Motorola HT1000 Help?

[Kevin_CCR]

So I just bought a Motorola HT1000. I am completely new to scanners and ham radios so I really don't know what I'm doing. I tried to program a BNSF frequency into it with the RSS software but I don't think I'm receiving anything. I tried a few other ones too like the King County Fire Dispatch and still nothing. Any tips?

 

[BlueDevil]

Try something that you know has essentially continuous transmission, for example the local NOAA Weather Radio.

 

[Kevin_CCR]

Try something that you know has essentially continuous transmission, for example the local NOAA Weather Radio.

What would I put for IF Bandwidth? I haven't been able to really find anything on that.

 

[zz0468]

Can you unsquelch the radio and hear white noise?

 

[Kevin_CCR]

So I got the NOAA Weather channel working but when I tried any bnsf frequencies they dont seem to receive anything.

 

[RBMTS]

We should move this post to the Washington forum.

Kevin - where are you exactly? You might be too far away to hear railroad. Plus we don't know what frequencies you are trying to listen to. Obviously if your HT-1000 is picking up the NOAA channel then it must work. Maybe you have PL on for the railroad frequencies and you should turn it off. There is a number of very active Seattle RR frequencies that you might have better luck with.

As for the South King County fire channel (I assume 154.07), that frequency is not used any longer. It is a backup in case the main trunking system were to go down. All fire and public safety is on the 800Mhz trunking system which you won't be able to listen to.

Honestly there isn't much in King county on VHF in the way of public safety.

 

[Kevin_CCR]

Shoot that sucks. Also on the BNSF frequencies I tried changing the TPL and there was no change.

 

[cmdrwill]

Railroads do not use PL or DPL, set your radio to carrier squelch.

 

[KB1GEH]

As stated above, railroads for the most part don't use pl tones. You could set your bandwidth to 12.5 KHz as they have moved to this. However, for listening it really doesn't matter. I have several older wideband radios that hear railroads just fine. If you don't already have one, I would recommend the 8" plus long 136-174 Mhz. wideband antenna ( # 8505518V01 )for your HT1000. You get the best of both worlds in that it makes for better reception and, you can also use it to transmit on the 2 Meter Ham band.

 

[Kevin_CCR]

So I actually have the 8in antenna. And I just reprogrammed four channels and still nothing.

 

[BlueDevil]

Did you get it working?

 

[Kevin_CCR]

I did. Also I found out my house is too far away to listen to any frequencies so I just listen on the way to work.

 

[cmdrwill]

So I actually have the 8in antenna. And I just reprogrammed four channels and still nothing.

You may have the wrong antenna, Look for the color in the base of the antenna. The antenna may not be a Motorola OEM so who knows if it is the correct one for VHF.

I just got two MT2000 Vhf radios that have 800 mhz antennas...... on them...

 

[KK4JUG]

You may have the wrong antenna, Look for the color in the base of the antenna. The antenna may not be a Motorola OEM so who knows if it is the correct one for VHF.

I just got two MT2000 Vhf radios that have 800 mhz antennas...... on them...

I remember several years ago there were antennae for those Motorolas that were fake but were unwittingly be sold as OEM by many dealers.

 

[KB1GEH]

I'm glad that you are at least able to hear them on the way to work. To help clear up the antenna mystery, here is a breakdown of the Jedi antennas that I grabbed from a thread in Batlabs.

Antenna s for the Jedi series is as follows:

VHF Wide Band Helical (8.1"): Red (NAD6563)
VHF Helical 136-151 (7.8"): Yellow (NAD6566)
VHF Helical 151-562 (7.3"): Black (NAD6567)
VHF Helical 162-178 (6.9"): Blue (NAD6568) 8505518V01

UHF Helical 403-435 (3.3"): Red (NAE6546)
UHF Helical 435-470 (3.2"): Green (NAE6547)
UHF Helical 470-520 (3.2"): Black (NAE6548)
UHF Wide Band Whip (5.2"): Grey (NAE6549)

800 Whip (7"): Red (NAF5037)
800 1/4 Wave Stubby (3.3"): White (NAF5042)
800 Dipole (8"): Red (NAF5039).

Note that the VHF wide band and the 800 Mhz Dipole are both approximately 8" long and are ironically both colored red at the base. However, they are very different in appearance with the Dipole being a larger diameter for about 3/4 the length of the antenna while the VHF is large for only about half the length.

Hope this info helps.