Is This Normal (Battery Issue - I Think)

[vpasq]

I have a new BCD396XT (a few weeks old) which during the first use cycle, seemed to receive 8-10 hours then of course "low battery" alert worked. Then, the past few days, I noticed all my P25 banks were scanning but no reception. When I checked the control channels, all I would see on the screen is "Finding Control Channel......." and it could not receive anything even if manually on the P25 control channel. This is just with P25, but no "low battery alert." Of note, it did receive non-P25 transmissions on other services.

Ironically, it happened to me twice and in both instances, I pulled the batteries, and while not completely drained, they showed to be very low in voltage, so I swapped them out and with charged batteries, all worked fine. My concern is why I wouldn't have gotten a "low battery" alert as I did the first time I used it. I hope I don't have to wait until I don't seem to hear transmissions to determine my batteries are low, but seems that is what is happening.

Any thoughts, suggestions, (defective operation of the battery alert feature?????). Please advise something so I can decide if I need to swap out the unit while I have it under "full replacement" coverage with the seller.

 

[ofd8001]

"Finding Control Channel" usually means you have locked/held the scanner on a talkgroup, but the scanner is not receiving the control channel for the talkgroup. For example, if you hold on a talkgroup and removed the antenna, you'd see this message (unless you were right next to the transmitter site).

On the batteries, they may have been low enough to degrade reception, but not low enough to trigger the alert.

I'd probably put in a new set of rechargeable batteries and given them at least a 14 hour charge cycle in the scanner. Wouldn't hurt to look inside the battery area and confirm the battery switch is set for rechargeable batteries.

You may also notify the seller you are experiencing a possible battery issue and that you are trying something to correct it. Hopefully that might buy you some time if replacement is ultimately necessary.

 

[Ronaldski]

Sounds like your in a bad reception area is all, in all the years Ive had a 396XT reception isn't degraded along with battery voltage, just to me in your situation a coincidence.

 

[vpasq]

Thanks for the quick feedback from all! I forgot to mention that on AC it worked fine, and I have been using it without difficulty (again) with freshly charged batteries. Guess I was relying too much on the "low battery" alert, but I am going to just make a habit of keeping an extra set charged. However, the seller has agreed to swap it out anyway, so I am going to take advantage of that and avoid any chance it may be another issue that is intermittent. Again, thanks fore feedback.

 

[smithken]

Just an FYI, when I get a low battery alert the only thing that happens is a beep every so often or the scanner goes completely dead if I let it go long enough . There are no other changes in the scanner's operation or performance.

 

[Voyager]

Low calls can affect proper operation. I would focus on why the cells were low if they went dead faster than normal.

Of course, I always recommend an external charger to charge the cells - one made for charging of NiMH cells and one that will charge individual cells.