squelch

[DonB69]

I have a PSR-800 scanner and have a question which I'm sure is squelch related. When I manually enter a new frequency using the software and don't have any CT/DC codes to enter I just get constant static which tells me it's not squelched so how do I fix it? The last frequency I just used search and that didn't work.

Thanks for any help, Don

 

[woodsoj]

Adjust the squelch with the knob on top of the radio.

 

[DonB69]

Adjust the squelch with the knob on top of the radio.

I don't want to add squelch to the whole radio, the only one that I want to squelch is the new frequency I just added, and I'm thinking I have to do something in the squelch column in the software. The existing frequencies all have something in the squelch column. The help screen in the software has different things that can be added in the squelch column but I'm not up to speed on the jargon with the newer scanners. With my old analog scanners I never had to worry about things like that. Am I looking at this squelch thing wrong? The reason I'm thinking the way I'm thinking is I added some frequencies for another county that is about 100 miles from us that we spend some time in, and every one of those frequencies the scanner would lock on with just static. I had my old scanner set up the same way and if there wasn't any signal it would just scan over those channels. The only time I had to tweak the squelch was if the station was so weak I couldn't pick up the voice but it was strong enough to break the squelch.

 

[troymail]

Squelch is still squelch .. it has been and continues to be global. Just another tool in the toolbox.

Subscriber/user radios are tuned/tweaked for the system the operate on -- scanners let you use a single radio to listen to nearly anything (well, sort of). You have to use the tools available to tweak to what you want to use it for.

Even if there were not competition, everyone used the same radios, systems, and they all changed over to the latest thing at the exact same time, they would never overcome things like distance, interference, etc.

 

[Halfpint]

I don't want to add squelch to the whole radio, the only one that I want to squelch is the new frequency I just added, and I'm thinking I have to do something in the squelch column in the software. The existing frequencies all have something in the squelch column. The help screen in the software has different things that can be added in the squelch column but I'm not up to speed on the jargon with the newer scanners. With my old analog scanners I never had to worry about things like that. Am I looking at this squelch thing wrong? The reason I'm thinking the way I'm thinking is I added some frequencies for another county that is about 100 miles from us that we spend some time in, and every one of those frequencies the scanner would lock on with just static. I had my old scanner set up the same way and if there wasn't any signal it would just scan over those channels. The only time I had to tweak the squelch was if the station was so weak I couldn't pick up the voice but it was strong enough to break the squelch.

The settings that are in the `squelch column' under `conventional' frequencies are only adjuncts to the main squelch control. They do not take the place of the main squelch despite how they may seem. In fact depending upon those settings only will actually cause the scanner to slow down it's scanning rate on not only those `channels' but also, *effectively*, on any trunked systems one may have entered because the scanner has to slow down to check those settings every pass through those `conventional' frequencies that have those secondary squelch setting set before it gets back to scanning the trunked system(s) . Setting the main squelch to a setting that will quiet the strongest *un-modulated* `conventional' frequency one has programmed into, and is of interest at a particular time or in a particular `scanlist', will still generally lead to a speedup of the rest of the scanning. The `main/manual' squelch is your friend.

 

[DonB69]

Thanks Halfpint, that was the explanation I was looking for, I've had scanners for years but the old analog ones didn't have the learning curve the digitals have. Maybe I'm just getting slow in my old age.

Would changing the settings in the squelch column speed the scanning up or would that be a no no?

 

[jackj]

A FM radio usually has a very high gain IF (intermediate frequency) stage. This stage's function isn't really important to this discussion but because of it's high gain it generates a lot of white noise when the radio isn't receiving a signal. This white noise is the rushing noise you hear between transmissions. The squelch circuit monitors this noise and mutes or squelches the audio stage when the noise in present. The control voltage developed by the squelch circuit is also used to stop the radio's scanning. The squelch control sets the amount of noise reduction needed to unsquelch the audio / stop the scanning. Tone squelch and digital squelch are not adjustable, the tone or code is either present or not. So adjusting the squelch knob will not effect the scanning speed as long as the scanner is fully squelched.

There is a Uniden employee on the list who states that Uniden also uses the squelch circuit on digital traffic. That doesn't make sense to me because the audio circuit of the scanner gets the audio signal from the digital decoder, not the FM discriminator. The decoder does not generate an audio signal if it isn't synced up to a data stream so there is no need to squelch the audio. So if what he says is true then I really have no idea what effect the squelch circuit would have on digital decoding.

 

[Halfpint]

Would changing the settings in the squelch column speed the scanning up or would that be a no no?

Uhmmmm... Yes *and* no... It can *sometimes* slow down the scan speed if you have the CTCSS/DCCS set to `search' and the `conventional' object you have it set on doesn't use one of those `tones' because it will stop every time to search for one. (I have also `heard' that for *some* situations the reverse *may* sometimes be true though, so far [Knocking on wood] *I* haven't yet run across that.) Now... Once you *do* have the necessary `tone'/`code' everything is basically `normal' `main' squelch-wise.

One of the `interesting?' things *I* have noticed with my 800 when I am scanning a `bunch' (Nice general term, isn't it?) of `conventional' objects/frequencies whilst also listening to a trunked system is *if* I don't have my squelch set properly for the `conventional' objects/frequencies things low down noticably *and* I can hear clicks/pops sneaking through whilst the scanner is scanning the `conventional' objects/frequencies even though there aren't any transmissions on them. Tweek the `main' squelch `just a hair' tighter and the scanner resumes it's normal fast scanning. Go figure! {GRIN!}