BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Squelch Not Opening Sometimes

[JethrowJohnson]

It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while when there's a transmission on MARIETTA PD 1 it alerts on the channel and shows signal bars but it doesn't put out any audio as if the squelch didn't open. Is this what the problem is and what could be causing this? Thank you. 🙂

 

[werinshades]

It doesn't happen very often, but every once in a while when there's a transmission on MARIETTA PD 1 it alerts on the channel and shows signal bars but it doesn't put out any audio as if the squelch didn't open. Is this what the problem is and what could be causing this? Thank you. 🙂

Sounds like a symptom of simulcast. Which system?

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Sounds like a symptom of simulcast. Which system?

It's an analog conventional frequency. 460.3 MHz 025 DCS (FM)

 

[mass-man]

Gosh it could be someone keying the mic n saying nothing…a strong adjacent channel causing interference…if you can stand the noise, open the sauelch and see if you get a signal with no audio. Do you have another scanner you could set to the same freq/PL and see if it happens on that one!

 

[Ubbe]

Signal bars ONLY show when the squelch opens, so that seems to work okay.

If it is the only one on that frequency the scan without DCS and just under squelch control.

Try first to set it to search the DCS and see what comes up, either nothing that would indicate a too weak DCS tone, check that you use NFM mode, or another DCS tone are decoded.

/Ubbe

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Gosh it could be someone keying the mic n saying nothing…a strong adjacent channel causing interference…if you can stand the noise, open the sauelch and see if you get a signal with no audio. Do you have another scanner you could set to the same freq/PL and see if it happens on that one!

I first noticed it on Friday because I had just plugged it in at about 1:00 that day and was using my BC75XLT, and about an hour later there was an aggravated burglary in progress so I took my BCD436HP off the charger so that I could record it in case the suspect evaded so I would know what he looked like. And it only happened maybe on 2 or 3 transmissions, I heard the traffic start on the 75 and at the same time the 436 alerted on it, so it knew the signal was there, but it took it a few seconds for the screen to light up and the sound to start. I think that time it might've been because the battery level was almost on Low. The second time it happened was yesterday when I was in the car and same thing today, but these times it missed an entire transmission, but only one transmission. That's how rare it is and it's only on that channel. And it's not someone keying up because the speaker was completely silent and the display light didn't even come on. That's why I thought maybe the squelch didn't open because that's what's supposed to trigger the display light.

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Signal bars ONLY show when the squelch opens, so that seems to work okay.

If it is the only one on that frequency the scan without DCS and just under squelch control.

Try first to set it to search the DCS and see what comes up, either nothing that would indicate a too weak DCS tone, check that you use NFM mode, or another DCS tone are decoded.

/Ubbe

So should I just turn DCS off and see if the same thing happens tomorrow? It doesn't do this very often. Only about once a day for the past three days but never before.

 

[Ubbe]

And it's not someone keying up because the speaker was completely silent and the display light didn't even come on.

Then that is a completely different thing as the signal bars could not show a signal as the squelch also controls the display light.

Set it to analog DCS search and try it in that mode. It will open up for any analog signal and try to decode whatever is there and display it.

/Ubbe

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Then that is a completely different thing as the signal bars could not show a signal as the squelch also controls the display light.

Set it to analog DCS search and try it in that mode. It will open up for any analog signal and try to decode whatever is there and display it.

/Ubbe

That seems to be what the problem was. I took the DCS off and it hasn't done that since. Thank you 😀👍

 

[JethrowJohnson]

Then that is a completely different thing as the signal bars could not show a signal as the squelch also controls the display light.

Set it to analog DCS search and try it in that mode. It will open up for any analog signal and try to decode whatever is there and display it.

/Ubbe

It just did it again. I don't understand what's causing this?