PSR-500 on Motorola 3600 baud Digital

[Tom_G]

I am trying to monitor the Connectict State Police System.
Its a 3600 baud control channel system with the following specs:
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone Omnilink
System Voice: APCO-25 Common Air Interface Exclusive

The PSR-500 is not tracking very well at all.
I occasionally get good digital audio.
Most of the time it either:
1.) Machine guns (I hate that friggin noise.....) OR
2.) It stops on the talkgroup but no audio is heard.
I did testing simulateously last night against the PRO-2096 with the signal coming out of my multi-coupler. The 2096 would stop and produce good audio.
The PSR-500 either machine gunned or produced no audio.
Occasionally it would machine gun for 2/3 seconds and then audio would come through.
Not sure what the scoop is but the PRO-96 and 2096 seem to be working much better.

Has anyone else experienced this...? Any suggestions... ?

 

[DaveIN]

Under the global settings did you try supertrack?
What is the signal like? What antenna are you using? If the signal is full strength did you try the attenuator?

Another thing to look at, are you using Multisite=Off, Stationary, or Roam?

Just ideas mind you, no particular silver bullet.

 

[Tom_G]

Thanks Dave,
I tried it with SuperTrack on and off. No difference.
The signal is good. (4/5 on the S-Meter) using the 800MHz antenna.
I have not tried the attenuator yet. I'll will later tonight.
I have not tried multi-site either...
From reading the other threads here, looks like this is a common problem.

I just turned the PSR-500 off and turned on the PRO-96 and the 96 is working much better.
I'll be trying other things tonight.........

 

[DaveIN]

Do the PRO-96 and PSR-500 have the same decode % on this system?

 

[PC_Medic]

I am trying to monitor the Connectict State Police System.
Its a 3600 baud control channel system with the following specs:
System Type: Motorola Type II SmartZone Omnilink
System Voice: APCO-25 Common Air Interface Exclusive

The PSR-500 is not tracking very well at all.
I occasionally get good digital audio.
Most of the time it either:
1.) Machine guns (I hate that friggin noise.....) OR
2.) It stops on the talkgroup but no audio is heard.
I did testing simulateously last night against the PRO-2096 with the signal coming out of my multi-coupler. The 2096 would stop and produce good audio.
The PSR-500 either machine gunned or produced no audio.
Occasionally it would machine gun for 2/3 seconds and then audio would come through.
Not sure what the scoop is but the PRO-96 and 2096 seem to be working much better.

Has anyone else experienced this...? Any suggestions... ?

EXACT same problems here with Chesapeake, VA system.

System Type: Motorola Type II Smartnet
System Voice: Analog and APCO-25 Common Air Interface
Sysid: 7A32
CT: 116.13
(Chesapeake kept the VHF radios also in case the trunked system goes down)

Problem is this is the system I do about 50% of my monitoring on. Sure glad my Pro-96 hasn't sold yet or I would not be listening to that system at all.
basically have a $500 paper weight right now. :0(

 

[PC_Medic]

Do the PRO-96 and PSR-500 have the same decode % on this system?

Enlighten me on this one if you could please?

I have tried all your other suggestions with negative results.

 

[bonus1331]

I am having the same issue with the 9600 Baud pure P25 systems and low decode as many others.
However, monitoring the below 800 Mhz 3600 Baud mixed TRS-I have seen a vast improvement in decode compared to my 396.
http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=4171

I did notice two things today-
Better decode with ATT on and Dig AGC off.
No change with changing up the SuperTrack feature.

I think that this radio is highly sensitive as compared to others I have and actually attenuating the VC has given me better results.

 

[fmon]

I get 99% decode rate on the 96 and 500 using RS 800 antenna and 99% on 2096 with scantenna. My results are similar to PC Medic - perfect on the two RS GRE's, worthless on the 500. Right now the two RS scanners have a lengthy coms going with PD West and the PSR is in and out, with display indicating PD West without voice. Little motor boating going on also, never on the RS GRE's.

Edit: this is on the Chesapeake 3600 CC smartnet system.

 

[PC_Medic]

I get 99% decode rate on the 96 and 500 using RS 800 antenna and 99% on 2096 with scantenna. My results are similar to PC Medic - perfect on the two RS GRE's, worthless on the 500. Right now the two RS scanners have a lengthy coms going with PD West and the PSR is in and out, with display indicating PD West without voice. Little motor boating going on also, never on the RS GRE's.

Edit: this is on the Chesapeake 3600 CC smartnet system.

Sorry to hear you are having the same problem. That makes 4 of us in our area I am aware of.

 

[DaveIN]

Enlighten me on this one if you could please?

I have tried all your other suggestions with negative results.

On the PRO-96 when you press manual on a trunked system you can see the relative signal strength. On the 500 I think you need to press Func + Tune to see:

3600 baud Motorola control channel
qq% SID:ssss Stt
where qq=decoding quality of the
control channel data, SID=System ID,
and S=Site Number

P25 9600 baud control channel
qq% Nnnn W:wwwww
Sys:sss Rrr Stt
where qq=decoding quality of the
control channel data, N=NAC,
W=WACN, SYS=System ID, R=RFSS,
and S=Site Number

You may need to scroll up or down through the frequencies with the arrow keys to find the active control channel.

 

[Tom_G]

Some Updates

DaveIN and Others.....
Upon further testing tonight, I again deselected SuperTrack and I believe this has made things somewhat better. It's definitely less of the machine gunning and its seems to be much closer to the PRO-2096 now.
One observation I made tonight was that when sitting on a talkgroup in manual mode, I can see a 95% decode on the display and a solid S5 on the meter. But as soon as the voice appears and the "D" shows up on the display, S meter gets sporadic. Not sure what thats about but I noticed it tonight.
If I turn the attenuator on the % indicator does not read at all.
My next test will be to turn off the digital AGC...
More to come but thanks to all of you for the suggestions.....
I'm starting to feel a bit better.....

 

[DaveIN]

Tom, the D shows up when monitoring the control channel and the signal goes sporadic or when trunk scanning?

 

[Tom_G]

DaveIN,
This was all in manual mode.
When no audio is present the radio displays the ID: on the middle row and the % indicator in the top right corner.
Once audio is present, the percent indicator goes away and the ID: changes to DG.

What I noticed last night was that when no audio was present, the S meter was a solid S4/S5. Once the audio started the S meter was going up/down.
Not a huge deal, just an observation I made...

Thanks,

 

[Tom_G]

Updates from this morning

Monitoring back at work this morning I seem to be experiencing more machine gunning and the stopping on a talkgroup with no audio...

At times the radio will stop on a talkgroup, the display will change to the DG indicator but I get no audio at all.

At other times the radio will stop on a talkgroup, the display will change to VC and the radio will machine gun. At times it will machine gun for several seconds. (My favorite sound... :evil: )

On ocassions, when the radio stops on a talkgroup, it displays VC for a couple seconds and machine guns, then it will either switch to DG and audio will be heard or it will switch to DG and no audio will be heard.

The opposite is also true, when the radio stops on a talkgroup and displays DG and audio is heard, the audio will sometimes just stop mid-sentence yet the display still shows DG.
It can also stop mid-sentence and go to VC and machine gun.

Through all of this, my S meter is between S4 and S5. The decode percentages are in the 90's.
The attenuator does not appear to have any impact.

I would say its working about 50% of the time

The real kicker is that when it is decoding properly the digital audio is great.

 

[DaveIN]

If you let it track the system and then hold on the voice frequency, do you hear any noise?

If you don't maybe you should hold on the voice frequency and open the squelch and see if there is anything on it when no digital is displayed.

 

[RoninJoliet]

Exactly the SAME conditions here on the IL-Starcom, the above posts description of the drop-out problem is also what im seeing....On the PRO96 when you see 92% thats what your getting but , on the 500 something makes the scanner in DG very eratic and the % does not match the signal graph...With the use of my CM-5094A with 9913 coax on the 2096 brings in the signal excellent on the Starcom DG but connecting the 500 to the same antenna results in the same erratic behavior of the "T" and dropouts with or without the ATTEN, nothing seems to change its behavior....Like was mentioned, on the 2096 if the signal on a trunk system varies i open the squelch and the signal remains steady but on the 500 the squelch has no effect it seems in DG-trunking on the signal acceptance.....Ron in Joliet