BCD436HP/BCD536HP: New BCD436HP user / a few questions

[drick]

Hi,

I just received my BCD436HP today, and have spent all afternoon playing with it. I think i have finally gotten close to getting it set up, but I'm now stuck on two last items.

1. I cannot seem to find an "optimal settings" thread to compare mine to, does such a thing exist that someone can point me towards?
2. How do you load the pro voice license key in via Sentinel, and it won't go in via the unit?
3. I want to confirm that adding the NOAA SAME codes into SAME 0-4 is the correct way to add them (i.e. down in Sentinel) vs. putting them all into a single entry for SAME 0 then entering into FIPS 1-4 columns?

FWIW I live in NorCal, and am specifically interested in picking up any/all traffic in the South County (Morgan Hill, Gilroy, Hollister, Santa Cruz) and getting the NOAA / SAME alerts to pop in as something comes up (if possible).

Default out of the box was picking up a lot more traffic, now that i have started to "tune", I'm getting much cleaner transmissions, but a LOT less of them.

I did searches for all of these items, didn't come up with hits.
TIA for any/all help
D

 

[darunimal]

1. IDK of one
2. You have to upgrade firmware to 1.10.02 and register it at my.uniden.com then get the correct checksum and load your Pro-voice key into the unit BCD436HP < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
3. I'd use same 0 for local local and Same 1 for local surrounding/countys close to me

Setting help
4. P25 threshold decode for Systems can be set Manually Auto and Default (of 8), If you are within good range of each system try auto and see where the System settles to and then maybe change it manual and wither that number or 1 higher (to avoid motorboating) for distant P25 systems go there (get the correct p25 threshold decode setting) and change it to manual this you may increase your range by 15-40 percent. Local to the scannerTrunked Radio Systems may require ATT of signal (not more signal) especially if its a LSM system that suffers from SSD System Simulcast Distortion, Analog & Digital AGC is another setting i would turn off for phase i and especially for phase ii transmissions

 

[drick]

1. IDK of one
2. You have to upgrade firmware to 1.10.02 and register it at my.uniden.com then get the correct checksum and load your Pro-voice key into the unit BCD436HP < UnidenMan4 < TWiki
3. I'd use same 0 for local local and Same 1 for local surrounding/countys close to me

Setting help
4. P25 threshold decode for Systems can be set Manually Auto and Default (of 8), If you are within good range of each system try auto and see where the System settles to and then maybe change it manual and wither that number or 1 higher (to avoid motorboating) for distant P25 systems go there (get the correct p25 threshold decode setting) and change it to manual this you may increase your range by 15-40 percent. Local to the scannerTrunked Radio Systems may require ATT of signal (not more signal) especially if its a LSM system that suffers from SSD System Simulcast Distortion, Analog & Digital AGC is another setting i would turn off for phase i and especially for phase ii transmissions

thanks for the info, can i ask a few more clarifying questions on this?

on item 2, radio is current on FW and DB, and i'm fairly sure i had to register prior to purchasing. tried it again tonight, still doesn't work. my fundamental question is the same however, why can't i do this from Sentinel? doing it from the radio is dumb (at least IMO).

on item 4, i'm less than 6mi away from the only P25 i want to listen to (CHP). i don't see any information listed on the CHP DB here that shows any suggestions on how to set this. i guess this is trial and error?

i will go back in and turn off AGC on all bands as well, and see what happens.

thanks again for jumping in!

 

[drick]

thanks for the info, can i ask a few more clarifying questions on this?

on item 2, radio is current on FW and DB, and i'm fairly sure i had to register prior to purchasing. tried it again tonight, still doesn't work. my fundamental question is the same however, why can't i do this from Sentinel? doing it from the radio is dumb (at least IMO).

on item 4, i'm less than 6mi away from the only P25 i want to listen to (CHP). i don't see any information listed on the CHP DB here that shows any suggestions on how to set this. i guess this is trial and error?

i will go back in and turn off AGC on all bands as well, and see what happens.

thanks again for jumping in!

finally - some good news on P25! by changing p25 threshold from auto to default and leaving on 8, i picked up SOMETHING at least on the CHP channels. when i change to 9, i get nothing. when i turn on AGC, i get nothing. will play with this some more to see if this is coincidence or not. also seems to be some ambiguity on manual setting vs default setting, will play with that as well.

on the analog channels, AGC seems to work fine and not impact reception or clarity.

next problem i need to solve is why i cannot get my neighboring cities police dispatch to come in on the 436. i have a $25 Baofeng that does this easily, but this radio that costs 20x that can't get it? that makes no sense.

context - i'm picking up the sheriffs office who is further away, the county fire dispatch who is farther away, but not this PD.

 

[fxdscon]

on item 2, radio is current on FW and DB, and i'm fairly sure i had to register prior to purchasing. tried it again tonight, still doesn't work. my fundamental question is the same however, why can't i do this from Sentinel? doing it from the radio is dumb (at least IMO).

Not sure what you mean by "it doesn't work", but entering the Provoice activation key is a quick and simple process.

Once you have purchased and received your Provoice activation key, enter it into your scanner (not through Sentinel)....

Menu button --> Settings --> Upgrade --> Upgrade Provoice --> Input Provoice Key ....

enter the key using the scroll knob (not the keypad) just as you would enter a text tag.

If you do not see the "Upgrade Provoice" option in the menu, you will need to update to the latest firmware.

.

 

[drick]

Not sure what you mean by "it doesn't work", but entering the Provoice activation key is a quick and simple process.

Once you have purchased and received your Provoice activation key, enter it into your scanner (not through Sentinel)....

Menu button --> Settings --> Upgrade --> Upgrade Provoice --> Input Provoice Key ....

enter the key using the scroll knob (not the keypad) just as you would enter a text tag.

If you do not see the "Upgrade Provoice" option in the menu, you will need to update to the latest firmware.

.

so i understand how to do this (had plenty of practice trying to enter the key), what i'm saying is that the code is not accepted and as such, doesn't work.

 

[drick]

finally - some good news on P25! by changing p25 threshold from auto to default and leaving on 8, i picked up SOMETHING at least on the CHP channels. when i change to 9, i get nothing. when i turn on AGC, i get nothing. will play with this some more to see if this is coincidence or not. also seems to be some ambiguity on manual setting vs default setting, will play with that as well.

FWIW - I just added the SJC CHP channels to my favorites list as well to see if i can get some additional radio traffic to attempt to collect.

 

[fxdscon]

so i understand how to do this (had plenty of practice trying to enter the key), what i'm saying is that the code is not accepted and as such, doesn't work.

Are you entering the dashes as well as the numbers?

 

[Voyager]

He doesn't want to enter it in the scanner because he says that is "dumb".

"Dumb" or not, that is what you have to do. So, be "smart" and don't upgrade or be "dumb" and listen to ProVoice - your choice.

You cannot enter the key into the scanner using Sentinel.

 

[drick]

He doesn't want to enter it in the scanner because he says that is "dumb".

"Dumb" or not, that is what you have to do. So, be "smart" and don't upgrade or be "dumb" and listen to ProVoice - your choice.

You cannot enter the key into the scanner using Sentinel.

Would you not agree that the chances of entering the key incorrectly or formatting it wrong are about 100 times more likely doing this manually on the radio? This versus cutting and pasting the license key into Sentinel on a PC where both of those scenarios would be eliminated?

So yes - i stand by my statement this is not an intelligent way to execute the upgrade.

Having said that, you have made your point that the status quo is acceptable to all of you "mature" users and that any suggestion to the contrary is not welcome here.

Consider me properly scolded

 

[drick]

Are you entering the dashes as well as the numbers?

no, i have just been entering the numerals. was not aware that the dashes were supposed to be entered as well. most other SW license key mechanisms add those automatically for you, so i assumed (my mistake) that this would as well.

update - added the dashes and it worked, thanks for letting me know what i was doing wrong.

 

[darunimal]

okay glad you got to meet our resident Uniden apologist, but any way, I'm really glad to hear you got Pro-Voice working, now onto the other tweaks and settings. I'm not really really sure what your trying to listen to System wise, so post a link or2 or 3 or 5 from the Radio Reference Data base RRDB, I might be able to further assist you, barring any further convoluted internet smack down. Like I was saying: somethings are going to come down to antenna, some frequency bands like more antenna and some Systems: depending upon how they are set-up (in P25 Phase I and Phase II) will like less, you can achieve less with the ATT feature (but dont use this for Analog/Conventional Freequencies), also check out your squelch is set at 2 (press the side top button the Func button then push the Volume knob down) ,

Also, if you click the Volume knob once, then the Func knob, you see the "P25 threshold decode" setting, "Default" is the scanner stays at 8, "Auto" decode will swings up and down and it will try to settle on a number after a few minutes of receiving the signal reliably (just watch that one System and Site for the "best" decode of that System), if you find a good number you can change it to Manual (but only after watching it for 20-30 with just that system in).

 

[drick]

I'm not really really sure what your trying to listen to System wise, so post a link or2 or 3 or 5 from the Radio Reference Data base RRDB, I might be able to further assist you, barring any further convoluted internet smack down. Like I was saying: somethings are going to come down to antenna, some frequency bands like more antenna and some Systems: depending upon how they are set-up (in P25 Phase I and Phase II) will like less, you can achieve less with the ATT feature (but dont use this for Analog/Conventional Freequencies), also check out your squelch is set at 2 (press the side top button the Func button then push the Volume knob down).

I'll reserve comment so i don't get banned in under 12 posts...

speaking of antennae - i should also clarify that i did replace the stock duck with a Diamond RH77CA which helped before i get into tuning.

here are the 3 p25 CHP freqs that i would like to get access to which are not working well for me right now. all are loaded into my favorites list. i can't hyperlink directly to these for some reason, so I'll post the top level link, then scroll down about 1/2 way to coastal division / Monterrey dispatch center

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

769.18125 RM DAE NAC GRN EXT P Green - Extender - Primary P25 Law Dispatch
769.68125 RM DB6 NAC GRN EXT A Green - Extender - Alternate P25 Law Dispatch
453.82500 M 629 NAC UHF3 DIRECT UHF 3 - Monterey / Hollister-Gilroy Offices - Car to Car P25 Law Tac

my current search/close call settings:

squelch - 3

attenuation - off
modulation - auto
delay - 2 sec
analog agc - on
digital agc - on
p25 waiting time - 400ms
p25 threshold mode - auto
p25 threshold level - 8

also to confirm, all freqs in my favorite list are default so no attenuator is turned off on all of them.

let me know if you need any other information.

TIA for any/all help

 

[drick]

Are you entering the dashes as well as the numbers?

i was not, and that fixed it..

THANKS!

 

[darunimal]

As I remember reading a sign in Ocean City maryland about California being 3000 miles away I would refer you to your local California Forum (California Radio Discussion Forum - The RadioReference.com Forums ) but before you go. I'm not sure Close Call would be your friend in searching for what you know is already available, the Scanning feature of your programmed info will let you hear more calls while Close Call only allow a Significant Signal to break Squelch. Go back to scanning what you have programmed and turn Close Call off for the time being, and on regular scanning Squelch should generally be sat at 2. Here are some links I found in the Search box up in the top right corner with the keywords: CHP Monterey some are old and may not apply

from

2006 old and may not apply http://forums.radioreference.com/ca...n-forum/36403-monterey-county-chp-mobile.html

2009 http://forums.radioreference.com/ca...orum/136282-hearing-chp-my-first-scanner.html

2009 tone usage http://forums.radioreference.com/ca...forum/156744-question-about-chp-pl-tones.html

2009 pl tone "POST 10" antennas http://forums.radioreference.com/ca...orum/136282-hearing-chp-my-first-scanner.html

2012 CAD stuff http://forums.radioreference.com/ca...31-chp-coastal-division-switches-new-cad.html via CHP Traffic

Wiki article http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Department_of_the_Highway_Patrol_(CHP)_(CA)

Location Map (possible receive diameter) RadioReference.com - Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference Database

 

[drick]

As I remember reading a sign in Ocean City maryland about California being 300miles away I would refer you to your local California Forum (California Radio Discussion Forum - The RadioReference.com Forums

So etiquette question time.. i consider this to be a tech question and not a local question. are you saying that it's not? the original line of questioning was "what are the optimal settings for this radio". would that be a regional answer vs. a macro answer?

either way - i also see clearly that cross posting is discouraged here, so unless the mod moves the thread i'll let this one run.

will also go read all the links you sent

 

[Jim41]

I'll reserve comment so i don't get banned in under 12 posts...

speaking of antennae - i should also clarify that i did replace the stock duck with a Diamond RH77CA which helped before i get into tuning.

here are the 3 p25 CHP freqs that i would like to get access to which are not working well for me right now. all are loaded into my favorites list. i can't hyperlink directly to these for some reason, so I'll post the top level link, then scroll down about 1/2 way to coastal division / Monterrey dispatch center

California Highway Patrol (CHP) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

769.18125 RM DAE NAC GRN EXT P Green - Extender - Primary P25 Law Dispatch
769.68125 RM DB6 NAC GRN EXT A Green - Extender - Alternate P25 Law Dispatch
453.82500 M 629 NAC UHF3 DIRECT UHF 3 - Monterey / Hollister-Gilroy Offices - Car to Car P25 Law Tac

my current search/close call settings:

squelch - 3

attenuation - off
modulation - auto
delay - 2 sec
analog agc - on
digital agc - on
p25 waiting time - 400ms
p25 threshold mode - auto
p25 threshold level - 8

also to confirm, all freqs in my favorite list are default so no attenuator is turned off on all of them.

let me know if you need any other information.

TIA for any/all help

Based on the information you noted I would not expect you to be able to receive signals on the three frequencies you listed unless you were within 1-2 miles of the CHP vehicle's location. The 453 MHz signal is for local car-to-car tactical communications. The two 769 MHz frequencies are for mobile-to-portable (handheld unit) communications (when the officer is outside patrol car but within line of sight of the vehicle).

You could confirm this level of performance with a post in the California forum.
I have experienced similar performance, but do not have experience with the CHP system.

Jim41

 

[Voyager]

i was not, and that fixed it..

THANKS!

I suspect the reason it is not available via SW is to prevent potential exploitation and theft. Keeping the key internal to the firmware is more secure.

BTW, neither of these are apologies much like the resident Uniden-hater would like you to believe. All I did was list your options in the context that you used to describe them. No scold intended - just stating the facts. You may not like them, but they are still facts.

And yes - I agree that it might be easier to enter them in the SW, but as I stated above, that increases the potential for a hack, and there is a RR user who loves to hack the Uniden IP.

I would rather have a less than optimal upgrade option over no upgrade option at all - which would be the alternative if they keys are not secure and Uniden lost revenue to hackers (revenue that could be needed to provide other things users want).

 

[drick]

Based on the information you noted I would not expect you to be able to receive signals on the three frequencies you listed unless you were within 1-2 miles of the CHP vehicle's location. The 453 MHz signal is for local car-to-car tactical communications. The two 769 MHz frequencies are for mobile-to-portable (handheld unit) communications (when the officer is outside patrol car but within line of sight of the vehicle).

You could confirm this level of performance with a post in the California forum.
I have experienced similar performance, but do not have experience with the CHP system.

Jim41

thanks for chiming in Jim, i added a post to CA forum last night to see what others think