Where are the BCDx36HP Users in Maryland?

[troymail]

As noted by redburgundy above (http://forums.radioreference.com/2121186-post17.html) I have posted a few items over on the http://forums.radioreference.com/2121020-post257.html about my observations of the 436's performance so far; my basic experience with a few hours of time monitoring Montgomery County’s Motorola Type II system that uses the P25 CAI is that my 396 out performs my 436.

Of course the 436 will handle X2 & P25 Phase 2 modulation that stops the 396 dead in its tracks...

I fully concur - the 536 really seems tweaked to handle P25 better than older radios but is suffering and generally not performing well on older Motorola systems.

 

[doctordave]

Ditto for me. I did well with initial Howard Co and AACO Motorola II system monitoring on the 536....but then was surprised by fairly poor results when over testing HarCo 800, UES 800 and DE 800. As I referenced over on the Uniden board, my Phase I (Balt Co & Balt City) and Phase II (FIRST 700) reception on the 536 is notably better than on any other applicable radios.

 

[screenersam]

Somerset County. Supposed to get my 436 Tuesday the 4th. Using pro 96/97 now.
SoCo is using EDACS, don't know what they will go to. I believe the parent company (Harris/Erickson?) has it's own P25 so they'll probly go there.

 

[troymail]

Worcester EDACS sounded fine yesterday on the 536 --

Got fairly good reception/decode of the OC Police patch (best I can tell from the OC Site) on FiRST while stationary in Berlin area just west of the Berlin MSP Barrack. Radio was in my vehicle (on the dash) with the RS 800 Mhz antenna mashed up in the windshield.

While indoors with my PSR800 I hardly picked up any of the same activity.

 

[WaveJam]

I'm interested in hearing reports from users on how well the radio performs on Motorola systems with digital voice - Anne Arundel, Howard, Montgomery, (non-Phase1/Phase2 P25 systems). Specifically, in your opinion, how does your x36 perform on digital reception/decode on these systems compared to your other radio(s)? What radio(s) are you comparing the x36 results to? How far are you from the system (in county, two counties over, etc.)?

I had a serious case of muli/simulcast-itus with my 996XT and PRO-197. I live dead center of two towers (both about 3 miles away in exact opposite directions) in Frederick MD. Ugh! The garbled transmissions have been horrible. The PRO-197 is simply a lame duck in this location. Completely unusable (and yes, I tried every setting and antenna type/location) so I sold it. The 996XT I still have online and its not great, but better than the 197. I got the 536 online and wow! I would say its probably 95% better now. The garbled transmissions are to a minimum now. And I do know that even some of the police/fire commercial radios have occasional transmission issues depending on where they are. So, part of the 5% is from that. Thats the good news... Now the bad... The 536 RR feed is muffled as heck and its driving me nuts. Working on that right now.

Anyways if you care to listen in here is my 996XT (the garbled one) which covers only fire:
Frederick County Fire

And here's the 536HP (the muffled one) which covers fire, sheriff and MDSHA:
Frederick County Airport, Highway, Police, Fire and EMS

Both feeds are monitoring only Frederick P25.

 

[redburgundy]

Dallas Lipp submitted this report regarding Montgomery County:
The 436 seems to be clipping more of the start of the messages and generally doesn't sound as good as the 396; the 436 generally sounds a little choppy even when then 396 sounds good.
See http://forums.radioreference.com/un...ulcast-performance-thread-13.html#post2121020 for his whole report.
I can echo that.
I had my GRE PSR-500 side by side with my BCD436HP, holding on the same TG. The 436 often clips the start of messages. I also occasionally hear a burst of noise on the 436 that does not occur on the PSR-500. And sometimes the 436 renders a communication at very low volume. I'm located in Montgomery County near Fire Station 33.

I'm thinking now that the clipping was caused by Weather Alert Priority turned on---inadvertently.
The alarm went off this morning and scared the crap out of me.
Now it's turned off and the clipping seems to have gone away.

 

[troymail]

If there are any questions as to how the BCD536HP is performing, I can offer this:

Today, while parked at work on Fort Meade I was listening to all of these pretty much clear as a bell (in addition to the "local" systems like Anne Arundel County and Fort Meade):

Baltimore City
CMARC Baltimore (Anne Arundel site)
Maryland FiRST (Anne Arundel & Baltimore City sites)
Prince George County (north site)

Prior to the 536, I could probably "hear" FiRST Anne Arundel (with some careful parking/radio placement) and some garbled PG County activity but that was all.

This isn't to say things are "perfect" but they are certainly improved.

 

[ezdropper]

Hearing Prince George's County TDMA system good, but I have found as soon as you leave the county you can no longer hear them.

Tried monitoring Maryland Live Casino at Arundel Mills, but didn't hear anything. Guessing that they cannot be monitored.

 

[dtscho]

No, MD Live is using a MOTOTRBO Connect Plus system. Cannot be monitored with any scanners, but can be monitored with DSD/DSD+/DMRDecode.

Dave

 

[troymail]

Hearing Prince George's County TDMA system good, but I have found as soon as you leave the county you can no longer hear them.

This was the case for me previously also but with the BCD536HP, I can now hear PG (north site) and Baltimore City from the Severn area (mid way between Odenton and BWI Airport). I even found that I can (on occasion) hear the south site of PG from the Fort Meade area as well.

 

[MacGnG]

just got my 436HP

Im in the city and I'm pulling up all kindsa stuff from here. got AA co, MTA. Lots of stuff i didn't expect to get. can't wait to see what else i can hear!

 

[troymail]

Took my mag mounted antenna off the roof and put it inside my truck to go through the car wash... With the antenna INSIDE the truck, I'm listening to Baltimore City on my 536 from Annapolis Rd in Odenton.

And for what it's worth, I'm hearing the SOUTH site of the Prince George Phase 2 system from Fort Meade! (ok, yes - the antenna was on the roof for that one...)

 

[troymail]

The 536 isn't "perfect" but given the Phase 2 and LSM reception issues, here's something I never thought I'd be able to say again.....

In the past week while sitting in my living room with the 536 and a RS 800 rubber duck antenna I've heard a York County PA engine responding into Baltimore County (P25 Phase 1) for a hose fire

-and-

I just heard a Fairfax County VA unit responding into Prince George County (P25 Phase 2 but in Phase 1 mode).

(and I consider the spot I'm sitting in to be a bad spot for reception in my house)

Sure - I'm not listening to York or Fairfax but before the 536 I wasn't even able to hear PG or Baltimore County....

Having said that, there is still something not quite right with the reception on the same radio in the same spot for the Howard County Motorola system... hoping Uniden is working on solving that one.....

EDIT: The good with the bad -- also just confirmed things are being missed: I'm "HOLDing" on the Baltimore City (P25 Phase 1) system (they just dispatched a building fire). While holding and after a minute or so, I hear the dispatcher acknowledging a medic unit's message - but I never heard the medic unit call (heard nothing during the minute or so after hitting HOLD).

 

[troymail]

I've come to the conclusion that if/when the 536 actually detects activity, the reception is pretty good. However, with closer side by side comparison to my PSR800, it appears that from my location, the 536 is missing more than 50% of the activity that the PSR800 is receiving from one of the "sweet spots" I have for the Baltimore site of Maryland FiRST (Phase 2). The 536 is right next to the PSR800 and both are using the same model RS 800 Mhz antenna.

It's even worse with multiple sites enabled.

The results seem to vary from day to day, hour to hour.

EDIT: but, just like with the PSR800, the radio seems to receive/lock on/decode much better if you only have the active CC frequency programmed (vs. the entire set of 6 or 7 site frequencies). The signal strength indicator shows a much more stable 4-5 bars with only the active CC programmed as well.

 

[emtLarmy15]

I don't have mine yet (it'll be here Tuesday) and have never really monitored a P25 system so if I am way off base just ignore me.... In sentinel there is a setting in the p25 systems (forget what it's called and too lazy to get up and fire up laptop but it's near the p25 threshold that defaults to 8) but it's automatically set to 400 ms... What happens if you lower that to say 200?


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[troymail]

I don't have mine yet (it'll be here Tuesday) and have never really monitored a P25 system so if I am way off base just ignore me.... In sentinel there is a setting in the p25 systems (forget what it's called and too lazy to get up and fire up laptop but it's near the p25 threshold that defaults to 8) but it's automatically set to 400 ms... What happens if you lower that to say 200?


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That's only a valid setting for Motorola systems with P25 (digital) voice - at least as best I can tell.

 

[emtLarmy15]

Ahh ok. Just remembered seeing whe setting up FL in sentinel, couldn't remember which I set it for...

But on the same note what about lowering the p25 threshold... Correct me if wrong but that's what is helping the simulcast p25 systems work better... Think that might be why it misses transmissions? Maybe it's the trade off.


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[redburgundy]

I've come to the conclusion that if/when the 536 actually detects activity, the reception is pretty good. However, with closer side by side comparison to my PSR800, it appears that from my location, the 536 is missing more than 50% of the activity that the PSR800 is receiving from one of the "sweet spots" I have for the Baltimore site of Maryland FiRST (Phase 2). The 536 is right next to the PSR800 and both are using the same model RS 800 Mhz antenna.
It's even worse with multiple sites enabled.

The results seem to vary from day to day, hour to hour.

Are you holding them both on the one system or site (one control channel)(wildcard on the PSR800)?
Or are they scanning multiple systems?
Is the issue related to the length of time required to acquire the control channel?
Do we know whether the 536 continues to scan for a control channel even after it has acquired a control channel and is holding on a single system?

 

[troymail]

Are you holding them both on the one system or site (one control channel)(wildcard on the PSR800)?
Or are they scanning multiple systems?
Is the issue related to the length of time required to acquire the control channel?
Do we know whether the 536 continues to scan for a control channel even after it has acquired a control channel and is holding on a single system?

I was originally scanning multiple systems and sites but then dropped down and held on a just the Baltimore site - so the radios are effectively only scanner the Baltimore site of FiRST - nothing else.

I did an import of the Baltimore site (all 7 frequencies) from the PSR800 library. Both radios had all 7 frequencies for that site programmed. The PSR800 was finding much more activity than the 536. Many times when the 536 did stop on a TG, it was at the end of the transmission and there was no audio.

For the next test, I reprogrammed the 536 to only include the single active CC for the Baltimore site (the PSR800 is still programmed with all 7 frequencies).

While in ID SCAN (not looking for new talkgroups) mode, the 536 is performing much better than it was with all 7 frequencies programmed. A test in ID SEARCH results in about the same performance.

 

[SShuster221]

From West OC at home, the Delaware system sounds great. Could not even get the system inside the house before. Can get 3 bars with the 436 now.


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