NXDN Upgrade for BCD436HP and BCD536HP Now Available!

[werinshades]

The system I am seeing it on, or at least the TG, doesn't have encryption. Part of this is also my getting used to the differences in programming between DMR and NXDN. I'm still sorting some of this out, as I am sure are others.

I don't recall having seen encryption at all on this particular network. There are some conventional encrypted channels in the area, so I might program one of those in to see what happens.

So far I'm very happy with the performance on my 436HP.

As with the MotoTRBO "early adapter upgrade", we're all learning together. I appreciate others posting findings and oddities. Like you, I'm very satisfied and once I can go to town with software programming, look out!

 

[jonwienke]

LCN's are different depending on systems. On MotoTRBO Trunking, you have to put in "numerical order"

Re-read post #154. As long as each frequency entry is tagged with the correct channel number, the order of the frequency entries doesn't matter.

 

[garys]

Sort of what I figured. I also notice that when it does find a control channel the scanner displays NX4. Since this is a NXDN48 system, that would seem to indicate that. There's one NEDN96 system that I'll eventually get around to programming in. I expect to see NX9 when the scanner finds that control channel.

It scans for a carrier and if not found it goes to next channel, it is normal analog scanning at 50-80ch/s and it doesn't display anything as it only stays a couple of hundreds of a second on the channel. If it finds a carrier and starts to decode the datastream it has enough time (the hold time) to display what channel frequency and the site it's on.

/Ubbe

 

[werinshades]

None of our DMA scanners care what order you program frequencies in. As long as you also program the correct LCN for the frequency (for those trunk types that require this info) it works.

LCN = Logical Channel Number.

Re-read post #154. As long as each frequency entry is tagged with the correct channel number, the order of the frequency entries doesn't matter.

Thank you to both of you! Just wanted to confirm my findings is why I asked.

 

[dave3825]

Is there anyone willing to explain, to me I bought the keys but it not seeming to decode the NXDN AND Can’t get hang of programming by hand

Richmond County, Virginia (VA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference


There up trying program and won’t seem to work and decode . I’ve bought the keys and firmware updated

Did you enter the 27 digit key into the scanner? Under settings - upgrade - upgrade NXDN?

The link you posted shows only 2 NXDN freqs .

 

[CPerk]

Did you enter the 27 digit key into the scanner? Under settings - upgrade - upgrade NXDN?

The link you posted shows only 2 NXDN freqs.

Correct and it shows update successfully and that’s right 2 frequencies but Inonly monitor police traffic but 436 won’t decode it neither the 536

 

[bearcat]

This maybe related to software updates more than firmware, but the Siren app does not display the RAN#
The NXDN trunking systems I tested today worked well, no issues that I could see/hear.

Yes OTA would be a nice feature going forward.

Going to setup some OTFs and see how those work

 

[mtindor]

Very good information to put out there. I previously said this and hope it's implemented in the programming software, but LCN should be replaced with Channel Number when you're programming a NXDN site. I believe others will be confused...as I was for 10 minutes...lol!

I'm in agreement about NXDN "LCN" being replaced with "Channel Number"

Mike

 

[microx]

So far, I am only listening to a single conventional NX channel for the local EMS company. When side-by-side with my Kenwood NX-5200, the 436 picks up about 70% of what I'm hearing on the KW radio. I am also seeing the symbol "NX9" in the display. Does this have to do with the bandwidth of the channel? Another odd thing is it seems the alert LED is intermittent. I have it set to come on when this channel is active, but it only seems to be coming on around 40-50% of the time, even when I'm actually hearing audio.

PS.. the antenna on the Kenwood is the stock VHF duck, but on the 436 I have a Diamond SRH77CA, which I would've thought would be getting VHF much better then the stock duck since it's about 8" longer. The frequency in question is in the 159 MHz range.

 

[jonwienke]

The alert light only runs for the first 5 seconds of a transmission. And it doesn't re-light for reply transmissions that fall within the Delay setting.

NX9 is 9600, NX4 is 4800.

Are both radios connected to the same antenna?

 

[slicerwizard]

IIRC, encryption flag is in the voice packet on the voice channel, not indicated on the control channel

That is correct.

 

[microx]

The alert light only runs for the first 5 seconds of a transmission. And it doesn't re-light for reply transmissions that fall within the Delay setting.

NX9 is 9600, NX4 is 4800.

Are both radios connected to the same antenna?

AH.. Thank you for the alert clarification. I have it set to 'ON' so I figured it would be on the whole time that channel was busy. I didn't realize it had a timer. I'm much more used to the GRE500/RS106 twins than this radio, and the LED on those stays active.

I'm guessing 9600 is the 12.5khz bandwidth, and 4800 is the 6.25khz bandwidth? When programming in the KW software, those are the choices you have for individual channel widths, not the above shown numbers of 9600 or 4800.

And I edited my post to list the antennas used probably while you were typing your original response.. LOL

 

[UPMan]

To extend that thought: That is a reason you could see the scanner jump to a channel and display its ID very briefly before jumping back to the control channel, with no audio.

 

[microx]

I'm thinking my issue is reception related. When the KW NX-5200 is active, if I move the 436, even just to angle the antenna differently, it WILL receive and decode fine. I guess the next test will be with the stock 436 antenna when I get home from work and put it back on.

 

[mtindor]

LCN's are different depending on systems. On MotoTRBO Trunking, you have to put in "numerical order" to Trunk whereas in NXDN, you must find the "Assigned Channel Number" given by the system administrator to trunk properly which is identical to Analog LTR. I'm sure I wasn't the only one, and won't be the last.

Actually, on DMR trunked systems the sysadmin assigns the LCN <--> frequency pairings just like a sysadmin does with NXDN for Channel Number <--> frequency pairings.

(and I acknowledge Jon's LCN = logical channel number but choose to differentiate DMR LCN / NXDN Channel Number since that's how most people are used to seeing it referenced with DSDPlus)

The order in which the frequencies are programmed into the scanner make no difference as long as the correct LCN and Color Code (DMR) or Channel Number and RAN (NXDN) are assigned to the frequency.

I wish I had a purely IDAS or NXDN-D trunking system to monitor so I could become more knowledgeable about those.

Hopefully those eople who are used to the Whistler TRX series and their way of handling DMR and NXDN need to understand that you can't just "throw" frequencies into Uniden DMR or NXDN system configuration and expect it to scan and produce results. The Unidens appear to actually be using the control channel (except for NXDN-D of course) for proper trunking, along with specific frequency--LCN--color code and frequency--RAN--channel numbers to guarantee proper trunking. The Whistler TRX's appear to just scan all of the frequencies you enter in and if they detect the proper pattern of an NXDN signal they decode it and also attempt to read whatever trunking data might be sent on the voice channels.

The LCN Finder sure seems to work quite well on the 436/536 these days. I'm impressed with it. That should make it much easier for all who use scanners-only to figure out new DMR/NXDN systems.

Mike

 

[jonwienke]

I'm thinking my issue is reception related. When the KW NX-5200 is active, if I move the 436, even just to angle the antenna differently, it WILL receive and decode fine. I guess the next test will be with the stock 436 antenna when I get home from work and put it back on.

When dealing with whip antennas on a handheld, the location and orientation of the antenna can make as much difference as the type of antenna.

 

[Jake68111]

With NXDN, should I be seeing RID's because I'm not? Maybe a setting I'm missing? And I'm taking it that the RAN is just another number for site because they seem to match?

 

[boy7777777777]

RAN is like the color code on dmr or a squelch code on analog.

 

[jonwienke]

RAN is NXDN's version of color code (DMR) and NAC (P25).

 

[garys]

Have gone into the Menue, Display Options, and set Disp. Unit ID to "On"?

I'm seeing Unit IDs with no problem.

With NXDN, should I be seeing RID's because I'm not? Maybe a setting I'm missing? And I'm taking it that the RAN is just another number for site because they seem to match?