Virginia State Police

[jrrob8]

is now decoding excellent, went into FL and turned of all the sites except Fort Lewis Mountain which is local. it is id searching and getting it right. Will make further changes as time goes on and will keep up to date as it happens. it is actually doing better than 106, but to be fair, they aren't on exact same ant.

 

[ofd8001]

Always good to hear when things get worked out!

 

[hill2jb]

is now decoding excellent, went into FL and turned of all the sites except Fort Lewis Mountain which is local. it is id searching and getting it right. Will make further changes as time goes on and will keep up to date as it happens. it is actually doing better than 106, but to be fair, they aren't on exact same ant.

You're welcome

 

[jrrob8]

stopped again

 

[jrrob8]

not having any luck getting continuous reception. after many settings and changes it still works for a while and the next thing it doesn't. never has worked unless it is id searching.

 

[John]

STARS not working

I have a friend with the same exact problem with a 536. I just got my 436 today and I can't get it to work on STARS either. I have it in ID Search mode and it shows signal at the top of the display and at the bottom is shows DAT and occasionally LNK but never unmutes for voice transmissions.

I have tried mo own FL, the main database, importing my friends 536 FL. None of them work.

This is where we need to the Trunk Analyze function we were supposed to get with this scanner.

I am extremely disappointed.

Doesn't work and no way to find out what it is doing. I haven't found anything in the documentation on what LNK or DAT means on the display.

It works the same with the original firmware and with the upgraded firmware.

I am picking up STARS fine on GRE products. Just not the new Unidens.

 

[ron36]

stars reply

i have a friend with the same exact problem with a 536. I just got my 436 today and i can't get it to work on stars either. I have it in id search mode and it shows signal at the top of the display and at the bottom is shows dat and occasionally lnk but never unmutes for voice transmissions.

I have tried mo own fl, the main database, importing my friends 536 fl. None of them work.

This is where we need to the trunk analyze function we were supposed to get with this scanner.

I am extremely disappointed.

Doesn't work and no way to find out what it is doing. I haven't found anything in the documentation on what lnk or dat means on the display.

It works the same with the original firmware and with the upgraded firmware.

I am picking up stars fine on gre products. Just not the new unidens.

stars is a digital p25 apco system on radio shack pro 106 setting proframming stars first make sure your freqs for local stars in your iy is correct... South side would be chesapeake . Then should be a setting where you click through trunking system 800/ vhf/ change it to p25auto vsp 49 50 51 52 talk groups . Keep in mind its a digital apco in the wild cards scroll make sure system is in narrow band radio shackpro106 has a yes or no for this vhf stars narrowed for vhf digital frequency...

 

[John]

I am receiving STARS fine on my GRE PSRs which are the same as your 106. It is only the new Unidens that don't seem to work. I am well aware that STARS is a P25 system. I have it programmed in about a dozen radios already.

 

[redburgundy]

I'm in Rockville MD.
On my GRE PSR-500 I'm receiving Culpeper 2 TG 19 and Fairfax 2 TG 67 both OK.
On my 436, holding on Culpeper 2, there is no signal (no bars).
Holding on Fairfax 2 there is no signal.
So I conclude that the 436 sensitivity is pretty poor at 152 MHz.

 

[LIScanner101]

I'm in Rockville MD.
On my GRE PSR-500 I'm receiving Culpeper 2 TG 19 and Fairfax 2 TG 67 both OK.
On my 436, holding on Culpeper 2, there is no signal (no bars).
Holding on Fairfax 2 there is no signal.
So I conclude that the 436 sensitivity is pretty poor at 152 MHz.

Same exact antenna on both scanners?

 

[dhmann1811]

UPMAN (Paul),

Please help or offer some ideas to make this better. Many of us in VA are having issues with STARS. Our GRE's are picking it up just fine.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[redburgundy]

Same exact antenna on both scanners?

No. They have different antenna connectors, so it isn't possible.
Both about 5 to 6 inches long, both stock antennas, nothing special about them.

 

[LIScanner101]

No. They have different antenna connectors, so it isn't possible.
Both about 5 to 6 inches long, both stock antennas, nothing special about them.

Understood. For all practical purposes it could be reasonably said that you have identical antennas. This does appear to show poor sensitivity on this frequency.

Can you do a little test?

Can you scan a bunch of VHF hi frequencies on both scanners? I do a lot of scanning in this band and a weak scanner in this range would not pass muster with me.

 

[freqhopping]

Those of you in Roanoke try this file. Change the extension to .hpd. And rename the number portion so it's in sequence with your other favorites lists.

Copy and paste the text from this f_list file to the end of you f_list.cfg file.
Change the f_000##.hpd filename within that to match that whatever you renamed the .hpd file.

This .hpd file is configured as FL QK=9; System QK=0; Dept QKs 0-20; Site QKs 31-83.

 

[John]

STARS Roanoke

OK, I can't get your instructions to work. First I can't find a f_list.cfg file anywhere on my computer. Where is it supposed to be located?

I tried renaming the other file to HPD extension but Sentinel would not recognize that so I changed it to HPE which is what the software says it will import. When I do I get the following error.

---------------------------
BCDx36HP Sentinel
---------------------------
Importing operation failed.

Reading hpe file was failure.
Extending gz file was failure.
The magic number in GZip header is not correct. Make sure you are passing in a GZip stream.
---------------------------
OK
---------------------------

 

[John]

Disregard the previous post. I was able to find the f_list.cfg file even though Windows file search said it didn't exist. I renumbered it as FL04 and put in in the scanner. It shows up fine in Sentinel but when I try to activate it in the scanner it doesn't work.

When I got to Set Scan Selection List - Select Lists to Monitor it doesn't show up. When I try the FLQK all I get is beeps. Then again I haven't figured out how to get FLQKs to work at all. None of mine will do anything but beep if I just try to type in the FLQK number. I can get SQK to work by using .xx

I tried using a Startup key for your FL and when I do that it comes up and says nothing to scan.

This is the most frustrating scanner I have ever owned though I do it give it credit for having the best performance on LSM so far.

 

[jrrob8]

John, user\j_r\documents\uniden\bcdx36hp\favoritelist\ , didn't know you had found it, every other system works perfect, must be scanner, we can talk if you like, email me

 

[freqhopping]

Can you attach all your FL and .cfg files (f_list and profile) in a .zip? I'll make the necessary tweaks. Then you should just be able to swap files and reload them. Of course, make a copy of all your existing files and set them aside for now.

 

[John]

I found a second occurrence of f_list.cfg under the Undien\BCDx36HP\Profile\Preset folder. It didn't have the new FL you sent in it so I added it there and now it shows on the scanner. It looks like the f_list.cfg in the FavoritesLists folder affects what shows in Sentinel but the one in Profile affects what shows on the scanner?

Anyway, once I added it to the Profile cfg file it is now showing but so far no luck with hearing anything.

Attached are the contents of my FavoritesLists and Profile folders (I left out the HPDB).

 

[freqhopping]

Here are the tweaked files.

Just double check that everything is set to monitor on in the profile before you load them.

All the FLs should be enabled when you turn it on.