Uniden 296d and Philly Astro System help?

[dd45acp]

Hello everyone,

I am having quite a problem getting my BC296d to scan philly'sAstro system. All I get is static and machine gun sounds with occasional broken speech. It cycles through Activity ID's and Talkgroups but does not seem to be decoding the audio properly.

I currently have my Scanner programmed as follows:
Bank 2
in channel order from 101:
866.5375
866.3375
866.5875
866.6875
866.7875
866.8125
867.1125
867.3500
867.8125
867.8375
867.9375
868.3125
868.3375
868.5375
868.5625
866.1000

Trunk info is set to Mot. Type2/APCO25 800MHZ.
Activity D - on
I-Call - on
Trunk Bank - on
CC Only Off
S-bit on
end of tone detect

any ideas on what I am doing wrong?

The Radio scans Montco and Bucks fine, as well as Deleware.

Any help would be appreaciated

Thanks.

 

[scannerfreak]

Have you tried adjusting your sound quality? Page 56 of the users manual.



To program an APCO 25 system, follow the steps in the
appropriate section for conventional or Motorola Trunking.
APCO 25 systems require only 1 additional setting: Sound
Quality.

Setting APCO 25 Sound Quality

Each APCO 25 system has slightly different system settings
that control how the audio is digitized. To get the best sound
quality, you need to match as closely as possible the system’s
settings.

To adjust the sound quality:
1. While monitoring a specific APCO P-25 talkgroup, press
the HOLD/MAN key.

2. Press and hold the 9 key. On Line 1 of the screen you will
see SOUND QULTY: 0050 (for example). This shows
the Sound Quality. The lower the level the better the
Sound Quality.

3. To manually set the sound quality, rotate the scroll bar up
or down. As the threshold adjusts in increments of 100 at
the bottom of the screen watch the Sound Quality level
increase or decrease and continue to rotate the scroll bar
until you have achieved the best Sound Quality level.

Notes: • When APCO P-25 signal is not received, SOUND
QULTY: **** appears on the display.

• You must be receiving an APCO P-25 signal to
make this adjustment

A chart showing the Threshold Adjustment Range is listed
below.

4. Once you have adjusted the Sound Quality to the best
possible level, press E.

Press RSM to exit the Sound Quality Adjustment Mode.

Lower Mid Upper

Band Min Default Max Default Min Default Max
800MHz 33 533 1833 1985 2042 3342 3842
UHF 33 633 1833 1985 2042 3342 3842
VHF 330 930 2130 2147 2264 3464

 

[osiris]

YOU'RE PROBABLY TOO FAR FROM PHILLY TO GET MUCH, BUT TRY THIS.
PROGRAM IN 868.8125 AS THE CC FREQ.- TURN CC ONLY ON AND IT SHOULD WORK. I ONLY GET PHILLY PARTIALLY AFTER RT 413 AND RT 1
INTERSECTION. WHAT PART OF LEVITTOWN ARE YOU IN?
BOB FINDLAY

 

[dd45acp]

I live quite a ways from the city line, but I work all throughout eastern PA, NJ and DE. I can be at Red lion and the Blvd or Broad and Market, makes no differance. I will try the audio quality adjustment when I next head into the city. Hopefully that works.

Is kind of funny actually, It was working ok, then all the sudden one morning at about 6am nothing at all.

 

[PhilaPoliceRadio]

I am quite sure it is the audio quality setting. Set your audio quality to the MID 833 -- and you'll be fine. If the threshold isn't right, it will not decode.

Also a tip, turn your radio on Control Channel Only mode. Just go to Menu/Back, then press 2, then select the back you have Philly programmed in, and then scroll to the menu selection CTRL ONLY and select Plan 1. With control channel only mode, you only have to program in the control channels, and makes it easier if don't have a required frequency programmed.