HP-2: Uniden Attenuation

[hollywoodradio]

Hello! I have a question. I live in Henry County, IL. Orion area. I have never had any problems with my Uniden Home Patrol-2. However, the last few days, our county wide police and fire dispatch (154.725 and 154.190) are very static filled. Other stations in the same or nearby towns still come in clear. Even the NWS from Rock Island and Galesburg come in fine. The only way I can clear this up all of a sudden is to have the attenuator turned on. Did they jack up the power or something?

I use a Stridsburg Multicouple to go to my other scanners in the house (both BC345CRS) and everything comes in just fine without any adjustment.

Any idea what would suddenly be causing this on these 2 frequencies? I have a 150/800 MHZ dual band antenna on the roof on a mast that has two tv antennas and also a Ambient Weather Staion. They have all been on the same mast for some time with no problems. I also just upgraded our home to Google WiFi the other day. Could that cause an issue?

 

[wtp]

unplug the google stuff and you have done the test.

 

[belvdr]

unplug the google stuff and you have done the test.

Agreed, although that would be weird to have those interfere. One never knows with RF though.

 

[wtp]

i would not disconnect my router.
the power flicked here the other day.
my radios are on 1 UPS and the router on a different one.
as they died i found my 144.0 signal in the house one, my router...
and a small computer does its best on 121.5 and 243.0.
i did just tell someone else to check washer/dryer and his toaster, you never know !

 

[tvengr]

Did you install a new USB power supply? Some are notorious for radiating wideband RF interference.

 

[n1chu]

You mention a Stridesburg… is the HP2 connected to it? If so what’s your findings when the Stridesburg is taken out of the mix? If the HP2 is not connected to the Stridesburg, and you receive other VHF High band stations without issue, it may be a problem the town is having… they may be experiencing issues with the method used to connect to their antenna site, which I will guess is shared by both PD & FD?

 

[Ubbe]

However, the last few days, our county wide police and fire dispatch (154.725 and 154.190) are very static filled.

It sounds like that when the receiver gets overloaded. The Stridsberg multicoupler have some gain, perhaps up to +6dB in VHF, so follow that advice about connecting the antenna coax directly to the HP without the Stridsberg inline. If it helps then you'll need to insert a filter, perhaps a FM broadcast trap filter are the only thing needed. You can also try and enable the attenuator setting in the HP2 for those two channels, if they are strong enough so they could take a reduction in signal level.

/Ubbe

 

[hollywoodradio]

I thought about multicoupler last night, and it made no difference. It also made no difference when I unplugged it from the USB and ran off the batteries, or when I used the stock antenna for the unit, and shut down the WiFi in conjunction with the other tests. Today (as of right now) it is working just fine hooked up to the Stridsberg /roof antenna and the USB adapter.

The unit must have just picked up something it didn't like? I really have no idea. Was just weird as all other scanners on the multicoupler were just fine. Thanks for all of the advice/input.

 

[hollywoodradio]

....and the static is back. I am considering an FM trap. Would this digital scanner alone get overpowered, while my two analog scanners on the same multicoupler act just fine?

While doing some more testing tonight, I was running on battery and hooked up to the antenna. The dispatch comes in clear when the attenuator is turned on. When it was off, dispatch came in poorly but a squad car about a half mile away came in just fine.

I am also about a mile as the crow flies from the WXLP transmitter which broadcasts at 50,000 watts on 96.9 MHz. Maybe that is the culprit? It has never been a problem before. I guess try the FM trap unless anyone has any other suggestions? I have done virtually all other configurations in my house that I can think of.

 

[Ubbe]

FM trapfilters are always a good thing to have at hand.

/Ubbe

 

[KC3ECJ]

Are you having interference like this?
I'm in a different area but I am experiencing something new.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

Are you having interference like this?
I'm in a different area but I am experiencing something new.

We gave you a bunch of different possibilities in this thread what it could be...

 

[KC3ECJ]

We gave you a bunch of different possibilities in this thread what it could be...

You can't be nice?