Uniden BCD436HP not receiving much in Chester county

[maus92]

Do NOT get a Homepatrol II - it's not designed for simulcast.

 

[pwscott]

Do NOT get a Homepatrol II - it's not designed for simulcast.

Thanks for correcting that! I didn't realize. Am just moving back from 5 years in Vermont and catching up on the simulcast aspects. Good call. I'll edit my post in a bit.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

What is your city in Chester County?

Makes no difference aside from East vs West, both simulcast. Entire county uses the same system

 

[tvengr]

Makes no difference aside from East vs West, both simulcast. Entire county uses the same system

It makes a difference as far as the best sites and if the OP is near to an adjacent county.

 

[doc62]

Actually East and Central are on the 800 frequencies and West is 700. Normally in the north end of the county (Central) you don’t hear much West traffic, but during the search for the prisoner escapee, they tied the regions together so you could hear both Central and West on the local towers in the north.

 

[maus92]

Were they actually strapping talk groups, or were radios going into service areas that they normally do not do?

 

[doc62]

I lnow what you’re talking about with the radios not in their normal zones, but I was hearing West dispatchers talking to West units that were in their normal zone. I think they mapped police talk groups to both zones for the search. After the capture it returned to normal. What was weird, at one point we were returning from a car wreck in our rescue and had to stop at a PSP checkpoint.

 

[doc62]

What is your city in Chester County?

Actually in Chester County, the only city is Coatesville. Every thing else is a borough or township.

 

[maus92]

I imagine that @tvengr was trying to get an idea of the poster's monitoring location as he explains in post #24. I usually ask for a nearby major intersection.

 

[doc62]

I figured that. Having spent most of my life in the Baltimore area, i get a kick out of the differences in how states and commonwealths are set up. For example, in Maryland, Baltimore City is its own entity and is not part of any county.

 

[KS2A]

Have to echo what others have said - I just moved from a 436hp to a Unication G4, and it's like night and day monitoring from West Whiteland.

 

[radioman2008]

just a general notice with 436HP scanners. do not transmit RF near their antennas, such as ham or GMRS radios. It can burn up Q2 and Q3 causing the scanner to seem Deaf. ive burned up plenty of these scanners Q2/Q3 before realizing what was happening. that's a lot of 79$ repairs.

 

[Fred1]

I have a 436 and live in the city. I hear every talkgroup. Put your zip in then go from there. I would say it works as good as my SDS 100, 200.

 

[maus92]

I have a 436 and live in the city. I hear every talkgroup. Put your zip in then go from there. I would say it works as good as my SDS 100, 200.

For a non-simulcast optimized radio to work as you describe, you are probably located in an RF sweet spot where one subsite is dominant and building attenuation is working in your favor. Otherwise, your experience would be like the majority of other users whose experience is unsat.

 

[KC3ECJ]

just a general notice with 436HP scanners. do not transmit RF near their antennas, such as ham or GMRS radios. It can burn up Q2 and Q3 causing the scanner to seem Deaf. ive burned up plenty of these scanners Q2/Q3 before realizing what was happening. that's a lot of 79$ repairs.

I have an old RadioShack scanner that apparently was in emergency services use in Ohio that this apparently happened to. Such as it may have been on a patrol car.

 

[KC3ECJ]

I figured that. Having spent most of my life in the Baltimore area, i get a kick out of the differences in how states and commonwealths are set up. For example, in Maryland, Baltimore City is its own entity and is not part of any county.

Philadelphia has a combined city and county government analogous to that.

 

[doc62]

Philadelphia has a combined city and county government analogous to that.

Yeah, but Maryland is identified as having 23 counties and one city. Philadelphia still is in a county albeit the same name. Baltimore is not part of any county. It is stand alone. When I was little, I never realized that was unique.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Yeah, but Maryland is identified as having... one city.

Sure about that?

List of municipalities in Maryland - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[u2brent]

List of counties in Maryland - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

Not all commonwealths are as simple as PA

List of cities and counties in Virginia - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[maus92]

Yeah, but Maryland is identified as having 23 counties and one city. Philadelphia still is in a county albeit the same name. Baltimore is not part of any county. It is stand alone. When I was little, I never realized that was unique.

Baltimore City is functionally (if you can say that, ahem) a county, in that they not only provide services of a city, they also are responsible for schools and other services typically provided by counties. Enough OT, lol.