PSR-800: Audio file problems ..

[SCPD]

I have been using my PSR800 for audio recordings and have a problem that I have been unable to determine the cause of.

In the middle of the recordings .. the recording seems to hiccup and miss portions of words.

For example .. in a 24 second recording there were about 4-5 such instances where the audio is clipped and only part of the word is recorded.

I am using a couple of class 10 microSD cards that are rated at about 30 MB/s. I have tested them .. and they are able to maintain writing at over 10MB/s during the testing. This is far more than the 8 Kb/s data rate needed for the scanners AU files.

I would maybe think if there were card issues .. this would happen at the beginning of the files .. but it is always in the middle of the transmissions.

There are no priority features of any kind turned on. Delay is turned off on all the talkgroups that I am recording on.

Does anyone have any thoughts ?

 

[marksmith]

You checked the things I would have. Did you include weather priority?

Mark
536/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/
396XT/PSR800/PRO668/PRO652

 

[SCPD]

Weather priority is off .. with nothing checked under Priority.

Also .. the scanner is sitting on one talkgroup while recording .. it is not scanning.

 

[troymail]

Maybe a silly question but are the live transmissions solid/clear/complete but the recording of the same transmission broken/missing parts?

If not card problems and no priorities are enabled, my next guess without other info would be poor reception of a simulcast system.

 

[SCPD]

Maybe a silly question but are the live transmissions solid/clear/complete but the recording of the same transmission broken/missing parts?

If not card problems and no priorities are enabled, my next guess without other info would be poor reception of a simulcast system.

Yes .. the transmissions are fine. It is the recordings that are not.

It is an Edacs system and I am about less than probably 2 miles from the transmitter site. I get full 5 bars on my RSSI.

 

[SCPD]

- deleted -

 

[SCPD]

I fixed the problem ... don't ask me how.

Somehow I used an archive from 2012 I had and massaged it and reprogrammed the scanner and it is working fine now.

I have no idea what the real problem was. But I don't really care at this point.

 

[SCPD]

The problem is back .. I am using the same programming file. I have no good idea why it is happening. I am going to go back to my better microSD card to see if it makes a difference. I typically use 2 cards and alternate between them.

 

[SCPD]

I am still investigating this problem .... as I do not want any interruptions while listening on the PSR800 as I typically am just monitoring 1 TG at a time.

 

[SCPD]

Just for anyone that is interested .. I have finally determined the problem.

It is the speed of the SD cards and their ability to write the audio to the card without issues. I have probably about 8 microSD cards of various brands and speeds.

Through some testing I have determined that on the PSR800 scanner the only way to pretty well assure yourself that your audio recordings will be without any dropouts is to ... use a Class 10 UHS-1 card. (A simple class 10 card will not be a guarantee).

These are the more expensive cards .. so as I found out you get what you pay for.

The other issue .. that some newer microSD cards (ie some Sony cards I have) will not work in the PSR800 scanner at all .. and give an error message when used.

Sometime in the future I may try these cards in a Whistler WS-1080 scanner to see if they do work.

 

[SCPD]

I discovered the same problem with recording several months ago and did exactly what you did. I upgraded to Class 10 UHS-1 but the problem still exists. I've just noticed it last night as I was replaying an incident. I thought I'd solved this problem but looks like I haven't.

 

[SCPD]

I discovered the same problem with recording several months ago and did exactly what you did. I upgraded to Class 10 UHS-1 but the problem still exists. I've just noticed it last night as I was replaying an incident. I thought I'd solved this problem but looks like I haven't.

Wow .. that is interesting. I am finding the UHS-1 cards are much much better than a non UHS-1 card.

I do have consistent problems with just a plain class 10 card in the PSR800.

The next step is a UHS-2 but that seems like an insane step to have to take when the cards are already supposed to support like 5000x the amount of data we are giving the scanner. But in my testing .. there was a definite difference in recording performance based on the card I was using.

 

[SCPD]

Wow .. that is interesting. I am finding the UHS-1 cards are much much better than a non UHS-1 card.

I do have consistent problems with just a plain class 10 card in the PSR800.

The next step is a UHS-2 but that seems like an insane step to have to take when the cards are already supposed to support like 5000x the amount of data we are giving the scanner. But in my testing .. there was a definite difference in recording performance based on the card I was using.

Since February, the card I'm using is a SanDisk Ultra UHS-I/Class 10 Micro SDHC. Yes, you are right. Recording performance is much, much better. No problems until a few days ago when I heard it again. Here's a small audio clip of the problem occurring from an incident last night. This is LAPD Rampart Division Base: https://clyp.it/1rsqug3a

 

[jackj]

I don't believe your problem is caused by the card(s) you're using. What about the original 2GB card that came with the scanner? Mine was I believe a Class 2 card and I never had a problem with recordings. I currently switch between the 2GB card and a Class 4, 8GB one and I've never had a problem with either

It sounds like either you have an option turned on that is taking up some of the CPU cycles needed by the record feature or there is a problem with your scanner. Try resetting the scanner to it's factory default settings and then load only the system(s) you have problems with and try again. Do not change any of the default settings except the record.setting.