weak signal

Short question: I am trying to scan the Virginia State Police and DOT groups on the Virginia "STARS" radio system from my apartment in Fredericksburg City. I can't seem to get it to work properly and only rarely do I hear a fragment of one side of a call which usually "breaks up" and "comes in"...

I co-own a small security company; we have just a few employees. We are currently using the Kenwood TK-373G-2 470-490 MHz 4W handheld radios and for our mobile radios we are using the Kenwood TK-863G units 450-490 MHz 25W. We are using a radio service provider for our Trunked repeater...

On occasion over the past couple weeks, I have noticed the signal strength from the Town of Cary dramatically falling. It is not happening at the same time of day. Recently, Cary switched to their back up non-trunked frequencies for a few hours. I know solar flare activity is high. Does...