[mtindor]

Originally Posted by smokeyjones666

I have what I believe to be similar problems with my PSR-500 as well. I also use a PAR filter because of my hostile RF environment (in my case, a farm of powerhouse TV and FM transmitters a few miles to the northeast of me), I never considered the possibility of my ethernet setup causing me trouble though - I'll have to do some experimentation one of these days when I have the time.

Yes, do. You may be surprised. The ethernet transceivers on most routers will cause some racket on 30-50, and definitely below. Some are better than others, but most of the common ones these days will produce a lot of trash. You'll know it when you hear it because (a) it re-appears every x # of kiloherts in long swaths of spectrum and (b) it'll disappear when you unplug all ethernet-connected devices.

In the three cases I've experienced with my equipment, with the ethernet unplugged from anything/everything, the routers/modems had no discernable effect on 30-50 Mhz. So, at least in my case, it's all ethernet-generated noise. If you end up experiencing this same phenonomen and cannot go to a wireless router for all of your devices, then try to set the ethernet interface on as many of your devices as possible to 10 Mbit. There is a significant decrease in 30-50 Mhz trash when the ethernet transceivers are running at 10 Mbit.

I have decided, like all purpose-built tools, that it is good for certain things and not so good for others. 800MHz and UHF trunking seem to be what this unit excels at, VHF can be a little rough unless I'm well outside of the metro area. Air band is virtually useless and I usually find myself grabbing my Pro-97 if I want to listen to that as it seems to perform marginally better (My clunky old Pro-2006 is the real winner for this at home).

I agree completely with your assessment. However, I never really bother to grab another scanner because either the other scanners I have dont do PL/CTCSS (and I like to find that out, especially when DXing), or they aren't as easy to use as the PSR-500 or PRO-197. (ex: I find the BCT-15 to be the most difficult scanner to use for simple random searches and tuning to frequencies).

I have good days and bad days with the local P25 system, so much that I was considering the Uniden 396XT for a minute. However, after reading the Uniden forum it seems like users are having some similar frustrations with that particular unit. I'll probably just keep on keepin' on for now, I just wish it could be better.

I'm going to guess you're trying to monitor a simulcast P25 system. I also have problems, but so does everyone when it comes to multicast P25.

I can only wish that someone would make a scanner this awesome, but with the selectivity of the venerable old Pro-2006.

Strangely enough, I find that the PSR-500/PRO-197 do pretty good as far as selectivity. Sure, they overload very easily on VHF and 800 Mhz with xmitters in close proximity, but when it comes to isolating traffic on one freq when there is also traffic on another freq 10-15 khz below, I find these scanners do a mucch better job than the BCT-15. My BCT-15 has really crappy selectivity.

I do wish I still had a 2004/5/6. I have had all three at one point. I always liked the 2004's metal case. But my favorite was probably the 2006. I probably would have kept them had I had all the "extras" that some people get for them, like the aftermarket stuff for handling PL tones and such.

Mike