording as manual, and see if that records DMR or NXDN transmissions with audio instead of digital noise.

 

[HandiScratchy]

@hiegtx Thank you. I will try your limit search suggestion later this week and advise. I did a good bit of searching here before my post and didn't find any answers. I don't have a lot of customization in the radio so maybe a factory reset, if there's such a function, would help. It's on the latest firmware and db already.

 

[HandiScratchy]

Try doing a 'limit search' rather than a conventional Discovery search, setting recording as manual, and see if that records DMR or NXDN transmissions with audio instead of digital noise.

I got the same results with the custom search. I called Uniden customer service yesterday. They wanted to be very clear they don't sell the upgrade keys. Those are third party but they'll check and see if someone can help.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

How strong is (are) the assumed DMR and NXDN signal(s)? You may not be close enough to get an instant decode. Pick a frequency at random and do a channel hold on it (Press HOLD, enter frequency, press HOLD again) Dwell on the frequency a bit. Is voice traffic heard? If performing a custom search I find it best to set your digital threshold level to 12 or 13 for best DMR decode results, YMMW

 

[dave3825]

I called Uniden customer service yesterday. They wanted to be very clear they don't sell the upgrade keys.

Who exactly is they? The cs reps or Uniden?

Those are third party but they'll check and see if someone can help.

Uniden upgrade keys can be purchased on My Uniden site (from Uniden directly) where you register your scanner. They can also be purchased from third party sellers at a higher price.

 

[HandiScratchy]

Who exactly is they? The cs reps or Uniden?



Uniden upgrade keys can be purchased on My Uniden site (from Uniden directly) where you register your scanner. They can also be purchased from third party sellers at a higher price.




View attachment 148580


View attachment 148581

They meaning Uniden as communicated by the technical support rep I spoke to. I purchased the key direct from uniden (exactly as you show) and told her as much. She kept saying the keys are third party. She was friendly and seemed helpful but a bit defensive about the whole topic. She also said I She created a case and I would hear back in 24-48 "business hours". We'll see, I'm not holding my breath.

 

[nessnet]

They meaning Uniden as communicated by the technical support rep I spoke to. I purchased the key direct from uniden (exactly as you show) and told her as much. She kept saying the keys are third party. She was friendly and seemed helpful but a bit defensive about the whole topic. She also said I She created a case and I would hear back in 24-48 "business hours". We'll see, I'm not holding my breath.

She was mistaken - or worse...
Ill informed.
Possible/(probable?) the support is 3rd party.
Did they have an accent?

 

[nessnet]

Query:

Our DNS servers responded with these IP addresses when we queried it for the domain my.uniden.com.

	IP address	Type	Hosted by	Location
	12.208.173.93	IPv4	AT&T Services, Inc.	United States of America

AUTHORITYuniden.com. 3600 SOA NS19.WORLDNIC.com. namehost.WORLDNIC.com.​

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Odd: uniden.com resolves differently
Our DNS servers responded with these IP addresses when we queried it for the domain uniden.com.

	IP address	Type	Hosted by	Location
	23.227.38.32	IPv4	Cloudflare, Inc.	Canada

AUTHORITYuniden.com. 3600 SOA NS19.WORLDNIC.com. namehost.WORLDNIC.com. 123090716 10800 3600 604800 3600​

 

[racingfan360]

I am trying to use conventional discovery on the UHF business band and its generally working but I'm not getting voice on dmr channels. I purchased the upgrade and DMR works fine on regular scan.

So just to confirm @HandiScratchy when you scan a DMR channel or hold on it, do you get voice traffic ok? I think you're saying yes, and if so then the DMR key at least is working ok.

Try a limit search. This time set a different (longer) Delay Time: -5 or -10 will auto forward the search after 5 or 10 secs respectively. Set digital wait time to say 100ms, digital threshold to Auto. Does that help? It could be that in the time kit sis taking the 436 to recognise and process the digital signal it is then moving on the search.

 

[HandiScratchy]

So just to confirm @HandiScratchy when you scan a DMR channel or hold on it, do you get voice traffic ok? I think you're saying yes, and if so then the DMR key at least is working ok.

Try a limit search. This time set a different (longer) Delay Time: -5 or -10 will auto forward the search after 5 or 10 secs respectively. Set digital wait time to say 100ms, digital threshold to Auto. Does that help? It could be that in the time kit sis taking the 436 to recognise and process the digital signal it is then moving on the search.

I live near Carowinds Amusement Park which uses a DMR system. On normal scan that is decoded as clear voice so I know the key is working.

I will try the settings you suggest.
Thanks

 

[Ubbe]

When receiving that DMR system in normal scan, push function and then push on the volume knob and then function+volume again and it will show the threshold value. You probably have it set to Auto. Also check if you use FM or NFM and set the same in the Discovery menu. I think that Discovery uses the settings in the Srch/CloCall Opt menu. Set threshold to manual and set the level to what normal scanning where using.

I look in my Discovery log from 2018 for BCD536 in my PC, My Documents/Uniden/BCDx36HP/DiscoveryLog/Collection_xxxx/Conventional, and in the resulting Run folder it has a folder for each frequency holding the recorded wav files and that folders name also include the decoded color code, 42368700_NFM_ColorCode6. If you see the color code then it has at least managed to decode the DMR signal and it should also have decoded the voice data into audio. I 'm not sure if that folder name can be seen in the actual scanners own run folder.

For me it has been some differences in discovery mode in BCD536 with different firmware versions. Very old firmware versions where working as they should but more recent one had issues like not being able to do compare to DB and favorite lists. It could very well be that the current firmware in BCD436 have some bugs in conventional discovery mode. There's a bug in DMR simplex that it can't decode it if the threshold are set to manual and only works when set to auto, so there are some bugs here and there in the firmware that hopefully have been fixed with the next firmware release.

/Ubbe

 

[HandiScratchy]

When receiving that DMR system in normal scan, push function and then push on the volume knob and then function+volume again and it will show the threshold value. You probably have it set to Auto. Also check if you use FM or NFM and set the same in the Discovery menu. I think that Discovery uses the settings in the Srch/CloCall Opt menu. Set threshold to manual and set the level to what normal scanning where using.

I look in my Discovery log from 2018 for BCD536 in my PC, My Documents/Uniden/BCDx36HP/DiscoveryLog/Collection_xxxx/Conventional, and in the resulting Run folder it has a folder for each frequency holding the recorded wav files and that folders name also include the decoded color code, 42368700_NFM_ColorCode6. If you see the color code then it has at least managed to decode the DMR signal and it should also have decoded the voice data into audio. I 'm not sure if that folder name can be seen in the actual scanners own run folder.

For me it has been some differences in discovery mode in BCD536 with different firmware versions. Very old firmware versions where working as they should but more recent one had issues like not being able to do compare to DB and favorite lists. It could very well be that the current firmware in BCD436 have some bugs in conventional discovery mode. There's a bug in DMR simplex that it can't decode it if the threshold are set to manual and only works when set to auto, so there are some bugs here and there in the firmware that hopefully have been fixed with the next firmware release.

/Ubbe

Thanks for that Ubbe. I am willing to try the threshold settings as part of the troubleshooting but I am skeptical that's the problem. Many of the recorded hits are very strong and clear audio of digital noise.

Also no contact from Tech Support yet including no email with a ticket number.

 

[Ubbe]

We would need Firmware Fridays to return, to be able to handle one bug at a time and sort one out before going to the next one the following week. Uniden should have a constant flow of firmware upgrades being released as long as there are issues that needs to be fixed. But with Upman gone they probably lack the needed know-how to sort it out. Look what happened when they added code to handle a new hardware chip to replace an obsolete one, that a specific frequency range stopped working with digital decode, something that to a normal user seems very odd. It could be that kind of mistake that has disabled DMR decode in conventional discovery, in a similar way it has disabled DMR simplex decode when manual threshold are used.

/Ubbe

 

[HandiScratchy]

So just to confirm @HandiScratchy when you scan a DMR channel or hold on it, do you get voice traffic ok? I think you're saying yes, and if so then the DMR key at least is working ok.

Try a limit search. This time set a different (longer) Delay Time: -5 or -10 will auto forward the search after 5 or 10 secs respectively. Set digital wait time to say 100ms, digital threshold to Auto. Does that help? It could be that in the time kit sis taking the 436 to recognise and process the digital signal it is then moving on the search.

Using these settings on 461.975 I receive clear voice and color code 13 which is correct for Carowinds Security. There are occasionally short bursts of digital noise.

Attached are recordings of the two basic noise types I'm getting. Let me know if I'm mistaken but the 460.200 is what I'm attributing to dmr and I believe the 462.735 is NXDN. The 460.200 recording is representative of what I caught from the office tower I work at. Many full 30s recordings and clear (not much static) so I would expect a decode.

I haven't found a signal strength number to share here for received signals just the antenna bars which is typically 4 or 5 for Carowinds.

If you guys confirm my guess on the modulation types I may buy the nxdn upgrade to see if it gives different results. There's a good mix of both sound types so probably worth getting it.

 

[HandiScratchy]

I'll have to get a different file type or upload to YouTube and repost. Sorry

 

[Ubbe]

I'll have to get a different file type or upload to YouTube and repost. Sorry

Just change the extension wav or mp4 to one that are accepted and then we can download and change that back to the original file extension.

 

[HandiScratchy]

After several attempts I got the files attached as a .zip.

 

[dave3825]

462.7375 sounds like NXDN to me but I am driving and listening on a cheap laptop with even cheaper speakers.