Hi. I just mounted a Pro-197 in my car's dash and am having issues with reception. In the house, this radio works great; in the car, not so much. When I try to scan, the Signal meter gets 5 bars, 3 bars and then cuts out. I can hear part of the conversation but it keeps cutting out midway and back again. Any ideas as for what I can do to fix it? Could it be the ground for the power wire (which is tapped into the cigarette lighter?) It's the only thing I can think of. Ideas?
Pro-197 Signal Issues
- Thread starter scottymcneill8657
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Typically scanner radios do not work near as well in a vehicle, as they do in the home. What are you using for an antenna?
Magnet mount antenna- can't mount into frame(work vehicle) and glass is tinted. My handheld ht worked great with same antenna so I think it is a grounding issue.
Is the radio/mounting bracket mounted to steel, or plastic? If plastic, you might need to run a grounded jumper to a good ground.
1.) Steel.
2.) I just realized how redundant "handheld ht" is
2.) I just realized how redundant "handheld ht" is
Is the ht also a Radio Shack/GRE, or Uniden?
Tried a pro-96 and a baofeng uv-5r; both of those work fine with same antenna.
The antenna is hooked up with a 24ft extension (in order to hide it in the vehicle trim) along with about 12ft directly to antenna. Could that be a problem?
ATTenuator on?
I've tried global and the regular as well as turning both off and it doesn't make much difference.
Hum...tough one!
Could you explain the "24 foot extension" and the "12 foot" to the antenna. The cutting out could be due to a priority (weather, close call, etc) setting.
The 12ft piece is what is permanently mounted to the antenna- the 24ft piece is a bnc-bnc cable plus a bnc coupler. I had to use both because of where the radio is in relation to the antenna-12ft was not near long enough.
Run red and black thick wire to the battery and put a connector on it,make sure its fused ! then when you are not in the vehicle you hide the wire and connector nobody knows the difference,anyone asks,it was there!Keep the antenna away from anything else.Keep the antenna wire short
N8IAA
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24' of extra coax, plus the connector, makes for a great deal of signal loss. If you are listening to nothing but 800MHz, get the RS 800MHz antenna. It will work much better than 36' of coax.
Larry
YES!!! I doubt you are running LMR-400 in an auto. You need to make the cable as short as reasonably possible, and the lowest loss coax you can find. Since LMR-400 is not mobile friendly, I'd try and get some low loss RG-6/etc.
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