Hi all,
I recently purchased a second hand BC125AT (I already had another 125AT that I really like). The person I got it from I believe to be a genuine person and thought the scanner worked fine. In fact, he told me he took it to one or two auto races and that was the extent of its usage. I believe that, as the unit was in pristine condition on the outside, not a mark to be found ANYwhere, even on the screen. When I got it home I first tried to tune the local weather broadcast. It sounded like it might be 30-40 miles away the level was so low (and white noise mixed in with the audio). No bars were showing on the received signal indicators. The transmitter is essentially clear line of sight, and only being 10 miles away.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how or what in the unit may have gone bad (other than the obvious 'antenna/antenna connector got hit and there is a solder break' scenario).
I exchanged the OEM antenna with a VHF mag-mount 5/8 just to validate that it was not a bad antenna, but there was no change. I tried an extendable stick as well, same deal. Again, I don't know if the radio took a hit (but he assures me it didn't) and if it didn't, what might cause such a drastic change in receive sensitivity.
I'm not new to this stuff, I have about 30 scanners or so and I know you pretty much need your habds on the radio and the right test gear to answer my question. I guess I'm really looking to find out if there is a known systemic issue with these radios.
thanks in advance
I recently purchased a second hand BC125AT (I already had another 125AT that I really like). The person I got it from I believe to be a genuine person and thought the scanner worked fine. In fact, he told me he took it to one or two auto races and that was the extent of its usage. I believe that, as the unit was in pristine condition on the outside, not a mark to be found ANYwhere, even on the screen. When I got it home I first tried to tune the local weather broadcast. It sounded like it might be 30-40 miles away the level was so low (and white noise mixed in with the audio). No bars were showing on the received signal indicators. The transmitter is essentially clear line of sight, and only being 10 miles away.
Does anyone have any thoughts on how or what in the unit may have gone bad (other than the obvious 'antenna/antenna connector got hit and there is a solder break' scenario).
I exchanged the OEM antenna with a VHF mag-mount 5/8 just to validate that it was not a bad antenna, but there was no change. I tried an extendable stick as well, same deal. Again, I don't know if the radio took a hit (but he assures me it didn't) and if it didn't, what might cause such a drastic change in receive sensitivity.
I'm not new to this stuff, I have about 30 scanners or so and I know you pretty much need your habds on the radio and the right test gear to answer my question. I guess I'm really looking to find out if there is a known systemic issue with these radios.
thanks in advance