Just got my BCD536HP must be old stock?

[UnidenSupport]

I posted a general statement about this (in another area) but am asking a question here I just got my 536 today and the firmware was really old I think 2015! I know the 536 had a few issues when it was first released do I have to look for any issues like with the RTC since it's so old? It had 1.09.02 on it out of the box.

I believe all purchases units have 2013 firmware on them. You probably have a newly made unit and just need to update the firmware.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I have asked this before. For someone primarily using a 536 for P25 reception, what is the most stable firmware version?

 

[TailGator911]

Again you pay for upgrades because Uniden pays the royalties on DMR and NXDN. Whistler does not that is why Uniden's trunktrack those modes properly. Whistlers way around it works but on medium and large systems not so much in my experience.

As with most all consumer grade products and their market, we are usually unaware of the dynamics that influence corporate decisions. I get it, and I understand it. We get the peaky blinders at times because all we see is the end product of those marketing decisions and/or strategies, and that is more money out of our pockets. I know that Uniden/Whistler have had to do things based on copyrights and/or patents and legalese that one or the other plays on the other, and that's just business. You pay to play and either you step up to the plate and pay heed or you legally sidestep it or you bring forth a new academic, the end result is what we see - a price-increase for added features. It's all business and it's all good.

I only count myself as an electronics consumer who takes most changes in stride in order to keep up with this wonderful hobby of ours

JD
kf4anc

 

[rwier]

Good news? .... on the other hand, you probably didn't receive a "used" radio.

 

[saboken]

True I have had messed up things come from Amazon like a broken used GoPro when I paid over$300 for a new one!

 

[allend]

The 2016 x36's do not have the hardware problem.

You are absolutely wrong. The speaker still makes a hissing noise when attached to an external speaker on the input on the back. The headphone jack will not take all kinds of headphones like the BCD996P2 does and the rest of the other older scanners do.

All of these issues do not happen on older scanners from Uniden before the 536 came to the market. I have had my 536 for a year now so it would of been a 2017 hardware machine.

If you look back at my posts from the beginning of time with these radios I have called it over and over again and no fix has been able to get fixed with firmware upgrades.

So if the firmware is not fixing the problem then yes its a hardware problem. Not sure what people are smoking sometimes but the BCD996P2 radios blow away the 536HP models hands down

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

You are absolutely wrong. The speaker still makes a hissing noise when attached to an external speaker on the input on the back. The headphone jack will not take all kinds of headphones like the BCD996P2 does and the rest of the other older scanners do.

All of these issues do not happen on older scanners from Uniden before the 536 came to the market. I have had my 536 for a year now so it would of been a 2017 hardware machine.

If you look back at my posts from the beginning of time with these radios I have called it over and over again and no fix has been able to get fixed with firmware upgrades.

So if the firmware is not fixing the problem then yes its a hardware problem. Not sure what people are smoking sometimes but the BCD996P2 radios blow away the 536HP models hands down

Can you explain the hissing problem with an external speaker? I have a Motorola Spectra 4 ohm speaker plugged in and no hissing. Are you using a powered speaker? Do you know that only a balanced load , such as a passive speaker or transformer coupled amp can be plugged into the external speaker jack?

Sent from my SM-T350 using Tapatalk

 

[allend]

So the speaker I use is a Vertex MLS 100 speaker and when scanning between conventional and NXDN or DMR between scanlists it makes a hissing pulsing noise out of the speakers.

This has happened on two different BCD536HP radios and this has happened since the beginning of time with these radios. I have 2 BCT15X and 3 BCD996P2 radios with all of the MLS100 speakers with none of these noises with hissing and pulsing noise out of the speakers.

I can also plug in headphones with any kind of brand in the older radios with no issues. The BCD536HP can't take noise cancelling high end headphones. Only cheap ear buds. I sort of gave up on this radio and enjoy the older radios and look forward to the new base maybe coming out soon but won't hold my breath.

But its all good. I have so many other radios and different brands and models to enjoy everything I need

 

[saboken]

O didn't know about a hissing problem I have a 996 and a 536 and had access to a 436 for a few weeks and never noticed any hissing the only issue with sound I have is on my 996 with a sheriffs department with the data coming through about half the time sounds like a old dial up modem, I thought it was a weak signal as someone pointed out but Even with a strong signal it happens? So either there something going on with the DMR, the scanner itself or the system the sheriffs department is using? I do know dispatch sounds great but everyone else sounds like the Mike is in a tin coffee can? I can't say I have any other hardware issue with any of my scanners.

 

[saboken]

What's this new base everyone is talking about? Any links to it? Maybe a FCC certification if they are working on something the FCC database sometimes has photos of unreleased products they are testing unless they have a block on the information? That doesn't happen much unless it's something new they don't want copied by the Chinese, I don't think scanners are a hot topic on cheap knock offs not yet anyway? Can you imagine a Chinese scanner for under $100 that has DMR, Pro Voice, and NXDN they would probably find a way to decipher encryption! I won't hold my breath on something like that but you never know?

 

[TailGator911]

So the speaker I use is a Vertex MLS 100 speaker and when scanning between conventional and NXDN or DMR between scanlists it makes a hissing pulsing noise out of the speakers.

This has happened on two different BCD536HP radios and this has happened since the beginning of time with these radios. I have 2 BCT15X and 3 BCD996P2 radios with all of the MLS100 speakers with none of these noises with hissing and pulsing noise out of the speakers.

I can also plug in headphones with any kind of brand in the older radios with no issues. The BCD536HP can't take noise cancelling high end headphones. Only cheap ear buds. I sort of gave up on this radio and enjoy the older radios and look forward to the new base maybe coming out soon but won't hold my breath.

But its all good. I have so many other radios and different brands and models to enjoy everything I need

I use the same exact Vertex MLS 100 speaker with my 536, no audio problems whatsoever. After reading your post I plugged a pair of Bose QC 125 headphones into my 536, no audio problems here. I've only had my 536 for a year now, no problems at all, audio or otherwise.

JD
kf4anc

 

[saboken]

Sounds like there's a hardware issue? Like I said I have never had a hiss on any of my scanners I was even broadcasting over the net through a Sound blaster x Fi card using the 3.5 mm Jack's on the card and on the breakout box I had in a bay.

 

[pro92b]

So the speaker I use is a Vertex MLS 100 speaker and when scanning between conventional and NXDN or DMR between scanlists it makes a hissing pulsing noise out of the speakers.

Yes, mine also has a digital pulsing noise in the audio. I use a Motorola HSN4005 speaker which is not amplified. The noise is not very loud but is obvious if you hold the speaker to your ear. Turning the volume control up has no effect on the level of the noise in the speaker so it is getting into the audio chain after the volume control. The audio signal to noise ratio in the 536 is inferior to the older scanners I have - BCT15X and BCD996T. Still it is not bad enough to be a major issue for me.

 

[allend]

Yes, mine also has a digital pulsing noise in the audio. I use a Motorola HSN4005 speaker which is not amplified. The noise is not very loud but is obvious if you hold the speaker to your ear. Turning the volume control up has no effect on the level of the noise in the speaker so it is getting into the audio chain after the volume control. The audio signal to noise ratio in the 536 is inferior to the older scanners I have - BCT15X and BCD996T. Still it is not bad enough to be a major issue for me.

Yes, thank you for your posting. People are going to challenge me and think its me or my two radios that I have and have had in the past and think I am a Uniden hater.

There you go. Other people having these issues too.

 

[TailGator911]

Hey guy my post was not intended to be a 'challenge', I thought my results with the same exact audio setup might be enlightening, or not. Maybe it's your scanner's audio output circuitry, maybe it's your speaker, maybe it's your toilet handle, I don't know. No challenges here.

 

[buddrousa]

I run 4 536's and will BUY MORE if the price is right I have no problems with my 4 running side by side with my 4 996P2's.

 

[chill30240]

536 is fine. Now with the 436 It'll have the poor receive issue due to internal noise that they had before Uniden secretely added some part to the corcuit board. Can't remember if it was a capacitor or what but it was shown on here or another forum that there was something dofferent when you take it apart and look at it. There was another thread here where someone mostly fixed it by putting copper foil inside the battery door. So just keep that in mind of you go for the handheld version too.

If you don't want old stock you can have it swapped or if the seller can't do that just get a refund and buy from anothrr retailer.

It was the C1 capacitor. You'll have to send it to Uniden and pay them to fix it or get the part and do it yourself. The copper tape on the battery door was a crappy work around at best. Uniden knows about it but plays stupid when asked. They will fix a clock that needs to be set every time you turn the unit on and a dim back light but wont touch an issue that affects reception.

 

[pro92b]

Yes, thank you for your posting. People are going to challenge me and think its me or my two radios that I have and have had in the past and think I am a Uniden hater.

There you go. Other people having these issues too.

I did a bit more work to confirm the issue and measure the noise. The 536 was powered with a 12V battery, no antenna was connected, and initially no external speaker was plugged in. With the bottom of the radio up to my ear (where the internal speaker is), I could hear the digital noise. It wasn't as loud as with the Motorola speaker but that seems to be just the difference in speaker efficiency.


The same test with a BCT15X had a barely audible noise floor, substantially lower than the 536.


Back to the 536, I plugged in the Motorola speaker mostly to get access to the audio output terminals of the scanner. On an oscilloscope the noise seemed fairly broadband, about 10 mV P-P, with a 100 kHz component visible when I changed the scope sweep rate. A much lower frequency negative pulse was noted at slow scope sweep rates.



Measuring the BCT15X with the scope yielded noise at 1 mV P-P. It appeared to be broadband without the pulsing present in the 536.


My 536 is about 10 times noisier than my BCT15X.

 

[RFI-EMI-GUY]

I did a bit more work to confirm the issue and measure the noise. The 536 was powered with a 12V battery, no antenna was connected, and initially no external speaker was plugged in. With the bottom of the radio up to my ear (where the internal speaker is), I could hear the digital noise. It wasn't as loud as with the Motorola speaker but that seems to be just the difference in speaker efficiency.


The same test with a BCT15X had a barely audible noise floor, substantially lower than the 536.


Back to the 536, I plugged in the Motorola speaker mostly to get access to the audio output terminals of the scanner. On an oscilloscope the noise seemed fairly broadband, about 10 mV P-P, with a 100 kHz component visible when I changed the scope sweep rate. A much lower frequency negative pulse was noted at slow scope sweep rates.



Measuring the BCT15X with the scope yielded noise at 1 mV P-P. It appeared to be broadband without the pulsing present in the 536.


My 536 is about 10 times noisier than my BCT15X.

The Vertex MLS 100 is more of a tweeter than a woofer like the Motorola speakers.

 

[Ubbe]

Back to the 536, I plugged in the Motorola speaker mostly to get access to the audio output terminals of the scanner. On an oscilloscope the noise seemed fairly broadband, about 10 mV P-P, with a 100 kHz component visible when I changed the scope sweep rate. A much lower frequency negative pulse was noted at slow scope sweep rates.

Remember that the 536 use a "floating" output so you have to set the oscilloscopes probe ground to the scanners chassi and then measure on "tip" and then on "sleeve" of the connector. If you ground the oscilloscope to the "ground" of the speaker you will get false readings if you don't use a transformer ground loop isolator.

But the important thing are what you hear, so an exact measurement isn't neccesary.

Most scanners have noise on both earphone and loudspeaker outputs as they don't put enough attention to the audio amp design. There's several things that could be made to improve a scanner. Tone control, loudness, good audio electronics, speaker, RF front end filters, quality buttons and dials. If the audio sounds distorted, bassy, thinny or rattles at moderate volume levels it doesn't matter how sensitive a scanner are if your listening are compomised by a poorly designed audio solution.

/Ubbe