Hello All,
I have never posted on this site. I am a full time patrol deputy and a part time emergency equipment installer. I do not have a lot of knowledge when it comes to the digital systems or how they work. I know about enough to get me in trouble. So here is my problem…
INFO: Installed in my current patrol vehicle a 2015 Ford PI Utility SUV, I have a Motorola XTL 2500 (Digital 800), Motorola PM400 (UHF) & Motorola PM400 (VHF). My XTL 2500 is having issues reaching the towers when others in my department or the Highway Patrol don’t have this problem. Let me explain. Our radios normally jump from about four different towers depending on where we are in the county. The county in which I work specifically doesn’t have a tower in it. We are on the Kansas State system and monitor KHP traffic along with surrounding counties on the state system. My vehicle is a slick top and have all three antennas mounted in the center of the roof in a straight line. Each antenna is right at or just over 1ft apart (I know not 18 inches). The XTL 2500 has a Laird Tech. #ETRAB8063 806-866MHz 3dBMEG Phantom Elite NMO Style antenna, PM400 (UHF) has a Laird Tech. #ETRAB4503 450-470MHz 3dBMEG Phantom Elite NMO Style antenna and the PM400 (VHF) has a Laird Tech. quarter wave antenna. They are mounted on the roof in that order with the 800 MHz antenna being closest to the front of the vehicle. There is no light bar mounted to the exterior of the vehicle either.
ISSUE: I can be parked right next to another deputy or trooper running the same radio and same scan list. We will both be hitting the same tower for the example we will just say Tower “A”. When someone starts transmitting on let’s say Channel 1, they will pick them up and I won’t. I can even be parked closer to the tower and they will still get them and my radio will be silent. My vehicle is even taller than the chargers and they still hit the tower better. After pressing the RSSI button I’ll be hitting the tower at like 67 and my follow deputy will be hitting the tower at like 96. Sometimes I will be 20 miles from the tower and be in the 60’s then I get 40 miles from the tower an I’m in the 80’s. When I get within 10 miles I’m normally or 100. However same thing will happen while I’m driving down the road and I have my XTS5000 handheld on. My handheld will pick up transmissions my mobile won’t and they are hitting the same tower. My XTS5000 sometimes even has a lower RSSI reading and picks up channel 1, when my mobile never does. Now many may ask are you sure you have your scan bank set up correctly. The answer is yes. I am very familiar with setting up the scan lists, as I set the rest of our radios up for the other deputies whose radios are receiving better. Yes, my scan is on. Do I have good power? The answer is yes. It is connected to the battery as the manual says. Is the coax cable bad? No it was just checked by the Motorola tech, using some device I’ve never seen. They said no reflectivity problem. The coax cables do all meet near the F pillar and run together on their way to the console, I don’t know if that’s an issue or not. Now the other thing to note is the other deputies all run different antennas. Some run the longer antennas with the coils in them, others run small quarter wave ones, but they all seem to work better than my Phantom antenna, but I can’t understand why? Its 3d MEG? The radio was just ran through all the test at the local Motorola radio shop and passed everything. It took it 3x times they said and was way would off frequency. Even them fixing all the errors it still didn’t fix my problem. So I am at a loss. The only other thing I can think of is I know when time the screw in part of the coax cable made contact with a positive. It bounced of the positive contact. It did make a pop sound, however didn’t even blow the fuse. The current antenna I have now was installed at that time. Should I try a different antenna? If so which one?
Any advice, or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
I have never posted on this site. I am a full time patrol deputy and a part time emergency equipment installer. I do not have a lot of knowledge when it comes to the digital systems or how they work. I know about enough to get me in trouble. So here is my problem…
INFO: Installed in my current patrol vehicle a 2015 Ford PI Utility SUV, I have a Motorola XTL 2500 (Digital 800), Motorola PM400 (UHF) & Motorola PM400 (VHF). My XTL 2500 is having issues reaching the towers when others in my department or the Highway Patrol don’t have this problem. Let me explain. Our radios normally jump from about four different towers depending on where we are in the county. The county in which I work specifically doesn’t have a tower in it. We are on the Kansas State system and monitor KHP traffic along with surrounding counties on the state system. My vehicle is a slick top and have all three antennas mounted in the center of the roof in a straight line. Each antenna is right at or just over 1ft apart (I know not 18 inches). The XTL 2500 has a Laird Tech. #ETRAB8063 806-866MHz 3dBMEG Phantom Elite NMO Style antenna, PM400 (UHF) has a Laird Tech. #ETRAB4503 450-470MHz 3dBMEG Phantom Elite NMO Style antenna and the PM400 (VHF) has a Laird Tech. quarter wave antenna. They are mounted on the roof in that order with the 800 MHz antenna being closest to the front of the vehicle. There is no light bar mounted to the exterior of the vehicle either.
ISSUE: I can be parked right next to another deputy or trooper running the same radio and same scan list. We will both be hitting the same tower for the example we will just say Tower “A”. When someone starts transmitting on let’s say Channel 1, they will pick them up and I won’t. I can even be parked closer to the tower and they will still get them and my radio will be silent. My vehicle is even taller than the chargers and they still hit the tower better. After pressing the RSSI button I’ll be hitting the tower at like 67 and my follow deputy will be hitting the tower at like 96. Sometimes I will be 20 miles from the tower and be in the 60’s then I get 40 miles from the tower an I’m in the 80’s. When I get within 10 miles I’m normally or 100. However same thing will happen while I’m driving down the road and I have my XTS5000 handheld on. My handheld will pick up transmissions my mobile won’t and they are hitting the same tower. My XTS5000 sometimes even has a lower RSSI reading and picks up channel 1, when my mobile never does. Now many may ask are you sure you have your scan bank set up correctly. The answer is yes. I am very familiar with setting up the scan lists, as I set the rest of our radios up for the other deputies whose radios are receiving better. Yes, my scan is on. Do I have good power? The answer is yes. It is connected to the battery as the manual says. Is the coax cable bad? No it was just checked by the Motorola tech, using some device I’ve never seen. They said no reflectivity problem. The coax cables do all meet near the F pillar and run together on their way to the console, I don’t know if that’s an issue or not. Now the other thing to note is the other deputies all run different antennas. Some run the longer antennas with the coils in them, others run small quarter wave ones, but they all seem to work better than my Phantom antenna, but I can’t understand why? Its 3d MEG? The radio was just ran through all the test at the local Motorola radio shop and passed everything. It took it 3x times they said and was way would off frequency. Even them fixing all the errors it still didn’t fix my problem. So I am at a loss. The only other thing I can think of is I know when time the screw in part of the coax cable made contact with a positive. It bounced of the positive contact. It did make a pop sound, however didn’t even blow the fuse. The current antenna I have now was installed at that time. Should I try a different antenna? If so which one?
Any advice, or tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.