Just received ny PSR-600 today and am a little disappointed in the sensitivity. Am in Buffalo, NY and with my Bearcat 15 and my Bearcat 396xt I can listen to the Canadian Bell Fleet-net system. Can't get anything on the PSR-600. It's a VHF system. Think I'm doing everything correctly. But I can't even hear the control channels if I tune them manually. I know it's too far away to use the stock antenna's that come with all the radios. But I have a DPD Omni-X about 10ft above the ridge line on the roof of the house. It works great with the Bearcats but nothing with the PSR. Any thoughts?
I'd like to approach this so-called `problem' from another direction, the antenna. While I don't have a DPD Omni-X, and have no `axe to grind' concerning DPD products, I do have several assorted antennas I work with. I have also had some experience with Uniden products over the years. But, I admit that except for a few `outliers' my `shack' is mainly GRE products.
Over the years I've discovered that, despite various claims about one brand supposedly being either better or worse than another reception-wise it is what `options', `functions', `layout', and personal preferences that mainly influences radio/brand choice. What influences reception is more in the realm of the antenna in use. Unidens seem to prefer `hotter' antennas VS GRE and their preference for, what for better words, `cooler' antennas. An example would be, and this is using rather old models, a BC-200xlt VS a PRO-43. The BC-200xlt did it's `best' when hooked up to a 5/8 WL base antenna about 25' up whilst the PRO-43 worked best using a little 1/4 mobile `spike' mounted on about a 1' X 1' piece of sheet metal also mounted about 25' up. Both antennas had cables made out of some RS RG6u coax. The BC-200xlt provided me with a reception radius of around 55miles on all bands I was interested in receiving at that time whilst the PRO-43 provided around 60 - 65 miles radius. Switching the antennas, though, was a real `eye-opener'! The BC-200xlt only dropped about 5 miles. The PRO-43 lost almost 15 miles! On a whim I inserted an attenuator into the line to the PRO-43 and as I attenuated the signals the PRO-43 started picking up and eventually returned to what it had been off of the first antenna!
What the preceeding says, at least to me, is that your `problem' just may be that you are actually possibly using too much antenna. And, as a further example of what I am trying to say... My current antenna for my `herd' of PCR-1000s, PRO-2006s, PRO-2067s PRO-2055s, PRO-2096s, *and* PSR-600s is a `cheap?' RS mag mount mobile antenna sitting atop the metal roof of a trailer house about 15' up from ground level coming through a trio of Stridsberg 8-port multi-couplers fed by a Stridsberg 2-port mult-coupler and I am able to receive a couple of the Wyo-Link sites to the North of me almost as well as I can the Colo DTRS sites that are prety much all around me along with pretty much all the remaining VH-hi, VH-lo, and UHF signals. This is approximately a 70 mile radius! I've tried it and several other antennas on several different height mountings and keep coming back to the mag mount on the roof. I have also had several people bring their `fave' scanner(s) over and we have done similar comparisons with similar results.
Instead of just `blowing off' the PSR-600 I'd suggest that you take and perform a round of antenna testing, or playing with an attenuator, first. Oh, yeah... I also happen to have a couple `blowtorch' AM and FM transmitters within 2 - 3 miles South of me along with several other fairly high powered transmitters for paging and telemetery in about a 1/4 - 5 mile radius. (It has been somewhat jokingly mentioned that I could be considered to be living in `RF-hell' because of all the assorted transmitters I've got surrounding me though I submit that *that* `title' belongs to the area around 120 AVE and I-25 which is about 18 -19 miles South of me.)
Oh, well... Just an `Olde Fart's' 2¢ worth... {WAN GRIN!}