How Does TRX1 Receive NJICS?

[Analogrules]

I am considering this scanner, but just wondering how well it does decoding NJICS with the stock antenma out of the box? Also any tricks or settings to increase performance aside from keeping squelch turned way down? I cannot locate any youtube videos on this.

 

[Reconrider]

The stock antenna is super crap but a different one tuned to that band freq or get a dual band one with that band range in it
.
The trx1 scans scanlists slow so don't put a lot of stuff in the list - I'm not in NJ but I am in ct where we have simulcast trunk system using up the 800 band. I've never had issues with it but everyone is different.

 

[policefreak]

Honestly the TRX 1 isn't very good on that system or any other simulcast system. For the money you would probably be better off with a Uniden BCD436HP. Obviously if you're sitting right in the shadow of the tower you want to receive it's different, but by and large the TRX 1 is poor on this system.

 

[Markscan]

The 436 does okay on the West Orange simulcast, but there were a few places that it was just garbled badly. If you can swing it, the SDS100 is much better.

 

[Analogrules]

Ok thanks. I once owned a bcd436 when they first came out, but the one I had did a terrible job picking up NJICS. However, that was before all the firmware updates since then. I am thinking of buying one again and perhaps a better antenna this time.

 

[SteveSimpkin]

Ok thanks. I once owned a bcd436 when they first came out, but the one I had did a terrible job picking up NJICS. However, that was before all the firmware updates since then. I am thinking of buying one again and perhaps a better antenna this time.

I wouldn't get your hopes up. I don't think that the software updates to the BCD436HP have done much to help receive Simulcast. If you are in a location where you are receiving multiple simulcast towers with a similar signal strength, you will probably have problems. The bottom line is that scanners prior to the Uniden SDS series were just not designed to properly receive Simulcast transmissions.

 

[Markscan]

When I was at home, my 436 received NJICS perfectly. But as soon as I went mobile, distortion was frequent. My SDS100 is almost as good as my APX4000. Again, if you can, go with the SDS.

 

[ansky]

I highly recommend the SDS200. From my home in West Orange I get excellent reception and decoding from the West Orange Simulcast and Union County Simulcast with the stock antenna.

 

[markjrenna]

Unication is superior to any Uniden product when it comes to NJICS.

 

[ht396jm]

I had a TRX-1 for a while about 2 years ago, I bought it to listen to NJICS specifically. It was a bad investment on my part, there was so much distortion it wasn’t even worth turning on. I also really wasn’t a fan of the display, the amount of characters you could enter meant your alpha tags were limited to only a few characters, unlike sentinels programming. I sold it after a few weeks and waited for the SDS-200.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

I owned a TRX-1 for almost a year. Worked OK on everything non-simulcast. Sold it to help fund an SDS100 & never looked back

 

[Skypilot007]

It's really a roll of the dice when you choose to use a scanner with old school technology (tapped FM discriminator) for use on phase II simulcast systems. Receiver location in respect to the broadcasting sites has a lot to do with reception with the first generation scanners that claimed they can receive P25 II simulcast systems. The new Unification pagers and the Uniden SDS scanners along with commercial grade radios use proper I/Q demodulation techniques to remove simulcast distortion.

I am very lucky so far, with a Uniden 996P2 I have no problems with all the systems around me. However when mobile a TRX-2 is not very good, depends on location. Commercial radio right next to it doesn't miss a beat.

 

[GM]

I have owned a BCD325P2, BCD436HP, TRX-1, and my (currently owned) SDS100. I can tell you that based on my observations in the center of a simulcast receiving zone, the TRX-1 did not pick up anything at all on the NJ ICS. The Unidens did, however they were subject to some distortion and dropped transmissions. I have not had any issue with the SDS100 at all, and highly recommend it for NJ ICS. I had some issues with fine-tuning the TRX-1 as well with threshold limits, etc. The Unidens all auto-tune automatically.

As a side note, I feel the reception for analog transmissions on an SDS100 are terrible quality, so if you intend to monitor analog, I would keep your current analog scanner for all of those types of transmissions.

 

[GTR8000]

Bottom line: if you plan on listening primarily to the Union County and/or West Orange simulcast cells, go with the Uniden SDS series or a Unication G4/G5 instead. They were designed from the ground up to properly handle LSM/H-DQPSK modulation, which is what you'll be dealing with when listening to NJICS simulcast cells.

 

[RadioChief55]

I dumped the TRX 1 and got a used Uniden 996P2 and it works like a champ. I always a Bearcat/Uniden user, I figured I'd try the Whistler line since it did more out of the box then the uniden units. I got a TRX 1 & 2 and they have some great features, but bottom line, they just didn't preform as well as the uniden units did. I still have the TRX-2 so I can get the NJSEA and MetLife systems since I live a few miles from the complex.

 

[Analogrules]

Well, I decided on the BCD436 because the SDS was too much out of my price range since I also wanted the DMR upgrade. I ordered straight from Bearcat and got it yesterday. I am very impressed with it so far. I am picking up NJICS with about 90% of transmissions very clear. Every once in a while it breaks up. However, I have to experiment to see if that is primarily just happening on the West Orange Site (since the reception bars are not as strong on that site). Currently I have both West Orange and Union County Sites running. Like I said, I did have this radio once before, but this new model definitely seems to perform much better so far. (Must be due to the numerous firmware updates since 2014)

I still want to mess around with DMR more. When scanning the full database to test out reception, so far it only shows the color code info, but no audio on the couple DMR systems it stopped on so far. (But only 2 reception bars on those, so perhaps I have to be very close to pick up DMR). I will try scanning the 70 CM HAM radio band today, to see if I have better luck on the DMR front.

 

[AvidHiker]

I bought a 436 in late 2017 and it took a couple weeks of carefully relocating it, each time holding on a TG and recording for several hours - this was critical to get a real handle on reception quality - sometimes it seems good, but when playing back hours of a single TG you quickly realize how often you suddenly start missing many transmissions. I ended up finding one spot on a window sill that gave me somewhat reliable reception on NJICS (I'm right in the heart of the UC simulcast). Despite the fact that my signal strength was fine, the Remtronix 800 mhz antenna also seemed to help quite a bit, and some of the later updates did appear to have a positive effect. But, as others have said, the 436 is fair-poor when mobile, and was never anywhere near perfect stationary, which is why I moved on to the SDS100. Not only can I carry it around the house or in the car, I can leave it recording my local PD for a month straight with no issue. With the 436, I was lucky if it would go for a week before recording just randomly stopped. Seemed like any lengthy or regular loss of signal lock (as indicated by "DAT" on the display) would somehow cause the radio to go silent. The recording function would terminate and the radio would have to be power-cycled to start receiving again.

 

[Analogrules]

Thanks for feedback Avidhiker. I am still very impressed with the 436 and I can even pick up a little DMR on it now too. However, when I first turn it on, sometimes it takes a minute to actually scan NJICS as if it wants to skip over it on the first few scan cycles. I have NJICS on its own Fav list. Then I have my Union County analog list set on another fav list. A friend of mine stopped by recently to show me his Unication G4 and that was very impressive. It definitely hands down beats the 436 on NJICS. I guess the SDS scanner is similar to the performance of the G4 Unication.

 

[markjrenna]

I guess the SDS scanner is similar to the performance of the G4 Unication.

It's not.

 

[Analogrules]

Ok. Are you saying the G4 performs better or worse than the SDS?