Uniden X36 Phase II TDMA Voice Decoding Performance Thread

[mikewazowski]

Yes, some of the talk groups are digital but it is a Type II system not a P25 system.

You said "It is a Motorola Type II P25 system" which isn't correct. It's just a Type II system that has some talkgroups with P25 voice.

 

[NYPDAUX]

Like to hear from people using the new BCD436 & 536 HP like to know how reception of your local police and fire frequencies in your county and state especially interested in counties in state using new P25 digital frequency as this is a new technology please include state and county in roll call will appreciate this information buyer on the fence.

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[sf340b]

I am less than 3 miles from Bellaire PD. New to the digital age but I believe this is what you are asking for input on;

Texas Wide Area Radio Network (TxWARN) Project 25 Harris County - Bellaire Talkgroups

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
30550 7756 E Bellaire PD1 Police 1 Law Dispatch

I have the 536 listening in. Not a lot of traffic but dispatch is clear. Units are garbled and unreadable.

 

[doctordave]

I precisely replicated my MD FIRST 700mhz Phase II mobile testing (536HP) in Cecil and Central/Northern portions of Kent County yesterday. Reception was a little better everywhere, without any programming or hardware changes - but it is completely possible that this is reflective of changes in atmospheric conditions. Overall, I saw no truly substantial changes in performance or audio quality. See page 2 of this thread for details of my prior testing, which was done 5 days ago. Overall, reception of FIRST was between very good and excellent in Kent.....but certainly not perfect. Reception in Cecil, along the I-95 corridor was very good and along the Route 213 corridor (heading south from I-95) was mostly good but occasionally very good. It is certainly important to note that the tower build-out is fully completed in Kent but is evidently not yet 100% completed in Cecil (so I'm told). I should note that I didn't have my GRE800 along for side-by-side comparison this time around. As referenced in my previous test report, there really wasn't a huge difference between the 536 and 800 in performance, overall. Sure, there were some reception disparities between the two radios (one way or the other) in certain focal locations - but when the whole geographic test on the Upper Eastern Shore is averaged out, both radios were reasonably comparable on MD FIRST 700.

As I referenced in an earlier post, the 536 does consistently outperform the GRE800 in Baltimore City and Central/Northern Baltimore County on the FIRST 700 Phase II system - and this remains the case in my updated testing today. It is a clear winner in this specific geographic subset.

It is quite difficult to conduct really well controlled trials with these radios on Phase I/II systems, since changing environmental factors play such significant roles in end results. At my home location, I note quite overt variability in decoding success with altered weather patterns. The ice storm some days ago, not surprisingly, considerably degraded my 536's performance on Phase I and Phase II systems. So, in a nutshell, tying to compare results from one point in time to the next is something of an apples to oranges matchup.

 

[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)

Preliminary report: Yesterday acquired a BCD436HP and monitored Camden County, NJ Phase 2 P25 audio much improved over PSR 800. I live in Camden County between 3 towers and while PSR 800 cuts out repeatedly on some transmissions, the 436 remains on them. At most I will hear a little bit of popping in the audio and slight garble, but transmissions still copyable. Using RS 800 portable duck. Additional reports to follow as well as video of side by side comparison of my 436 and PSR 800.

 

[AC2OY]

Very well done Police!!!....Yup I have a 536 on the way. Right now I'm reading as much as I can and hopefully I will be able to program it exactly the way I desire.

 

[KevinC]

Here's a short video of both LSM and Phase 2 TDMA...(keep in mind it's acoustic coupling)

BCD436HP 1A7 - YouTube

Be your own judge. :wink:

 

[Ishmole]

Rockland County Public Safety

I have programed this system as a favorite list, and am unable to receive anything. I have noticed though, that in the data downloaded from Sentinel, it is listed as P25 Standard. Shouldn't it read P25 X2 TDMA? I should mentioned that although I am in a high location, I am about 25 miles north of the system if that is a problem

Mike

 

[BaLa]

I am less than 3 miles from Bellaire PD. New to the digital age but I believe this is what you are asking for input on;

Texas Wide Area Radio Network (TxWARN) Project 25 Harris County - Bellaire Talkgroups

DEC HEX Mode Alpha Tag Description Tag
30550 7756 E Bellaire PD1 Police 1 Law Dispatch

I have the 536 listening in. Not a lot of traffic but dispatch is clear. Units are garbled and unreadable.

The 'E' means they are Encrypted.

 

[leonzo]

From :Loudoun County, VA monitoring TDMA system my PSR-800 works a lot better then the BCD436. I recently had a BCD 396 stolen and that was a lot more sensitive then either the 436 or 800. Overall I am disappointed with the 436 at my monitoring location. It scans slower, takes longer for the audio to open up once stopped and even with changing the decode settings the PSR-800 comes in crystal clear at my location while the 436 has hisses, pops and garbles while showing "zero" error decode rate.

 

[brian86]

I have noticed on the Harris P25 Phase II System in St. Mary's County, MD that sometimes the audio is very loud, sometimes its very low. When the county dispatches the call the alert tone is extremely loud. I have tried the AGC on and off... I am also 1 mile from the California, MD tower and I have to turn the squelch all the way to "0" before the scanner will even lock on and start to decode the system. this $600 scanner def needs some work to be worth the money.

 

[K2KOH]

Out and about today. Rock land Phase II decoding nicely from Yorktown. I must have lucked out and gotten a good radio. I see nothing in the display that says it is P2, unless I missed something c


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[EarlSuitor]

From :Loudoun County, VA monitoring TDMA system my PSR-800 works a lot better then the BCD436. I recently had a BCD 396 stolen and that was a lot more sensitive then either the 436 or 800. Overall I am disappointed with the 436 at my monitoring location. It scans slower, takes longer for the audio to open up once stopped and even with changing the decode settings the PSR-800 comes in crystal clear at my location while the 436 has hisses, pops and garbles while showing "zero" error decode rate.

Yes...... I must agree, I am disappointed with the Loudoun County reception overall. Signal strength is very good, but the decoding is sub optimal. Fire seems better than police for some reason. Often garbled and drops out even in Leesburg. I can sit in Leesburg and get Fairfax CDMA loud & clear, which I could not with the 396. Its not the receiver, it's the way the TDMA is processed. Seems to vary quite a bit. Much worse in the car even with a rooftop antenna. I am hoping for a patch which will improve phase II.

 

[Russell]

Out and about today. Rock land Phase II decoding nicely from Yorktown. I must have lucked out and gotten a good radio. I see nothing in the display that says it is P2, unless I missed something c


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Where it normally says DAT, LNK then P25 it'll say PT0 or PT1 for TDMA talk path.

 

[mikewazowski]

I think you need the 6 line display to see it.

 

[K2KOH]

Where it normally says DAT, LNK then P25 it'll say PT0 or PT1 for TDMA talk path.

Thank you! I caught that PT0 and PT1. Now I know! Never too old to learn!

 

[earlpearl]

I have the 436 and I agree the tdma decoding on loudouns system is lousy and i consistantly hear a popping sound on mainly the police transmissions. i had the lsr 800 and it did an excellent job in decoding tdma. Im very sorry for selling my psr 800 as it outperforms the 436 by a long shot. I will probably buy the whister branded psr 800 when it comes out.

 

[DaveIN]

General question about the pop sound. When watching the display do you see ENC (encryption) for a fraction of a second when you hear the popping sound, or are the talk groups always unencrypted?

 

[earlpearl]

Bcd436hp tdma decoding

These channels are always un encrypted. I do not see an E when these channels are in use.

 

[NYPDAUX]

Is there a hold for when a frequency has traffic you want to just monitor free

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