MECA Digital: reception issues and solutions

[ind224]

Psr 600

Looking for settings tips. Even at 99% decode it seems to be dropping every other word.
Just finding a bizzaro location, antenna and antenna modification to get the decode rate up was a circus act in itself. Pro 96 has always decoded and performed above and beyond vs this thing.
LED comes on only to crush me with silence, garbled audio or deep water like early SAFE T.

I have tried attenuator, G attenuator, supplied 90 antenna, RS duck, discone with amp and w/o and finally have a 77 with a spool of wire over it for coupling laying horizontal on the bench to get the decode at 99%.

While I understand the issue of multicast with this radio, having to use a beam for 800 and denying the capability to do SAFE T well at the same time seems a bit ludicrous.

Could this be as simple as downloading the new firmware and possibly fixing something corrupt?

 

[jerk]

Looking for settings tips. Even at 99% decode it seems to be dropping every other word.
Just finding a bizzaro location, antenna and antenna modification to get the decode rate up was a circus act in itself. Pro 96 has always decoded and performed above and beyond vs this thing.
LED comes on only to crush me with silence, garbled audio or deep water like early SAFE T.

I have tried attenuator, G attenuator, supplied 90 antenna, RS duck, discone with amp and w/o and finally have a 77 with a spool of wire over it for coupling laying horizontal on the bench to get the decode at 99%.

While I understand the issue of multicast with this radio, having to use a beam for 800 and denying the capability to do SAFE T well at the same time seems a bit ludicrous.

Could this be as simple as downloading the new firmware and possibly fixing something corrupt?

What are your site settings? should be off or stationary. I believe others have posted saying off is the best setting.
I do not monitor this system... however, I have had zero problems with other systems of this type with no problems. So either a defective radio... or settings are messed up somehow, there is a global reset of settings and there is an option of one with win500. I would try that next.

The bottom line though, if you are having to do all kinds of things to get a high decode rate, chances are you are outside of the coverage area and that is why it is not working for you.

 

[rdale]

Could this be as simple as downloading the new firmware and possibly fixing something corrupt?

No.

Peruse this thread when you have some time. I'll conclude it in one sentence:

Location, Location, Location, Antenna.

 

[W9NES]

ind 224,--- May I make a suggestion to you.I had problems in my area of NW Marion County in the area of 79Th and Michigan road just west of the "Antenna Farm"What I did for MECA Sys 1 is program only the four control channels insted of what is listed, here are the four control channels in order (1.858.1875 2.856.1625 3.856.5125 4.857.6625.)*After I locked out channel 3-856.5125L/O everything here on the Northwest Side of Marion County is fine and I have very good audio and no garbled takgroups*.If you have problems try locking out either channel 3 or Channel 4.I did this for all of my Uniden 996T's (6) of them and (2) of the Uniden 396T's that I own along with (1) Uniden 796D that I have in the bedroom that I use overnight.Since I did this I have had ZERO Problems and can hear everything with no problems.Please try the Lockout of Channel 3 or Channel 4 and let us know if your problem goes away.I also did this for MECA sys 2 programed 4 control channels in order( 1. 852.1125 2.851.8375 3.851.5375 4.851.1250.)* Again I locked out Channel 3 L/O and no more problems.MECA sys 2 is great and I can hear all the talkgroups with no problems.Just a idea to try.Let us know if this helps you out.

 

[Viper43]

Gee, I thought the GRE's were perfect..... according to those who have them.... OK sarcasim off...

Why would you lose SAFET when using the beam for MECA, I still recieve a bunch of SAFET sites fine with the beam pointed at any of the area MECA sites. It seems to me that your issue is indeed antenna related and the first question I'd ask is.... do you have trees between you and the nearest site? Or maybe tall buildings. I'd say you have trees or something blocking you, and the only fix is to get higher. Once the tornado that hit my place removed the trees I actually got a great signal and theres a tower 5 miles from me and another 8 but as long as the trees were there it barely picked up the control channel, even with 99% signal strength. Oh, did I mention that these signal meters are WORTHLESS, they are not accurate and are basically just showing you have some sort of signal.

Oh, and it DOSEN'T matter if your system is set up for roam or not, and I found that with proper settings (which I can't remember off hand) my 600 works better on roam.

V

Looking for settings tips. Even at 99% decode it seems to be dropping every other word.
Just finding a bizzaro location, antenna and antenna modification to get the decode rate up was a circus act in itself. Pro 96 has always decoded and performed above and beyond vs this thing.
LED comes on only to crush me with silence, garbled audio or deep water like early SAFE T.

I have tried attenuator, G attenuator, supplied 90 antenna, RS duck, discone with amp and w/o and finally have a 77 with a spool of wire over it for coupling laying horizontal on the bench to get the decode at 99%.

While I understand the issue of multicast with this radio, having to use a beam for 800 and denying the capability to do SAFE T well at the same time seems a bit ludicrous.

Could this be as simple as downloading the new firmware and possibly fixing something corrupt?

 

[rdale]

Do NOT use Roam for MECA.

 

[ind224]

Ok, I will try the CC lockout and "run" just the one CC.
I have a ticket open w GRE and they think there *may* be a radio problem after I told them a 96 works well with no drop outs. I also asked about the multisite and threshold settings and whether they may help with the emphasis that this is NOT a multisite system.
Anyone having good luck running this or a 500 mobile? By this I mean moving in a vehicle around Marion County at highway speeds. SafeT is all the digital I get rolling and based on the base performance I'm not surprised.

 

[Viper43]

You CAN use roam, you just have to set it up propperly, I use it all the time..... your in Michigan, you don't use the system and giving info on a system you don't use isn't helping anyone.

V

Do NOT use Roam for MECA.

 

[Viper43]

I use the 396T, 996T and PSR600 mobile, no problems with reception on any of them driving or at home.

V

Ok, I will try the CC lockout and "run" just the one CC.
I have a ticket open w GRE and they think there *may* be a radio problem after I told them a 96 works well with no drop outs. I also asked about the multisite and threshold settings and whether they may help with the emphasis that this is NOT a multisite system.
Anyone having good luck running this or a 500 mobile? By this I mean moving in a vehicle around Marion County at highway speeds. SafeT is all the digital I get rolling and based on the base performance I'm not surprised.

 

[rdale]

You CAN use roam, you just have to set it up propperly, I use it all the time..... your in Michigan, you don't use the system and giving info on a system you don't use isn't helping anyone.

I have monitored MECA quite often, and know more about scanners than you, and know MUCH more about listening to CQPSK systems with every scanner on the market, so please - if you are going to correct me - use facts.

ROAM forces the scanner to make a check for other control channels. You don't want that for a system, like MECA, which only uses one control channel. It makes the scanner worse.

But feel free to use it if you want.

 

[jwoody062]

Speaking From Experience rdale is correct,i live in Indpls and have tried roam and every other setting and the best one to use is mult-site off and use one control ch

 

[rdale]

There's also a note about using roam (well, not using it) at the very top of the MECA page here...

 

[Viper43]

rdale..... just because thats what it says doesn't mean thats how it should be

jwoody062, I'm in Indy a lot, some weeks every day, and I use the scanner every day at home, multisite works just fine IF you get the settings right, been using it for months that way and it works much better.

V

 

[ind224]

Ok, thanks again everyone. To be sure, I'm going to lock out all but the active which seems to be .1875 right now.
When they are not locked out, even if not active, it makes sense the scanner would still hit them trying to detect something thus losing the active.

Viper, if I could bother you for your exact settings; I'm going to try the LO first and then roam to see what happens.

 

[SCPD]

I have monitored MECA quite often, and know more about scanners than you, and know MUCH more about listening to CQPSK systems with every scanner on the market, so please - if you are going to correct me - use facts.

ROAM forces the scanner to make a check for other control channels. You don't want that for a system, like MECA, which only uses one control channel. It makes the scanner worse.

But feel free to use it if you want.

Once again YOU are wrong MECA uses TWO CC on SYS 1 ALL THE TIME AT THE SAME TIME in use right now is 858.1875 amd 856.1625 the county is split into by theses CC MECA uses 4 total CC but only TWO in use at a time. Roam would be good for moble use as you may cross from one CC area to another if Base than yes I would leave roam off.
As for SYS 2 That system only use 1 CC at a time

 

[rdale]

Roam is for a multi-site system.

 

[ind224]

Right now I'm at work near the airport and I am getting two CC's but at the house I only get .1875. I'll confirm or deny only one at the house again tonight.
I'm software less right now so if I can get help on how to lock out CC's I'd appreciate it. Not sure if they count as an object or TYSYS. Edit allows me to see the CC's but not do anything other than change or delete the freq.

Edit: I found a CC showing 99% and apparently (based on the GRE forum) locking out a CC is not something one can do. Pro 96 can do this and is quick and painless.
So, even after killing (deleting) the other 3 CC and running only the 99%, the only thing I'm getting a bit better than before is fire dispatch
CC is 856.1625 .1875 is only giving me 52% here. I'm playing with Supertrack, and the AGC. Slight improvement on fire dispatch (still dropping in the middle of a sentence) but I'm not getting any police at all. SAFE T still loud and clear 51, 52, 53, Johnson County and Plainfield.

 

[Viper43]

manually go to a CC and LO the one you want locked

Right now I'm at work near the airport and I am getting two CC's but at the house I only get .1875. I'll confirm or deny only one at the house again tonight.
I'm software less right now so if I can get help on how to lock out CC's I'd appreciate it. Not sure if they count as an object or TYSYS. Edit allows me to see the CC's but not do anything other than change or delete the freq.

 

[Viper43]

Give it up, MR rdale who's in MICHIGAN knows more than those who have listened to the system since day 1...... He will never get i, but your right multisite (roam) on does work especially when traveling through or around Indy.

V

Once again YOU are wrong MECA uses TWO CC on SYS 1 ALL THE TIME AT THE SAME TIME in use right now is 858.1875 amd 856.1625 the county is split into by theses CC MECA uses 4 total CC but only TWO in use at a time. Roam would be good for moble use as you may cross from one CC area to another if Base than yes I would leave roam off.
As for SYS 2 That system only use 1 CC at a time

 

[Viper43]

I'll work on the settings after I get back from work tonight, but yes they do have 2 CC's at the same time and when using roam/multisite it does work better for the PSR's contrary to anything rdale says or what the RR page on MECA says. That said you do have to play a lot with the settings to get it work right, obviously rdale being in Michigan can't do that HERE on this system on a daily basis.....

V

Ok, thanks again everyone. To be sure, I'm going to lock out all but the active which seems to be .1875 right now.
When they are not locked out, even if not active, it makes sense the scanner would still hit them trying to detect something thus losing the active.

Viper, if I could bother you for your exact settings; I'm going to try the LO first and then roam to see what happens.