GRE PSR 500 skips over some freqs while scanning

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blueangel-eric

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I have this weird problem where my PSR 500 totally skips over the local police repeaters when scanning on my base antenna. when i put it on manual it receives full strength fine. It happens on VHF and UHF. It's as if the selectivity is too strong or something. i put a FM trap on but it still passed over the local police at 460 mhz. the other scanner received the transmissions for 20 seconds and not once did the 500 stop. it's really disappointing from a high dollar scanner. the base antenna is the scantenna 2. and the lockout is off.

when on the handheld antenna it works fine.
 

fmon

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I have this weird problem where my PSR 500 totally skips over the local police repeaters when scanning on my base antenna. when i put it on manual it receives full strength fine. It happens on VHF and UHF. It's as if the selectivity is too strong or something. i put a FM trap on but it still passed over the local police at 460 mhz. the other scanner received the transmissions for 20 seconds and not once did the 500 stop. it's really disappointing from a high dollar scanner. the base antenna is the scantenna 2. and the lockout is off.

when on the handheld antenna it works fine.
Try ATT Eric.
 

blueangel-eric

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Try ATT Eric.
I did but it didnt' do any good. besides the police repeaters are full strength nearby. and i can hear police repeaters from up to 40-50 miles away so that makes it a mystery. It's seems the local police repeaters comes and goes with the problem at hand. after my first post i started receiving the emporia police just fine. it's like the squelch isn't opening sometimes. i do use PL tones btw.
 

krokus

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Are you sure they have not been locked out? That would account for not working in scan, but manual being fine.
 

detroit780

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Local Police

Since you have tried the ATT I'd try the PL or DPL whichever the case may be. Since it works with the HT antenna and not your outdoor antenna I suspect it's front end overload. You can try the PL if no good try the PL and the ATT and see if that helps.

I'd make sure you aren't using Global ATT so you don't lose any distant stations you may be wanting to hear.

If the PL helps it's not really a cure, more of a band aid but worth a try at least.


I did but it didnt' do any good. besides the police repeaters are full strength nearby. and i can hear police repeaters from up to 40-50 miles away so that makes it a mystery. It's seems the local police repeaters comes and goes with the problem at hand. after my first post i started receiving the emporia police just fine. it's like the squelch isn't opening sometimes. i do use PL tones btw.
 

ScannerSK

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If you notice this only on the stations from the nearby repeater (or while the nearby repeater is broadcasting) it may be due to signal overload?

Does the same problem occur in all parts of town or wherever you take the scanner?

Shawn
 

mancow

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There are some advanced settings that might help narrow down your problem. I wonder if it's moving faster than the PL decoder and just flying on by?

Also, did Emporia narrow band yet?
 

blueangel-eric

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Are you sure they have not been locked out? That would account for not working in scan, but manual being fine.

Like i said before i checked and they're not locked out. that being said when on the handheld or even on car antenna it scans fine. if they were locked out i wouldn't hear them at all.
 

blueangel-eric

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There are some advanced settings that might help narrow down your problem. I wonder if it's moving faster than the PL decoder and just flying on by?

Also, did Emporia narrow band yet?

no narrowband that i know of yet. if they go narrowband will the freqs change? most public svcs are UHF though.

what advance settings would i use?
 

mancow

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No, they wouldn't change but mismatched bandwidths can cause issues at times. There are some advanced settings that deal with VCO settling and other parameters that might help you out a bit.
 

blueangel-eric

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No, they wouldn't change but mismatched bandwidths can cause issues at times. There are some advanced settings that deal with VCO settling and other parameters that might help you out a bit.

I looked in the win500 software and under extended settings there is a general tuning section pertaining to the squelch. should i tweak those? where is the documentation on these?
 

blueangel-eric

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thanks i forgot about that one.

btw
Under General tab i found this:
SQ Wait 1 The amount of time to wait for a signal on a frequency while scanning (scan speed) in the same band. The lower the value the faster the scan speed, the higher the value, the slower the scan speed. There is probably a possibility of setting the value too low and the scanner would not stop on active frequencies. These values also impact searching and tuning ('Tune' search).

I have default settings for this. maybe i need to try a number or to down. what's weird is it happens on the base antenna more so at least from what i see. i'm wondering if there is background noise disrupting the PL tones.

also my siding is aluminum so i think it re-radiates a AM or FM station signal. when i'm in contact with the big mast and the metal ladder on the ground i get RF shocks when putting a wrench to the u-bolt on the mast. nothing is transmitting from my antennas when that happens.
 

davefirelt

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If you notice this only on the stations from the nearby repeater (or while the nearby repeater is broadcasting) it may be due to signal overload?

Does the same problem occur in all parts of town or wherever you take the scanner?

Shawn

You are correct. When I had my 500 attached to an outside antenna on a 40' tower it basically made the radio deaf. It is a good scanner but very susceptible to front end overload.
 

krokus

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What sort of external antenna are you using? You could be getting so much signal that even the built-in attenuator isn't helping. What happens if you don't connect the BNC, but leave it 1/8" from the connector?
 
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