BC246T suddenly deaf

[roryg]

Hi all
My scanner is not hearing anything. Close call not working. No weather channels, nothing. Doesn't seem to be any broken antenna solder joints. I've tried several different antennas with no luck. I've enabled close call and keyed my marine radio, still no joy. Can anyone think of something I might be missing? It's always worked fine in the past.

RoryG....

 

[scanfan03]

Hi all
My scanner is not hearing anything. Close call not working. No weather channels, nothing. Doesn't seem to be any broken antenna solder joints. I've tried several different antennas with no luck. I've enabled close call and keyed my marine radio, still no joy. Can anyone think of something I might be missing? It's always worked fine in the past.

RoryG....

Have you dropped it? When I drop mine, it does weird things. I take it apart and just touch the soldier joints for the volume/squelch pot with a screwdriver, and that seems to fix it. I'm not quite sure what that exactly does though (unless the soldier joints have like a micro break), but for some reason it works for me.

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Is the squelch set too high?

Have you tried headphones/external speaker to see if it's the 246 speaker that went bad (or possibly a faulty headphone jack)?

 

[dbljack]

My audio from the speaker went out but the headphone jack still worked. Sent it back to Uniden (still under warrenty) they said it was a broken solder joint. My 246 has worked great since I have gotten it back.

 

[k9swx]

You might have blown the front end on the radio by keying your marine radio. I had a similar experience by keying my ham radio being too close to my old BC245XLT and had to send it in for repair. If it's still under warranty, I'd definitely send it in and get it fixed. Good luck!

 

[roryg]

You might have blown the front end on the radio by keying your marine radio. I had a similar experience by keying my ham radio being too close to my old BC245XLT and had to send it in for repair. If it's still under warranty, I'd definitely send it in and get it fixed. Good luck!

It sure could be that, although it wasnt hearing anything before I tried that as a test. I do have audio though, as I can hear the key beeps and white noise when the squelch is turned down.
Not under warrenty any longer but I think a trip to the repair shop is in the cards

RoryG

 

[N2OXV]

I have two suggestions before you get the radio repaired. First, check to see if the attenuator is on, if so this can attenuate signals by 18db. Second when all else fails initialize the radio by holding down the 2,9 and hold buttons and powering on the radio. If the CPU got scrambled, this could fix your problem. otherwise I do not know.

N2OXV

 

[roryg]

Thanks for the replies guys. I took a bit of a hint from scanfan03. I figured if it's already broke it wouldnt hurt to give it a little smack on the side. So thats what I did and now it's receiving just fine. So apparantly something is loose in there, I just need to figure out what it is.

RoryG

 

[DaveIN]

Sounds like you need hard case and a bugie cord

 

[Napalm]

Same as me. Radios have to built like tanks otherwise I break them. No doubt i'd be able to break a motorola as well.

My BR330T's case seems to "creak" a little if you squeeze it gently, or if you waggle the antenna. Doesn't instill me with confidence really.