What happened to Pelham PD??

[eli23nyc]

Also anything in the RRDB that list
BM, M, RM aka Base/Mobile, Mobile and Repeater/Mobile are conventional

Trunked systems are always at the bottom of each state or county

Thanks for that explanation ecps92..
Further up this thread Sibbly also stated that Pelham was conventional.
So what i did was to program an additional system for Pelham and put an alert tone on it. (this one being conventional).
For the most part I get nothing on this system, but I did notice last night that the radio did get a couple of hits on the frequency.
Alert tone when off and the scanner stopped there like it was receiving something, but there was no audio.
So programmed as digital used to work before but now doesn't, and programmed as conventional doesn't work either.
Again I don't have the ability to program the NAC in conventional mode with this radio..
But this all leaves me with the conclusion that something must have changed, and the bcd396t can't cope with it.
Either that or I just really suck at programming scanners..

 

[eli23nyc]

FYI - This may need confirmation from a knowledgeable source (unless that has already been done), but the RR database shows an "e" next to P25 for Hudson Police. Could be they finally went full-time ENC (hope I'm incorrect!). When I lived up there, they were using ENC for sensitive ops only and regular dispatch was still in the clear.

Thanks for the reply NYRHKY94..
So I made some adjustments to my frequencies and settings for Hudson.
I now have a mix of things going on when the squelch breaks..
Sometimes I get a successful transmission from Hudson PD. (This is good!!)
Sometimes I get a garbled Digital sounding transmission.. ( I assume this is an encrypted transmission)
And sometimes the squelch breaks but there is no audio. (I'm not really sure what that tells me..)
So yes, Hudson is in fact partially encrypted.. (and I was aware of this..) but they are not fully encrypted.
I was getting transmissions from routine vehicle stops.
Hope that clears things up..

 

[chriscoal]

Hey Chriscoal..
I'm just curious, if you don't mind..
What radio are you using??

I have a radioshack pro 197 (base) and a pro 106 (portable). On both units i have Pelham PD set to p25 search. I pick up
Pelham PD on both radios just fine.

 

[eli23nyc]

So.. to wrap this up..
I wound up getting a new BCD4326HP Scanner and did the zip based programming.
I still can't hear Pelham from my house but I do hear them if I go to Pelham or close to Pelham.
There seems to be very little traffic as compared to what I remember when I lived there.
Today I was at a gas station at the Chelmsford/Lowell line and I heard Pelham break squelch and transmit.
I had my new 436 mounted in the car with an external mag mounted antenna connected.
I also had my BCD396T in my bag, so I took it out and locked it on Pelham's frequency programmed as a conventional system. The squelch broke a few more times on both radios. I was able to hear the transmission clearly on the 436, but I got that motor boat noise on the 396 and no legible transmission.
Conclusion:
I can no longer hear Pelham programmed as a Motorola P25 system with one frequency (This worked before).
Programming as a conventional system doesn't work either.. (at least not on the 396T).
Something did in fact change on Pelham's system. I'm not sure exactly what, but I'm not going to obsess over it anymore. I don't live there anymore, so I'm not going to worry about it. (there doesn't seem to be that much traffic there anyway).
It was more my minds desire to find out what was different than anything else.
It would have been interesting to hear from somebody else who is near Pelham, and has a 396T. (if you're out there please chime in..)
Thoughts on the BCD436HP:
Cons first..
1. I hate that I can't charge the batteries and scan at the same time.
2. I hate the display, (color and sharpness, not the content..), as compared to the 396T (I loved the black on blue..).
3. It's bigger than I would have liked.
4. The sound quality doesn't seem as good as the 396T (It sounds a little to thick.. if that makes sense..)
Pros:
1. I really like the record feature.
2. The ease of programming is really nice.

In reality it doesn't offer a whole lot in terms of features and aesthetics over the 396T..
It does however have the updated technology and compatibility with today's systems, so at $399.99 I guess it's a keeper.