BCD325P2/BCD996P2: No Longer Receiving P25 Trunked System

[rescue161]

I have used this scanner for years and although I monitor a simulcast system, one of the towers is less than a mile from my house, so I only use a stubby handheld antenna with a 3dB pad to ensure that I only get that site. No other sites are within range of that stubby with the attenuator. I do get full bars to the site that is closest to me. My issue is that when first powering on the scanner, I do not see any bars unless I manually select the control channel and then I see the full bars. If I hit scan, the bars go away and if I manually step through the talkgroups, the bars are not visible. During this, no transmissions are heard at all and when parked on a talkgroup, the scanner displays that it is searching for a control channel.

At some point in time, the scanner will start receiving the system and will work great until I power off the scanner and at the next power up, it goes dumb again. Using the 20dB attenuation in the software provides no help either. It is almost like a cold solder joint/intermittent problem. Once the bars appear (while scanning or when parked on a talkgroup) the scanner works great with no simulcast distortion or other reception issues. This only occurs when first powering on the scanner. I admit that I haven't been following the scanner forums for any issues, but has anyone else experienced this type of problem?

 

[donc13]

I have used this scanner for years and although I monitor a simulcast system, one of the towers is less than a mile from my house, so I only use a stubby handheld antenna with a 3dB pad to ensure that I only get that site. No other sites are within range of that stubby with the attenuator. I do get full bars to the site that is closest to me. My issue is that when first powering on the scanner, I do not see any bars unless I manually select the control channel and then I see the full bars. If I hit scan, the bars go away and if I manually step through the talkgroups, the bars are not visible. During this, no transmissions are heard at all and when parked on a talkgroup, the scanner displays that it is searching for a control channel.

At some point in time, the scanner will start receiving the system and will work great until I power off the scanner and at the next power up, it goes dumb again. Using the 20dB attenuation in the software provides no help either. It is almost like a cold solder joint/intermittent problem. Once the bars appear (while scanning or when parked on a talkgroup) the scanner works great with no simulcast distortion or other reception issues. This only occurs when first powering on the scanner. I admit that I haven't been following the scanner forums for any issues, but has anyone else experienced this type of problem?

A few things... Which scanner? Are you using a favorite list or system? Does your favorite list or system have only that one tower in it?

Added in edit: whoops, I see you have a 996P2. So are you using the full database and/or location control?

 

[doctordialtone]

Which scanner?

 

[donc13]

Yup.. I fixed that in an edit.

 

[phask]

996 has no "full database" nor does it use favorite lists.

 

[tvengr]

Check if one of the control channel capable frequencies is locked out. It would not be available while scanning but you could scroll to it manually. Squelch should be set to 2. Is the quick key for the site enabled?

 

[donc13]

996 has no "full database" nor does it use favorite lists.

That's why I asked about favorites or SYSTEM

 

[rescue161]

This system has 4 available control channels, but never uses more than the main one. All four are programmed though. I programmed everything manually, i.e., no database or other import was done. This is a Phase 2 system. Oddly enough, I had a lightning strike that hit my neighbors house and ours and I'm slowly finding things that got affected and I'm starting to wonder if this was one of the victims. I also have two handheld radios that fail to work on this system as well. They are Harris radios set to not affiliate. I have a Motorola radio that works fine. One of the Harris radios (P7300) used to work fine on Phase 2, but now it refuses anything except FDMA. The P7100 just doesn't boot up correctly anymore and gives an error of 553. None of this equipment was connected to exterior antennas, but the devices that were plugged into the wall got damaged. That list included two TV's, a network 16 port switch, router, Anytone AT-D578UVIII (won't power on), water heater element and a few other things that I can't remember right now. Radios that were connected to antennas were not damaged at all. The damage occurred due to us moving our electrical service from overhead to underground and the meter had to be relocated to the opposite side of the house. The electrician did not bond the old ground system with the new, so the copper water pipes (this is an old house), cable and phone lines were grounded at the original ground and everything else was grounded at the new. There was a difference of potential between the two and when we got struck, it blew up a bunch of stuff. I have since corrected the grounding issue and bonded both grounding systems together. Lightning is ugly stuff. It blew my neighbor's chimney apart and threw bricks into her front yard and when the large chuncks of bricks hit her roof (metal roof), it punched holes in it all over the place.

 

[tvengr]

Try reloading the firmware and reprogramming the scanner. The firmware or programming could have been corrupted by the lightning strike.

 

[rescue161]

I did blow in the programming, but I'll try a firmware refresh. Thank you.

 

[tvengr]

Hams Against Magnetic Mounts

I had a Magnetic Mount Antenna Endorsement on my FCC First Class License. Just kidding! I really enjoyed punching holes in the roofs of our news vehicles to install antennas.

 

[tvengr]

If you haven't done so, try resetting the scanner.

 

[rescue161]

That did not work either. I guess I'll just have to live with waiting until it randomly starts working and to not power it off once it does.