Ghosts in the machine

[tilt404]

Strange how yesterday my PSR800 stopped receiving. For over an hour it was silent during rush hour. I thought something was up. I hooked it to my laptop and again the software was telling me during an update check that I had firmware 1.0. Yet I was running 1.7. Something keeps haunting my scanner yet I've only had it a little over a month. This is the second time it has told me I was running firmware 1.0. after the scanner starting acting up or stopped working.

Fed up I uninstalled the EZ Scan software yet again and went back to the original that came on the CD. I followed the instructions in the recent beta updates to revert back to the previous firmware updates. Beta can sometimes be a good thing, but I don't like the odd things that have been happening lately.

I even deleted some of my trunk systems and that was odd too. When importing them again some of the TGID names didn't match how they were labeled on RR or my previous labeling in the software. Where did the names come from? I don't know who is responsible for that happening.

Then I heard a fire dispatch and waited to hear the rest of the call but it switches to another dispatch for this frequency, one that is more distant in the county. I turned on my ham radio and it was picking it up fine with just a whip antenna on it. The scanner is hooked to a comet discone outside. Then I realized it was because of the attenuator. For these 3 county fire frequencies I programmed in that the attenuator be on since it was the only way they came in before.

This was backward thinking for me at the time. Turning on the attenuator to pick up the most distant stations from me. But it was the only way they would come in. Now when I do that, the signal drops to nothing, but when I turn off the attenuator the signal goes to full scale. Yet another thing that has completely changed from one extreme to another.

Recently other odd things were happening too. I'm going to work on deleting all the trunk systems today and import them again. The other day I went through all my conventional frequencies to check them and make sure everything was ok. I did the same with the trunk ones while doing this, but I'm still going to import them fresh again. I don't think this will help since its the scanner and software that seem to be the root of the trouble, but until I go through all my programming I won't be at peace.

I wonder when this scanner is going to start being consistent. Or when the ghosts in the machine will leave me be.

 

[IowaGuy1603]

make a ticket on the GRE website and see what they say.


I have had good luck with sending the radio back to GRE when there has been problems

 

[tilt404]

I did. No reply though. They did help with a previous issue though and were helpful. With GRE just selling off current stock of merchandise now and nothing new being made, not much hope for me. Probably will just be sent another PSR800 that will have paint peeling off the front like this one.

I asked GRE yesterday about the state of things after reading on RR about it and they said no comment, so doesn't make me very comfortable owning a product when the company is in limbo. I live in Canada too and its not so easy to send things back to them. I still love the scanner but just hope it keeps working. I hope GRE keeps on going too.

 

[IowaGuy1603]

I would make their lives miserable with questions until they answered me----but that is just me.

I wouldn't expect them to answer questions about their company's troubles ----especially the tech guys not knowing what the suits are up to

 

[tilt404]

My last message in the ticket was that I was fed up and returning it, but then found out the site I got it at only offered 7 day returns. So replied to the ticket again updating them with how I reverted the firmware and things seemed better. If in another few weeks though it stops working again and I get the software telling me I'm using firmware 1.0 again I will probably sell it on my own.

I think they knew what was going on though, but from their tone they couldn't talk about it. Couldn't blame them though but wished them well and meant it. GRE has its troubles with products like any other company and I would still like to see them in business since it gives us more choices. Keeps people working too. I will be very sad if that company is no more. Still not feeling too happy about my purchase though. Mostly a insecure feeling. Kind of like wondering if I recently bought a lemon.

 

[JoeyC]

90% of the time troubles like you describe are a result of programming. I know this scanner is supposed to essentially program itself through the updates from the database here but it is not just as simple as that. Can I assume you are listening to Bell Fleetnet? If so, how many of the sites have you programmed? More is not necessarily better and as I have found can actually be worse. Symptoms such as you've described, - working a few hours ago but quiet for an hour and working normally now sound like the scanner has locked onto a programmed control that hasn't a subscriber radio affiliated to it. Thus, you will hear nothing.

Before I threw in the towel I would investigate further.

I would do the following:
Pick ONE larger site that your radio is in range of that has traffic on it. Program ONLY that site making sure no other site channels or controls are in the programming. Monitor that way and observe if traffic (expected talkgroups) is consistent for several hours. After you are sure that things work well on only this one site, Program another site by itself (erase the first) and monitor its behavior. You may find that some sites only carry certain talkgroups. If that is the case, then having your radio programmed with multiple sites will likely result in silent times, especially if you hold on a talkgroup that isn't carried on the site that the scanner has chosen to track.
Once you have mapped out the sites you plan on listening to you can reprogram the 800 in a manner that you control by assigning specific sites to specific scan lists. Then turn on and off scan lists manually, instead of having the scanner do it blindly behind the scenes. The PSR800 by default scans in roaming mode, meaning that if you have a system programmed with many sites it is hit or miss about which site gets locked into.

After you have taken control of the scanner programming things will make more sense and work more predictably. Unfortunately one of the big flaws with this scanner is that you are led to believe that you just pick and choose from the menu and all is well. Nothing could be father from the truth, IMO.

If you could "save to archive" your main programming and post it here, I would be curious to see what your setup is now.

 

[tilt404]

I had 5 scansets enabled though and they had several scanlists inside, so it was more than just one thing being quiet, it was everything. Just before that the display light would flash with nothing on the screen, and did that 3 times. I was busy though cleaning so didn't put 2 and 2 together until I sat down and the scanner was still quiet. Its when I hooked it to the laptop and software and had it check and it showed I was running firmware 1.0 again. So something in the scanner beyond programming I think, went wrong. Maybe something I did caused this to happen again, but I'm not positive.

I since deleted all my trunk system and just put in one now, and all is fine. Even the trouble I was having with TGIDs patching between each other like crazy last week is gone now. I should of known then the scanner messed up again on its own or due to a programming error by me. The scanner is working beautifully now.

I've already been doing what you describe though. I've been using scanners since 1982 so I am familiar with how to program. I'm very particular with what TGID's I import in a system also. I don't just import everything.

I do think I am partly to blame but also the scanner or software. Probably all 3. I'm starting from scratch now though. Went through all my conventional frequencies 2 days ago and cross referenced them with the printouts I have and RR to make sure each one is correct and set to a proper scanlist. Now I going through the tunk systems, programming one by one and making sure each works. Then I won't fiddle with it anymore and all should be well, I hope since I do love this scanner.

 

[JoeyC]

I had 5 scansets enabled though and they had several scanlists inside, so it was more than just one thing being quiet, it was everything.

Simplicity is the key. It will be difficult to troubleshoot when 5 scansets with multiple scanlists inside are at the root of the situation.

Good luck.

 

[JoeyC]

Also, see this thread for your firmware reverting problem.

 

[tilt404]

Simplicity is the key. It will be difficult to troubleshoot when 5 scansets with multiple scanlists inside are at the root of the situation.

Good luck.

I since deleted everything, so starting over now so I'm past the troubleshooting now. Well, sort of. Just starting from the beginning one step at a time. More simple scansets now to make it easier to troubleshoot in the future.