svcrews
Newbie
Greetings!
50 years ago, my folks bought me a scanner when I was a teenager, back in the days when you bought crystals and plugged them in. It was very interesting, in fact, I volunteered with local law enforcement in a scout program until I was old enough to join, then spent 25 years in Law Enforcement, retiring in 2000.
My wife and I bought a home in southern Kentucky, and I got the itch to listen to the local L.E.O. and other agencies.
In searching for a new scanner, I purchased a Uniden BCD536HP, as it appeared to have the latest technology and would work with the systems here. The local systems are conventional, NXDN, not trunked, they are NX9 here.
I have spent nearly two months reading all I can here in this forum, tried every conceivable configuration to clearly receive these NXDN systems, no luck, the transmissions are garbled.
Yes, I bought the NXDN upgraded, as well as the other two, yes, I now own two external antennas, the transmitter for the systems is 5.6 miles from me, I do get a 4 to 5 bar signal when there is a transmission. Non NXDN systems here (fire, ems, etc.) work fine. After failing with the conventional setup, I tried setting it up as a trunked system just to see with all variations of the trucking options, although the systems here are conventional. In short, I tried a process of elimination for nearly two months.
The scanner does work well, I can pick up traffic 50 to 75 miles from here. So, I programmed it to a county which is about 35 miles from here, who is also NXDN, but trunked, and the scanner works perfect with that trucked NXDN system, so I know the NXDN upgrade works.
What I hear is broken words, like it is trying very hard. I have tried every combination with the mode settings, FM, NFM, etc, digital only, auto, etc. I have tried every combination in the hold time, agc, digital wait time, digital threshold, and digital level. What seems to work better, is FM, digital only, (it’s a ran 22) the wait time works best between 600 and 1000, digital mode works best in manual, threshold works best at 5. I have turned on and off the priority, to just scan one frequency, no luck, same garbled results.
Other combinations make the transmission worse. Location control is turned off, but I have also put in the correct latitude and longitude based on my location and what is listed in the FCC database. I have also tried changing from 12.5 to 6.25 no luck, in fact, I tried all of them.
I deleted everything, reset the scanner, start from scratch, even tried the download from https://digitalfrequencysearch.com/index.php imported it in, still no luck with an understandable transmission.
I have also tried other software in addition to Sentinel, I purchased ARC536PRO in hopes it gave more options, but again, nothing made the communications understandable.
These are the three local sites, and I have every frequency plugged in, and I have tried just one frequency at a time to ensure on interference:
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQOL434 (RAN 22)
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQOH298 (RAN 15)
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQMY920 (unknown)
If anyone has any tips, as I believe I have read every post on Conventional NXDN in the forum, your help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I ran debug for a log file, it is attached. I don’t quite understand it, it shows some NXDN with a ran of 16, I am not sure who that goes too, it may becoming from a rail road, but I am quite confident for two of the L.E.O. frequencies the ran set I have is correct, as I have used the digital search to confirm the correct settings for them. Perhaps is there is a way of knowing what frequency the debug log NXDN hit goes to I could find out who that is. Again, my desire is the monitor local & state Law Enforcement, EMS, Fire.
Thanks!
Steve
50 years ago, my folks bought me a scanner when I was a teenager, back in the days when you bought crystals and plugged them in. It was very interesting, in fact, I volunteered with local law enforcement in a scout program until I was old enough to join, then spent 25 years in Law Enforcement, retiring in 2000.
My wife and I bought a home in southern Kentucky, and I got the itch to listen to the local L.E.O. and other agencies.
In searching for a new scanner, I purchased a Uniden BCD536HP, as it appeared to have the latest technology and would work with the systems here. The local systems are conventional, NXDN, not trunked, they are NX9 here.
I have spent nearly two months reading all I can here in this forum, tried every conceivable configuration to clearly receive these NXDN systems, no luck, the transmissions are garbled.
Yes, I bought the NXDN upgraded, as well as the other two, yes, I now own two external antennas, the transmitter for the systems is 5.6 miles from me, I do get a 4 to 5 bar signal when there is a transmission. Non NXDN systems here (fire, ems, etc.) work fine. After failing with the conventional setup, I tried setting it up as a trunked system just to see with all variations of the trucking options, although the systems here are conventional. In short, I tried a process of elimination for nearly two months.
The scanner does work well, I can pick up traffic 50 to 75 miles from here. So, I programmed it to a county which is about 35 miles from here, who is also NXDN, but trunked, and the scanner works perfect with that trucked NXDN system, so I know the NXDN upgrade works.
What I hear is broken words, like it is trying very hard. I have tried every combination with the mode settings, FM, NFM, etc, digital only, auto, etc. I have tried every combination in the hold time, agc, digital wait time, digital threshold, and digital level. What seems to work better, is FM, digital only, (it’s a ran 22) the wait time works best between 600 and 1000, digital mode works best in manual, threshold works best at 5. I have turned on and off the priority, to just scan one frequency, no luck, same garbled results.
Other combinations make the transmission worse. Location control is turned off, but I have also put in the correct latitude and longitude based on my location and what is listed in the FCC database. I have also tried changing from 12.5 to 6.25 no luck, in fact, I tried all of them.
I deleted everything, reset the scanner, start from scratch, even tried the download from https://digitalfrequencysearch.com/index.php imported it in, still no luck with an understandable transmission.
I have also tried other software in addition to Sentinel, I purchased ARC536PRO in hopes it gave more options, but again, nothing made the communications understandable.
These are the three local sites, and I have every frequency plugged in, and I have tried just one frequency at a time to ensure on interference:
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQOL434 (RAN 22)
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQOH298 (RAN 15)
https://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?fccCallsign=WQMY920 (unknown)
If anyone has any tips, as I believe I have read every post on Conventional NXDN in the forum, your help would be greatly appreciated.
Also, I ran debug for a log file, it is attached. I don’t quite understand it, it shows some NXDN with a ran of 16, I am not sure who that goes too, it may becoming from a rail road, but I am quite confident for two of the L.E.O. frequencies the ran set I have is correct, as I have used the digital search to confirm the correct settings for them. Perhaps is there is a way of knowing what frequency the debug log NXDN hit goes to I could find out who that is. Again, my desire is the monitor local & state Law Enforcement, EMS, Fire.
Thanks!
Steve