Pro 651/652 wont scan my PD with proper PL

[wltrsf]

Hello, my first post in a long time. Here is my problem. I have both the 651 and 652 that I bought for about $250 when RS was closing a lot of stores. The town I live in, Littleton Ma operates on a repeater with an output of 155.85 MHZ with a PL of 151.4, which worked fine on my PRO-96. When I first programmed the scanners I realized I wasn't hearing them anymore. So I programmed the input freq with the same PL and heard the mobile units just fine. Then I decided to put in an additional channel with the same freq. ,155.85, but no PL just search mode. After this the scanners began to pick up the transmissions again. However if I stored the 151.4 PL it finds it again missed everything. Then I found if I put the scanner in manual mode and park it on this freq with 151.4 PL on it receives everything. This is very disappointing to me, after all how would I know what other conventional frequencies I could be missing? I wonder if anyone has encountered this kind of problem before? Is this a case of you get what you pay for?

 

[wbswetnam]

Hello, my first post in a long time. Here is my problem. I have both the 651 and 652 that I bought for about $250 when RS was closing a lot of stores. The town I live in, Littleton Ma operates on a repeater with an output of 155.85 MHZ with a PL of 151.4, which worked fine on my PRO-96. When I first programmed the scanners I realized I wasn't hearing them anymore. So I programmed the input freq with the same PL and heard the mobile units just fine. Then I decided to put in an additional channel with the same freq. ,155.85, but no PL just search mode. After this the scanners began to pick up the transmissions again. However if I stored the 151.4 PL it finds it again missed everything. Then I found if I put the scanner in manual mode and park it on this freq with 151.4 PL on it receives everything. This is very disappointing to me, after all how would I know what other conventional frequencies I could be missing? I wonder if anyone has encountered this kind of problem before? Is this a case of you get what you pay for?

I have had both the Pro-96 and the Pro-652 (the Pro-652 is mounted in my car, in fact). No, I have not encountered that problem, I have to say. I have problems with my Home Patrol 1 missing all transmissions on a local sheriff's department if I set the proper PL tone, which was 100.0 hz. All of my other radios can receive it with the 100.0 PL tone set, but not the Home Patrol 1. I had to remove the PL tone entirely in order to receive that sheriff's frequency. Also, if I set it for CSQ /tone search, it will display the 100.0 hz tone but if I set the tone to that, it won't receive it. Strange. (shrug) So I suggest not setting the tone and have it CSQ (i.e., open squelch and not tone squelch).

 

[DickH]

I know this doesn't answer your question or solve your problem, but if you are not getting interference on that freq. you don't need the PL tone.

 

[wltrsf]

I know this doesn't answer your question or solve your problem, but if you are not getting interference on that freq. you don't need the PL tone.

That's what I have done. The other issue I didn't mention is my 2011 Chevrolet Silverado produces interference on VHF frequencies that don't have tones. I also try to listen to railroad frequencies which being CSQ can be frustrating. The interference issue with the Chevrolet also affects a Uniden BCXT 396 so that's not a Radio Shack issue.

 

[wltrsf]

Update 6/24/16- 1)I found the problem with not receiving the PD with the PL on seems to only occur at home. When mobile I received the PD with the PL on. I haven't checked outside the house in the yard.

2)After seeing a comment on the Scan New England website that a poster has to run attenuation on GRE scanners to hear signals on VHF, I tried that and it solved the issue at home. I haven't checked the mobile CSQ interference issue yet with attenuation turned on.

3) So I am looking for advice, should I turn on attenuation on all VHF frequencies even if I don't have interference issues with all of them?

 

[DJ11DLN]

If using the attenuator works, then use it. You'll just have to try it and see if it does. It won't hurt anything, it just reduces RF gain on the objects where you enable it. If you're hearing all traffic on that frequency clearly, then problem solved.

If you have interference, start turning stuff off and disconnecting circuits in your home until you locate the source. Sometimes things that you would never suspect can and do cause interference and if you want to monitor, you have to replace them with something that doesn't emit RFI.