Noise threshold? PSR 500

[tampatracker]

I'm wondering if anyone has or is getting any better reception with following this advice from Marks Scanners "Noise Threshold sounds like the number of noisy 'bits' that the scanner will allow prior to retuning or adjusting with the DSP. External noise appearing at the front end of a receiver, plus the noise added by the receiver itself; determines a noise threshold that has to be exceeded by the minimum discernible signal. Default Value: 20. Values: Enter 1-128. Suggested value 45-50." Anyone? Post Script; on doing a search on this subject I've found a few different threads on this topic. I don't mean to beat a dead horse but is there anymore input on the subject or newer updated experiences out there? Just asking.....T.T.

 

[RoninJoliet]

Just read in another post a guy set it to "5" and got good results and in the same thread on another post a guy got no results...I have tried everything here on the ILL-700/800 Starcom to get good decode on this system on the 500 and since the leaves hit the trees it just sits there and blinks with no audio on multisite systems while my Uniden 396XT and 996XT talk away....The GRE500 works great on stand alone towers but when it comes to multisite it only works good on some systems in the country and mine is not one...I would like to buy the PSR800 but im affraid the same problem will occur.....

 

[gewecke]

Just read in another post a guy set it to "5" and got good results and in the same thread on another post a guy got no results...I have tried everything here on the ILL-700/800 Starcom to get good decode on this system on the 500 and since the leaves hit the trees it just sits there and blinks with no audio on multisite systems while my Uniden 396XT and 996XT talk away....The GRE500 works great on stand alone towers but when it comes to multisite it only works good on some systems in the country and mine is not one...I would like to buy the PSR800 but im affraid the same problem will occur.....

Ronin are you using your 500 at home or mobile? I have my 197 at home on a diamond x50a @ 35' with belden 9913F and I know it's not tuned to receive 700/800 but the starcom tower is lest than 2 miles away and I have a little problem at times,but for the most part I receive the tower at 99% but I do have a lot of drop out on starcom. I have not played with the DSP settings yet.
I do have a lot of limbs, leaves around my antenna.

Thanks,
n9zas

 

[ScannerSK]

I have experimented with the Noise Threshold setting on the Colorado P25 system. I noted that a higher value allows more conversation to be heard under weak signal conditions however the voice quality may suffer and sound more choppy at times even when the signal is full strength.

I just noticed the following paragraph in the GRE manual:

"GRE's Exclusive Automatic Adaptive Digital Tracking - When
monitoring P25 digital systems, instantly adapts the digital
decoder to the digital modulation format of the transmitted signal,
then analyzes the signal over 50 times each second and adapts
to any subtle changes caused by multipath or fading. No
cumbersome manual adjustments are required."

50 times each second would be every 20 ms which is the default value for both the "Max Tunes" setting as well as the "Noise Threshold" setting so I assume the above paragraph would be describing one or both settings (most likely the "Noise Threshold" setting as I believe the "Max Tunes" may have something to do with stalker/sweeper groups).

I use the multi-site roam setting with values of Hi=99 and Lo=94 which works extremely well. For the Hi value 99% is perfect as any usable digital control channel will typically read 99% signal quality. I found a Lo value of 93-94 is best to maintain the tower until it just begins to sound choppy and then it hunts for a new tower.

Shawn

 

[RoninJoliet]

I have a RS197 with a RS grndplane 25-1.3 up 35' on my tower using 65' of LMR400 and the Starcom signals are 99%....When i connect the GRE500 to the same antenna setup the signals are 60% if im lucky using T101-Lisle or T102-So Cook Co.....So it seems for some reason the RS197 is better....The GRE500 has the latest 1.9ver firmware....My 996XT uses a Channel Master 5094A (discontinued) also with 65' of LMR400 up35' and has 99% coverage of ILL-Starcom using the same towers here in the Chicago area....I have one tower T113-Lockport that is about 3 miles from me and it is hardly audible, the other towers mentioned are at least 20 miles away....