Charlottesville, VA

[DionW]

Do any of you guys receive a lot of scrambled talk in the Charlottesville and Albemarle County areas. I have a Radio Shack PRO-96 handheld scanner that use to pick up everything crystal clear. Now I can't hardly understand anything that is coming out of it. I reprogrammed it with WIN96 software for rebanded frequencies but it didn't help much. I probably didn't program it right for one thing. Any help you guys can give would be greatly appreciated.

Dion

 

[gcgrotz]

Are you out in Zion X-roads? It could be caused by the leaves coming out on the trees. Not kidding, at 800-900 MHz and up, there is a large amount of signal attenuation from foliage. It kills us every spring in the 1900 MHz wireless world.

I monitor the fire and rescue TG's mostly and haven't noticed anything different around town on my '396.

 

[DionW]

Are you out in Zion X-roads? It could be caused by the leaves coming out on the trees. Not kidding, at 800-900 MHz and up, there is a large amount of signal attenuation from foliage. It kills us every spring in the 1900 MHz wireless world.

I monitor the fire and rescue TG's mostly and haven't noticed anything different around town on my '396.

I'ts mainly just the Charlottesville fire and police as well as Albemarle county fire and police. The scanner will pick them up but everything that they say is so garbled or scrambled that I cant understand what they are saying. This happens all the time when picking up those frequencies. Whether I'm at Zion Crossroads or right in the heart of Charlottesville.

 

[gcgrotz]

Well, I don't know anything about the PRO 96 that would be any help. I know my 396 had problems early on but Uniden mostly fixed it with a firmware upgrade. I know from reading on here for a while now that the PRO 96 is generally considered a better digital receiver.

Remember that what you listen to all comes from the same towers, and signals around downtown are very strong and that seems to cause some decode problems.

Hopefully someone else will chime in here...

 

[dtscho]

If you're downtown and have a strong signal, you could try using the attenuator to improve reception.

Dave

 

[brownlab]

OK, I do not know anything about tweaking RS scanners but I did read a post about an adjustment dial in the 96 known as a VR4. You can find this discussion if you type in "Modifying a RS Pro96 in the RR search on the Radio Shack discussion if you are interested. The thing is that Charlottesville/Albemarle County should come in pretty clear and my guess is there is a problem with the scanner. Good luck. (PS…After you type in Modifying a RS Pro96, you have to read down the page to find this discussion however it is very detailed about how to do it)

 

[brownlab]

Sorry for posting twice

 

[DionW]

Well, I don't know anything about the PRO 96 that would be any help. I know my 396 had problems early on but Uniden mostly fixed it with a firmware upgrade. I know from reading on here for a while now that the PRO 96 is generally considered a better digital receiver.

Remember that what you listen to all comes from the same towers, and signals around downtown are very strong and that seems to cause some decode problems.

Hopefully someone else will chime in here...

Thanks, I will check and see if there is a firmware upgrade for my Pro96

If you're downtown and have a strong signal, you could try using the attenuator to improve reception.

Dave

Thanks, I will try the attenuator first thing tomorrow morning.

OK, I do not know anything about tweaking RS scanners but I did read a post about an adjustment dial in the 96 known as a VR4. You can find this discussion if you type in "Modifying a RS Pro96 in the RR search on the Radio Shack discussion if you are interested. The thing is that Charlottesville/Albemarle County should come in pretty clear and my guess is there is a problem with the scanner. Good luck. (PS…After you type in Modifying a RS Pro96, you have to read down the page to find this discussion however it is very detailed about how to do it)

Hmmm,interesting....I'm about to go and research that right now.

Thanks for all of your help and suggestions guys!!!