BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Strange behavior this morning

[Go-West]

I monitor the Las Cruces radio system with my 436 and around 11 it lost control of the bars indicating reception, or not. Was working fine then stopped with LC. Its working fine with Dona Ana County VHF/UHF and city of El Paso P-25 Phase I is working okay. Just Weird. LC's system is working fine with my other scanners.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

 

[Go-West]

Its working fine today after leaving it alone for a couple of days.

 

[royldean]

Do you have all the control channels programmed? Maybe they lost the main control transmitter and had to go to an alternate. If that one wasn't defined, you'd lose the entire system.

 

[jonwienke]

I agree, a control channel change is the most likely cause. Make sure you have ALL the site frequencies programmed. The additional scanning overhead is less than 1%, and you will have fewer outages.

 

[Go-West]

I have all twelve frequencies programmed in the correct order and they worked fine with my other older scanners.

 

[KR7CQ]

I'm seeing the same issue on the Phoenix RWC P25 PH1 simulcast a with my 436. I can literally see the tower from my desk at work and reception is typically pristine (rare for a scanner on simulcast). However lately I have noticed periods of hours at a time where there is nothing....no signal bars, no transmissions received. I only have the control channels entered so putting all frequencies in is my next step, but I sure hope that's it.

Update: All frequencies (not just listed control frequencies) entered in the CC table, still not a peep from one of the busiest PD's in the country...something is very wrong. I would honestly rather it just be the scanner than what I fear it might be....an unannounced switch to encryption. They already encrypted all hot call TG's, and of course all tac ops and C2C and info TG's were encrypted from day one, so this might be it for PPD monitoring...sure hope not. Once I get home to turn on my G4 I'll know for sure I guess. I've posted a request for reports on this simulcast from other AZ scanner buddies, so I'll probably hear on that before I get home, and will update with what I find out.

 

[Go-West]

Thanks. Its working fine and my older scanners are working well, too. GRE 500, BCD396T (2).

 

[KR7CQ]

Thanks. Its working fine and my older scanners are working well, too. GRE 500, BCD396T (2).

If this is the scanner, I may be switching to something else...not tolerable.

Added information: Signal bars come up full scale for about a half second, randomly, maybe on average every 30 seconds, and then all bars are gone.

 

[Go-West]

I've had the 436 for 3.5 years and this was the first issue I'd ever experienced with it. I did pick up a pro voice talk group over that last few days.

 

[KR7CQ]

I've had the 436 for 3.5 years and this was the first issue I'd ever experienced with it. I did pick up a pro voice talk group over that last few days.

Overall I have felt that it's the best handheld scanner ever made, and does better on simulcast than other scanners in my neck of the woods. However Phoenix PD is where 90% of the action happens and if it's going to flake out on that simulcast that's not going to work. It's done this before, for short periods, but I chalked it up as an anomaly. But now this is an obvious problem that is not letting up. Best case would actually be that they have added new frequencies, but I consider that unlikely in this case. I'll know by tonight.

 

[jonwienke]

I would do a careful side-by-side comparison to see exactly what the 436 is scanning vs the other scanners. The 436 is better than most scanners at handling simulcast.

 

[KR7CQ]

I would do a careful side-by-side comparison to see exactly what the 436 is scanning vs the other scanners. The 436 is better than most scanners at handling simulcast.

Agreed, the X36 scanners are the best scanners on simulcast, I've done all of the comparisons and they are the clear winners, at least here in Phoenix. I will check it against a BCD396XT, and a PRO-106 tonight, as well as my G4. If those are all silent, I'll know instantly that the issue is with my simulcast.

***Update: The 436 just came to life after hours of hearing nothing on this simulcast. It appears this scanner does have some kind of annoying issue that has cropped up. Very frustrating, as I liked this scanner, so I sure hope I can find a solution to this issue.

 

[UPMan]

I would try a new SD card. A dying card can cause some random things to happen.

 

[jonwienke]

Get a high endurance card. They last longer.

 

[KR7CQ]

Get a high endurance card. They last longer.

I'll try that, can't hurt.

 

[KR7CQ]

Update: I've tried everything including switching cards but no dice. The 436 now decides to simply not receive the RWC Simulcast A, for whatever period of time it feels like not working (zero reception / transmissions). Then in maybe a half an hour, maybe a few hours later, it starts working normally.

Sitting on the same desk the G4 just hums along with constant activity.

I think I'll be going back to the nearly ten year old PRO-106, my BCD396XT, and to using my G4, and put this thing on ebay. That's too much money sitting there for something that works when it decides to work on the system I most want to monitor (all other simulcasts / systems work perfectly...of course).

 

[GROL]

Have you tried significantly changing the location of the 436. Has this also occurred far away from your primary monitoring location? It is possible there could be intermodulation interference, or maybe a nearby device splattering the band. Other radios could be immune or more resistant to one of these forms of interference.

 

[KR7CQ]

Have you tried significantly changing the location of the 436. Has this also occurred far away from your primary monitoring location? It is possible there could be intermodulation interference, or maybe a nearby device splattering the band. Other radios could be immune or more resistant to one of these forms of interference.

Great question, and unfortunately I have seen this problem to a lesser extent in other locations, primarily at home. The strangest thing is that this is a relatively recent issue that has cropped up and there I'm fairly confident that there are no changes which I have made that could have impacted this issue.

Sent from my SM-G955U using Tapatalk

 

[phask]

Have you tried the analyse feature? I'm assuming the 436 has it, I have a 536. It will show you a better display of signal strength.

Update: I've tried everything including switching cards but no dice. The 436 now decides to simply not receive the RWC Simulcast A, for whatever period of time it feels like not working (zero reception / transmissions). Then in maybe a half an hour, maybe a few hours later, it starts working normally.

Sitting on the same desk the G4 just hums along with constant activity.

I think I'll be going back to the nearly ten year old PRO-106, my BCD396XT, and to using my G4, and put this thing on ebay. That's too much money sitting there for something that works when it decides to work on the system I most want to monitor (all other simulcasts / systems work perfectly...of course).

 

[KR7CQ]

No because since I sit in view of the tower, and since my other scanners and G4 all read full scale, if it does read low signal that's an issue with the scanner not the signal.