before i quit bringing a scanner in the car..

[TxScanner]

so ive had the same issue, either with a sds100 or a HP2, while mobile in the car, with either picking up pretty clear somedays, or they pick up nothing most days, or it will briefly pick it something up, and for short time and is so broken/choppy, cant unerstand it. for the most part its radio silence when im in the car, and this is with or without a mag mount antenna. i've tried both ways. my local system is not simulcast, just P25 Phase 1. so not sure why i have the issues recieveing things like i do, works fine at home. do i need a better mag antenna or what, it just got to the pint where its pointless bringing it with me, if its not going to pick up good, or nothing at all. should i look at getting a base/mobile scanner, like a 996p2 and stick under a seat? need some help, thanks.

 

[DJ11DLN]

I use handheld scanners in my vehicles (much easier to find a place to mount them) attached to external antennas and they work great. The car has the cheapie Spectrum Force mag mount, I have a Larsen tri-band NMO'd to the roof of the pickup. It's slightly better but even the Spectrum Force is no slouch. I don't really think there would be much if any difference between a HH and a B/M scanner, given parity of antennas.

 

[zapman987]

Check your grounding of car, and shielding of radio. One of my handhelds I absolutely can not use in my car due to interference from the car itself. Others work fine in the vehicle.

 

[Whiskey3JMC]

So many factors can influence reception inside of a vehicle. Your car's electrical systems, computer systems, the engine itself are all sources of undesired RFI

 

[tumegpc]

I had a problem a while back that caused my Home Patrol to almost go deaf while mounted in my truck. It was the RFI coming from my LCD display of my Kenwood audio head unit. I was really surprised by how much it affected it.

 

[KK4JUG]

I would think that metalized window tinting would also limit a signal.

 

[ofd8001]

Many of these issues could be resolved by an external antenna. You could try the scanner on the exterior of your vehicle and see whether the problem goes away. Might be a good indicator.

Find a spot where the reception is the most problematic, then pull off into a parking area, etc., and move the scanner to the exterior of the vehicle. Leave everything running.

 

[tvengr]

LED headlights can emit a tremendous amount of interference. I would check the cable on your mag antenna. You may have rolled up the window and crushed the cable. I would also check for continuity between the antenna and the cable connector.

 

[SkiBob]

If you have any kind of 12v plugin, it could cause issues also. GPS units, dash cams, phone chargers etc. Many of them go from 12V to 5V. That energy has to go somewhere and many times it's splattered all over the spectrum.

A couple of year ago I was gifted a very nice car dash camera. It was a neat little gadget, but it took me about a week to figure out that it was muting my scanners, ham radio and also the FM broadcast radio. All of them had external antennas. The plugin for the gadget was spewing RFI all over the place. I contacted the seller of the unit and it became very apparent that I knew more about his product then he did. He sent me a 12v plugin with a choke on it only to find the camera itself had lots of RFI also. I sent it all back to him with a few educational words in the reviews section of the product. It makes you wonder how many people buy these gadgets and never understand why their FM radios lose range.

Just some things to check.. Good Luck!