Illinois Starcom21 not working on BCD325P2

[VASCAR2]

I’m in Kane County (West side of Elgin) think you could give me a hand too? 🙏 I have the 325P2 and struggling to even get started, ugh

Kane County is a simulcast system with six towers. The BCD325P2 has trouble decoding the data stream on P25 simulcast systems because all six sites transmit on the same frequency at the same time. Being your at different distance to each site the time lag of actual signal getting to your scanner can’t be decoded by the BCD325P2 (Simulcast distortion). I had the same issue with my BCD325P2 in Winnebago County because of the Rockford simulcast sites on STARCOM 21.


Sometimes the BCD325P2 will receive some traffic if your close enough to one site. This rarely works with my BCD325P2 where I travel to systems that are simulcast on the same frequency. The Uniden SDS series 100 mobile or 200 base scanners are really the only scanners designed to deal with simulcast systems.

Here is a link to the database showing the location of each Kankakee County site. You might get lucky and find a location in your house where the BCD325P2 receives but location really is the determining factor on whether the BCD325P2 receives anything in Kankakee County.

STARCOM21 Statewide Illinois Site: Kankakee Co Simulcast

 

[kbk777]

I have experimented a good amount with various scanners and have come to the conclusion that the SDS100 is the only scanner that will work in the Chicagoland area for simulcast scanning. The Unication G5 also works great, but it's a bit of a different animal. Forget everything else. That said, I'm located in far northern cook county and I'm able to listen to Kane county unencrypted traffic (such as Elgin Fire) while scanning the NWCD simulcast. For McHenry county traffic, I use Lake County Simulcast, and DuPage county usually the DuPage or South Cook simulcast (700 Mhz). I recommend buying an SDR dongle and pairing it with a good 700/800/900 antenna and you will be able to hear much more. But just take note that if you do happen to connect to the Kane County site, you will not hear anything as it is all encrypted. Kankakee county will be encrypting as well at some point in the near future.

 

[VASCAR2]

When I was around Winnebago County I could receive sites that were not in the Rockford Simulcast SC21 system. If Jeeves44 can pickup the Askum, Dwight sites he should be able to get most of the traffic that is not encrypted. The Grundy/Will County simulcast might be far enough away the simulcast might not be an issue on the BCD325P2. You won’t know until you try.

 

[RoninJoliet]

I'm in Joliet, Kankakee Sheriff and city PD are now "ENC",...FD still open,...I can monitor T1-01, T1-02 perfect at my location on both my 996P2 and 325P2 here in Joliet,...There are a couple spots in my home I can monitor T1-26 Aurora tower with no problem ., When I visit my daughter who is in So Elgin the 325p2 is flawless on T 1-26 and T1-01 all the way up using Rt59 to Rt31,...