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Close Call

Posted: 18 Feb 2014, 19:42
by handyguy2002
hi guys

my place of of work us motarola radios but for some reason my uniden3500 wont pick them up when in close call. even when im standing right next to them, it also did not pick up police when they where in next room to me, but it will pick up all the radios i have no problem, even my digital radio, so I know digital was not the problem,
I have reset the scanner to see if that would help
, but it did not, so any advise would be great.

cheers

Re: Close Call

Posted: 18 Feb 2014, 20:20
by thelad
I lived next door to a nick for 2years, never picked up a hit even with an outdoor antenna.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 18 Feb 2014, 20:24
by Minus1
It won't generally pick up digital transmissions.

Though I have on a couple of occasions (over a period of several years) had Close Call detections of Airwave base transmitters; and not even the nearest sites — possibly some spurious interaction with another transmission. Don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen.

There are of course different types of digital transmissions.

TETRA mobile transmissions only transmit in one of four time slots, so it's even less likely you'd detect anything, the data bursts are just too fast.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 18 Feb 2014, 20:50
by handyguy2002
ok so what you are saying, is that my workplace may be using digital radios and that you dont get a hit every time with digital.

ok guys thank you for your help.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 19 Feb 2014, 01:03
by RogerD
TETRA base signals are constant carrier and can show up on counters and Close Call, but if an Airwave site is radiating more than one carrier, Close Call won't work because it needs just one signal much stronger than anything else.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 19 Feb 2014, 09:37
by Gemini4
i've never ever picked up a single broadcast with my "close call" maybe its broke or maybe its not even
on the scanner at all..just don't know how some people say they've picked up a signal, I've been stood
next to a taxi and not copied it {bnghd}

Re: Close Call

Posted: 19 Feb 2014, 12:15
by radiosification
Close call doesn't pick up TDMA transmissions generally. I've tried with a DMR radio right next to the scanner and it just doesn't pick it up. So it won't work with DMR, TETRA, GSM phones, stuff like that. If you have an FDMA digital equipment (such as dPMR) then it will be able to pick that up. So it's not all digital it won't get, just some types.

The reason for this is that TDMA pulses on and off very quickly, and close call needs a constant signal to detect it.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 20 Feb 2014, 22:00
by Ant
I think some of the frequencies are out of range, my 3500 doesn't pick up every step of 446.xxxxx that there is in close call with me next to it.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 20 Feb 2014, 22:20
by handyguy2002
hi guys


I can confirm that my work place use digital radios, I asked one of them to key up to try and find what frequancy they where using with my counter and it just showed random numbers, not getting any fix,

I have two kirisun 780 digital handies programed to PMR, DPMR and DMR and my scanner and counter can pick them up,

I can also confirm that the scanner will not pick up my 780 if it does not find the other 780 while on DMR or PDMR, but once connected my scanner will find them,,,,

if this makes sence!!,,

Re: Close Call

Posted: 20 Feb 2014, 22:29
by bigpimp347
i've got a Uniden UBC72XLT today and it has close call,
i plan on driving around with it on close call next wek to see what happens..

does it save the frequencies as it finds them ??
how close do you really have to be, i'll have a mini mag on the roof..
i've never had one, but always wanted to try one, it's for sale, but i want a week to play first :)

Re: Close Call

Posted: 20 Feb 2014, 23:22
by RogerD
Sometimes it's WORSE with a better aerial, as it picks up so many signals that it makes it harder for one to be much stronger than any others. With a simple aerial on the radio, inside a car, it usually does a good job of detecting signals nearby without being swamped by lots of RF.

Re: Close Call

Posted: 21 Feb 2014, 21:01
by Gemini4
i kept picking up radio Lincolnshire {bnghd}

Re: Close Call

Posted: 21 Feb 2014, 22:34
by RogerD
Consult the manual for your 3500 - there's a 'broadcast screen' option to stop specified ranges from coming up with Close Call