Post-V2 Update Performance for BCD396T and BCD996T

[Viper43]

What systems are you monitoring newsalan? I could guess knowing your vacinity however that doesn't mean you'd monitor all of them I think you would. Anyway, I have to work Saturday but Sunday I may just take a drive down that way and see what I get because I have not seen the issues your having and the only way to find out exactly whats going on is to go down and check it out. So what systems exactly, including tower sites on SAFET etc. I already have all of SAFET towers in the scanner. I'm lucky if this motorboats 4 times a day after updateing and reception is just as good as before the upgrade.

V

 

[rbhtxk]

Firmware update for 396

After about five days, here is what I have found with the new firmware:

Conventional VHF P25 decoding is much better, especially on Texas DPS and Greenville, TX PD systems.

The ONCOR EDACS TRS narrow band 900 Mhz system tracks fine.

Local LTR systems work great.

I am not in range of any 800-900 MHz P-25 or mixed mode systems so I have way to check for differences yet.

The sensitivity on conventional analog and digital systems also seems to be better. I can decode P25 with the HT antenna at 30 miles from Greenville with 100 percent copy. This is probably a 25-50 percent increase in readability over the previous firmware.

The only settings that I changed after the update was to put the P25 setting back to Auto from Default for each system. After about a minute on each system, the P25 decode cleared up for me.

Good luck

 

[Jay911]

Continued update...

Since people have been grousing that conventional is bad, non-P25 trunking is bad, etc., since the update, today I opened up everything in my 996. This includes conventional analog, LTR, and Mot I, IIi, and II (both analog and P16/P25 audio) - no EDACS in my area. Everything works great. I also had my 396 on for several hours today feeding me strictly P16/P25 audio traffic from the local Mot II SZ system and had no problems at all.

I will say this: My P25 time is set to 200ms and AGC is enabled on both analog and digital. The only time I get too-loud audio is with the school bus drivers and other tools who eat their mics and yell all the time.

With all due respect, all you guys having trouble should back up and come at things calmly and rationally and stop screaming about how Uniden has wrecked your scanner. Take the advice offered you by others, who have had things work with success, and even a few failures along the way. But the most important thing to remember is, this isn't going to fix everything and make it all perfect. Even with the glowing words I give at the top of this post, I do still have some glitchy digital transmissions - but that's to be expected with the nature of digital comms. If one single bit is wrong or lost, the transmission is most likely going to be garbled. And, frankly, comms aren't even perfect for the professional users of said systems anyway - today it's windy here, and Dispatch is going crazy trying to understand people who are standing out in the wind even with noise-canceling palm mics in use.

So let's give the grief a rest and just report on whether your radio's performance is better, worse, or no different than before the update, as per the topic of the thread. And, for those having trouble applying the update, as suggested by Paul and others, stick to the other thread/Yahoo group.

 

[jerk]

newsalan:
Okay, you have stated that your radio works worse now than before, suppose you wait for a response before continuing to complain. You are well aware that the main contact is out of the country. Most of the time you are a pretty level-headed poster, I am not sure what bug crawled into your pants, but ease up the rhetoric.

donc13:
If you don't have something constructive to say, don't post.

Yes, that was firmware 2.00.6, prior to that it was firmware V 2.00.7
But I guess this will get locked or deleted so I won't post what's happening with Version 2.01.0

So let’s see three firmware version in 7 days, and they all suck, and create problems, all of them work worse than what I had originally. Did you miss that part? 3 different versions!

What kind of response should I expect, except what I received from the Uniden "faithful?" And I reported some of the problems to Uniden and I asked for what specific information do you want or what are the beta testers looking for, and was told to keep posting generally. In other words, they won’t tell what they want or need from me, just post what you find.

Now if I'm out of the Country or the State or my area, there is someone on call handling problems. Second, I have had emails from Paul, none recent, but all say they are proprietary, secret, intended for the recipient only. So I can't share those. But the gist of it is being patient!

Hell, after a year and promises for a fix, things should not be worse that they were, but there are now. Why is everybody afraid of posting something negative about Uniden? It's all true. And I can duplicate it time and time again.
Many jump in to defend Uniden and Upman. It's even happening in another list I subscribe too. And yet the problems are not really fixed like another scanner line has been.

And this is the problem as I see it, we are so in love with Uniden that we overlook every flaw, error, problems, and when the fix comes out, it ends up creating many new unforeseen problems.

Why? Because nobody is willing to speak the truth no matter how unpleasant it might seem.

And every time some one posts a so-called negative report, two or three jump in with an everything’s fine here “positive” comments. Too many here are quick to defend and I think, Uniden is not hearing the problems. At least another company has set the bar high, higher than Uniden and it has some people’s attention in the company. (At least I hope so). And it’s about time. They used to make decent two-way radios, but didn’t care about the people using and working on them, now that business was sold off and is no more.

And If you don’t believe me, go back to the other firmware release and the problems with motor boating, in each and every case where a “not working” for me comment is posted, many other always jump in, and a few in positions of power used that as excuse to stop the negative postings. And we ended up with over a years wait for firmware that still has the same problem.
So I’m done, you can lock it or restrict me, or whatever; but my latest experiments with Version 2.01.0 shall remain unposted. But I am sorry I upgraded my BCD396 and I would wait if you are considering it.

 

[Viper43]

I don't know what to say Newsalan, the update did improve the motorboating up here, did you re-load the program file after updaeting? This has taken care of issues after the update.
Anyway it looks like I'm going for a drive Sunday to Southern In and see what I can find, if anything that is different between here and there. I'll have a couple of my scanners with me to see how each handles the systems down south.
Meanwhile, Upman and Uniden continue to work to make things better. I can say they did a heck of job on this as one SAFET site constantly motorboated and with this version there are only a couple times a day that it motorboats, and I can once again pull in 14 SAFET sites from home, same as I did with .17....although once the leaves come out that number will drop a bit, unless i get the chainsaw out.....

 

[Bote]

Yes, that was firmware 2.00.6, prior to that it was firmware V 2.00.7
But I guess this will get locked or deleted so I won't post what's happening with Version 2.01.0

So let’s see three firmware version in 7 days, and they all suck, and create problems, all of them work worse than what I had originally. Did you miss that part? 3 different versions!

It is likely that the performance of your scanner will vary based on the version of software that the trunked system is running. That single variable might be responsible for the widely varying reports from various scanner users. Although, I am at a loss to explain why you don't have results similar to other SAFET users in your area, I would expect them to keep every zone controller on the same patch level with such a new system.

 

[ERICMYERS]

Will County EDACS was bringing in absolutely nothing last night, and that is usually a very high traffic system. I did get some voice if I hit hold, but it wasn't tracking at all, as if it couldn't find the control channel, and I don't even know if I was hearing Will Co EDACS or other traffic on the same frequency. Not sure what's going on with that, and I spent no time trying to resolve, just reporting the oddity today.

It turns out that this was an issue with the programming. The issue was that only 3 of 6 LCN's were in my ARC software, and therefore only 3 in the scanner. I manually added them yesterday and re-uploaded all my systems to the 996 last night, and Will Co. EDACS is receiving traffic correctly. I also set all of the WILLCO EDACS groups to Analog Audio Type instead of All at the same time.

I just did a test this morning to import WILLCO EDACS via ARC, and it only brings in the first 3 of 6 LCN's right now. This issue is clearly not related to the 996 radio, but to the RR database or ARC software.

Now, though, on WILL Co EDACS, I have the braap at the beginning of the transmission, and the single beep at the end. I can live with that better than having nothing to listen to, but will try to resolve that next.

Starcom is still all over the map with quality. Will Co 113 still sucks for me for what I want to listen to, but decodes a lot of traffic very well with minimal if any garbling or drop outs. DuPage 101 was pretty consistent in receiving Plainfield PD and the radio decoded well last night. Weather last night was clear and calm, and unfortunately (for scanning purposes), it was a slow night for PPD, and not a lot to listen to anyway. I think that the YMMV factor is more related to Starcom than my radio/antenna setups at this point.

AGC's are set to ON (and tweaked) and audio is level across systems.
P25 is at 400ms.

KanCom, OK. Kendall Conv. OK. Naperville, OK. WESCOM and other Will Co Conv. OK. Joliet MOT OK.

Editorial Mode: now set to ON:
These high end modern scanners are exceptionally complex systems of hardware and software, with a large amount of user access to settings, and are designed for hardcore hobbyists who like to tweak all of the details. They are not (and are not intended to be) plug and play, IMO....what fun would that be? I truly enjoy the fact that I have to exercise my brain, learn a lot of things, develop some actual expertise and skills, and share my successes and failures with others to participate in a hobby that is well beyond the average person's capability or interest.

True, my PRO 2055 was much easier (not simple) to program, and my BC350 has 'cheat' buttons for preprogrammed collections of 'interests'....but I got bored with them in the tech aspect, hence the desire to buy another scanner. For me, the tech aspect is as much a part of the hobby as the content of what I listen to.
Editorial Mode: now set to OFF

cheers,
Eric

 

[Boulder]

with new updates installed on the 996, the AWIN system 800mhz P25 TRS sounds great from the time i got to listen while i was in arkansas last night. Clear transmissions with no other kind of noises.

 

[kb9sxk]

I don't know what to say Newsalan, the update did improve the motorboating up here, did you re-load the program file after updaeting? This has taken care of issues after the update.
Anyway it looks like I'm going for a drive Sunday to Southern In and see what I can find, if anything that is different between here and there. I'll have a couple of my scanners with me to see how each handles the systems down south.
Meanwhile, Upman and Uniden continue to work to make things better. I can say they did a heck of job on this as one SAFET site constantly motorboated and with this version there are only a couple times a day that it motorboats, and I can once again pull in 14 SAFET sites from home, same as I did with .17....although once the leaves come out that number will drop a bit, unless i get the chainsaw out.....

How far south are you comming? (E'ville way?)

 

[Viper43]

How far south are you comming? (E'ville way?)

At least the state line and a bit west of 65 in the Corydon area, I thought of going to the Evansville area and so forth but I'd wind up looking up relatives I have never met, and I really hate the drive from Evansville back to Indy.....lol but who knows, anything could happen

 

[linuxwrangler]

The main system I monitor is the Richmond/El Cerrito/San Pablo/etc. EDACS trunked system. So far (based on minimal usage post-update) it seems that there may be a marginal improvement in analog voice on this system (or I could be imagining it - the difference, if any, is not huge) but it has done nothing to improve the bad EDACS beeps on this system.

Most of the frequencies this system uses have the normal faint high-pitched beeps and they work fine. One frequency has a lower pitch harsher-sounding series of beeps. Other than the pitch and sound-quality, the beeps are identical to the normal beeps. Unfortunately it means missing followups to roughly 1 in 5 calls - whenever the frequency rotation lands on that frequency.

Although the radio-techs seem rather busy on this system, they do not seem to be working on these beeps nor does the bad frequency seem to be affecting the police/fire/public-works radios.

I don't know enough about EDACS to say whether these beeps fall within normal specifications and the scanner can't deal or if they are non-standard but are causing minimal issues for the users. It's been screwed up for months so fixing it must be a low priority for the radio-techs if it's on the list at all.

I'm unaware of any setting changes that might improve this but would be grateful if anyone knows of one.

Paul/others - I can record the beeps if it would be helpful.

 

[JStemann]

ericmyers....

Not exactly on topic but, the problem you're having with importing the will co. edacs sounds like you might have the "cc only" box checked at the bottom of the import page. I'm pretty sure you need to uncheck that for the edacs systems.

jeffs s.

 

[emessick3]

BCD996T update

I have two 996T's; updated one last week. So far, results are not what I expected. Error rares are high on the updated one. Not sure our P25 system doesn't have some kind of issue; appears that the audio quality has degraded on the non-updated scanner also.

Am also having issues with the Uniden web site; lost all of my registered scanners! Stay tuned!

 

[Dewey]

Took the post updated 396 with me into DC (603d) to work on Friday for the first time. Unfortunately, I must say that the 396 is much worse after the update. When manually sitting on a 603d talkground, the 396 will not be quiet for more than three minutes before it starts "motorboating". What makes it really so bad is that the motorboating will start for no apparent reason. In other words, it's not like a bad decode at the beginning of a transmission because it starts doing it before any transmissions are present. I've even confirmed this while monitoring the same talkgroup on my assigned XTS. I also maxed out the P25 wait time at 1000ms with no difference, but that didn't surprise me since the motorboating does not require a transmission to be present when it starts sounding off.

Dewey

 

[rescue161]

That's strange as I had no issues with that system at all this past week. I was only on the 460 MHz trunked side though.

Took the post updated 396 with me into DC (603d) to work on Friday for the first time. Unfortunately, I must say that the 396 is much worse after the update. When manually sitting on a 603d talkground, the 396 will not be quiet for more than three minutes before it starts "motorboating". What makes it really so bad is that the motorboating will start for no apparent reason. In other words, it's not like a bad decode at the beginning of a transmission because it starts doing it before any transmissions are present. I've even confirmed this while monitoring the same talkgroup on my assigned XTS. I also maxed out the P25 wait time at 1000ms with no difference, but that didn't surprise me since the motorboating does not require a transmission to be present when it starts sounding off.

Dewey

 

[N4DXX]

Kentucky state police.Bigtime improvement!!

Just applied the update's to my 996t..Fantastic is all i can say.The volume is now outstanding compared to the old firmware version's..I have listened for 2 hours or so and not one digital sound..No more machine gunning here even on the weakest signals i am getting loud clear decoded audio,This is like getting out of a pinto into a hummer.I never in my dreams thought this scanner could ever match my psr 600 well i can now say that.I have been running them side by side and the uniden is holding it's own thus far..I am very impressed..Even with the digital agc off it's still as good as the psr..And i am so sorry that so many other system's are having issues i wish all of you could be as happy as me with the update.And i do hope you get the results you want with new firmware releases but mine will stay where it's at because this did it for the system i monitor..

 

[gregmoss]

Okay, I was abit curious, so i ran a back-up file BC_VUP_V1.5.2.1 that i found on my computer. Ran and installed it, downloaded the firmware bcd396t_V1_11_03 and Installed it. Now the scanners downloading the file, Toward the end of the download it stopped. It read low bandwith error? and then checksum err? Panic removed the batt's, then turn the scanner back on, and it read ram err. panic agian, Removed the batts, and power-up using power+lo+6 KEYS together until the screen was a blank blue. Then i ran the BC_VUP_V2.0.0.3 and the theBCD396T_V2_00_07SCN Bingo back into business. Very strange, it got me spooked out, thought my scanner was toast! Anyone else?

 

[Viper43]

Nope, hadn't heard that one, but glad to hear your back in business.

 

[delta_p]

Okay, I was abit curious, so i ran a back-up file BC_VUP_V1.5.2.1 that i found on my computer. Ran and installed it, downloaded the firmware bcd396t_V1_11_03 and Installed it. Now the scanners downloading the file, Toward the end of the download it stopped. It read low bandwith error? and then checksum err? Panic removed the batt's, then turn the scanner back on, and it read ram err. panic agian, Removed the batts, and power-up using power+lo+6 KEYS together until the screen was a blank blue. Then i ran the BC_VUP_V2.0.0.3 and the theBCD396T_V2_00_07SCN Bingo back into business. Very strange, it got me spooked out, thought my scanner was toast! Anyone else?

Yes, I tried to go back as well. This upgrade locks you in. Seriously I think Uniden would provide the reversion if absolutely wanted. http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showpost.php?p=773004&postcount=364

PP

 

[w8mkh]

I did the update on my 396 and have found that MARCS sounds better.
Havnt really noticed much difference on local LTR system