Odd Behavior on UHF System

[rescue161]

This is a federal system (Sheppard AFB to be exact). I am using a BCD396T and a Pro-96 and everything goes okay for the most part, but sometimes it seems as though the system dies. The signal strength indicator on the 396 is still full bars, but only carrier is detected. Basically there is no data on the control channel, just an open carrier. Scanning through the other control channels gives a very strange data sound that I've never heard before. It is constant just like a control channel would do, but a very distinct sound.

At first, I thought that the control channels were changed, so I did a search only to find that a whole bunch of frequencies in the UHF band have the exact same data being broadcast. This data is not P25

UniTrunker just shows "No Signal" while this is going on even while parked on one of the mysterious data channels..

This has happened a few times in the past couple of days.

Is this the system going into "Fail Soft"? I've never seen or heard a system go into "Fail Soft" before, so I'm leaning towards that.

 

[DickH]

Maybe you can find the sounds here.
http://www.kb9ukd.com/digital/

Dick

 

[rescue161]

I'd say it sounds a lot like the old Type I Motorola systems, except it's on every channel except the CC before this happens (it's open carrier).

 

[Joseph11]

It's in fail safe mode. There's a mixed mode Type II system here. When it goes into fail safe mode, some channels have an open carrier (for the analog TGs), while some others have a constant "machine gun" sounding data (for the P25 talkgroups).

 

[rescue161]

It's in fail safe mode. There's a mixed mode Type II system here. When it goes into fail safe mode, some channels have an open carrier (for the analog TGs), while some others have a constant "machine gun" sounding data (for the P25 talkgroups).

Muchas Gracias!

I suppose there's no way to monitor FailSoft via a scanner?

 

[Joseph11]

Analog, yes. But apparently, with digital, no.