BC796D does P25 CC only!!!!

[Mike Alpha]

I've discovered that the BC796D does do control channel only tracking on P25 UHF systems.

I was running a 996 and 796 side by side monitoring Pennant Hills P25 on 416.1375 and noticed the 796 was tracking to voice frequencies that I didn't have programmed in it. I double checked in the ARC250 software and found the 2 voice frequencies,413.1375 and 419.3875 were not in the Pennant Hills bank.

So to confirm this I deleted - not locked out, deleted - all the voice frequencies from the bank leaving only the 416.1375 CC. Well it happily tracked to all the voice freqs the 996 was tracking to. No base or offsets were entered, just had the bank set for Moto P25.

This feature is not documented so it's an important find. I will now be keeping mine because I find the 796 has a much better RF front end than the 996 and the dig audio is much better.

I am running firmware V3.60 and would be interested to know if older firmware versions do this.

Mike

[citabria]

Any P25 trunk tracker should do CC only since its built into the P25 spec..

Thanks for the post MIke, I think ill look around for a 796 now haha!

[Longreach]

ive seen the 296D's cheap on Ebay im wondering if they can do the same?
cheers
Matt

[Mike Alpha]

ive seen the 296D's cheap on Ebay im wondering if they can do the same?
cheers
Matt

I have programmed 296s for P25 successfully using the voice freq method. Today I tried to program a 296 for P25 but found the firmware version was V3.21 and it wouldn't do P25 at all. I tried to upgrade it using the 796 firmware V3.60 but it wouldn't accept it. There are subtle differences between the scanners even though they share the same processor.

I'd say a 296 running V3.60 will do CC only but I haven't been able to find the firmware update file for it.

Mike

[Longreach]

Hi all, no worries thanks Mike. might be worth getting one and seeing what happens?
hopefully a fix soon for them too, i guess then the prices will go up too.
cheers
Matt

[Mike Alpha]

Any P25 trunk tracker should do CC only since its built into the P25 spec..

Thanks for the post MIke, I think ill look around for a 796 now haha!

I'm actually liking the 796D much more than the 996. I couldn't monitor the GPT 4.1 GRN site at home on on the 996 because the Beecroft P25 CC on 416.1375 would bleed all over the GPT CC on 416.1250 and the 996 would not lock to it. But the 796D would track it perfectly with no sign of the neighbouring P25 CC in the signal. So the 996 front end is not as tight. Also, with the 796 I can press Hold 1-2 and I'm at a known talkgroup instantly. No spinning of the dial and watching for the TG I want to show up. Sure, all the extra memory channels a 996 has is ideal, but for what I listen to, 100 channels is plenty.

Mike

[cartman]

Are there many 796's around - as this is a US version scanner.
I have one - direct from Colarado ex Ebay - got a discrim tap installed and it is great for P25 unitrunker decoding
I seem to recall they were popular at one point
However for sheer signal detection I find that the Uniden 780 is more sensitive than the 796d - though obviously it doesn't decode p25

Grant