Uniden BCD436HP indoors, degraded reception VS. RS Pro106

[NUGEN]

A friend of mine bought a 436 and told me he was disappointed in the performance of the radio indoors compared to his Radioshack Pro-106. Any ideas? Both are using the RS 800mhz antenna. He told me the RS was talking more then the Uniden, both programmed to the same frequencies.

Monitoring Philadelphia's P25 system inside of Phila.

 

[whsbuss]

A friend of mine bought a 436 and told me he was disappointed in the performance of the radio indoors compared to his Radioshack Pro-106. Any ideas? Both are using the RS 800mhz antenna. He told me the RS was talking more then the Uniden, both programmed to the same frequencies.

Monitoring Philadelphia's P25 system inside of Phila.

From a lot of the reports here and some of the videos posted on youtube, the new Unidens seem to miss some of the transmissions, or at least the start of them. Check out the videos. Lets hope Uniden can do a firmware fix.

 

[wise871]

A friend of mine bought a 436 and told me he was disappointed in the performance of the radio indoors compared to his Radioshack Pro-106. Any ideas? Both are using the RS 800mhz antenna. He told me the RS was talking more then the Uniden, both programmed to the same frequencies.

Monitoring Philadelphia's P25 system inside of Phila.

Without knowing additional details such as Service Types, System Monitored, RSSI Readings, Favorites Configuration, etc, etc we have no idea. I know if I have both scanners on my desk, depending where I have them sitting will make a difference.

 

[policefreak]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-us; LG-LS720 Build/JZO54K) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

There are so many things that go into that. For me, Philly comes in quite copyable up to 10 miles outside the city using a 800 rubber duck on my 436. Overall much improvement pn P25 systems. But on EDACS and MOTO it is not much better than the original 396T. A little disappointing there. But from inside the city this coud be the affect of cell site interferece, a bad unit, or maybe just needing to tweak the P25 settings. I also know that the 436/536 can be a bit slow to pick up a transmission. Is that what you mean by "talks more"?

 

[NUGEN]

No he said the radioshack just sounded like it would always talk inside the house regardless of where he had it, but the uniden 436 doesn't talk as frequently.

I'm going to tweak the p25 settings and he just actually told me he was using the stock antenna which could degrade performance indoors.

 

[pratzert]

I have the 436 and 106 and I have had them sitting side by side, and with no rhyme or reason, sometimes the 436 picks up transmissions and the 106 is silent, and sometimes it's the exact opposite.

I can say that sometimes moving one of these scanner even a few inches, can and will make, a difference in reception.

Monitoring this simulcast stuff is SOOOO frustrating.

 

[RF23]

I have the 436 and 106 and I have had them sitting side by side, and with no rhyme or reason, sometimes the 436 picks up transmissions and the 106 is silent, and sometimes it's the exact opposite.

I can say that sometimes moving one of these scanner even a few inches, can and will make, a difference in reception.

Monitoring this simulcast stuff is SOOOO frustrating.

Some have put masking tape on furniture to outline exactly where the scanner must be set. They try to find a place in each room that seems to work the best and mark it.

 

[NUGEN]

Some have put masking tape on furniture to outline exactly where the scanner must be set. They try to find a place in each room that seems to work the best and mark it.

If I have to put masking tape on furniture to mark where I have to put a scanner then we have a problem. I understand that p25 simulcast is very sensitive and literally moving the scanner 1 foot makes a huge difference, however no one should have to go to the extreme to mark out spots with masking tape.... That's just silly ;-)

 

[ratboy]

I had a 436 for a day, a friend bought it and said it seemed to be missing stuff compared to his PRO-197, so he gave it to me to see if it was actually having a problem. It was missing a lot of the beginning of digital transmissions compared to my Pro-106, and it seemed to just miss a lot of digital stuff in general that the 106 was getting. Analog was fine, both in sensitivity and audio quality, but digital stuff seemed to vary an awful lot in volume, and sometimes had a robotic sound to it that the 106 didn't have. For the time being, I'm going to pass on one for myself.

 

[RF23]

If I have to put masking tape on furniture to mark where I have to put a scanner then we have a problem. I understand that p25 simulcast is very sensitive and literally moving the scanner 1 foot makes a huge difference, however no one should have to go to the extreme to mark out spots with masking tape.... That's just silly ;-)

I think I know what you mean but FEAR will cause people to do unusual things. I got the story second hand but this couple apparently lives in a high rise for low income people in the 8th most dangerous city in the U.S. and they are very aware of this.

They barely could afford the radio and carry it from room to room because if they turn it up to loud the neighbors will give them problems.

They did put counter top sticky tape on top of the masking tape to hide it but the bottom line is that they are not listening for entertainment or as a hobby but they are afraid so they do not wish to miss anything.

For most of us however this is a bit over the top;-)

 

[SCPD]

I had a 436 for a day, a friend bought it and said it seemed to be missing stuff compared to his PRO-197, so he gave it to me to see if it was actually having a problem. It was missing a lot of the beginning of digital transmissions compared to my Pro-106, and it seemed to just miss a lot of digital stuff in general that the 106 was getting. Analog was fine, both in sensitivity and audio quality, but digital stuff seemed to vary an awful lot in volume, and sometimes had a robotic sound to it that the 106 didn't have. For the time being, I'm going to pass on one for myself.

It may have something to do as the 436 is scanning through more then the other Scanner.
Unless you have the exactly same programming running that would be the only way to truly test it.

 

[whsbuss]

UPMan are you really listening?

There must be a hundred reports of this digital degradation on both x36 scanners. UPMan listed 5 fixes in the upcoming(?) firmware release. Yet nothing about this most critical issue. I'm not saying the fix is easy, but at least acknowledge all the users having digital reception issues. This has me concerned that its more than a software fix.

UPMan - prove me wrong.

 

[Dafe1er]

I think I know what you mean but FEAR will cause people to do unusual things. I got the story second hand but this couple apparently lives in a high rise for low income people in the 8th most dangerous city in the U.S. and they are very aware of this.

They barely could afford the radio and carry it from room to room because if they turn it up to loud the neighbors will give them problems.

They did put counter top sticky tape on top of the masking tape to hide it but the bottom line is that they are not listening for entertainment or as a hobby but they are afraid so they do not wish to miss anything.

For most of us however this is a bit over the top;-)

Sounds like there are more serious problems if they are NOT listening for entertainment or as a hobby. Funny how they live in public housing and can afford this $500+ toy but do not want to turn it up to loud or the "neighbors will give them problems".. Makes me think Drug Sales. The exact people who DO NOT need a scanner. IMO

 

[NUGEN]

Makes me think Drug Sales. The exact people who DO NOT need a scanner. IMO

In my experience of selling scanners, most people that buy them are older folks, hobbyists, wreck chasers, and public adjuster companies. I can't tell you the last time I sold a scanner to a drug dealer. They complain they're too expensive, go figure. Oh and we know who the dealers are because they stick out like a soar thumb, they're the same guys who come in and buy a new prepaid phone every week.

Not that this belongs in this thread but anyone is entitled to listen to a scanner, it's not illegal in most areas if I recall, it only becomes illegal if they use it in the possession of a crime. Besides most sensitive information like Narcotics groups are encrypted anyway due to the nature of the conversation.

 

[UPMan]

http://forums.radioreference.com/un...6hp-bcd436hp-test-p25-decode-improvement.html