BCD436HP: Help with Discovery

HandiScratchy

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
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?
 

hiegtx

Mentor
Premium Subscriber
Joined
May 8, 2004
Messages
10,971
Location
Dallas, TX
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

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
@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

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
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

Keep your friends close & your radios closer
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 16, 2006
Messages
6,069
Location
40.0417240450727, -75.23614582932653
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

* * * * * * * * * * * *
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 17, 2003
Messages
6,466
Location
Suffolk County NY
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.




1695205936147.png


1695206778933.png
 
  • Like
Reactions: wtp

HandiScratchy

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
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

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
1,587
Location
Eastside of Lake WA
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?
 
Last edited:

nessnet

Member
Joined
Jan 22, 2007
Messages
1,587
Location
Eastside of Lake WA
Query:

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

IP addressTypeHosted byLocation
12.208.173.93IPv4
Hosted by AT&T Services, Inc.
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 addressTypeHosted byLocation
23.227.38.32IPv4
Hosted by Cloudflare, Inc.
Cloudflare, Inc.
Canada

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

 
Last edited:

racingfan360

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2005
Messages
1,153
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

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
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

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
8,559
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
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

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
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

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
8,559
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
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

Newbie
Joined
Aug 19, 2018
Messages
37
Location
Charlotte NC
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.
 
Top