Here is the thing....You are sitting on one VHF channel with no activity (at the time) and get 2 to 3 bars, right? Unplug the antenna. Now you get zero bars, right? Why is that? Because this receiver is prone to overload from FM broadcast and VHF TV transmitters. It will also overload on strong in-band signals like those ugly high power paging transmitters. This is being reported all over this forum...you don't have to look far!
So what impact does this have on being able to pick up what you want to hear? As far as I can tell by checking this condition out on weak WX stations, when you get 2 to 3 bars of overload, you start to loose the ability to pick up very low signals. 1 to 2 bars has no impact. 3 to 4 bars and moderate signals degrade. 4 to 5 bars and you are screwed on everything but a signal very close and strong. Some say the attenuator is the answer. Not for me. I like to dig out distant stations and mobile units. I am going with RF filters. There are too many good things about this scanner that make it worth the added expense, but GRE should have done that for us and made a better front end on this box! LISTEN UP, GRE!
800 has problems with 800 Cell sites. You get near one of those and your 800 goes down the toilet. Typical GRE on that. They really need to improve the RF end of the scanner. The features are outstanding, and the sound quality of my 197 is perfect. Its just the overload issue that spoils what would be a near perfect scanner. That and a few added features (I mentioned elsewhere) and they would win on all fronts.
Come on, GRE...Take it the extra mile!
