BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Uniden 436 help with simulcast

scannerfreek

Member
Joined
Oct 7, 2005
Messages
51
Location
Yorktown,New York
I'm looking for a list of possible solutions for combating simulcast issues on the 436 that I can try. I've seen posts here about antennas or paper clips etc...
Also how about some settings on the radio itself that I should pay attention to...audio settings or "digital threshold/level"...I dont know how they function...

Thanks in advance..
 

Ubbe

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
9,609
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
The settings for system Hold time and TG Delay can be increased to help the scanner stay on the system when it has problem to decode the signal.

What you have to do are to try and make the scanner see only one single site. For use at home you can have a directional antenna and a variable attenuator 0-20dB and then try and find a direction for the antenna that have the least amount of sites and then attenuate enough to just barely receive one site.

Fot mobile use it might be possible to use a short coax with the attenuator in line and use either the scanners antenna or another one and then again adjust the attenuate level to where it works the best. The thing about the paper clip are that it works like an attenuator as it performs much worse than a proper antenna and reduce the signal to hopefully only receive one site, if the general receive level of the system are strong enough.

/Ubbe
 

Whiskey3JMC

Just another lowly hobbyist
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jul 16, 2006
Messages
7,608
Location
Philly burbs 🇺🇸
Also how about some settings on the radio itself that I should pay attention to...
2.1 Multipath Mitigation for Scanners
Feel free to try everything mentioned in the link above. You may or may not have success depending on your location relative to two or more simulcasting towers. The Uniden SDS100 and SDS200 are much better at mitigating LSM simulcast
 

donc13

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
1,459
Location
Grand Junction, CO
I'm looking for a list of possible solutions for combating simulcast issues on the 436 that I can try. I've seen posts here about antennas or paper clips etc...
Also how about some settings on the radio itself that I should pay attention to...audio settings or "digital threshold/level"...I dont know how they function...

Thanks in advance..
What the others said is correct, but the bottom line is the 436 wasn't designed with Simulcast reception in mind. The fact is, Simulcast means more than 1 tower(s) that can be miles apart are broadcasting identical Rd and depending on the venue (rural, city, large city, terrain, etc.) distortion.

The 2 SDS receivers are designed to handle Simulcast specifically. They aren't perfect, but do a far better job than the earlier uniden models.

Just my opinion from other postings. I have an SDS200 and use it in my RV and personally have never had an issue, but then I only listen mostly while I am driving and only "listen" for traffic incidents on my route. At home, we have no Simulcast systems.
 

ofd8001

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 6, 2004
Messages
8,055
Location
Louisville, KY
Set site Attenuator On

You can tinker with the Threshold Mode from Auto to Manual and then the Threshold level to different values. This takes a lot of time and patience along with trial and error. Every system/site/scanner is different. The settings I used for one system were different than my neighbors, it is that unique.

I cannot completely explain the ins and outs of the treshold level and mode. I believe it has to do with the scanner trying to fix the error rate. In Auto, it keeps adjusting itself to the point where it's never happy but keeps trying. Manual allows you to set a starting point and the scanner will not try to adjust itself. Again I'm not positive on how this works.
 

Ubbe

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2006
Messages
9,609
Location
Stockholm, Sweden
I'm not positive on how this works.
The audio signal are a soundwave and if that swings between 0 volt and 5 volt then the middle are at 2,5v. The threshold are at what peak levels the digital decoder looks at in that signal. You will see the levels when doing Fn+vol+Fn+vol as well as the bit errors. At a setting of 5 it looks at a signal at something like 2 volt and 3 volt for the negative and positive peak of the soundwave and will decode almost anything but with the risk of getting a lot of errors.

At a 13 setting it is more wide and looks at just the bottom and top edges of the audio at something like 1 volt and 4 volt but needs the audio signal to really reach those levels and that can be different for different systems.

If there are noise in the signal due to weak reception it will add to the signal and make it more difficult to decode.

I would suggest to always start a manual setting at 5 as that will always decode and start increasing the setting until the errors starts to increase and then back down one step. If going too high, or if the Auto setting tunes too high, it can stop completely to decode if the systems audio signal are not strong enough, and in Auto it means it will never decode again as it saves its last setting for that channel for the next scan cycle and it never resets.

In the below picture the optimum setting would be to have the level set to the 10v and 14v to catch the whole signal. If the setting where at 9v an 15v it would miss halv of the data and not decode at all. At a setting around the middle at 12v the distance between when the signal goes positive and when it goes negative are larger than at a 14v setting that makes the timing closer to be out of tolerance and make it more prone to errors and any noise in the signal could also make it detect the positive and negative signal to be detected even more outside its tolerances.

ECE_SHP_Figure01_v01_ShitoshnaNepal.jpg


/Ubbe
 
Top