Hello there, I recently purchased a Uniden BCT15X to listen to conventional analog systems in my area, I have an SDS 200 for Digital systems also. I like to listen to several Solano County based departments which is roughly 35-40 miles from my home. My scanners share a Discone antenna on my roof using a passive multicoupler. My issue is when Solano County Fire Tones out I get a tremendous amount of what I call distortion in the speaker I have turned the Attenuator on and that prevented me from hearing this Frequency(I couldn't pick it up when there was any traffic on this frequency.) I can pick up the talk group via Simulcast on the SDS 200 but the frequency comes in better on an analog scanner. I've read this distortion will damage my scanner over time ? Has anyone else had this issue with the BCT15X or any other scanner ? If so could someone possibly point me in the right direction to correct this issue, I would greatly appreciate any help Thank You
BCT15X: Uniden BCT15X Distortion issue
- Thread starter Lawed
- Start date
Ubbe
Member
No damage from distorted audio, it just sounds bad. The default for the 155MHz band, if that are what are used, are NFM mode so try setting it to FM as tone-out uses the full modulation level. Also try to set IFX, Function+4, to that frequency if that could reduce the distorsion.
The older BCT-15 without X have a user configurable AGC for attack-decay-level but I don't know if adjustments can be done to AGC on the X model. Tweaking the audio, agc settings on the bct15
/Ubbe
The older BCT-15 without X have a user configurable AGC for attack-decay-level but I don't know if adjustments can be done to AGC on the X model. Tweaking the audio, agc settings on the bct15
/Ubbe
N6JPA
A Ham Radio Operator With too much frequency.
The tone out may be broadcast on simulcast towers/hills. We have that here in SLO county on the dispatch fire channel. Sometimes the propagation or line of sight causes the reception to be distorted. It won't harm your radio scanner to listen to it.
First, be sure to set the Modulation to NFM in the Set Frequency section of Fire Tone Setup. If it is set to wider versions of FM it could cause distortion as well as missed tone decodes.
Second, set up the SDS200 to the same fire tone decode parameters and see if the distortion is present there, if so then there might be something else happening.
Third, try just monitoring the frequency in Scan or Quick Search to see if the distortion is present there.
Second, set up the SDS200 to the same fire tone decode parameters and see if the distortion is present there, if so then there might be something else happening.
Third, try just monitoring the frequency in Scan or Quick Search to see if the distortion is present there.
It’s also possible that the audio input level on the conventional side may be set way too high at the dispatch end. We’ve got that problem here when techs get the audio set to a comfortable level on the trunking side but get lazy and ignore the conventional side.
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I switched the Modulation from NFM to FM , so now I'm waiting for a Tone out to see what happens, I will let you know if its corrected anything. I do notice on my SDS 200 when that talk group keys up it will show NFM on the screen so ? Thank you for your help , I will let you know how it works out. Thank You
