Yes the inside part of the battery case lid that faces the batteries. My testing is mostly on analog UHF as my county probably has a hundred or so freqs. The P25 UHF I have in my area is also improved, but the P25 is a very small sample size. As there is just not much of it around here.
BCD436HP/BCD536HP: UHF Reception Issues due to Noise from Battery Compartment
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troymail
Silent Key
Curious to hear others results....UHF on mine is definitely terrible. I'm considering this:
https://www.amazon.com/Tapes-Master-10ft-Copper-Foil/dp/B00Z8MCK6M
Certainly cheaper than giving Uniden even more of my money....
https://www.amazon.com/Tapes-Master-10ft-Copper-Foil/dp/B00Z8MCK6M
Certainly cheaper than giving Uniden even more of my money....
I would love to hear your results. I certainly will buy another type of tape if it works even better. If you do not see any improvement with the tape you buy. I could send you a piece of mine. I have a fairly large roll and you only need about 3 or 4 inches to do the job. I have been able to test this on 4 radios. One was from the original shipment of radios and one that was about one year newer and the third was just received. The fourth radio I cannot determine when that one was purchased. The results were the same of every radio. A major improvement on UHF. I would say it is about 90% of the reception of the 396XT now.
troymail
Silent Key
Tape is ordered -- I guess I'll know more by Thursday...
gonefishn1
Member
Product used:
3M™ EMI Copper Foil Shielding Tape 1181
I removed the foam block, applied tape in two pieces (.5" width) and burnished with q-tip then trimmed with razor knife. Easy enough to do and came out about as well as I could expect.
Not really done any test/comparison yet. UHF has not been a problem, but thought I would give it a try and see if any improvement.
I will report back in a few days.
Mike
3M™ EMI Copper Foil Shielding Tape 1181
I removed the foam block, applied tape in two pieces (.5" width) and burnished with q-tip then trimmed with razor knife. Easy enough to do and came out about as well as I could expect.
Not really done any test/comparison yet. UHF has not been a problem, but thought I would give it a try and see if any improvement.
I will report back in a few days.
Mike
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Has anyone tried putting tape on the other side of the batteries, between them and the SD card slot? I'm wondering if that makes a difference.
gonefishn1
Member
Looks Purdy!!!
D
darunimal
Guest
mcscanner Nice clean job, exactly what I was thinking. Good question Jay911 hope to see that answered soon.
I did a quick measurement with my spectrum analyzer. Around the middle battery the noise floor will rise about 20 dB in the UHF range (it might in other areas also, but I didn't test elsewhere).
You can actually watch the radio power up/down as the noise floor will rise before the "on" beep and stay elevated after the "off" beep.
I didn't test any shielding, so I can't comment on that.
You can actually watch the radio power up/down as the noise floor will rise before the "on" beep and stay elevated after the "off" beep.
I didn't test any shielding, so I can't comment on that.
D
darunimal
Guest
Time to try it, just on the top side, of the side card. In Fact a Dime covers the SD card slot, but then I just tried a Penny crushed a little with a 3lb sledge against concrete and it works perfectly> I don't have a sniffer so you'll have to check it out Kevin C, and the batteries & door do go own without a hassle
Attachments
We use the liquid (non aerosol) version of this extensively at work. I will take my radio in to work tomorrow and give it a treatment and post my results.
I do monitor a decent amount of UHF including a P25 UHF system and have noticed some "noise". Worth a shot, a replacement cover cost a few bucks....
One disclaimer about this, we generally apply this under a fume hood so for a at-home application a respirator is a must.
Anne-britt
I thought I did answer this, but I did do that during my tests and actually found things to be worse. Somebody else can surely give it ago and see what they find.
jeffm77
Member
I just tried putting a copper shield between the SD card and the batteries. Still the same interference noise. I will have to try the copper tape on the inside of the battery door.
Could you measure VHF and 800 also? I think we all agree the radio is great on 800, but it would be nice to see how much noise is in the VHF band.
I started my experiment by just shielding the SD card without any luck. I would still like to see what you find.
Sorry - if you said it I missed it. I was thinking, with the observations I made about when external power is applied to the radio, that charging the batteries might be what's causing (at least some of) the interference.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around how shielding the batteries from the outside world helps things. Maybe the whole battery compartment is "unshielded" and either the internal energy of the radio is leaking out, or "bad" energy is leaking in?
Let us know what you find. When I did mine going under the foam I still had a fair amount of noise. Going over the foam was the real deal. In fact I have a spare cover without foam and did not get the same positive results with that cover. You have the right tape so it should work better than my tape. Just find a UHF analog signal that is not full quieting and listen to the noise increase when you remove the cover during a transmission.
I do not charge my batteries in the radio so I do not know about that. I am not an engineer and have no technical explanation but I know it works for me. I agree to me it is very strange. I think someone on here with some electronic background is going to find the real answer/source. The SA test with a 20db increase in noise floor at the middle battery is a start.
jeffm77
Member
You would think that if enough people complained to Uniden about the problem, they would fix it. I mean, this radio is not cheap and it deserves to be fixed and should be fixed.
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