GRE, Little Help

[trunkerman63]

I was in touch with the GRE help site, but they were of little help at all. They felt I had too much noise on the radio, reason it takes 4-5 bars of signal for digital to decode properly. I know digital is harder to receive than analog, but it still just looks like a signal as low as 1 bar, it should decode and work. Not sit there just doing that soft popping sound or broken voice, at "best". I was having that problem last night with Callahan County (Texas). They are transmitting more digital now. I still think the radio has a problem.

Another problem it has, the Edit 500 I use can not make it activate Attenuator. I have tried this on two frequencies, and so far, it will not make a change. It remains unattenuated. After clicking on "attenuator", I always hit "apply" then go up to "file" then click on "save" before uploading it to the 600.

This radio has problems and I am sick of them all. Yes, I think I got a bad radio. It's great for receiving analog and STRONG digital, but that's about it. There is a guy here in town with another type radio, can't recall the brand, he gets digital coming and going, no matter how weak it is. Wonder if he'd swap? Heh! I doubt it.

 

[gewecke]

How about your antenna?? That's almost always the problem in cases like yours. What are you using for the antenna?
I don't know anything about the system you're trying to hear, but how far are you from the site?


73,
n9zas

 

[trunkerman63]

Well that's where I think the big problem lies. I'm in an apartment and can't have an outside antenna. I have an 18" piece of wire rigged to some coax, and it suspended over the living room blinds in the window up against the glass. Before I did this, things were much worse with just the Diamond antenna plugged into it. So I did "improve" things a tiny bit.

Callahan County is about 20 miles east and does pretty good. Last night the conditions weren't good, and they fell back to between 3 and 4 bars. The voice was broken and unintelligible. There are other counties around 20-40 miles that I could sometimes get on analog, but can sometimes only hear now after a bad thunderstorm. Last storm we had, I didn't hear them at all.

 

[RoninJoliet]

I agree with "gewecke" but in central ILL with standalone towers my GRE500 worked great....Here in the Chicago area on multipath 700mgz towers it would not decode crap unlike my 396XT from Uniden which works great....Now the (2) RS197's i have hooked to outdoor antennas work perfect??....Its really a hit and miss and where ur located that makes the difference...Takes alot of experiement....

 

[Jimru]

Hey Trunkman,

Is there a window air conditioner? You could try a mag-mount antenna outside on top of the air condish, if you have one. What about a balcony? If you have a balcony to use, that might improve things.

I live in a similar situation as yours, but I am fortunate to have a mag mount antenna outside on top of the a/c and it makes a HUGE difference.

Good luck, man!

Jim

 

[GTR8000]

I know you're frustrated, but the reality of the situation is that trying to pull in distant signals from inside an apartment with a piece of wire is going to yield the exact results you're experiencing, regardless of the radio in use. You have to understand the nature of RF to realize that you are really pushing the limits of what any receiver is capable of. 20-40 miles is not an insignficant distance, especially without an external antenna, and is only made worse by the fact that with digital signals, it's all or nothing.

Really, I don't think it's an issue with your PSR-600 as much as you're just up against the laws of physics here. What you need to do is try to get the best antenna possible and mount it in the best location possible. I realize you are very limited in what you can do given the apartment situation, but an 18" piece of wire draped over the blinds is probably not the ideal solution.

What bands are you primarily trying to receive? VHF? UHF? 800?

I would suggest that you take a look at the Radio Shack "Sputnik" 20-176 antenna. It's very small and lightweight, and can easily be mounted inside an apartment.

Outdoor VHF-Hi/UHF Scanner Antenna : Scanner Antennas | RadioShack.com

Here's someone who has it mounted on his wall up near the ceiling using an L bracket.

http://forums.radioreference.com/pi...0-pics-my-setup-396t-20-176-homebrew-ant.html

In the end, however, you have to realize that you're not going to be able to decode digital signals that you can barely receive. 1-2 or even 3 bars is simply not going to cut it, that's just how it is. It's not a failure of your PSR-600, it's just that your expectations are a bit too high. I don't say that to be mean, it's just the reality of the situation.

 

[Boatanchor]

Read my review on the PSR600 for a start.
There are a couple of things that can cause you to not receive a signal of 'four bars'.
Firstly, unless I am mistaken, you are trying to listen to a VHF FM network:

Callahan County, Texas (TX) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Have some of these channels been converted to P25? If so, the database needs to be updated.
If not, the radio could be trying to decide between FM and P25 and causing you some problems.

Either way, your main problem is high localized RF noise.

VHF can be a very noisy band, particularly if you are using an indoor antenna inside an apartment.
You need to firstly identify if you have a noise problem and secondly try to either reduce it or get the antenna away from it. Sometimes, neither is easy.

Thankfully, the PSR and Uniden scanners allow you to select AM mode on any frequency.

* Select a frequency near to, but not on, one of the frequencies you are interested in..
* Now select AM as the mode and turn the squelch right down so that you can hear noise.
* What does the S meter indicate (note that the S meter will not indicate noise level if the squelch is closed)?
* If you are on a VHF frequency, you will find that moving the scanner antenna near to computer monitors, TV's and just about any other electronic device, will increase the noise level. Electronic equipment in nearby apartments will also be causing noise.You may find that three of those four bars is actually local noise.
* Another problem with the PSR600 (and most likely the PSR500/800), is that these receivers are easily overloaded by strong FM broadcast signals. Do you have any nearby FM broadcast transmitters (say within 5 Miles)?

P25 can sound quite good on these scanners, but if there is noise on the frequency, the decoder will not operate properly and you will get choppy, unreliable audio. In this respect FM is probably less susceptible to noise than P25.

Anyway, hope this helps. Keep us posted and if there are P25 services or new trunking networks operating in Callahan County, it would help others if the database was updated.

 

[Ensnared]

Change Settings

I was in touch with the GRE help site, but they were of little help at all. They felt I had too much noise on the radio, reason it takes 4-5 bars of signal for digital to decode properly. I know digital is harder to receive than analog, but it still just looks like a signal as low as 1 bar, it should decode and work. Not sit there just doing that soft popping sound or broken voice, at "best". I was having that problem last night with Callahan County (Texas). They are transmitting more digital now. I still think the radio has a problem.

Another problem it has, the Edit 500 I use can not make it activate Attenuator. I have tried this on two frequencies, and so far, it will not make a change. It remains unattenuated. After clicking on "attenuator", I always hit "apply" then go up to "file" then click on "save" before uploading it to the 600.

This radio has problems and I am sick of them all. Yes, I think I got a bad radio. It's great for receiving analog and STRONG digital, but that's about it. There is a guy here in town with another type radio, can't recall the brand, he gets digital coming and going, no matter how weak it is. Wonder if he'd swap? Heh! I doubt it.

I experienced a similar problem with Nolan County. Initially, the RR listed both frequencies in the DB. One was analog and the other was P25. This seemed to confuse my PSR 500. So, I went into the programming software and made this modification: set Mod to "auto"; Squelch mode to "search"

Since the RR DB might not be up to date since some are migrating to P25, this might solve your problem. Be sure to make note of any NAC's that show up and record or store them.

 

[N8IAA]

Have you even considered asking in the Texas state forum? You might get better answers there We can only guess as to what is the problem. The outside antenna should help, or, because the GRE's are sensitive on VHF, maybe try the telescoping antenna that came with the radio.
Larry

 

[mikey60]

Another problem it has, the Edit 500 I use can not make it activate Attenuator. I have tried this on two frequencies, and so far, it will not make a change. It remains unattenuated. After clicking on "attenuator", I always hit "apply" then go up to "file" then click on "save" before uploading it to the 600.

Most likely the scanner is in global attenuation mode (the display should have a "G" on the top line. If you want to attenuate individual objects, you need to take it out of global mode by pressing FUNC and then the ATT key. Then the individual attenuate flags for each channel will work.

Mike