PSR-500 and Win-500 Missing the Beginning of Transmissions

Tomcat017 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-30-2012, 3:22 PM

Hi All,

I'm having a bit of an issue with my PSR-500 (I use Win500 to program, monitor, and record). As best I can diagnose the problem, it seems to be two-fold. Sorry to re-post -- some in the past have had similar issues. However, I think I have a bit more info to add, and most of the threads that I found involved digital transmissions, or conventional transmissions with squelch and PL (which, forgive me if it comes up, I'm still not sure I understand).

OK -- the basic problem is this: I miss the very beginning of all transmissions. I am only monitoring trunked radio, and no digital. The problem occurs whether I am scanning lists, paused on a single TGID, or scanning a list that only includes a single TGID. It occurs no matter where I have the squelch knob (which I don't think matters here?). I only miss the first ~.5 seconds of audio, but that often includes a unit identifier or one word response. I miss that section of the transmission both when listening to the radio and listening to the recorded audio (recorded using Win500 and played using both WMP or iTunes).

So I did a little experiment. I'm a user of the trunked radio system, so I took my scanner and laptop with me one day, and was able to transmit and listen to the results. Under normal conditions, our radios didn't miss any perceptible portion of the transmission, but the scanner did. Several times, however, I made sure that keyed the mic for a full second or two before beginning to speak, and I got some interesting results. With the excessive delay before speaking, the scanner didn't miss the first words. However, the audio file recorded by Win500 was STILL missing the first few words -- as if the audio recording doesn't start until it "hears" a significant audio signal, but then clips the beginning.

So I'm left with a confusing result, and two questions. (1) how can I get the scanner to open up without the latency that results in losing the first bit of transmissions (i.e. get it to behave more like a radio in the trunked system)? And (2), do any of you guys have an idea how the software could be possibly missing the beginning of transmissions, even with an intentional delay? Or any idea how to fix that? Could it be the playback software muting the first bit of the recording (bearing in mind I've tried both WMP and iTunes)? I'll try looking at the actual audio wave pattern later to see if there is anything at the beginning of the track.

If you'de made it this far, thanks in advance! Appreciate any help you can offer,

eyes00only · #2 (**permalink**) 06-30-2012, 3:59 PM

I don't have that problem. Does it happen when you hold one talkgroup and have NO priority settings?

JK

usswood · #3 (**permalink**) 06-30-2012, 4:25 PM

what is the system your listen to, you might have bad programming...we need to look at that system also!

Tomcat017 · #4 (**permalink**) 06-30-2012, 11:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyes00only

I don't have that problem. Does it happen when you hold one talkgroup and have NO priority settings?

JK

Affirmative Eyes - it happens even when I have one talkgroup paused. I don't have any items scan items set to priority, and priority mode is off.

Tomcat017 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-30-2012, 11:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by usswood

what is the system your listen to, you might have bad programming...we need to look at that system also!

Thanks US - I'm listening to Suffolk County NY's trunked system. Believe I have everything programmed correctly - not experiencing any other problems.

JoeyC · #6 (**permalink**) 07-01-2012, 3:18 AM

In the radio hit PROG / FUNC /GLOB
scroll down to the 5th line and lower the DG Int Prime to 20 (default is 60)

If you are programming by WIN500 it is called Digital detect timeout
In PSREdit it is Digital Detect Time.

ScannerSK · #7 (**permalink**) 07-01-2012, 10:15 AM

I set all my analog frequencies to NFM which prevents the first words from being lost in analog system.

The GRE bulletin regarding this is located at PSR-500/600 Why do I Notice a delay in Unmuting on certain Analog Talkgroups and Channels? - Powered By Kayako SupportSuite

Stringer619 · #8 (**permalink**) 03-15-2013, 9:59 AM

Sorry to revive an old thread, but I have the same issue. Plus JoeyC has been a huge help to me in the past and is from the same area.

In over 3 years of scanning with Pro 106's and Pro 197's, I've been pretty happy with it. But there are times where the first number of an address or a short "yes/no" answer is cut off in the beginning of the transmission.

My question is, is there any negative consequence to setting Digital Detect Timeout to 20? What about 1 (Win500 will not allow "0")? In theory, setting it to 20 instead of the default 60 sounds good, but I can't help but wonder why the default is 60.

JoeyC · #9 (**permalink**) 03-15-2013, 1:05 PM

If I rememer correctly the drawback to lowering that setting is you will/may get more motorboating when a digital channel opens squelch. Raising the number prevents that, but also pauses slightly before opening squelch and analog transmissions miss the very beginning.

Stringer619 · #10 (**permalink**) 03-15-2013, 1:18 PM

What is motorboating? Is it like a high-speed coal-powered train pumping away in the background?

Does it only do it on digital talkgroups? If so, I'm assuming its like trying to open a half-downloaded image or file.... doesn't work.

I dropped mine to 10, and am experimenting with North/South/City here in San Diego.

RonnieUSA · #11 (**permalink**) 03-15-2013, 1:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stringer619

What is motorboating? Is it like a high-speed coal-powered train pumping away in the background?

Does it only do it on digital talkgroups? If so, I'm assuming its like trying to open a half-downloaded image or file.... doesn't work.

I dropped mine to 10, and am experimenting with North/South/City here in San Diego.

You will know it when You hear it.
Sounds like an outboard motor on a boat.

JoeyC · #12 (**permalink**) 03-15-2013, 1:35 PM

You'll hear the annoying sound on a digital channel before the scanners processor kicks in to decode the audio. In essense, it's the radio listening to digital in analog mode first, before decoding it. Lower that number to 1 and you're sure to hear it! You probably will hear some at 10 because I do on occasion with my setting at 20. While at the default of 60, its pretty good at clearing out all the motorboat noise - except when the signal is marginal - you're gonna hear it anyway.

Stringer619 · #13 (**permalink**) 03-16-2013, 12:11 AM

I started getting the noise with the setting at 10, so I switched it to 50. I doubt a tenth of a second is going to make much of a difference from the default 60, but I'm experimenting.

Tomcat017 · #14 (**permalink**) 03-17-2013, 4:25 PM

Hey guys - saw the thread revived, so I thought I'd comment.

For me, lowering the DGIntPrime setting down to 30 did the trick. I don't monitor any digital at the moment, so the motorboating noise is not an issue.

I am still, however, having the same issue with recording. Can't figure it out.

Hope you're able to resolve your issue Stringer.