436 in NE Tarrant Co.
Well I got the BDC436HD here the other day and all is working pretty well. The last scanner I purchased new was the BC245XLT a long time ago, so this one took a lot of new thinking to figure out
. The scanner operates very well on the conventional frequencies. My main interest is monitoring the Fort Worth Regional Radio System P25 Phase II. NRH, Haltom City, Watauga, Combined Talkgroups.
Having some issues with very choppy distorted decoding. A few of the transmissions come through pretty clear but most are very difficult to understand what they are saying. I have read where some others have had similar issues on other P25 systems. I have tried making a few changes like using the FM mode in the range instead of NFM but I did not see any difference. Setting the squelch very low, etc.
1. Is this choppy distortion caused by Simulcast issues?
2. Would a directional antenna help with this?
3. When I create a favorites list, it includes several sites. A Fort Worth Layer 1 and Fort Worth Layer 2. Do I need both of these or just the Layer 1 site? If I include these additional sites, will that cause more simulcast issues?
4. If Simulcast is not the issue, is there a problem with my 436?
5. I have ready where some have gotten better results by going back to an earlier firmware. Thought I would try this but cannot find this firmware. Is there a new location?
Any ideas are most appreciated.
Possibly, someone in my area has already resolved these issues and you can email me direct?
Thanks,
Randy