What does the Attenuate do?

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rbrochon

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I have a Uniden BC796D and it has an Attenuate feature.
What does it do?
When and Should I use it?
 

mtindor

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I have a Uniden BC796D and it has an Attenuate feature.
What does it do?
When and Should I use it?

The attenuator will attenuate the, usually by about 20db.

You may ask [and in fact you did] why one would want to do something [that at first thought seems silly] like turn on the attenuator...

Well, one reason you would use an attenuator is if you were in an area with a lot of high power transmitters close by that were swamping your receiver with so much signal that the receiver couldn't handle it - and when that happens you end up hearing signals on frequencies where they aren't actually being transmitted, you end up hearing paging systems and ham radio repeaters mixed in with your local police department's chatter, and sometimes you end up _not_ hearing anything that you _should_ be hearing because the "front end overload" of your receiver has caused it [your scanner] to "go deaf."

Another reason you might want to turn the attenuator on is to search out _local_ frequencies. I often do this. I'll turn the attenuator on and then I'll do a limit-search on my scanner (such as scanning between 150-174 Mhz). With the attenuator on, I'm not going to get any far away signals because the attenuator is cutting the signal strength down significantly. And for the most part, anything I do hear in a search with the attenuator on is a "local" agency and I can then try and figure out who it is - if somebody else hasn't already.

Another reason you might want to turn on the attenuator is if, for instance, you are in a very high spot or are using a good outside antenna and you are trying to listen to your local police department but you keep hearing a faint police department from two counties away on the same frequency. If you turn the attenuator on, you'll still hear your local police department but won't hear the police department two counties away.

Mike
 
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