Scanner issue Please help

FORD77 · Nov 3, 2014

Ok, so as I have said in my last few post I purchased a BCD536HP about two month ago. Since then I have installed a roof top Discone antenna and ran that with about forty four feet of LMR-400 to my scanner. So here is the problem. I really only listen to my local FD including Colorado Springs Fire and all the county departments dispatched on El Paso County Red channel which dispatch about ten or so county departments. Now, the scanner works really well however daily I hit a dead spot in listing. The scanner is still scanning however I am not getting any dispatch from anything. It happens daily, sometimes twice or more, different times during the day or night. At first i thought maybe the call volume was just slow however I should have know better as CSFD and the county always has calls going. To test my theory I turned on my computer to Radio Reference and listen to the live audio feed and sure as heck I am missing calls. The problem seems to last maybe hour or two then just turns on like nothing was ever wrong. Does anyone out there have any solutions???? I hate to have my wife think I spent all this money and could have just listen to live feed on my ipod or computer for fee. Thanks in advance

jonwienke · Nov 3, 2014

Most likely causes are either a loose connection somewhere, or else something near your house is transmitting intermittently and desensitizing your scanner receiver.

Next time this happens, try turning on Close Call with all bands enabled, and see if it picks up some transmission that corresponds with the outages.

kc2kth · Nov 3, 2014

Jon's second suggestion - a nearby source overrunning the receiver front end - is what I thought of first. You have a pretty high gain, low loss antenna and feed line combo there. What if you run the scanner off the whip antenna? If you are still able to pick up the dispatch freqs that are problematic without the discone you may be able to determine if it is in fact a strong nearby signal. And yes, the close call feature may assist with this as well.

krokus · Nov 3, 2014

kc2kth said:
Jon's second suggestion - a nearby source overrunning the receiver front end - is what I thought of first. You have a pretty high gain, low loss antenna and feed line combo there. What if you run the scanner off the whip antenna? If you are still able to pick up the dispatch freqs that are problematic without the discone you may be able to determine if it is in fact a strong nearby signal. And yes, the close call feature may assist with this as well.

+1 in these suggestions, and I add that the problem could be some electrical or electronic equipment that is in use during those times, causing interference and/or desensing your scanner.

Sent via Tapatalk

FORD77 · Nov 3, 2014

jonwienke said:
Next time this happens, try turning on Close Call with all bands enabled, and see if it picks up some transmission that corresponds with the outages.

Forgive a newbie but what is the Close call feature?

FORD77 · Nov 3, 2014

kc2kth;2279350You have a pretty high gain said:
I am running the discone on the roof about the roofline, is there a different antenna you would recommend for me? I am running all digital 800mhz on local Colorado DTRS.

fxdscon · Nov 3, 2014

FORD77 said:
Forgive a newbie but what is the Close call feature?

A full explanation of the close call feature and all of the options associated with it are detailed in your owner's manual, page 70.

.

mass-man · Nov 3, 2014

What they are saying, is there could be something near you, that is transmitting a signal, that is strong enough to block your scanner....it could even be your computer. If you turn it on to hear the feed, and then turn it off, does the scanner go back to receiving as it should? Try the little antenna that came with the radio...you may not need the discone for solid reception and the short antenna might not be affected by the signal that is blocking you.
Is there something coming on in your house about the time the reception problems start? Plasma TV, computer in another room, special lighting, anything?
The close call feature will allow you to scan and only see the scanner stop on signals that are close to you...by using the little antenna, it will allow fewer signals to make it to the scanner.

FORD77 · Nov 3, 2014

I have a teenage son big into gaming and computers. Would WiFi and computer gaming do that?

joeuser · Nov 3, 2014

FORD77 said:
I have a teenage son big into gaming and computers. Would WiFi and computer gaming do that?

Most Wi-Fi operates at 2.5 & 5 GHz currently, older stuff in the 900's (very old stuff).

PC's give off lots of RFI, but moving the scanner &/or the PC would help, if not eliminate it. Turn off the PC when your scanner is locked up like you reported in the OP, does it resume scanning? If so, it may be the issue...

DickH · Nov 3, 2014

kc2kth suggested using just the antenna that came with your scanner.
Did you try it?
Did it work?

jonwienke · Nov 3, 2014

I doubt the interference source (if that is what is actually causing the problem) is anything inside the house. An outdoor antenna is less affected by such things because it is farther away from indoor interference sources, and they are under the antenna where it is less sensitive anyway. Switching to an indoor antenna would make such interference worse, not better.

Spitfire8520 · Nov 3, 2014

FORD77 said:
Ok, so as I have said in my last few post I purchased a BCD536HP about two month ago. Since then I have installed a roof top Discone antenna and ran that with about forty four feet of LMR-400 to my scanner. So here is the problem. I really only listen to my local FD including Colorado Springs Fire and all the county departments dispatched on El Paso County Red channel which dispatch about ten or so county departments. Now, the scanner works really well however daily I hit a dead spot in listing. The scanner is still scanning however I am not getting any dispatch from anything. It happens daily, sometimes twice or more, different times during the day or night. At first i thought maybe the call volume was just slow however I should have know better as CSFD and the county always has calls going. To test my theory I turned on my computer to Radio Reference and listen to the live audio feed and sure as heck I am missing calls. The problem seems to last maybe hour or two then just turns on like nothing was ever wrong. Does anyone out there have any solutions???? I hate to have my wife think I spent all this money and could have just listen to live feed on my ipod or computer for fee. Thanks in advance

I'm not entirely convinced it is interference as others have mentioned. First of all, which DTRS Site do you have programmed to and are you able to hear any other agency when Red/CSFD are silent (CSPD, EPSO)? Second of all would be whether or not the DAT icon ever goes away during the periods of quiet?

If the DAT never goes away, then it is unlikely that you are dealing with an interference issue. There is a bunch of details of trunking theory that applies to the Colorado DTRS since it is a 214 site system, one of which is that it is very important to select the correct site to program into the scanner or else you will end up not hearing what you want to hear.

On an unrelated note, welcome to the hobby! If you have any questions that deal with Colorado specific topics, feel free to head over to the Colorado Radio Discussion Forum for some local answers.

mitbr · Nov 3, 2014

Is there any 800 MHz transmitters within a mile of your location.
I was using my HP1 in the park the other day and one of the trunk sites I was listening to was about a mile away. I thought at first my scanner was broken because I couldn't receive anything except for that trunking system, apparently that site was desensing my radio.

kc2kth · Nov 3, 2014

FORD77 said:
I am running the discone on the roof about the roofline, is there a different antenna you would recommend for me? I am running all digital 800mhz on local Colorado DTRS.

No, that is a great antenna so long as it's not too much antenna. By disconnecting and using the whip provided with the scanner we are trying to determine if the issue is a strong signal or something else. Fact is I love discone antennas for scanner use, and even for transmitting on some amateur bands.

ofd8001 · Nov 3, 2014

Do you ever "drop" transmissions - as in right in the middle of a transmission, the scanner stops receiving?

Whenever you have that "lull" in transmissions, try doing a weather scan to see if the scanner is receiving. That's simpler than a close call attempt and you know the weather is broadcasting versus hoping something else is.

Also for trunked systems, the control channel is always transmitting so you should still see some signal strength indication. If not, then it's probably an antennna or feed line issue.

A "left field" thought is that you may have a bad connection. Temperatures at certain times may worsen the connection (probably during cooler weather). Also there may be just enough breeze to "move" things.

DickH · Nov 4, 2014

kc2kth said:
... You have a pretty high gain, low loss antenna and feed line combo there. ...

Discone antennas have no gain. I think you mean the feedline is low loss, not the antenna.

FORD77 · Nov 4, 2014

ofd8001 said:
Do you ever "drop" transmissions - as in right in the middle of a transmission, the scanner stops receiving?

No, never in the middle of transmissions. it is either sounding like gang busters on not working at all. I also in the basement and not sure if the whip antenna will work better or not. Seams that when I am getting transmissions they are coming in very well.

FORD77 · Nov 4, 2014

Spitfire8520 said:
I'm not entirely convinced it is interference as others have mentioned. First of all, which DTRS Site do you have programmed to and are you able to hear any other agency when Red/CSFD are silent (CSPD, EPSO)?

I have all the sites in Colo Springs programmed in, the one closest would be Fountain Valley. I am really not interested in listening to anything but fire, so not sure on SO or anything else for that matter.

On a side note I am really happy to be back in the hobby, was in for a few years 15 or 20 years ago after my grandfather gave me his Realistic scanner. MUCH easier back then. Don't think I quite have a handle on this programming stuff and exactly how trucked systems work. Had a Pro 106 for a month and sold it due to the programming involved.

kc2kth · Nov 4, 2014

DickH said:
Discone antennas have no gain. I think you mean the feedline is low loss, not the antenna.

You're right Dick, my wording wasn't quite right. The feed line is low loss and discones are typically well suited for scanner and in some cases 2m/70cm use was really what I was thinking. A very effective combination for pulling in a lot of signal.

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