I am in Jackson County, Ms. I have an uniden Home Patrol 2 and a BCD996p2. A couple of weeks ago the first responders replaced their radios, and now I am unable to hear anything. I programmed a couple of days ago using Proscan and Radio Reference. Do these scanners not do true phase 2?
As
jt & others have mentioned, your problems are most likely due to simulcast distortion. See this
Wiki article on what that is.
An alternative is to get a shorter antenna.....
That's one alternative. A shorter antenna, such as
this one. has very poor receiving capability. But, when dealing with a simulcast issue, "less" may be what you need, so that the only usable signal your scanner gets is from the closest, or strongest, site. You can also try using simply a
paper clip. That's a lousy antenna if you were trying to get more distant sites, but that poor performance, in some cases, calms down the simulcast problems enough to allow the scanner to work. You might, still, not get everything, but it may improve things enough so that your HP-2 or 996P2 is usable on the simulcast site.
If possible, you might try taking your scanner to the fringe area of coverage. That may help rule in or out simulcast. Being at the fringe means you are only receiving one site versus multiple sites.
Either going to a fringe area of the system, or very close to a single sun-site tower, can help confirm the simulcast problems. In the fringe area, you may get a usable signal from only one transmit site, allowing the scanner to work. Or, being very close to a single site, that very strong signal may wash out the conflicting signals from other sub-sites in the simulcast.
Here is a map of the transmit towers (sub-sites) used on the system:
If you look at the licenses for the site,
WNSS282 and
WQMR657, you can see the addresses for the various sub-site locations. Another possibility is to use a directoinal antenna, such as a Yagi, aimed at one specific tower, preferably one that is the 'farthest' direction away from one or more of the other sites. That might not necessarily be the closest, but if you were in position to aim at, say, the one farthest north, the other sites are not next to' or 'behind' it, so that the primary signal your scanner sees is from the one location. The other sites' signals may be too weak to confuse' the scanner so that you can hear it. The downside of a directional antenna, is that you probably lose reception on other systems that are in a different direction. Using a "poor" antenna, such as a paper clip, could also lose one or more of other, neighboring, systems.
Whistler scanners are even worse with simulcast. Harris P25 Phase 2 simulcast systems are the most difficult to receive. The Uniden SDS100/SDS200 scanners and Unication G4/G5 pagers are the only radios which will handle it.
My PSR500, which is the original version of what Whistler now sells as the WS1040, is pretty much useless here in town (Dallas). Between simulcast sites, and a forest of cell sites, it is a poor performer.
Jackson Co. I'm on the coast all the time I have HP II and it works fine. You should be able to monitor EMS
Location is the key. If you are at a spot where something, such as hills, clusters of taller buildings, or something within your house, such as foil backed insulation in the walls, or perhaps something metallic 'on the other side of the wall; (like a refrigerator) that blocked signals from other sites, or reduced their strength enough that the scanner ignored the spurious signals.
Location is critical enough that, sometimes, a move, within your house, of a few feet in one direction or another, makes all the difference between hearing the system, or losing it to simulcast.
Dallas (city & county) moved to a
regional trunked system, which is simulcast. I've found ways to still use some of my older scanners to monitor the system. My 325P2 has one of the Diamond antennas,
RH77CA, on it. That antenna is tailored for Vhf & Uhf signals. It works on stronger 700/800MHz channels, but not as well. I have it on the 325P2, but with the scanner laid flat (not vertically) on my computer desk. One of my 436HPs has the same antenna, also laid flat. Comparing the reception logs, in ProScan, of these two scanners versus my SDS200 (all three linked to ProScan for logging), I am getting a fairly high percentage of receptions on these scanners on the simulcast. Not 100% of what the SDS200 gets, but in the 70 to 80% range; enough to be useful.
My HP-2, which is in my bedroom, has a 90 degree BNC elbow connected to the scanner's SMA to BNC adapter. The antenna used on it is an old OEM antenna from one of my oldest scanners (before 700 & 800MHz systems became common). That antenna is also paced 'flat', parallel to the desktop. I'm getting probably 60% of what I see on my SDS100, a few feet away. The HP-2 also has some of the few remaining conventional channels still in use in my area. My other 436HP also has an older OEM antenna, salvaged from the junk drawer. It gets a higher percentage of hits, likely 70 to 80%, but is not connected to a PC for logging. It also has some of the other 700/800MHz systems, as well as a DMR trunked system, loaded. Note that my house does have aluminum siding, which also does help restrict some pf the conflicting signals.
Other than purchasing a new antenna, either a shorty 'race' antenna, or directional, the other suggestions will only cost you a little of your time to try. Don't overlook moving either of these scanners to slightly different locations in the house, and see if that helps. Someone in my county found that moving his scanner only about a foot made all the difference between receiving, or losing, the system.
forums.radioreference.com
