Washington Co. Suddenly Silent

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smitty54017

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For some reason, Washington Co. is suddenly silent. I've got 3 bars of signal strength, but am receiving NOTHING. Agencies programmed are all Washington Co. Public Safety and MN State Patrol talkgroups. Programmed directly from this site via download through Freescan. Uniden BCD996XT
 

kb0uxv

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I think something may be wrong with your scanner or antenna, everything is normal with the Washington sub-system.
 

smitty54017

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Still frustrated...bought a supposedly better antenna. Still getting 3-4 bars of signal strength, but still not receiving anything on a consistent basis. Same issue on both of BCD996XT's, programmed through Freescan by importing directly from this site. I'm receiving fine on my BCD436HP, even when sitting next to the 996, and the 996 is silent. Receiving WI State Patrol (which is also digital) perfect from the Baldwin tower 20 miles away.
 

wogggieee

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Does the display on the 996 say NFM most of the time or p25 when you're not hearing anything? I'm guessing you're having simulcast issues. I have all kinds of issues with that in Wash co. I live in the county not far from a couple towers and have two 996's. One will be showing NFM on the control channel hearing nothing and the other will have a lock on a voice channel. The 996 isnt that good with simulcast.
 

smitty54017

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Does the display on the 996 say NFM most of the time or p25 when you're not hearing anything? I'm guessing you're having simulcast issues. I have all kinds of issues with that in Wash co. I live in the county not far from a couple towers and have two 996's. One will be showing NFM on the control channel hearing nothing and the other will have a lock on a voice channel. The 996 isnt that good with simulcast.

It doesn't stop on anything, but does show NFM when scanning through that system. Funny thing is, both scanners worked fine up until a couple of months or so ago.
 

RBMTS

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Start really basic. Try listening to ONLY one of the local NOAA weather channels. Do you pickup anything? If yes, perform a full reset on one of the scanners (using it as a test). Then manually program (by hand, not by Freescan) the P25 system for Washington county. Create a new P25 system and ONLY enter in the active control channel that is closest to you. Make sure that the setting allows for "control channel only" operation. Select ID Search. See if you can pickup any system traffic at all - similar to what you can receive on the 436. If you can, I'd say you have a problem with the Freescan file and might want to begin over and create all new files with Freescan.

Going back to the first suggestion - if you can't pickup the local NOAA weather channels, you must have lost the receiver. This happens by having them too close to another RF source.
 

smitty54017

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Start really basic. Try listening to ONLY one of the local NOAA weather channels. Do you pickup anything? If yes, perform a full reset on one of the scanners (using it as a test). Then manually program (by hand, not by Freescan) the P25 system for Washington county. Create a new P25 system and ONLY enter in the active control channel that is closest to you. Make sure that the setting allows for "control channel only" operation. Select ID Search. See if you can pickup any system traffic at all - similar to what you can receive on the 436. If you can, I'd say you have a problem with the Freescan file and might want to begin over and create all new files with Freescan.

Going back to the first suggestion - if you can't pickup the local NOAA weather channels, you must have lost the receiver. This happens by having them too close to another RF source.

NOAA, as well as St. Croix, Polk, and Pierce conventional work fine, as well as WI State Patrol, Pierce, Polk, and St. Croix digital work perfectly. I've completed wiped both scanners several times, created new files using Freescan, purchased Proscan and created new files, set to both "control channel only" on and off, and ID search...nothing. In the last 8 hours, I had one hit on EMS. I've now reset again, and programmed as you suggested. Nothing. 436 picking up Washington Co. crystal clear.
 

RBMTS

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You mention that you are now using a supposedly better antenna. What specifically are you using? Is it an outside antenna or a "off the back" type? With simulcast systems, more is not necessarily better. You might be suffering from the usual LSM simulcast issues. As a suggestion, try a paperclip and see if you can receive your local tower site (I'm not kidding). If you don't get any signal lock, maybe try to connect the portable rubber antenna off the 436. See if maybe that improves the situation. One other thing you can try is to turn on the attenuation (ATT) to see if that helps to cut down the receive signal enough so that you don't experience simulcast overload (if that should be the problem).
 

smitty54017

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High gain rubber antenna. Not getting anything from original antenna, or two mag mount antennas that I've mounted to a ground plane inside. I turned on the ATT and now have 0 bars. Again, a few months ago, the original antenna picked up fine on both 996's.
 

wogggieee

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It doesn't stop on anything, but does show NFM when scanning through that system. Funny thing is, both scanners worked fine up until a couple of months or so ago.

Mine often does the same. It tends to be sporadic. Likely affected by weather, foliage, and other stuff.
 

smitty54017

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Mine often does the same. It tends to be sporadic. Likely affected by weather, foliage, and other stuff.
That's another thing that's frustrating. Clear skies, no leaves, etc. Should be loud and clear, especially when I'm getting 3-4 bars.
 

smitty54017

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OK...I've figured out there is interference of some kind in the room the unit is used. I moved the unit to another room on the same side of the house about 10 feet away. Now it's loud and clear. I was using it in my computer room. Turned off the computer, unplugged router, etc. No help. Any tips on tracing the issue or filtering the interference?
 

wogggieee

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Flip breakers one at a time until its gone and then when its gone turn it back on and unplug everything that is on that circuit one by one. I don't know what your neighborhood is like but its possible its not even in your house
 
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