PSR 500 received P25 Trunking intermittantly

[GregStough]

I've tried to find someone else in RR with a similar question and could not...so...

I have a new PSR-500 and are using it around the York, PA area. I have it programed for both conventional and York county's new P-25 system. The problem is that for some reason I can receive the P-25 talkgroups some times and at other times I can't. At first I thought I was doing something wrong as I was working with adding, organizing other frequencies and working with settings and things like that. But I have since noticed that I can sometimes receive and other times not receive the P-25 talkgroups even though I've made no changes at all on my scanner. Any ideas?

First, I've noticed that when I download the York County P-25 trunking information from RR's website it saved on the PSR-500 as a Motorola system and not a P-25 system. So, I've already changed the settings for that to the correct trunking type. It seems like something is not quite set up correctly since sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I've noticed that the P-25 system is transmitting when I'm not receiving the talkgroups (I can hear it on www.ycdesonline) so I know the signals are being transmitted. I can always hear the conventional frequencies, including when I am having problems with the P-25 system.

Does anyone have any ideas? I live and work close to York so I know I am not too far away to receive the signals. I've already been just a few blocks away from two of the new repeater sites so I know I'm close. I suspect that for some reason I'm not receiving the control signals, but the main control frequencies are saved in the TSYS entry for the system. I'm confused...

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Have a great T-day everyone!

- Greg

 

[JoeyC]

Without people having to ask a thousand questions about your programming, it might be helpful to upload a copy of your programming file here for review to see what you've done.

 

[kikito]

Greg,

You might be better off asking about a specific system in the PA forum in this case. With that said, here's my input:

If this is the trunked system you're talking about: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4518

Then yes, it should be setup as P25 Auto and you should NOT need to enter any Tables/Base/ Spacing settings. If they're entered, that could very well be what's throwing off the scanner tracking. All you should need to do with most P25 systems is enter the control channel and a TG Wildcard and go.

But like I said, without being familiar with this particular system, it's hard to guess what's wrong with your setup.

 

[GregStough]

Greg,

You might be better off asking about a specific system in the PA forum in this case. With that said, here's my input:

If this is the trunked system you're talking about: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=4518

Then yes, it should be setup as P25 Auto and you should NOT need to enter any Tables/Base/ Spacing settings. If they're entered, that could very well be what's throwing off the scanner tracking. All you should need to do with most P25 systems is enter the control channel and a TG Wildcard and go.

But like I said, without being familiar with this particular system, it's hard to guess what's wrong with your setup.

Just to keep you advised. I have posted a detailed message with the above mentioned problem. The scanner seemed to be working for a few days, but not is it not working again. So I posted a question in the following message http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?p=938286#post938286
(hopefuly that is listed as a link) That forum is for the specific system of which I am having problems. Thanks again for your previous help!

- Greg

 

[thewenk]

I've tried to find someone else in RR with a similar question and could not...so...

I have a new PSR-500 and are using it around the York, PA area. I have it programed for both conventional and York county's new P-25 system. The problem is that for some reason I can receive the P-25 talkgroups some times and at other times I can't. At first I thought I was doing something wrong as I was working with adding, organizing other frequencies and working with settings and things like that. But I have since noticed that I can sometimes receive and other times not receive the P-25 talkgroups even though I've made no changes at all on my scanner. Any ideas?

First, I've noticed that when I download the York County P-25 trunking information from RR's website it saved on the PSR-500 as a Motorola system and not a P-25 system. So, I've already changed the settings for that to the correct trunking type. It seems like something is not quite set up correctly since sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. I've noticed that the P-25 system is transmitting when I'm not receiving the talkgroups (I can hear it on www.ycdesonline) so I know the signals are being transmitted. I can always hear the conventional frequencies, including when I am having problems with the P-25 system.

Does anyone have any ideas? I live and work close to York so I know I am not too far away to receive the signals. I've already been just a few blocks away from two of the new repeater sites so I know I'm close. I suspect that for some reason I'm not receiving the control signals, but the main control frequencies are saved in the TSYS entry for the system. I'm confused...

Any assistance is greatly appreciated!

Have a great T-day everyone!

- Greg

You might want to check the decode quality rate for the control channel(s) on the system you are monitoring. Press MAN, then TSYS(F2), then Analyz(F3) and if necessary use the up/down to go to the control channel. Then read the decode % rate(Manual page 75).

On the Idaho P25 700 MHz System, I have found if this decode quality rate is solid at 80-100%, I will get consistent reception. However on a weaker signal, even though the bars of signal level look good, if the decode rate varies a lot and intermittently goes below 20-30%, I will get inconsistent or no reception when the decode rate drops low, and good reception when the decode rate is higher. The other settings don't seem to make much difference when the decode rate is highly variable. The only way I can get around this problem is to use an outside antenna..

Dave

 

[kikito]

Just to keep you advised. I have posted a detailed message with the above mentioned problem. The scanner seemed to be working for a few days, but not is it not working again. So I posted a question in the following message http://www.radioreference.com/forums/showthread.php?p=938286#post938286
(hopefuly that is listed as a link) That forum is for the specific system of which I am having problems. Thanks again for your previous help!

- Greg

Greg,

Thanks for the follow up. I noticed that on the settings you posted on that other thread, you do have the Tables set to Custom. Like I mentioned earlier, you should try setting it to Default instead. If the system does require Tables, then the Chan Lo setting should be 380 and not 0.

In fact, what I recommend at this time is to also stay away from programming with software until the problem is figured out.

Manually create a new TSYS, enter the best/strongest control channel in your area and create a TG Wildcard and don't do anything else, just SAVE everything and hit Scan.

Try that and let us know.