BCD436HP/BCD536HP: P25 adjustments bcd536

[buddrousa]

All of those I still own 785D and down are in storage.
Like a fool I got rid of all my old scanners 4 6 thin scan bc100 Regency M400 10 Channel crystal 16 Channel Touch and many more.

 

[ofd8001]

Best reception I got on a simulcast system is when I had a broken antenna cable. . .

I too have many scanners, including SDS models. If I need a new one, it will be an SDS model because I've noticed significant improvement over non-SDS scanners. They are not perfect as there are a small number of hotspots where audio is garbled. However wearing my fire service hat, I have a "real" system radio and it has the occasional issue too.

It doesn't matter whether you start with a high or low number when experimenting. To do it justice, you'll end up trying several - every other one until you get close, then one by one.

 

[Ubbe]

What you should do are to try and receive just one site as other sites operates on the exact same frequencies and will cause interference. There are different ways of doing that. If a paper clip works then that probably equals to enabling the attenuator setting in the scanner, that can be set only to that site and still have all other systems un-attenuated.

Other ways are to try and block the signal to other sites directions. Maybe using a directional antenna to a site that doesn't have other sites too close to it or in front or behind it, but probably still needs the signal to be attenuates enough to not let other sites dominate too much. An adjustable attenuator are then the best option to use. For a portable scanner you can lay it down and point its antenna at the direction where you want to receive the least amount of signal, or angle down a telescope antenna at the back of a scanner and try to do the same. trying to make one site be considerable more dominant in signal strength than other sites.

If using different threshold values you then can copy and paste the site to get duplicates and set different manual threshold settings to them and switch between sites in site selection mode to check what works best for you. If you copy the whole system and make a new one and set the same quick key number to it so both systems ends up next to each other, you can just turn the selector wheel to continue scan to the next system with that other setting and then turn the other direction to come back to the first system and compare again.

/Ubbe

 

[crippledchicken]

You own all of those? Wow! Hey, I have something you don't, pro-2006 with cellular unblocked. Only problem with it is the screen is dark now. When they started trunked systems I got the pro-2050. That is an impressive list.

I had a pro-2006 years ago. I did a lot of the mods to it from the old Bill Cheek book. Wish I still had it.

 

[dwelluppon]

In case anyone is interested.

 

[dwelluppon]

I had a pro-2006 years ago. I did a lot of the mods to it from the old Bill Cheek book. Wish I still had it.

You brought back memories. I had my local library order that book and I borrowed it when it came in.

 

[dwelluppon]

The answer to simulcast distortion and how to handle it in the bcd536. I have been missing a lot. I have the antenna fully retracted and laying flat. I have been picking up everything in camden county. I have it in bank 2 and I have bank 5 with all new discoveries. I let discovery run overnight and let it collect let's say tgid 245 but it collects all talk groups. In the nights that I have collected I have 13-245 tgids in bank 5. If it doesn't hold in bank 2 it will has 13 more tries in bank 5. This works. I am going to put the speed back to 400ms. Im thinking that if it doesn't catch it in bank 2, make it quicker to run to bank 5. Bank 5 is going to be big.
To double check this, in "theory", if I put the antenna retracted and down I shouldn't have any hits in discovery. If I had the antenna up, in 15 minutes I could have 8 new hits of tgids that I already have, just showing for rate. I ran it for 20 minutes and only had one new hit. YEEESSSSSS! So set discovery for new discoveries to a bank. Run your system with antenna up and let it collect for a few nights. Check how many tgid of the same that you have. I have at least 12 of all tgids that was discovered. This works. Saved myself $700. I will run discovery tonight with antenna up just to collect more.
Here is the part I wasn't thinking of. Interoperability, Im picking up new tgids on it now. For the longest time, I sat in front of the scanner with the tablet looking up who is who. It was constant. Thought I knew them all untill new numbers and new voices started popping up in the past couple of days playing with the antenna. Back with sitting there with radioreference to see who is who again. Thanks to all, especially Whiskey for pointing the way.