BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Highway Patrol Digital Trunked

Status
Not open for further replies.

waingro223

Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
49
Hi everyone I have tried and tried to get my BCD436HP to pick up the Missouri state highway patrol on the MOSWIN system. I used the sentinel software and it was working before. I don't know if I did something to mess it up for what. .The sentinel software uploads it to the scanner as one of my Favorite Lists that I made. The system shows its scanning with full bar reception but no voices come out of it. Its gets the signal very well just no traffic??? I have all the right frequencies put in the scanner.

Its digital trunked. have tried a lot of different things, I even did it manually which took some time still using the software, I just wrote it all in instead of pasting it in. I have it set to download and set to listen too and its gets the reception just no voice traffic.

Could anybody help me out with this its driving me nuts. I have O Fallon Missouri on there on its a digital trunked and works fine. I am going to keep trying though. Please help me out if you can. I have a bcd396xt and bcd996xt and they both pick up the highway patrol fine. I almost wish I didn't buy this thing but it might grow on me. Thanks for any help out there guys and girls.
 

ofd8001

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
7,891
Location
Louisville, KY
Getting "full bar reception" is a real good sign. That indicates you have the system and sites programmed correctly and you are in reception range.

So I'm thinking that narrows the problem down to either something with Departments and/or Channels.

Some things to check:

1. Are the applicable Departments avoided?
2. Are the applicable channels avoided?
3. Do you have Service Types selected as appropriate?
4. Are the applicable Department Quick Keys enabled via Sentinel and are they turned on?
5. If you use Location Control (Location Control On), is the correct location (lat/long/range) set for the applicable Departments?

You might also think about re-creating a new Favorites List for the highway patrol "stuff" using Sentinel. Be sure to use a different name and Favorites List Quick Key.
 

WM8L

Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
50
Location
Miamisburg, OH
Hi everyone I have tried and tried to get my BCD436HP to pick up the Missouri state highway patrol on the MOSWIN system. I used the sentinel software and it was working before. I don't know if I did something to mess it up for what. .The sentinel software uploads it to the scanner as one of my Favorite Lists that I made. The system shows its scanning with full bar reception but no voices come out of it. Its gets the signal very well just no traffic??? I have all the right frequencies put in the scanner.

Its digital trunked. have tried a lot of different things, I even did it manually which took some time still using the software, I just wrote it all in instead of pasting it in. I have it set to download and set to listen too and its gets the reception just no voice traffic.

Could anybody help me out with this its driving me nuts. I have O Fallon Missouri on there on its a digital trunked and works fine. I am going to keep trying though. Please help me out if you can. I have a bcd396xt and bcd996xt and they both pick up the highway patrol fine. I almost wish I didn't buy this thing but it might grow on me. Thanks for any help out there guys and girls.

Hi waingro, not quite sure what's going on but I have had a similar situation on our Ohio Marcs IP system which I would assume is very similar to your statewide system in Missouri.

What I usually find a problem is the multiple transmitter sites and choosing the best for my location and ID's I want to listen too.

I would delete your current favorites list that your trying to use, then go back to Sentinel and rebuild a new favorites list. I will open the respective DB from the Radio Reference Database and look at all the locations and choose only the ones within my range and ID's I want to listen to. Go back to Sentinel and pick those locations (you can use only control channels on your 436) and then choose your department ID's.

I would guess something was turned on or off that shouldn't be since you advised your are receiving other Digital trunking systems.

Hope this helps.
 

Jay911

Silent Key (April 15th, 2023)
Feed Provider
Joined
Feb 15, 2002
Messages
9,378
Location
Bragg Creek, Alberta
Does your talkgroup group (the "department") have the correct lat/long settings?

When editing the favorite, select the system, then the department, then click the Location tab.

What you're describing will occur if your system sites' locations are correct but your talkgroup departments have no location data.
 

dfw1417

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
71
Location
DFW Texas
Has the system changed recently? Maybe you updated your Master Database and the system had updated data which was recently revised, in that case your previous Favorites List would NOT BE UPDATED and you would not here the system anymore.

If this is the case you will have to update your favorites list from your updated database to once again hear the system.

When Sentennial updates the master database it does not update any previously created favorites list.

Hope this helps.
 

RF23

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Messages
893
You have gotten a lot of good suggestions as to a possible cause of your problem.

A quick way to rule out the 436 having a problem would be to use the full database and enter your Zip Code. If it picks up MSHP then you know your Favorites List has some problems and the radio is probably good.
 

waingro223

Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
49
I am Confused!

I loaded the the favorite list with the moswin highway patrol digital system and it just starts working when it wants!!! Its like its possessed! It won't work and than all of a sudden BAM! its picking up MOSWIN Weldon Springs! Just like that. I don't get it. I really hope my scanner isn't broken or have a defect. I have the latest firmware and latest database.If it is indeed a hardware malfunction how to go about doing that and does anyone know the cost to look at the scanner?
 

RF23

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 1, 2011
Messages
893
I loaded the the favorite list with the moswin highway patrol digital system and it just starts working when it wants!!! Its like its possessed! It won't work and than all of a sudden BAM! its picking up MOSWIN Weldon Springs! Just like that. I don't get it. I really hope my scanner isn't broken or have a defect. I have the latest firmware and latest database.If it is indeed a hardware malfunction how to go about doing that and does anyone know the cost to look at the scanner?

Since it seems to have started to work after you loaded a favorite list perhaps you are having a problem with part of the last "favorite's list" still being present after loading your new FL. This has happened to me a few times, but if you check the box "erase favorites list" that pops up when writing your new favorites list to the scanner it will keep this from happening. Make for sure you have backup copies of all your favorite's lists just in case your new one does not want to work, you will then have the old one(s) to fall back on.

If however, you are having intermittent hardware problems this can be a real problem since it is very difficult for the technician to fix something that is working when the technician receives it.
 

kruser

Active Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
4,987
Location
West St Louis County, MO
Change the Weldon site from NFM or Auto to FM modulation mode.

The main control channel for Weldon Spring is in the middle of the 152 MHz paging band.
If you have a 152 MHz paging site very near you, that can desense the radio and it will not receive the Weldon CC cleanly and knock out your reception. That could explain the 'randomness' of your problem as the paging transmitter turns on/off.

You should also try setting the modulation for that site to FM from NFM.
I just needed to do that for the Weldon site only on my 536HP.
Oddly, I'm able to leave the Imperial site on NFM and it also uses a CC in the paging band just 60 kHz below Weldons.
Why that works is beyond me but it is now needed for Weldon only. That kind of goes against paging signals wreaking havoc with Weldon's CC frequency as NFM mode should help reduce interference from the paging signals in our area and FM mode should make it worse in theory!

Changing Weldon from NFM to FM made mine work perfectly once again even though it had been working in NFM mode just fine a week or two ago.
I don't know what changed but something with the site as I'd made no changes in the scanner whatsoever prior to Weldon Spring flaking out on me.

Can you copy any of the other Moswin sites? Maybe Warrenton or New Hope would be two good ones to try from your area. I get them both here in Chesterfield but they can stay on NFM. They also work well in FM mode but only the Weldon site needed to be in FM mode.

You can switch to FM mode by simply hitting the Channel button while scanning or searching the Weldon site. Once the radio shows it is held on any talkgroup in your Weldon favorite list, press and release the function knob and then quickly press and release the Channel button until the display shows Modulation FM, not NFM or AUTO. You only have about three seconds max between key presses before the Function mode times out!

This wll force Weldon to use FM mode but leave the other sites at NFM.
Once it is on FM, let the Function mode timeout and then press the channel button again to release the channel hold and see if you do not start hearing Weldon's site again.
The same thing can be done globally by editing the Band Defaults and changing the 150.8 line from NFM to FM/ 5.0 kHz. This can be done from Sentinel's edit profile menu or from the settings page of the radios menu.

If you do any of these in the radio, make sure you read the radio into Sentinel and then save it otherwise the next time you use Sentinel, it will revert the settings back to defaults of either Auto or NFM. Of course if FM does not work, then reading and saving from Sentinel is not needed.

If you do the global method of setting FM mode for the VHF range, then the change I mentioned first should be set back to AUTO as that change will overide the global setting.
Actually, if you have other sites searching or scanning with the same quick keys as your Weldon site, you should probably use the global method. Either way should work though.
If you have it set correctly to FM, the display will show FM on the bottom line when a talkgroup goes active. If it still shows NFM, you missed a step or function mode timed out on you!

Another thing I've found for all the VHF Moswin sites in my range is to use Manual P25 mode settings. Set the P25 Threshold Mode to Manual and then set the P25 Threshold Level to 7. Auto mode caused me problems. Manual mode with a level of 7 worked the best.
This needs to be set for each site at the site level from the radios menu system or from within Sentinel.

My 536HP started doing the same exact thing as your 436 is doing maybe about a week ago at the most. And like you, all my other digital systems and sites continued working just fine.

Some of my instructions may need some translating as you have the 436 and I used the 536 for my instructions. My 436 is at work and I don't recall if all the buttons are labelled the same between the two models. I also don't recall if the modulation mode displays on the bottom line on the 436 or another display line.

Please report back here if this helped or not!

edit: one other thing you can do is remove all frequencies from the Weldon site except 152.660 and 154.695. The others are not needed as the scanner will tune them from the control channel data. That eliminates any chance that you are hanging up on a frequency that may have local interference on it. You only need the Primary and Alternate control channels programmed at the site level.
 
Last edited:

waingro223

Member
Joined
Jun 10, 2008
Messages
49
Thanks for the advice!

Thanks for all the advice from everyone, I will play around with it and see if any of that stuff works out! I just want to monitor them clearly without any fuss. You all have a good one and ill let you know if it works out!
 

kruser

Active Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Nov 25, 2007
Messages
4,987
Location
West St Louis County, MO
Thanks for all the advice from everyone, I will play around with it and see if any of that stuff works out! I just want to monitor them clearly without any fuss. You all have a good one and ill let you know if it works out!

Never heard back from ya waingro. Did you ever get the Weldon Site working??

I must still scan just that site in FM mode verse NFM mode. All the other Moswin VHF sites work fine in either FM or NFM mode.

The other odd thing for me anyway is that I get almost identical signal levels from the Weldon and the Imperial sites here.
The signals from both sites appear nearly identical with a service monitor as well although my monitor is pretty dated so it may not be showing me everything.

Anyway, just curious if any of the suggestions worked and most importantly, which one did the trick!
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top