pro652

I lost my signal strength on the screen how do I get it back?

You could reset your radio and loose everything. Not too good of an option. Maybe its your antenna.

What happened for them to go away?
Do you get a clear signal without the bars? Tune to a weather channel and see.

they disappeared after I uploaded to the scanner. seems to still get reception but shows no signal.
For some reason no weather channels get picked up have not figured out y.

lost signal strength

I have programmed two PRO-652's and two PRO-651's. I tested both PRIOR to using the ARC500 software, and signal strength bars were working. When I uploaded data to the scanners using the ARC500 software, the signal strength was lost on both PRO-652's and one of the PRO-651's. As mentioned, the signal was coming in, but the bars do not display.

Gotta be a defect of some sort because this was never a problem with the 106 & 197 models when GRE had them. And I programmed about a dozen of them.

-Len

When the scanner is set back to default factory settings, the signal bars work again. But as soon as you load any data from the ARC500 files, the signal bars are once again gone. Not good when trying to detect the signal strength on a P25 digital trunked system.

Seen this happen on a few units but of later ones seems to be ok. Wonder if this a defect or manufacturing glitch on some units?
And yes couple I saw had maybe one signal bar where it should have clearly been 4-5, but still received.

In software there are settings to change when each signal bar appears, maybe those numbers were changed for some reason, but clearly they appear to have been refixed at manufacturing?

If the behavior of the signal strength indication is changing on most of the new scanners, I would probably either lean the idea that the values were changed when some of the new hardware was implemented. It's either that or something has changed with how the scanner handles cloning that might need to be addressed.

I don't use ARC500 nor do I have the Whistler manufactured scanners, so sorry that I can't be of more help. I would suggest downloading from the scanner and then going to whatever Extended/Advanced Setting menu that you have. You would be looking for some type of option that indicates RSSI/Signal Strength level. You could alternatively go to the scanner itself to the Expert Setting Menu (PGM - FUNC - GLOB) and scrolling until you get to the RSSI Sig Cal menu on default settings. The defaults for the previous generation of scanners were the following:

Bar 1: 370
Bar 2: 450
Bar 3: 520
Bar 4: 610
Bar 5: 680

If nothing is different from the defaults and the programming file, then it might be helpful to see if these values change once you upload to it. If they are different than what you have set in the programming file, then something is up with how the scanner is handling cloning.

I'd be interested in hearing if anyone using PSREdit or Win500 is having similar issues.

Thanks everyone

Issue SOLVED!

Spitfire8520 has been a GREAT help.

I reset the PRO-652 back to the default settings. I downloaded/read the scanner, and it read the following bars:

Bar 1: 190
Bar 2: 230
Bar 3: 260
Bar 4: 290
Bar 5: 320

I have a file saved that I use for my PRO-197. I went into the file, and changed the settings that Spitfire8520 mentioned, and changed them to what the PRO-652 is set to.

It is working perfect now. I should mention that I am using the ARC500 software.

Thanks again Spitfire. ... never gave it a thought to check the "Expert" settings. Im not the expert I thought I was lol.

other changes

A few other changes that I have noticed in the settings:

PRO-652:

EndToneMOT= 80 (PRO-197 is 250)
Zeromatic: 5klnHi= 527 (PRO-197 is 552)
InHi= 558 (PRO-197 is 594)

Other than those above and the signal bar settings, everything else is the same as the PRO-197/106 settings.

Glad I could be of help! I'm rather interested in hearing about what other hardware differences may exist between the GRE vs Whistler manufactured scanners as Don has mentioned many times in the past.

After working on radios with the different firmwares, just to say I can confirm as I suspected that 2.6 firmware uses the same numbers as the 106-197 models.

2.8 firmware is the only one that requires the newer numbers.

Very interesting, I was under the impression that the Whistler version scanners only had one firmware version. But if I understand this right, you're saying there is two firmware versions, 2.6, and 2.8. I wonder when they changed. My 651, purchased last week has a May 2014 date code in the battery box. It shows firmware version. 2.6. If later date codes have ver. 2.8, then obviously Whistler has a upgrade file they haven't released to the public. Even if they released the older 2.6 firmware, it would be welcomed for those folks who have bricked radios. This is of extreme interest, since RadioShack will no longer be a source for firmware, or service.

muskrat39 said:

Very interesting, I was under the impression that the Whistler version scanners only had one firmware version. But if I understand this right, you're saying there is two firmware versions, 2.6, and 2.8. I wonder when they changed. My 651, purchased last week has a May 2014 date code in the battery box. It shows firmware version. 2.6. If later date codes have ver. 2.8, then obviously Whistler has a upgrade file they haven't released to the public. Even if they released the older 2.6 firmware, it would be welcomed for those folks who have bricked radios. This is of extreme interest, since RadioShack will no longer be a source for firmware, or service.

Click to expand...

I would love to know that myself. My 652 has the same date code, but yet has v2.6 firmware. I'd love to get the v2.8 if there is a link to be had via Whistler or whatever to get such, at least that way I know I've got the latest to work with.

No firmware updates exist just a difference in some hardware is all. If one did try an update the radio WILL be bricked!

See http://forums.radioreference.com/gre-scanners/303131-gre-made-scanner-firmware-update.html and look at comment 15 as well.

As far as I'm aware, 2.8 was released to "fix" user errors. People were deleting their firmware from their scanners and Whistler support released 2.8 so that they use their scanners again which is why no change log was released for the new firmware. http://forums.radioreference.com/gre-scanners/301073-troubleshooting-whistler-ws1065.html has the details.

Leonard who reported the changes in RSSI values has the Pro-652, which runs on 2.6. Was the scanners with firmware 2.6 programmed by software prior to you messing with them?

Hmmmm, I know of at least two members here who have bricked 651/652 radios. It would be interesting to find out if the Whistler 2.8 file would work on the RS units. They certainly wouldn't have anything to lose by trying it. If I am understanding right from other threads, the radios are identical. It was just in the past, that RS had to approve the updates before they were posted on the RS site. That was for GRE, but if the same is true for Whistler, than possibly the 2.8 would restore bricked 651/652 radios.

muskrat39 said:

That was for GRE, but if the same is true for Whistler, than possibly the 2.8 would restore bricked 651/652 radios.

Click to expand...

Not a chance and I would avoid trying to get people's hopes up. Don Starr, the person responsible for all the firmwares, has a fairly short and concise statement on the matter.

DonS said:

The firmware for the various incarnations of this scanner family are not compatible with each other.

PSR-500/600 firmware works only with PSR-500/600
PRO-106/197 firmware works only with PRO-106/197
WS1040/1065 firmware works only with WS1040/1065
PRO-651/652 firmware works only with PRO-651/652

Click to expand...

Oh, I didn't know Don't Starr wrote the firmware, I thought someone in China wrote it. Like the old Blackbird satellite receivers. (And yes, I am that Muskrat from the Pirate Den lol). Must be something in the CPU that only recognizes the correct firmware.

So is there any kind of work-around so that you don't have to keep changing these settings back every time you upload?

(Using Pro 651 with Arc software)

Thanks