West Hartford P25 system

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DrStrange

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Still not getting anywhere. Going to dump more info here and see if anyone else has a clue to this.

Repaired an antenna issue; replaced battery pack. Have tried all the various tips (p25 adjust, control channel only, reseat the P25 card, wipe the memory and start over etc.) found in various threads here. Scanner will decode P25 on non-trunked systems. Scanner follows Newington LTR system and shows TGIDs.

Right now I can see signals on the individual frequencies, but no TGIDs or audio.

Was intermittently getting TGIDs last night.
Unit was trying to stop on active talkgroups, but couldn't do better than rapidly blink the TGID. A couple of times, I was adjusting P25 audio and I got sound quality of 0000 and a couple of blips of audio (using med patches to tell when there was an active TG because I can hear them on my BC346XLT and they stay on for a while). Tried overshooting and undershooting settings, still no good. Again, other non-trunked P25 systems sound great.

One odd thing is that I can't get the squelch to open up at all, although it seems to hear WX and out-of-town PD (Manchester, Berlin) just fine. That may be the key. Not sure there's a way to coarse-adjust squelch threshold on this radio because I can't find a service manual.

May drive closer to WH center and see if it's a multi-site issue. May also drive out to Bristol and see if I can track non-PD talkgroups on that system.

About to give up and get a 325p2 when budget permits, which should be soon.
 

DrStrange

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Read all that. Still stuck. Think there's a hardware problem. No white noise on empty WX channels with squelch all the way open. Need a service manual. Wondering if the software has another way to set the squelch. Verified that I don't have time squelch on.
 
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Wondering if the software has another way to set the squelch
Try this program:

It lets you control the scanner via the PC


  • Supports scanners:
    PSR-500/600, PRO-106/197, BCT8, BCT15, BCT15X, BC250D, BC296D, BR330T, BC346XT, BCD396T, BCD396XT, BCD436HP, BCD536HP, BC780XLT, BC785D, BC796D, BC898T, BCD996T, BCD996XT (also, non-US versions of these scanners)
  • Supports Motorola Type I, Type II, Type IIi, EDACS, EDACS SCAT, LTR and Motorola P25 trunked systems.
 

DrStrange

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Nice. Would need to get (or find) a cable. Probably worth it. In the meantime, need to drive around and see if I can track another P25 system.
 

DrStrange

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Did the scanner ever get the rebanding update?

Yes. It has the rebanding update. May reflash it at some point.

Drove out to Bristol today. Doesn't sound like it's tracking the Bristol system either. The last time I had this scanner out of mothballs, it was tracking Bristol (and CSP) and I was getting gobbledygook from PD (encrypted). Must be a hardware problem somewhere.

Going to get the 325P2 and come back to the 296d when I've had some time to think about the problem. May be an intermittent ribbon cable somewhere or something.
 

jperuta

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Yes. It has the rebanding update. May reflash it at some point.

Drove out to Bristol today. Doesn't sound like it's tracking the Bristol system either. The last time I had this scanner out of mothballs, it was tracking Bristol (and CSP) and I was getting gobbledygook from PD (encrypted). Must be a hardware problem somewhere.

Going to get the 325P2 and come back to the 296d when I've had some time to think about the problem. May be an intermittent ribbon cable somewhere or something.


You wont hear Bristol, Its a trunked Digital Phase 2 system. Which the BCD296D wont pick up. Best bet is to get a Bcd325P2 for handheld, SDS100 if you can afford it, or a BCD996P2 for a base scanner.
 

DrStrange

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You wont hear Bristol, Its a trunked Digital Phase 2 system. Which the BCD296D wont pick up. Best bet is to get a Bcd325P2 for handheld, SDS100 if you can afford it, or a BCD996P2 for a base scanner.

Ah. So they upgraded. Will have to find a system that is still Phase I, but some other time. Going to get a 325p2. About to move anyway, so base scanner setup would have to wait until amateur antennas are up at new place.
 

DrStrange

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You wont hear Bristol, Its a trunked Digital Phase 2 system. Which the BCD296D wont pick up. Best bet is to get a Bcd325P2 for handheld, SDS100 if you can afford it, or a BCD996P2 for a base scanner.

Noticed there isn't any info on this system in RR. Is it all encrypted, or didn't anyone get to entering it yet? Can grab the control channel when I get the 325p2 set up and see if I can fill in the rest of the frequencies.
 

DrStrange

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So it tracks Hartford Hospital fine, and that's a lot weaker signal from here. It's just being obstinate with WH.
 

DrStrange

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Just figured out a squelch issue on the 396. West Hartford is working in the scanner. Still getting a 325p2 for CSP and Bristol.
 

DrStrange

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Aug 26, 2009
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Just figured out a squelch issue on the 396. West Hartford is working in the scanner. Still getting a 325p2 for CSP and Bristol.

296. Kind of annoyed that you can't edit your own posts. Anyway, WH works fine now in the 296d. Just needed to work a couple of bugs of of it. :)
 
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