HP-1 signal drops rhythmically monitoring one system

[msingewald]

I am monitoring the CT State Police trunked system CSP exclusively, yet I can see that the signal strength meter keeps going from full scale to no signal twice per second constantly when there is no activity.

It is not the actual signal dropping out, but more like the scanner is leaving the control channel and coming back. I tried deleting all of the frequencies from the system other than the control channel thinking that it was checking those, but it made no difference. When there is voice activity, the signal is solid.

My goal is to minimize missing the beginnings of transmissions. I just can't understand why it won't just sit on the one control channel. Anyone know why it would intentionally leave that channel if that is the only one currently selected to scan?

 

[UPMan]

After each scan cycle, the scanner checks for other housekeeping tasks. During these tasks, the RSSI indicator drops to 0.

 

[lep]

Thanks for this explanation. I am noting the same activity on a single system I am monitoring and I had convinced myself something must be wrong in my setup. It is great to be reassured all is Ops Normal as they say in the USAF.

 

[SDavis90]

Thanks for covering this. I have puzzled over the same thing as well.