Reception better on BC246T than DCT396T in 800MHZ ?

[Sbee]

Hi, I recently purchased both a BCD396T and a BC246T. It seems the BCD396T does not have the sensitivity or the reception like the BC246T. I use them both to monitor emergency services in the trunked 800mhz with the same antenna setup which is a Yaggi antenna and 30' of RG6 cable. The BC246T pick's up all frequency's clearly while the BCD396T will only pick-up one or two. The program in the BCD396 is exactly the same as the 246 and the squelch is turned all the way down. Is there anything else I can do to increase the reception or sensitivity on the 396 to make it equal to the 246. Thanks

 

[Dewey]

Hi, I recently purchased both a BCD396T and a BC246T. It seems the BCD396T does not have the sensitivity or the reception like the BC246T. I use them both to monitor emergency services in the trunked 800mhz with the same antenna setup which is a Yaggi antenna and 30' of RG6 cable. The BC246T pick's up all frequency's clearly while the BCD396T will only pick-up one or two. The program in the BCD396 is exactly the same as the 246 and the squelch is turned all the way down. Is there anything else I can do to increase the reception or sensitivity on the 396 to make it equal to the 246. Thanks

While I'll agree that the 396's sensitivity is not the greatest (there are some old threads here on the issue), there was a firmware release that helped. I forget which firmware release it was, but it gave more detents (positions) to the squelch, which in turn, enabled the user to bring the squelch setting a little closer to the threashold.

Dewey

 

[yaesumofo]

Sensitivity is a function of hardware. I don't think that the firmware actually changed the specification.

I agree with this persons opinion.
I have a BC250 which has a radio section which is clearly head and shoulders above the radio section of the 396.
The 250 is a more sensitive radio and does a better job receiving RF than the 396.
The 396 is miles ahead of the 250 in terms of features.
Reducing the size of the radio section had a negative effect on the quality of the radio.
Larger radios have room for physically larger filters. Those filters have a direct impact on the performance of the radio.
What do you think that a well made base radio (AOR ICOM) is so much more expensive than the Handheld version? FILTERS!!

Hopfully Uniden's "next gen" radio will actually be a little larger and able to use the radio section from the BC250 x2. We need two receivers in these next radios. This in and of itself will give us the ability to have increased sensitivity and or diversity reception. It makes a lot of science for uniden to give us this feature. Also take into account that with the re-banding there will be more and different things to listen to. Lets hope Uniden looks at the new services which are coming online from the point of view that they may be (will) sources for interference, radios built today are not set up to handle high power emissions in the areas where they are about to appear. This will effect the preselectors and the filtering again.

All we can do is hope that Uniden steps up and deals with these issues, and give us better radios. If they don't maybe we will see other companies step up. Maybe we will see a SDR based scanner. You have to know these will become less expensive soon..as soon as there is a demand. Demand will come.
Time will tell.
Yaesumofo

Hi, I recently purchased both a BCD396T and a BC246T. It seems the BCD396T does not have the sensitivity or the reception like the BC246T. I use them both to monitor emergency services in the trunked 800mhz with the same antenna setup which is a Yagi antenna and 30' of RG6 cable. The BC246T pick up all frequency's clearly while the BCD396T will only pick-up one or two. The program in the BCD396 is exactly the same as the 246 and the squelch is turned all the way down. Is there anything else I can do to increase the reception or sensitivity on the 396 to make it equal to the 246. Thanks

 

[nursepen]

antenna

I switched from the factory antenna to a radio shack 800 mhz portable antenna and got improved trunk and digtal reception

 

[Dewey]

Sensitivity is a function of hardware. I don't think that the firmware actually changed the specification.

...
Yaesumofo

I agree with this statement 100%. My point in bringing up the reception/firmware together is that it did help me. While I know that it didn't do anything for the sensitivity, the extra positions on the squelch control enbled me to adjust the squelch "down" closer to the threshold, so signals that were above the noise floor, but not quite strong enough to open the squelch now had a chance.

Dewey