I was able to bring in your list. Interestingly most of the sites have no frequencies listed. Only a couple do. So I suspect those are the sites you use.
Virginia State Police
- Thread starter jrrob8
- Start date
- Status
John,
I know I'm 1500 miles away and can't help much, but has anyone run Unitrunker/PRO96Com on the system lately to see if it's actually broadcasting the bandplan? If this has been asked/answered I apologize.
Yes, I have been running Pro96Com 24/7 for years on this site and it is showing everything. Also don't forget it is working fine on multiple other scanners to include Uniden 996, GRE PSR-500/600 and PRO-2096.
John
John
Sounds good.
JamesO
Member
Partial update on STARS and the 536HP.
Have not spent a lot of time on this.
Moved the 536HP to where my PRO2096 was set up and working reasonably well on STARS. Connected the same extendable whip antenna and the 536HP is locking on to the STARS network and picking up some traffic.
I set the unit to record because I was not in that room from most of the day.
When back and found about 60 recordings.
Went to review them and they were almost all choppy and missing parts of the conversation.
I am rerunning the test, but I need to play around with the antenna and try to get the error rate as low as possible.
I also need to record some systems that work and make sure the recording is really working as expected.
At least for my location STARS is very multipath prone. Sweet spot, move 12 inches, different story.
So I will have to try an get my attic antenna back up and running and see what happens.
I am generally in a bad area for starts from what I can tell.
Not sure if STARS is simulcasting, using co phased antennas or if I have adjacent channel interference?
Once I have the 535HP stable on STARS with better antenna, I compare to my PRO96, PRO2096 or 396XT.
Have not spent a lot of time on this.
Moved the 536HP to where my PRO2096 was set up and working reasonably well on STARS. Connected the same extendable whip antenna and the 536HP is locking on to the STARS network and picking up some traffic.
I set the unit to record because I was not in that room from most of the day.
When back and found about 60 recordings.
Went to review them and they were almost all choppy and missing parts of the conversation.
I am rerunning the test, but I need to play around with the antenna and try to get the error rate as low as possible.
I also need to record some systems that work and make sure the recording is really working as expected.
At least for my location STARS is very multipath prone. Sweet spot, move 12 inches, different story.
So I will have to try an get my attic antenna back up and running and see what happens.
I am generally in a bad area for starts from what I can tell.
Not sure if STARS is simulcasting, using co phased antennas or if I have adjacent channel interference?
Once I have the 535HP stable on STARS with better antenna, I compare to my PRO96, PRO2096 or 396XT.
STARS is not simulcast. Around here reception is pretty much a guaranteed thing. I can pickup STARS with my GREs using just about any antenna and in just about any place.
John
John
For what it is worth, I ran the 436 in Trunked Discovery mode and it followed along the Pro-106 perfectly. Only problem is, you have no audio on Discovery mode.
James, In McLean you should be getting at least the Fairfax tower site clearly, going to the mountain sites might be your problem.
JK
JamesO
Member
I have not put a lot of time in on VSP STARS yet.
Have it up and running on my 536HP and my 396HP.
Where I am located, I need to get my attic antenna back up and working, have a construction project that is delaying this at the moment. I am not far from the CIA, but a bit low in elevation, seems that the STARS beam pattern dies out very quickly in my location.
I was out near Fairfax Circle today with the 396XT and my 800 MHz Radio Shack rubber duck and STARS was booming in. Forgot I even had the bank turned on and was surprised how strong STARS was.
It just seems with the lower frequency trunked data channels you have a lot of nulls that are very long as compared to 800 MHz. Just think about listening to FM broadcast radio in the car, you stop at a traffic light, the station fades out, you roll about 3 feet forward and the station comes back fine.
I think this is the same issue with 160 MHz trunked systems, if you do not have a booming in signal, you have weak spots every 2-3 feet and then the control channel error rate skyrockets. I can watch where the scanner will not even lock onto the control channel in the house, raise the scanner up about 2 feet or move 2-4 feet and the control channel will reacquire.
So this is something anyone in a "fringe" STARS area needs to understand.
Same way I cannot pick up George Mason University Police here at the house, but if I drive about 2 miles closer to GMU, I can pick it up, again, I am on the fringe of some of these site. I use GMU Police as my benchmark for antenna placement, if I can pick them up, I have pretty good coverage toward the center of the county.
I have an interesting triplexter where I can combine 3 frequency specific antennas and I have a few LNA's that I may play with as well on one or 2 the bands I am dealing with, but again, this will have to wait about 5-6 weeks.
800 MHz nulls are a lot closer together due to the operational frequency and 800 MHz usually has better penetration as well inside dwellings.
I have a similar issue with my cell phone as I am on the fringe from the cell tower as well. I can sit on the couch, phone will never ring, you can leave a voice message or send a text, the data will come through, but not the voice call.
Finally got fed up and snagged a Femtocell cell phone extender on ebay for a reasonable price that connects to my home network. Now I get great coverage in the house and around the house, no more dropped calls, missed call and my phone does not much batteries while at home trying to stay connected to the cell site.
Around here with the mountain top sites STARS is generally easy to pickup. However me and several others still can't get the 436 or 536 to decode anything even though it is showing full strength. All my other scanners in the same locations pick up STARS just fine.
It looks like Uniden is planning on addressing this issue.
John
It looks like Uniden is planning on addressing this issue.
John
JamesO
Member
I will try my 536HP on STARS and see what happens and I will update the thread.
jrrob8
Member
for those who have waited see the new sticky at the top of the page.
Sticky at top of what page?
I've determined that I can hear Independent Hill, Fork Mt., Apple Orchard, Mt WX, Hogback, Dumphries and FX, with FX the weakest with 3 bars, the rest are 5 bars. I'm in western Fauquier County. I'm just wondering if I should be scanning all those sites, I've deleted the rest? I hear a lot of Culpeper and a little FX and there's always something going on, maybe every 3-5 minutes. No trouble decoding P25 here with the 996XT.
There's a lot more action on the Fauquier 800 channels.
I've determined that I can hear Independent Hill, Fork Mt., Apple Orchard, Mt WX, Hogback, Dumphries and FX, with FX the weakest with 3 bars, the rest are 5 bars. I'm in western Fauquier County. I'm just wondering if I should be scanning all those sites, I've deleted the rest? I hear a lot of Culpeper and a little FX and there's always something going on, maybe every 3-5 minutes. No trouble decoding P25 here with the 996XT.
There's a lot more action on the Fauquier 800 channels.
Dafe1er
Member
Click the link below:
http://forums.radioreference.com/un...6hp-bcd436hp-test-p25-decode-improvement.html
This is also for the NEW x36 units not the older scanners. FYI.
- Joined
- Jul 1, 2009
- Messages
- 337
For me this change had no effect on my inability to receive STARS.
On my PSR-500, I can receive the Fairfax 2 and Culpepper 2 talk groups.
Culp 2 and FFX 2 always come up on 152.7275 MHz.
Even when I program that into the 436 as a conventional P25 channel, I get nothing--no bars, no reception.
On my PSR-500, I can receive the Fairfax 2 and Culpepper 2 talk groups.
Culp 2 and FFX 2 always come up on 152.7275 MHz.
Even when I program that into the 436 as a conventional P25 channel, I get nothing--no bars, no reception.
LIScanner101
Completely Banned for the Greater Good
That's great but please post these results so Uniden can track. UPMan has a format he would like.
Have you checked you have the appropriate service groups turned on?
Last edited:
JamesO
Member
Here is the real short story on my situation.
STARS at my home is really spotty. I live a few miles from the CIA in McLean, VA and I have STARS programmed into my 396XT, 996XT and my 546HP. So far I only focus on the Fairfax STARS transmitter, although Arlington may be an option as I am only about 3-4 miles from the Arlington County line as the crow flies. Forget any other site at this moment.
996XT is actually using a LNA on front end of the radio with multiband whip at the moment. The LNA helps a lot with overall receiption, I can get 2 of the NOAA Weather broadcast stations full quieting and gives me full bars on my local 800 MHz trunked systems. Without the LNA and the indoor antenna I can barely get more than 1 bar on my local 800 MHz trunked system. Again, not ideal, but I have some things holding up getting my attic antenna back in service, although I will likely use a LNA or mutiples LNA's on my attic antenna. Again this is my 996XT, I pretty much do not receive STARS in the core of the house.
My 396XT can decode the STARS control channel inside and outside the house, but antenna choice and location inside or outside the house is critical. I cannot hear much or decode the Fairfax STARS transmitter until I am about 5 miles from my house over near Tysons Corner. I happened to have my 396XT in the car near Fairfax Circle the other day with my 800 MHz radio Shack Antenna on the radio and STARS was BOOMING in. Not 100% sure where the STARS Fairfax transmitter site is, but it is likely closer to the center of Fairfax and in Fairfax Circle I am about 10 miles closer than at home.
My 536HP is in the bedroom right next to a window, currently I have the extendable whip fully raised on the scanner. I do not spend a lot of time lately next to the scanner in the bedroom, however, I did set up the 536HP to record and only was scanning STARS on the Fairfax transmitter side, only VA State Police and only had a smaller number of Talk Groups programmed. The other day, over about 12 hour period I think I had maybe 90 recorded hits??
I went back and review most of the recordings and overall the quality was pretty good, but the number of hits for the time table seemed low?
I have yet to compare side by side to my 396T which does a pretty good jobs when I can manage to get a strong signal.
But I have also had issues with the 536HP non responsive keypad, meaning pushing the keys and the scanner can take seconds to respond to key touches. I am also monitoring Montgomery County 800 MHz trunked Fire & Police with full bars from my location, however, many times the scanner stops and displays TG ID's but no traffic is heard. I have full RX bars on the system, but it is like the squelch fails to unmute or open. I have been looking at the error rate for Montgomery County 800 trunked system and it is many times as high as 50-60% even with full receive bars. I have changed the bandwidth for the 800 MHz systems and did not see any real improvement with Montgomery County, however, Fairfax 800 MHz seems to work pretty well in the same location even with fewer RX bars displayed.
All I can say is with the 536HP, there must be a firmware solution for some of the problems, otherwise this radio is going back or being sold. This on top of the headphone audio and some other things is not making sense. I can only play with so many settings, but I am not seeing consistent performance across the board YET. It seems for some reason the 536HP is missing traffic, not consistently opening the squelch and with some issues has high recovered error rates on systems with solid RF signals.
So here is what I have found with STARS and 150-160 MHz and digital transmissions.
1. I have not changed the bandwidth yet for the 150-160 MHz window, but this did NOTHING to improve my 800 MHz systems. I have to try this and see what happens.
2. STARS or any lower frequency system that is digital can be a real chore to decode consistently on the fringe areas due to the frequency and nulls that occur every 3-4 feet.
3. I find you need at least 3 solid RF bars to be able to reliably decode STARS in my area.
4. I have to compare the 800 MHz VSP patch on Fairfax to see if I am actually missing traffic, I have not had a chance to do this yet due to my schedule.
5. I will try the different RF bandwidth on the 536HP, but this should not be an issue that we as users should have to do. IF filtering should have a 3 dB bandwidth and I would hope this was set properly. Also frequency stability should be tight enough that the IF bandwidth is a non issue. Not sure of the RF design of these radios, are they "0" IF radios like the Software Defined Radios or are they more old school designed systems with 2 down mixed IF stages?
All of this along with the steep learning curve on the 536HP have been a bit of a challenge. Not totally turned off on the 536HP yet, but it is testing my resolve at the moment. The issue of the key presses being delayed, what appears to be issues with Favorite List enabling and disabling (but this may be pilot) error as I have to jump between my 396/996 and the 536 so it my be my issue, the issues with the Montgomery County 800 MHz system not opening the squelch. I am not sure where to start and what to focus on.
Yes I need to get my attic antenna sorted as well, but it seems I get good reception with my 996XT in the core of the house with my LNA but the 536HP at the window is still suffering.
Lots going on here, not sure if the STARS issue is related to the Montgomery County issue with the squelch not opening. This issue with recording on the 536HP, is I assume I will only have recorded hits if the squelch opens, so if I have unattended recording, I have no way of knowing if I am missing STARS traffic based solely on recordings.
I will continue to forge forward, however, the next week I will have limited experimental time with the 536HP, maybe in March I can spend more time on comparing the 536HP performance to the x96 radios.
STARS at my home is really spotty. I live a few miles from the CIA in McLean, VA and I have STARS programmed into my 396XT, 996XT and my 546HP. So far I only focus on the Fairfax STARS transmitter, although Arlington may be an option as I am only about 3-4 miles from the Arlington County line as the crow flies. Forget any other site at this moment.
996XT is actually using a LNA on front end of the radio with multiband whip at the moment. The LNA helps a lot with overall receiption, I can get 2 of the NOAA Weather broadcast stations full quieting and gives me full bars on my local 800 MHz trunked systems. Without the LNA and the indoor antenna I can barely get more than 1 bar on my local 800 MHz trunked system. Again, not ideal, but I have some things holding up getting my attic antenna back in service, although I will likely use a LNA or mutiples LNA's on my attic antenna. Again this is my 996XT, I pretty much do not receive STARS in the core of the house.
My 396XT can decode the STARS control channel inside and outside the house, but antenna choice and location inside or outside the house is critical. I cannot hear much or decode the Fairfax STARS transmitter until I am about 5 miles from my house over near Tysons Corner. I happened to have my 396XT in the car near Fairfax Circle the other day with my 800 MHz radio Shack Antenna on the radio and STARS was BOOMING in. Not 100% sure where the STARS Fairfax transmitter site is, but it is likely closer to the center of Fairfax and in Fairfax Circle I am about 10 miles closer than at home.
My 536HP is in the bedroom right next to a window, currently I have the extendable whip fully raised on the scanner. I do not spend a lot of time lately next to the scanner in the bedroom, however, I did set up the 536HP to record and only was scanning STARS on the Fairfax transmitter side, only VA State Police and only had a smaller number of Talk Groups programmed. The other day, over about 12 hour period I think I had maybe 90 recorded hits??
I went back and review most of the recordings and overall the quality was pretty good, but the number of hits for the time table seemed low?
I have yet to compare side by side to my 396T which does a pretty good jobs when I can manage to get a strong signal.
But I have also had issues with the 536HP non responsive keypad, meaning pushing the keys and the scanner can take seconds to respond to key touches. I am also monitoring Montgomery County 800 MHz trunked Fire & Police with full bars from my location, however, many times the scanner stops and displays TG ID's but no traffic is heard. I have full RX bars on the system, but it is like the squelch fails to unmute or open. I have been looking at the error rate for Montgomery County 800 trunked system and it is many times as high as 50-60% even with full receive bars. I have changed the bandwidth for the 800 MHz systems and did not see any real improvement with Montgomery County, however, Fairfax 800 MHz seems to work pretty well in the same location even with fewer RX bars displayed.
All I can say is with the 536HP, there must be a firmware solution for some of the problems, otherwise this radio is going back or being sold. This on top of the headphone audio and some other things is not making sense. I can only play with so many settings, but I am not seeing consistent performance across the board YET. It seems for some reason the 536HP is missing traffic, not consistently opening the squelch and with some issues has high recovered error rates on systems with solid RF signals.
So here is what I have found with STARS and 150-160 MHz and digital transmissions.
1. I have not changed the bandwidth yet for the 150-160 MHz window, but this did NOTHING to improve my 800 MHz systems. I have to try this and see what happens.
2. STARS or any lower frequency system that is digital can be a real chore to decode consistently on the fringe areas due to the frequency and nulls that occur every 3-4 feet.
3. I find you need at least 3 solid RF bars to be able to reliably decode STARS in my area.
4. I have to compare the 800 MHz VSP patch on Fairfax to see if I am actually missing traffic, I have not had a chance to do this yet due to my schedule.
5. I will try the different RF bandwidth on the 536HP, but this should not be an issue that we as users should have to do. IF filtering should have a 3 dB bandwidth and I would hope this was set properly. Also frequency stability should be tight enough that the IF bandwidth is a non issue. Not sure of the RF design of these radios, are they "0" IF radios like the Software Defined Radios or are they more old school designed systems with 2 down mixed IF stages?
All of this along with the steep learning curve on the 536HP have been a bit of a challenge. Not totally turned off on the 536HP yet, but it is testing my resolve at the moment. The issue of the key presses being delayed, what appears to be issues with Favorite List enabling and disabling (but this may be pilot) error as I have to jump between my 396/996 and the 536 so it my be my issue, the issues with the Montgomery County 800 MHz system not opening the squelch. I am not sure where to start and what to focus on.
Yes I need to get my attic antenna sorted as well, but it seems I get good reception with my 996XT in the core of the house with my LNA but the 536HP at the window is still suffering.
Lots going on here, not sure if the STARS issue is related to the Montgomery County issue with the squelch not opening. This issue with recording on the 536HP, is I assume I will only have recorded hits if the squelch opens, so if I have unattended recording, I have no way of knowing if I am missing STARS traffic based solely on recordings.
I will continue to forge forward, however, the next week I will have limited experimental time with the 536HP, maybe in March I can spend more time on comparing the 536HP performance to the x96 radios.
- Status
