Need 700 MARCS Help

[LubeckTech]

I am trying to program a Bearcat BCD996XT and a brand new 396XT scanner for 700MHZ MARCS operation in Washington, Meigs and Athens counties in SE Ohio. I can get the 800MHZ system to work but not 700. I have the Site Type set to P25 Standard (XT) on the 700 sites but can't get anything out of them. I have all the site frequencies and control channels programmed as separate sites in each system and have at least 1 talk group programmed with the ID Mode set to ID Search. Do I need an APCO Band Plan?

 

[rhaasjr]

Do you also have the system type set to P25 Standard? If the System Type and Site Type do not match, it can cause issues.

 

[LubeckTech]

Yes in these scanners whenever you change the system type it changes the site type.

 

[Bucko]

I use a 396xt and also use Freescan to program it along some other BC's. No APCO plan needed, just make sure P25 Standard is selected for the System and Sites along with your Tower Frequencies for each site. Its works fine for me. I am assuming you have the current Firmware? For my 396XT I am using version 1.10.00, it worked better for me than the version after that.

 

[LubeckTech]

My firmware on the 996 is 1.07.03 and 1.11.01 which are the latest versions I could find for each.

 

[wbowery]

I think you need to have all frequencies for each site entered as well. Those scanners will not do control channel only on a true P25 system if I recall correctly.

 

[W8RMH]

I think you need to have all frequencies for each site entered as well. Those scanners will not do control channel only on a true P25 system if I recall correctly.

The XT scanners do Control Channel Only, "Only". I go ahead and program all the frequencies anyway since they like to change the control channels around sometimes.

 

[SCPD]

I did a search for "washington" in the Ohio members list thread which gave me this:

The RadioReference.com Forums - Search Results

There was some talk about not receiving much. Maybe there just isn't that much traffic??

 

[LubeckTech]

Thanks ED,

I appreciate the information and you are right at times they go for hours without a peep but Meigs County is a different story. By using Unitrunker to monitor the control channel with my RTL dongle I can see when transmissions ocurred that I didn't hear. The RTL dongle has been the best $10.00 I have ever spent and the software is free!!

 

[LubeckTech]

The XT scanners do Control Channel Only, "Only". I go ahead and program all the frequencies anyway since they like to change the control channels around sometimes.

I can't even hear anything if I program the channels in a scan list by themselves as digital channels.