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Well there's no other p25 systems (to my knowledge) within radio range.  I have scanned other conventional systems like the sheriff's departments and they seemed to all work just fine.  I havn't tried the weather yet.  I've made lots of changes in freescan and whatever changes I've made, atleast the signal bar stays consistantly on.  A steady 3-4 bars.  Occasionally 5.   One of the programming attempts, whenever the uid for the dispatcher would come up, I would hear the speaker come on but not hear any talking.  Then I would hear the mobile unit respond.  I did hear a couple full conversations again last night without changing the programming, but it was short lived, and then went back to how it was before, where I could only hear half conversations.

Can you guys take a look at the tables here at this links.

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Joplin_Public_Safety_%28P25%29

https://tatoolssecure.800ta.org/PublicTaTools/(wpgk3455czmrhxzogwyls245)/CallSignCheckerResponse.aspx

My question about the table in the first link is if anyone knows what the data columns are.  I'm particularly interested in the 2 columns on the right.  They look like frequencies and I'm not sure if I need to add them to the system somehow.  I can't tell if the table contains the steps and offsets or not. 

On the 2nd link, my question is the far right column.  It says moile freq's.  Seems like kinda the same deal as the first table, but has different numbers so I think it must be something different.  I'm trying to determine if it's saying that the fixed base (fb2/fb2c) is broadcasting on the left columns freq's and that the mobile units are broadcasting on the right columns freq's.  I may very well be mis-understanding it though, so I'm just curious if someone knowledgable on the the matter knows how to read and use it.

Also I'm going to try manually adding every frequency I've ever seen associated with this system from all scanner resources, both pre- and post-rebanding, just in case something is missing.  In the trunk frequencies tab of the system in freescan, there's a column called "LCN" and though the frequencies aren't necessarily in numerical order, the LCN's are.  Do I need to add an LCN number to any freq I add, and if so is it necessary that it be anything in particular or in any particular order?

The only frequencies you have to worry about are the control channel frequencies. LCNs and the rest of the information is superfluous. They are listed for detail, but none of that extra information matters for scanning purposes. All you need are the 2 shown.

Try creating a new P25 system, just enter the two frequencies listed, no TGIDs, and have it on ID Search and it should work. If that doesn't work then you might need to manually enter the P25 bandplan.

Well I tried that both through freescan, and also did a hard reset and tried it directly from the keypad, with no luck.  Still the same story, some traffic comes across, some doesn't.


I guess this may sound like a dumb question, but how do I find out the band plan for a particular system?  None of the resources I've seen online show band plans, I mainly just see frequencies and TGID's.

I am not seeing the 866 range freqs for Joplin in the FCC ULS database. They did have a couple of ranges that were in the 8xx range and I put those in FreeSCAN. You might want to try them and see if/how they work.

The table on RR seems to be quite the mess to me. Not a format I've seen elsewhere on RR.

Tom

I would leave the scanner on a system for a while, then check the band plan on it to see if it managed to download it. If not, then I believe youhave to use one of the trunking programs to find out what it is, but I've never done it myself.

I guess this may sound like a dumb question, but how do I find out the band plan for a particular system?  None of the resources I've seen online show band plans, I mainly just see frequencies and TGID's.

I would leave the scanner on a system for a while, then check the band plan on it to see if it managed to download it. If not, then I believe youhave to use one of the trunking programs to find out what it is, but I've never done it myself.

UniTrunker works with the 396/996. At least version 1.0.0.10 does. Not the EASIEST thing to get working, but I finally saw it run and control the radio. Stopped there, so I'm not much further "In" to this stuff than Assaf.

Tom

Well I appreciate everyone's help, but after a lot of research, it seems like there's a real possibility that the 396xt may not be able to scan this system.  Appearently this has been the official word from Uniden to people on certain other new systems.  I'm still trying to find out a lot of the details, but in the mean time, I'm temporarily throwing in the towel on getting this to work.  I just wanted to thank you guys for your time and effort.

Here's a new version of the file with some additional info I found recently on Radio Reference. Might save you some time/effort.

Tom

Thanks Tom.   I just downloaded it and will try it as soon as I can and report back what I find out. 

Also just to confirm, when you guys scan P25 systems, it will say something special on the screen when they are transmitting encrypted, right?  Like ENC or something just to let me know that it's encrypted.  Mine has never shown anything like that on the screen, so I'm just trying to double check everything to make sure my problem isn't them encrypting their traffic (which I know for fact they very rarely used to do).   I can't imagine they would have started doing it now on all routine dispatch traffic, as it degrades the audio quality so badly, but just dotting my i's.   

Yes, when the transmission is encrypted, you will see ENC on the screen. I just looked and I am seeing the control channel freq display (think I'm in mode 3 from memory) while scanning the P25 system here (Indep).

I have seen link (and something else that I can't remember right now) but that seems to be when the radio is having trouble hearing the broadcast.

In the file, the Joplin3 is the info from what the guy posted at RR yesterday, just did EZ Grab and put it in the file for you. Still not sure why I couldn't find THOSE freqs in the FCC database - guess I'm still a newbie at that. <g>

At least you have a starting place and can play with the file a bit to see what might work best for you.

Tom

Well I'm so disappointed, but I've finally got the answer.  They're encrypted.

I had my 396XT in display mode 3, but it doesn't show ENC anywhere on mine in that mode.  After reading your mention of the word link being displayed, I knew I had seen that atleast once somewhere in one of the other modes and decided to check it out and see if that was the problem.  So I went through the other modes, and in Mode 1, there it was.  Dispatch keyed up and there was ENC right beside it.  I can't beleive it because encryption was one of the first things I suspected, but ruled out because I didn't see ENC on the screen.  That's life I guess.  Murphy is alive and well it would seem. 

Anyway, I can't beleive how many people came out of the woodwork to help me try to figure this situation out.  Real nice bunch of guys the scanning community is.  Just wanted to say thanks to you guys for your time and help.  At least a bad answer is better than no answer. 

Thanks again.

Sorry to hear. I didn't suspect they were encrypted because the database shows them as clear, but sometimes only someone with local knowledge can help.

Well I'm so disappointed, but I've finally got the answer.  They're encrypted.

I had my 396XT in display mode 3, but it doesn't show ENC anywhere on mine in that mode.  After reading your mention of the word link being displayed, I knew I had seen that atleast once somewhere in one of the other modes and decided to check it out and see if that was the problem.  So I went through the other modes, and in Mode 1, there it was.  Dispatch keyed up and there was ENC right beside it.  I can't beleive it because encryption was one of the first things I suspected, but ruled out because I didn't see ENC on the screen.  That's life I guess.  Murphy is alive and well it would seem. 

Anyway, I can't beleive how many people came out of the woodwork to help me try to figure this situation out.  Real nice bunch of guys the scanning community is.  Just wanted to say thanks to you guys for your time and help.  At least a bad answer is better than no answer. 

Thanks again.

I would say it's pretty strange that only one side of the conversation is encrypted (you were hearing dispatch and not cars or vice versa - didn't you say one time it sometimes changed?).

It may be that they are working some bugs out of the system and will be in the clear eventually if they are listed that way on RR. Or might be one or more dispatchers playing with the new toy. When the new wears off, it may be more hassle to hit the encrypt key that just to key up. We can always hope!

Glad you finally have a resolution, not what we wanted to hear, but an answer at any rate.

Tom

Thanks.  Yeah I didn't think about that, but yes, I absolutely have heard that particular UID (the dispatcher's) come across a few times.  Weird.  According to a guy on radioreference, they started encrypting a few months ago.  Yeah I kinda wonder if it's just the dispatchers choice or a new policy.  Unless the audio quality for the encryption has gotten a lot better, I really don't see a sound tactical reason for using it for all calls.  I'd say the vast majority of dispatch generated calls are past tense, like stolen property, accidents, etc... or low priority calls which wouldn't warrant nor benefit from encryption anyway.  Who knows.  Maybe the encrypted audio quality has improved enough that it's not really a nuisance anymore.