PSR-800 and Cherry Hill EDACS

[murphdog]

I have a brand new PSR-800 that has issues monitoring the Cherry Hill NJ EDACS system. It misses many transmissions. When it does receive them the audio "pops" and the signal goes back and forth from 2-4 bars and flickers for a second or two then drops the transmission. When pausing it on a talk group I see the signal going back and forth from 1-4 bars.Occasionally it will decode just fine in the same spot it was having issues earlier.

I took the antenna off it and put it on my PSR-500. The 500 has no problems hearing the system other then a little noise in the audio which is normal. The PSR800 is receiving other systems fine. I have tried the current and older CPU and DSP. Right now it had the newest Phase II beta firmware.

It the 800 less sensitive then the 500? Then seems to be what the issue is at the moment. I brought it closer to the Mercer St site and it had less issues. There is nothing in the area that would desensitize or interfere with the scanner. I confirmed that the RR data that populated the scanner for that system is correct.

Exchanging/Returning it will be a pita as HRO is difficult to deal with when it comes to returns.

Any ideas?

[nursepen]

I currently use radio shacks portable 800mhz antenna and have no problem hearing cherry hill

[murphdog]

I am going to try a different antenna cut for 700/800 once I figure this out. The stock PSR-800 antenna works fine on the PSR-500. I'm just trying to figure out if the sensitivity is lower on the 800 or if I got a bad unit.

Thanks

[policefreak]

Where are you monitoring from? The PSR 800 is a very sensitive radio which is a good thing except when you're near a cell phone tower or another 800mhz tower. If you are monitoring outside cherry hill this could be more of a problem.

[murphdog]

I'm in Cherry Hill near the Cherry Hill/Lawnside border. No cell towers for approx 1mi(by air) The signal is not great(-95dB on a measured on a Harris Portable) but usable and the PSR500 has no issues. I may contact HRO at this point but I expect an issue as they are not return friendly.If it should be as sensitive or more sensitive as the 500 then I may have a bad unit.

[W2GLD]

Just as a suggestion, and you may already be setup this way. Are your talkgroups programmed as AFS or decimal? I have had issues with the Cherry Hill system when the talkgroups were programmed as decimal, but they always worked correctly as AFS.

Also, double check you're frequency programming. If you're missing transmissions, it sounds more like you've got the LCN's programmed out of order or are missing one or more.

The information in the database is correct. I updated before I moved out-of-state a year ago, but that was the latest updates following their rebanding. As of my last visit back to the area a few months ago, all the information was still valid.

The PSR-800 isn't the greatest scanner for that area as some might suggest. The best overall scanner for the area is actually the Uniden BCD396/996XT series. They are the best at sensitivity and selectivity; they have a wealth of features and just plain work... That said, the addition of all the TDMA trunking in New Jersey/Philadelphia is going to make them obsolete soon; however, I'm certain Uniden is working on an updated version, probably set to release at CES...

Good luck, but I'd return the PSR-800; especially with the potential of a company that can't support it longterm...

[jcardani]

Also check to see if any channels are accidentally locked out. I have had that problem before.

[policefreak]

I'm going to be right in that area later day around evesham road. I will swing by with my psr 800 and see what I get.

[troymail]

I know you said the radio is new but is it running the latest CPU and DSP? Might be worth loading/installing the latest again/anyway.

[policefreak]

If you're anywhere near the Patco Station on Evesham Road there is definitely some kind of interference on the Cherry Hill system. Both my PSR 800 and my BCD 396xt picked it up. I noticed some kind of tower in back of the station. But the interference stretched for at least a half mile beyond that point towards Springdale. So maybe its not your radio

[W2GLD]

Originally Posted by policefreak

If you're anywhere near the Patco Station on Evesham Road there is definitely some kind of interference on the Cherry Hill system. Both my PSR 800 and my BCD 396xt picked it up. I noticed some kind of tower in back of the station. But the interference stretched for at least a half mile beyond that point towards Springdale. So maybe its not your radio

That location is one of the new Camden County sites for their TRS simulcast system and they would indeed affect the PSR-800 greatly as their front ends suck...

[murphdog]

Today it is working pretty well. It was unplugged for two days so who know if that had something to do with it.

I double checked and It is programmed correctly.The talk groups are in AFS.

I am a few blocks off the speed line so that would be some new possible interference if they have that site active. Maybe the PSR-500 has some better rejection. I will have to look further into this. I used to be fairly RF intermod free here.


I did reload all firmware and the DSP.

Maybe it has issues with Simulcast systems. While it is not in the simulcast capture zone, TX from this area gets voted often at either tower site. I also looked for a bad channel and they all were about the same.

Thanks all for your feedback and doing a drive by, its much appreciated.

[murphdog]

I made some changes via software and realized that I had defaulted a lot of the settings that I had changed once I wrote to the radio. Once I started scanning the problem was back.

Through trial and error I went back through the changes I made before. For some reason changing the DSP Level adapt from 64 to 54 seems to have fixed it. Or maybe it's just a coincidence.