GRE PSR500 Issues

[edisonfire]

Please allow me to preface these questions by stating I'm not a dummy--been scanning a long time, from the days of buying crystals. I have the PSR500 but I have many issues. First and foremost is battery life. The battery indicator even flashes slowly while I'm charging the radio. Even with new alkaline I never see a fully charged battery indication. Yes I toggle between rechargeable and non-rechargable settings in the settings. I have tried charging both internally and externally with not much of a discernible longevity difference.I only have backlighting on my own fire department's channel so thats not a draw. I live in the NYC metro area so the radio is fairly busy.

Secondly unless your Rain Man its hard to remember which frequencies are in which banks. Some are obvious, some less than. As an example say I hear that a city (Newark or East Orange, or worse a city with a non-repeaterized frequency) has a working fire, I don't know where that channel is should I want to manually stay on it. There doesn't appear a method to search by either alpha tag or frequency. Wait till radio traffic shows again and either catch it quickly or press manual before another channel opens up.

Also if I'm driving down the highway is there a way to find which bank a particular trunked system is located. I may be caught in traffic and want to listen for a bit to the NJ State Police or Port Authority to see what the hold up is. But remembering which bank contains any of the 30 or so trucked systems I've programmed is a pain in the rear. The beauty of the radio is lacking if a need a binder to know where everything is programmed.

Also the new splinter frequencies, need I program them as 12.5, 25 split or just allow it to be determined automatically? Low band almost every channel birdies but thankfully there are few low band systems around NYC anymore.

Some trunked systems sound distorted. I'm assuming they are digital and that's just the way it is. Bayonne NJ is one.

Are there better antennas for handheld use? At home I'm in the NJSP North system and the radio is tone deaf. I get into Westchester County NY (about 70 miles as the crow flies) and boom NJSP booms in. Is that simply a bad trunked system with spotty coverage?

Thanks for your patience

 

[Spitfire8520]

I am still relatively new to scanning, but I can try to help out with a few issues. Pardon me if I am incorrect in any way.

To answer your first question, I do not believe that the PSR500 has a full battery indicator in any form, and many others will rant about scanners not being tools for recharging your batteries. What you can do to extend the battery life for your scanner is change the calibration of the battery icon, which will prolong the life of your scanner. It can be done manually or I believe with any of the programs. You can find instructions and recommended values in the Easier to Read manual and scroll down to the 'Bat Icon Cal (106/500 only)' section and change the values. For WIN500, it's under General Settings>Battery Settings>Icon Thresholds.

Easier to Read Pro-106/197/PSR500/600 Digital Scanner Manual

There is one way you can search by alpha tags (that I know of), but it is kind of complicated. If you have the time, you can hit 'PGM', then 'EDIT', then 'FIND', then select 'Text' and type in the alpha tag, hit 'OK', and then hit 'MAN' and it should be on the channel you want. I do not know about frequency searching though.

As for the trunking systems, I believe you are going to need to do some preplanning with the scanlists as I do not know of a way to search for a trunked system. If you know what the alpha tag is for a talkgroup in a trunked system, and that could be a way of doing things. Otherwise, I can't really help you there.

For some the distortion, you may be running into simulcast distortion. I have not personally dealt with this, but common solutions I have heard of are to try to attenuate the signal, or even try a paperclip antenna route. For simulcasting, less signal might actually be better.

Wiki for simulcast distortion: Simulcast digital distortion - The RadioReference Wiki

As for the antenna recommendations and specific questions about NJSP North, you might want to consider asking around on the New Jersey forums. They'll be able to help you more then someone from across the country as they are probably listening to the same systems you are trying to listen to.

I hope that I was able to assist you in certain aspects of your issue. You might want to wait for some PSR500 experts to get here to farther resolve your issues.

 

[whooey]

Secondly unless your Rain Man its hard to remember which frequencies are in which banks.

LMAO!!! :lol:

 

[Ensnared]

Battery Life on PSR 500

Please allow me to preface these questions by stating I'm not a dummy--been scanning a long time, from the days of buying crystals. I have the PSR500 but I have many issues. First and foremost is battery life. The battery indicator even flashes slowly while I'm charging the radio. Even with new alkaline I never see a fully charged battery indication. Yes I toggle between rechargeable and non-rechargable settings in the settings. I have tried charging both internally and externally with not much of a discernible longevity difference.I only have backlighting on my own fire department's channel so thats not a draw. I live in the NYC metro area so the radio is fairly busy.

Secondly unless your Rain Man its hard to remember which frequencies are in which banks. Some are obvious, some less than. As an example say I hear that a city (Newark or East Orange, or worse a city with a non-repeaterized frequency) has a working fire, I don't know where that channel is should I want to manually stay on it. There doesn't appear a method to search by either alpha tag or frequency. Wait till radio traffic shows again and either catch it quickly or press manual before another channel opens up.

Also if I'm driving down the highway is there a way to find which bank a particular trunked system is located. I may be caught in traffic and want to listen for a bit to the NJ State Police or Port Authority to see what the hold up is. But remembering which bank contains any of the 30 or so trucked systems I've programmed is a pain in the rear. The beauty of the radio is lacking if a need a binder to know where everything is programmed.

Also the new splinter frequencies, need I program them as 12.5, 25 split or just allow it to be determined automatically? Low band almost every channel birdies but thankfully there are few low band systems around NYC anymore.

Some trunked systems sound distorted. I'm assuming they are digital and that's just the way it is. Bayonne NJ is one.

Are there better antennas for handheld use? At home I'm in the NJSP North system and the radio is tone deaf. I get into Westchester County NY (about 70 miles as the crow flies) and boom NJSP booms in. Is that simply a bad trunked system with spotty coverage?

Thanks for your patience

I own a PSR 500. I would like to address several issues. The first is batteries.

I never ever charge my scanner with the batteries inside. Since there are numerous posts regarding why this is not a good idea, I won't go down that road.

When I first bought batteries for this radio, I made a huge mistake. I bought them from Batteries Plus, a chain of stores. I was unaware of Sanyo Eneloop batteries: eneloop - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The batteries purchased at Batteries Plus depleted within 36 hours without the radio being turned on!

Digital radios eat battery life. Yes, there are ways to slow this down, but I typically get 8 hours of scanning out of a charge. At present, I am using Sanyo Eneloop & Lenmar 2700 mah batteries. These keep their charge for months.

If you want to keep the scanner rolling for extended hours, there is a good trick, provided it is not at night, put the radio in "stealth mode." This will disable the light functions of the radio. The light functions on this radio can drain battery life, quickly. I never use alkaline batteries unless I am caught without my charger.

I charge all of my batteries outside of the radio. Again, Eneloop makes a great charger, one that tells you when the batteries are ready as opposed to ones that don't.

You seem to have a blessing and a curse of living in a radio-saturated area.

When I am scanning, I carry a scan list with me. I put this in a Word document. I list each scan list and what systems are included. Sometimes, I mix conventional & trunked systems in the same scan list such as a county, particularly if I am traveling & monitoring systems on the road.

Your antenna situation is very complicated to answer in the context of this post. It all depends on which system you are monitoring. Sometimes, I use my 1/4 wave scanner antenna purchased from Grove Enterprises, but sometimes, I use the stock antenna that came with the radio inside the car due to overloading. Some people prefer the RS handheld 800 mhz rubber antenna. It works great on 800 mhz, but not on VHF. At present, I don't use this antenna. It tends to get bent rather quickly when I use it. I recommend carrying several antennas depending on what you want to monitor.

When I am sitting still in the house, I use a Diamond RH771. It pulls in VHF traffic quite well; however, if I am moving, I don't use this antenna because it tends to shift reception with movement.

I hope I've helped.

 

[Mojaveflyer]

PSR-500 Problems

I have a 600, not a 500 but in regards to telling which bank a particular system is programmed in to, I use a list I created showing which systems are in the V-Scanner banks and then a list of the various banks are in a group. Attached is the list I use for my 600. I printed the lists and then had it laminated at the local office supply store and keep it above the visor in my truck. If I have a 'Senior Moment' and can't remember where something is, I just pull the list from over the visor...

 

[randyK]

On every V folder I have, I made a bogus P25 system and assigned it object ID 0 then locked it out. Then I added bogus talkgroups (I used IDs 1-20) for that system into object IDs 1-20, then assigned TG#1 to scanlist 1, then TG#2 to scanlist 2, & so on. Then I labeled them with the scanlist number and what was in the scanlist. When finished you can press manual. then scroll left or right and it will read what the scanlist number is and what is in that list, as long these are the first objects in each scanlist. I works pretty good for me. It might be hard to do if programming by hand, but it's a breeze with win500.

 

[Ensnared]

Interesting Method

On every V folder I have, I made a bogus P25 system and assigned it object ID 0 then locked it out. Then I added bogus talkgroups (I used IDs 1-20) for that system into object IDs 1-20, then assigned TG#1 to scanlist 1, then TG#2 to scanlist 2, & so on. Then I labeled them with the scanlist number and what was in the scanlist. When finished you can press manual. then scroll left or right and it will read what the scanlist number is and what is in that list, as long these are the first objects in each scanlist. I works pretty good for me. It might be hard to do if programming by hand, but it's a breeze with win500.

Since I'm very dyslexic, I'm still sitting here attempting to visualize and understand what you've managed to accomplish. This sounds like a wonderful idea. Yes, I would be totally lost without Win500, a fine software.

I once had ARC 500, but I gave it away. I could not get the TG's & TSYS on the same page like Win500.

 

[randyK]

 

[randyK]

I was going to send a Win500 screenshot but can't figure out how to do it.

 

[edisonfire]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I've solved the where any particular frequency is issue using a bit of a novel approach. I've listed the city & channel # in a word document, then saved it to DropBox. I can call the document up on my iPhone, ipad, computer etc and each time I modify the file, it is updated across all my devices.

Spitfire you mentioned attenuating a trunked system when distortion exists. Do I attenuate each of the individual frequencies, only the control channels or is there a way to attenuate the entire trunked system as a whole? I am trying the Sanyo batteries.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Thanks for all the replies. I think I've solved the where any particular frequency is issue using a bit of a novel approach. I've listed the city & channel # in a word document, then saved it to DropBox. I can call the document up on my iPhone, ipad, computer etc and each time I modify the file, it is updated across all my devices.

Spitfire you mentioned attenuating a trunked system when distortion exists. Do I attenuate each of the individual frequencies, only the control channels or is there a way to attenuate the entire trunked system as a whole? I am trying the Sanyo batteries.

I believe the only option there is for a trunked system is to attenuate the entire system.

 

[SCPD]

What I did is put a list on the back of the unit showing me what systems I have programmed in what scanlist. So if I want to go to EMS .. I know that is it Scanlist 7. I created the list in MS Word and made the font small so I can read it .. and get all the information on a little square that I taped on the back cover. Guess you can do whatever you like .. but I find that my little list refreshes me as far as what is programmed in the scanner.

 

[ratboy]

I basically have everything in different scanlists. I have Ohio MARCS in Scanlist1, Local PS is in 2, mixed analog and digital. In 3 I have Med channels. 4 is railroads, etc. The LED is set up with blue for police, flashing blue for local units/talkgroups, red for fire, white for meds, yellow for rail, etc. I have no problems knowing what is what on my PSR-500/PRO-106's at a glance.

 

[krokus]

Organizing the scan lists can make a big difference. I have tried to put a bit of planning into my scan lists, then have each list alpha tagged, so the name shows when I turn that list on or off. (Obviously, how the lists are organized needs to be tailored to the situation.)

These are my scan lists:
General VHF/UHF.
Frequencies that lock on interference, while at work.
Skywarn.
County analog TRS.
VHF/UHF Interoperability.
800MHz Interoperability.
Washtenaw County MPSCS.
General MPSCS.
Wayne County MPSCS.
Livingston County MPSCS.
Genessee County MPSCS.
Monroe County MPSCS.
Macomb County MPSCS.
Saginaw County MPSCS.
Federal MPSCS.
Military MPSCS.
Statewide MPSCS Events.
MPSCS Wildcards.
Signal Sweeper.

I make liberal use of the temporary lockout feature, when useful.

 

[cwc2556]

PSR-500 Not Receiving

My PSR-500 stopped receiving any signals, Except WX. I've updated CPU and DSP firmware to most current. Still no signals! Any ideas?

 

[krokus]

My PSR-500 stopped receiving any signals, Except WX. I've updated CPU and DSP firmware to most current. Still no signals! Any ideas?

You should start your own topic for this.

In thw mean time, make certain you have your scan lists enabled, and that the scan lists are populated.

 

[TAK21]

In regard to your FIRE example

Remember you can put scannable objects in multiple scan lists and build scanlists for a specific purpose like your FIRE situation. See the attached document and it has an example of that.