Are some Boulder police channels encrypted?

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ecanderson

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Turning on CTCSS certainly can't hurt, and should help, though from what I'm hearing in this thread, the racket being generated by the cab company could be so broadband in the audio that it will break the squelch just by hitting the right audio tone.
 

Spitfire8520

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Thanks for that. I actually just tested it now using Green, and it appears that Tone Squelch blocks receiving (and, as you noted, slows scanning). I was hoping turning it on would help block the interference I'm getting, but maybe not.

Interference will continue to be interference regardless of tone squelch. The tone squelch only really tells your radio when to open up the speaker or not. If you have a much more powerful signal near you that overrides the signal you want to monitor, then there's not much you can do. The interference is comparable to trying to hear a person talk from across a table with the guy next to you shouting in your ear. The tone squelch would be comparable to controlling your ears for when you want to listen or not (maybe a mute button?). As much as you try to control your ears to only listen when you see your target's mouth move, you're still going to hear the shouting. The reverse role is what is usually what the tone squelch is better at filtering out since your target is likely going to override the interference.

My notes for the pros of having tone squelch off might not apply for an actual radio since they are likely better designed for decoding tone squelches and may not have noticeable difference. It's only what I've tended to experience with my personal scanner in a very noisy indoor environment. I actually don't notice as much of tone squelch delay when I'm outdoors.
 

K9LOL

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I just drove through the areas where the interference is worst, and the tone squelch is doing a fantastic job of stopping the squealing. I realize that if an actual transmission comes through that It will be drowned out, but at least I'm not constantly having to turn the radio off or block channels to avoid it anymore.
 

ecanderson

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Depends upon the nature of the listener's problem. If the interference is opening the squelch all the time, but transmissions are 'listenable' when coming from the desired source, overpowering the interference, the tone squelch will solve the problem unless the audio from the interference is so broadband that it opens the squelch, too - and I've seen it bad enough (elsewhere, not in this case) that this actually occurs.
 
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