Tips for STARS and area in general for Uniden 536

[rdballenger]

I just bought the 536 and already own a Uniden Home Patrol. The 536 is a little intimidating, but that is the case for anything with powerful capabilities. The lack of good documentation is frustrating - that is why this board is so valuable.

Does anyone have advice on receiving Virginia STARS? I'm getting nothing - I have gone in and set to avoid all but the Arlington, Dumfries and Fairfax sites, and doing ID searching rather than scanning.

I have played around with changing the band modulation from NFM to FM, and have also played around with using the manual decode level, as well as having the squelch open.

Any other tips for using a 536 in the Metro DC region appreciated!

Thanks in advance.


David
KU8V

 

[rdballenger]

Update on first post!

Got a few bits of readable traffic from the Fairfax site - but does not seem like its as much as it should be.

David
KU8V

 

[freqhopping]

First make sure all service types are enabled.
Make sure location control is No.
Have quick keys assigned to the sites you have enabled and have the QKs enabled.
Then confirm you're actually receiving a control channel.

 

[jrrob8]

change default mode to FM in the band plan under the sentinel profile. I also set the step to 7.5 and it is decoding better than my 106. I didn't mention the 152/162 band plan. be sure to upload to scanner when complete.

 

[W4UVV]

VHF tuning steps "standards"

Unlike the UHF range, i.e., 460-465 mhz. which has a standard FCC 12.5 khz. frequency tuning step, high band VHF has several "standard" frequency tuning steps which include 12.5 khz., 10 khz.,7.5 khz., 6.25 khz. and 5 khz.

If searching for STARS frequencies 6.25 khz. is the correct frequency tuning step to use.

John
W4UVV

 

[jrrob8]

punch in 152.5475 (fort Lewis CC) and see what step is required to get scanner to accept it. mine requires 7.5 step, that means something to me, not being an expert. works great for my scanner. nice being able to chose what works.

 

[W4UVV]

As I posted

punch in 152.5475 (fort Lewis CC) and see what step is required to get scanner to accept it. mine requires 7.5 step, that means something to me, not being an expert. works great for my scanner. nice being able to chose what works.

As I posted 6.25 khz. is the correct step bandwidth tuning for searching STARS frequencies whether for one site or multiple sites within your monitoring area to insure no offset frequencies will be missed in the STARS 151-152 mhz. and 158-159 mhz. and 161.8-9875 mhz. frequency ranges. Using 7.5 khz step bandwidth tuning may result in one or more site's offset frequencies not being stopped on correctly depending upon the actual frequencies used at a specific site(s). 7.5 khz. step bandwidth tuning may be ok for some sites. For other sites it may not be.

7.5 khz. probably is the VHF default bandplan step bandwidth tuning for your scanner. Step bandwidth tuning can be changed in the scanner's configuration setup as can be done with my Uniden T and XT scanner models all of which are programed at 6.25 khz. step bandwidth tuning for high VHF band.

I prefer to use the step bandwidth tuning which insures a correct match on all active STARS frequencies and that tuning step bandwidth is 6.25 khz.

Attached is the STARS trunking table automatically created in Win500 for my PSR600 which is the same for ALL programed STARS divisions. Notice the absence of 7.5 khz. step bandwidth tuning.

John
W4UVV