Pro96- reception problems on p25 system

[hlee28761]

Does anyone in no/va have any success monitoring fairfax co p25 system with there pro96?
if so how do you have it programed.
I use win96 and rr and all i get is mostly garble.
I live in Springfield everything was fine until the system was rebanded several years ago.

 

[fredva]

Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

 

[cpetraglia]

I had to go to a directional antenna 25 feet above my roof line before I got clear reception.

Chuck

 

[bep]

Not sure how or what antenna you are using. I had a terrible time receiving Virginia Beach that is the same type of system. On my roof is a Scantenna. Pict up every other system wonderfully. Finally someone here suggested rotating it slightly (pointing it in a different direction) until the signal improved. I followed the advise and had someone down at the radio looking at the numbers. Sure enough the signal vastly improved. Is it perfect, heck no, but better. So try re-locating or moving your antenna.

 

[jaspence]

Pro 96

Simulcast is difficult for even newer scanners, and the Pro 96 is a very old design in scanner years. The directional antenna is about the only real choice for improvement, and that may be minimal. I have a Pro 106 and a Pro 108, and even they are not perfect on our county simulcast in some locations.

 

[jim202]

Does anyone in no/va have any success monitoring fairfax co p25 system with there pro96?
if so how do you have it programed.
I use win96 and rr and all i get is mostly garble.
I live in Springfield everything was fine until the system was rebanded several years ago.

With the issues of trying to listen to a simulcast system, you have to understand just how they function. The best place to start is to locate all the towers around you that the system transmits from. Then determine which one is closer. That is the one you need to focus on. Obtain a directional antenna and point the antenna towards that tower. Sometimes a change of just a few feet in the antennas horizontal location will help.

The big thing here is that you need to supply a clean signal to the receiver and not have multiple towers fighting with each other. There is a good possibility that the signal timing is not set correctly in the system. This causes problems in the no capture zone between the different towers where the signals are close to the same level. This is where you have this problem of trying to decode the signal.

 

[Ronaldski]

Ive seen here in the forums a MI ham operator had one and stated he could never no matter what get anything on the seven tower simulcast system. I also worked with someone and met in the same lapeer county and his pro 96 also was silent no matter what I did. Attenuation, site neighbors, 1.4 firmware, etc.
My 396xt was going great and thats what they got.
Pro 96 just wasnt designed for simulcast at a time when simulcast wasnt very prolific.