Antenna Signal Doesn't Show Anymore

[canopy]

This happened to me about a month ago and just happened again today. I have my scanner on while I'm at home working and notice that I haven't heard anything in a while. I'll go the scanner app for the county (not provided by me) and listen to the feed there and there are call outs. When I look at the display the scanner doesn't show any signal strength on the antenna - like it's not there at all.

This happened about a month ago and thought it had to do something with my programming, so I used the Sentinel Software to create a list and loaded it. It actually worked to do that. I'm still on the Sentinel programming, but today I'm having the same problem with my antenna as before. I went back to my old list and it didn't work either. It's like my scanner is working fine one minute and then the next it isn't.

Any suggestions?
Troubleshooting steps I took: Powered down the scanner and turned it back on, checked for firmware updates, loaded another list that was already stored on the card, updated the Sentinel database and loaded a new list and updated the scanner with it. Loaded the full database and it does have signal strength to some of the local feeds (like the State Police which I usually Avoid)

 

[cmjonesinc]

Knowing what system and site you are trying to monitor would be helpful. The control channel frequency may have changed. Loading the latest info from that database may solve it. If it has changed and no one has submitted the info then you'll either have to figure out the new frequency yourself or wait for someone to submit it. This may not be your problem but if everything was working fine and you made no changes, then it suddenly isn't, it's a good place to start.

 

[canopy]

Knowing what system and site you are trying to monitor would be helpful. The control channel frequency may have changed. Loading the latest info from that database may solve it. If it has changed and no one has submitted the info then you'll either have to figure out the new frequency yourself or wait for someone to submit it. This may not be your problem but if everything was working fine and you made no changes, then it suddenly isn't, it's a good place to start.

Thanks for the info! I just saw a new thread on the Fauquier/Culpeper/Rappahannock thread here that " Two new frequencies in use for the Fauquier simulcast - 852.8500 and 853.7125. These have been added to the database. "
These haven't been added to the Sentinel database yet, but I manually added them into my Feed and now it works! Learn something new every day.

 

[cmjonesinc]

Glad that got you rolling. Control channel changes can be a headache.

 

[drdispatch]

One way around that is to load all frequencies of the site(s). That way if the control channel changes, it won't matter. You will, however have to watch the system/sites for any new frequencies. (My state has been adding 700Mhz frequencies to a lot of sites on the statewide system lately.)

 

[nessnet]

Thanks for the info! I just saw a new thread on the Fauquier/Culpeper/Rappahannock thread here that " Two new frequencies in use for the Fauquier simulcast - 852.8500 and 853.7125. These have been added to the database. "
These haven't been added to the Sentinel database yet, but I manually added them into my Feed and now it works! Learn something new every day.

If not in RR, submit the changes, so it is (in Sentinel)...

 

[WB9YBM]

This happened to me about a month ago and just happened again today. I have my scanner on while I'm at home working and notice that I haven't heard anything in a while. I'll go the scanner app for the county (not provided by me) and listen to the feed there and there are call outs. When I look at the display the scanner doesn't show any signal strength on the antenna - like it's not there at all.

There are a few possibilities:

• There's some kind of nearby strong signal (noise or otherwise) that could be "swamping out" your receiver--desensitizing the receiver (like a nearby broadcast station);
• a loose connection / cold solder connection somewhere between your antenna and the receiver (either in your antenna system/feedline or inside the radio itself);
• a burnt-out component in the front end of the receiver--possibly taken out by static and/or nearby lightning.