Please Help STARS 396

[Benjamin_Winn]

I have had a 396 for 7 months now. I can not figure out stars. I do as all these forums say. I have firmware 2.00.07. I am going to update again today to the 3.0. Below are the steps I have taken

1. Select New system
2. Select MOT
3. P25
4. Add frequency 152.0375 for the richmond main control channel.

I can not get it to work. I live 15 minutes south of richmond. Right along 288 almost at 95. The signal is not a problem I am sure. I can listen to the static all day long of traffic stops. I also listen to Chesterfield Fire, EMS, Police, and Colonial Heights Fire, EMS, and Police. I can not think of how many times I have read my book and researched all over the internet. I have put the band plans in, Reset my scanner to default, review all settings to make sure they aren't messing anything up. I can listen to everything else besides STARS. If someone could PLEASE help me I would appreciate it. I just don't understand what I am not getting. When i do the steps above and try to listen the channel just is blank and the scanner just searches for ID tags. Left it on my charger for a whole night before and never received one a single transmission. I love listening to VASPD, all the crazy New York drivers and the humor of the troopers especially when a call came in say a Prius had ran out of gas the trooper responded "WHAT?!?!". Again anyone able to shed light on my operator errors. Thanks

Benjamin

 

[tuttleje]

You may be too far away from the "Richmond" tower to pick up 152.0375 with the rubber duck. Try the Petersburg tower with a CC of 152.5325. If you have not programmed in the talkgroups, make sure you are in a "ID Search" mode and not "ID Scan". "Scan" will only look at programmed talkgroups...if you don't have any in your radio....you won't hear anything. Whereas "search" look for any talkgroups whether they are programmed into your radio or not programmed. You change between "search and "scan" my pushing the "scan" button while your radio is scanning. On my 396 I set up a different system for each tower and load in all the talkgroups. It helps if you have a program like ARC396.

 

[Benjamin_Winn]

Stars update.

Ok so I did the petersburg and I put the frequency 152.5325 in. I was on Search and i do know that when you get a control channel the radio automatically finds the other channels. And also usually shows the signal and it changes as it does with my chesterfield. But it was flashing two bars every so often and I have ID Search and the letters NFM on the bottom below the scrolling ID search. I am going to go out for a bit and see if it starts to work. Maybe i am just not getting a strong enough signal. Thanks for the help i will keep you updated

 

[Gasman315]

Stars

I am visiting your city this week. I am staying at the Hampton Inn on Broad street. Have my 396 set to monitor stars on 152.0375. Works great! Picking up site SID019eh 0101.As a side the only problem with anything is on the Henrico County i receive data bursts on 866.3875. Otherwise the radio is working great.
Nate

 

[W4UVV]

Fyi

I have had a 396 for 7 months now. I can not figure out stars. I do as all these forums say. I have firmware 2.00.07. I am going to update again today to the 3.0. Below are the steps I have taken

1. Select New system
2. Select MOT
3. P25
4. Add frequency 152.0375 for the richmond main control channel.

I can not get it to work. I live 15 minutes south of richmond. Right along 288 almost at 95. The signal is not a problem I am sure. I can listen to the static all day long of traffic stops. I also listen to Chesterfield Fire, EMS, Police, and Colonial Heights Fire, EMS, and Police. I can not think of how many times I have read my book and researched all over the internet. I have put the band plans in, Reset my scanner to default, review all settings to make sure they aren't messing anything up. I can listen to everything else besides STARS. If someone could PLEASE help me I would appreciate it. I just don't understand what I am not getting. When i do the steps above and try to listen the channel just is blank and the scanner just searches for ID tags. Left it on my charger for a whole night before and never received one a single transmission. I love listening to VASPD, all the crazy New York drivers and the humor of the troopers especially when a call came in say a Prius had ran out of gas the trooper responded "WHAT?!?!". Again anyone able to shed light on my operator errors. Thanks

Benjamin

Do you know for a fact that signal strength is not a problem? FYI the Richmond STARS site antennas are phased favoring the east/west directions not north/south. A HT antenna probably would be marginal from the Chester area to the Richmond STARS site. Because of the RFI/TVI filtering the 396/996 are not as sensitive digital scanners compared to the GRE500/600 scanners. I have both the 996T and GRE600. I prefer to use the GRE600 because in my opinion it has a faster scan; is more sensitive and processes P25 signals better than the 996. An Austin HT antenna from Grove Enterprises may or may not help your 396 situation. Test it by driving to the Midlothian Pike/Chippenham Parkway area. If the 396 receives correctly there and not in Chester then lack of sufficient signal strength is your problem.