I'm back into scanning after many years of absence. I have a new SDS100. I have noticed that often when someone is talking the signal will fade or breakup mid-sentence. It's like they are releasing the PTT and several words are not coming through. It happens at the end of a sentence too. Sometimes it's the dispatcher and other times the patrol vehicles. Is this something that happens in the digital world? The site I listen to most often is 1/4 mile from my house. In fact I walked up to the tower the other day. The dispatchers office is probably 12 miles away. County fire departments are still conventional and I listen to those on my BC125AT. Even though the signal is sometimes weak I can hear almost everything they say. There's no interruption of signal. I have also noticed that sometimes my SDS100 comes on and I'm hearing the second half of a conversation. It's like the patrol vehicle had already called in but I didn't hear anything until the dispatcher said, "go ahead".
Signal Interruption
- Thread starter NikonFE2
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ka3aaa
Member
put an outdoor antenna on the handheld and get rid of the rubber duckie. its killing the signal.
I'm going to disagree with the fact that you need an outdoor antenna. I'm going to guess you're probably using zip code mode to make things easy for you. Unfortunately, the amount of things that the radio scans with these "easy" modes makes it miss a lot of the action. I actually deleted just about everything off of my SD card and started over, from scratch. I don't care that I might end up in Flagstaff, NM on a whim, I care about hearing my local trunked radio system with as few talkgroups as I want to hear. Nothing else.
Let's be realistic about this. If you're 1/4mi away from the tower and you have signal drop out, it isn't the tower's proximity to you and it isn't the radio's hardware. Its programming.
Let's be realistic about this. If you're 1/4mi away from the tower and you have signal drop out, it isn't the tower's proximity to you and it isn't the radio's hardware. Its programming.
tvengr
Well Known Member
You may have too many sites programmed on the trunked system. Agencies affiliate with certain sites only. If you are scanning out of range or too many local sites, you will cut into the middle or miss a transmission while scanning other sites not carrying the traffic of that agency. Decreasing the range on zip code scanning can help. You can also try a different filter on the sites you are scanning. Invert or wide invert may work better. If you go to the File tab in Sentinel and click on Export to hpe file, you can attach your favorites list for me to take a look at it. You will have to right click on the file and send it to a compressed (zipped) file to be able to attach it. Click on Attach Files and open the zipped file to attach it. What is your city and county and which agencies do you want to scan?
I'm using Remtronix 820 on the radio. It doesn't matter if I'm inside the house or walking around town. It still happens.
No, I programmed it myself from scratch. I just looked and I have 10 sites on the Ohio MARCS system. 2 of the sites I've never heard anything and I might "avoid" those. As I said sometimes this happens when the dispatcher is in mid-sentence and all of a sudden several words are missing. It's like she momentarily releases the PTT. And it's more than one dispatcher.
doctordialtone
Member
It sounds (and acts) like a Priority Mode. Look closely at the display.
Here it is. I'm on the border with Athens & Hocking Counties. I just put Vinton Co in the other day and have not heard anything. I think they are too far away and we are in the hills. I'll probably delete that. Notice I do have some things on "avoid". Also, I keep most of my conventional turned off when I'm at home because I have a BC125AT for that. But if I'm out and about with just the SDS100 I turn the conventional on. Most of the conventional I hear is county fire.
I have priority set on my hometown police and fire.
doctordialtone
Member
tvengr
Well Known Member
You are scanning far too many sites. If you are in Nelsonville, try avoiding all of the sites except Nelsonville and see if you are receiving wide enough of an area. That will eliminate losing transmissions. You can assign quick keys to systems, departments, and sites to easily enable and disable them from the keypad.
Ubbe
Member
It has to be the priority that doctordialtone mentioned. Set the prio mode to DND and it will not disturb ongoing conversations.
/Ubbe
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