BC246XT No Receive audio

[K6PYR]

I have a 245XT that looks to work just fine as far as the display goes and the keys beep when pressed, so the speaker seems to be working. It is programmed with the same load as my other 246. This unit has no radio audio and does not stop when radio traffic is present. The squelch and volume knobs hseem ave no function. The only noise I can get out of the thing is key beeps. I tried to do a factory resert (2-9-Hold-Pwr) and that doesn't do anythng. It will connect to the computer and allow me to program it, for what that's worth, but beond that, it shows no signs of receiving signal or having any audio output other than the beeps from the keypad buttons. Is currently running firmware 1.36

Has anyone seen this issue before or is it a dead duck?

 

[hiegtx]

Any chance somebody used a radio, transmitting very close to it? That would kill receive capability if it was too strong & too close.

If that were my scanner, I'd retire it, since it's not working. The approximately $95 repair cost is more than I'd spend to fix it. You've tried what I would have suggested, including the factory reset with no change.

 

[AK9R]

What radio do you have?

Thread title says BC246XT which I don't think exists.

Initial post says BC245XT which I don't think exists.

 

[Ubbe]

This unit has no radio audio and does not stop when radio traffic is present.
The squelch and volume knobs hseem ave no function.

Squelch works by detecting the amount of noise so perhaps it has noise but doesn't detect any signal, noise level goes down, and front end are blown. But if you set squelch to zero it should stop scan but now that doesn't seem to happen. It's probably multiple faults with it, or only one regarding a DC voltage not being correct on the circuit board that stop things from working.

If you can state the exact model we might be able to find a schematic for those kind of older scanners. I have a BC246T, could it be that model?

/Ubbe

 

[kc2asb]

Has this been your radio since new and it just suddenly stopped working? Or, did you recently buy it used? It's a fairly old model and capacitors/resistors can go bad as they age. I have a 20 year-old Radio Shack handheld that sat on the shelf for years, lightly used. One day I put fresh batteries in it, started scanning, and noticed the audio was extremely low and sounded tinny. I suspect the culprit is bad capacitor(s).

 

[tvengr]

Did you try swapping the antennas between the 2 radios?

 

[tvengr]

It's a fairly old model and capacitors/resistors can go bad as they age.

Resistors have a low failure rate. The big problem is electrolytic capacitors which can lose value as they age. Other types of capacitors are very reliable.

 

[kc2asb]

Here is a very old thread dealing with a 246T with no audio while scanning. No resolution, except that the OP was going to bring it to a tech. However, he was able to receive weather (wx) stations. It might be worth a try to see if you can hear a local wx station.

BC246T Help

My 246 scans with no audio. I even reset the scanner and put local frequencies back in and still won't work. Any help is appreciative. Thanks

forums.radioreference.com

i put the wx in and heard it L/C. Still nothing on the local frequencies.

 

[tvengr]

Did you reprogram the scanner after resetting it? Resetting erases the programming.