BCD436HP/BCD536HP: LCN finder question

[NCFireman11]

I'm trying to use the LCN finder on my 436 and have a question. Should you receive a signal in the signal bar like a control channel where the signal is almost always at full strength? I'm trying to get the LCN on a CAP+ system but the signal drops for maybe 2-3 minutes then picks back up. Sometimes it will take 5-10 minutes to get the signal strength bar to come back up. If I plug in the frequencies conventionally, the signal will drop for maybe 5 seconds then pick right back up, albeit sometimes on a different frequency that is part of the CAP system. At this rate I'm never gonna be able to properly monitor a Capacity+ system. Can someone explain what I'm doing wrong?

 

[jonwienke]

The "control channel" (actually called a rest channel on this system type) rotates from frequency to frequency somewhat randomly, based on system activity. If you don't have all of the site frequencies entered, you will hear nothing while the system rotates to a missing frequency. And it isn't a continuous signal anyway, more like a "chirp" of data pinged out every second or so.

If the system isn't very busy, it can take a day or two to rotate the rest channel through all of the system frequencies and pick up all the LCNs.

 

[NCFireman11]

So is there a time frame when this signal is pinged out for the rest channel? When I run the frequencies conventionally, the signal bar never drops for more than 30 seconds. When I use the LCN finder, the signal bar may go 2 minutes without showing signal strength.

 

[jonwienke]

If you monitor the system with an analog FM receiver, the rest channel signal is a chirp of data that lasts about 2/10 of a second broadcast about once per second. It is not actually a continuous signal. LCN finder mode may be lazier about updating the rf power bar, or it may be sniffing around the unused freqs more looking for activity.