HPII Losing Receive Funcionality?

[jack103]

I just had a thought, is it possible that a lot of recording stored in the memory card would have any effect on the other functionality over time? I do need to clean out the memory card but I have not had time yet.

It's also been humid recently and humid inside as well maybe the hpII is more sensitive than others idk.

More foliage blocking signals ?

 

[darkness975]

More foliage blocking signals ?

I admit it's plausible. But, unless a huge amount of trees grew from last year and they are specific to the receiver of only the HPII and none of my other units I could not tell you with 100% certainty if foliage is playing a part. It seemed like one day it worked correctly on the two systems in question and the next day it didn't. Weird for sure.

 

[Falcon4]

What system are you monitoring? It could be possible that the system you are monitoring has outgrown the HPII maybe migration to phase 2? New site towers built? Could be a litanny of things that has prevented your HPII from fuctioning.

 

[darkness975]

What system are you monitoring? It could be possible that the system you are monitoring has outgrown the HPII maybe migration to phase 2? New site towers built? Could be a litanny of things that has prevented your HPII from fuctioning.

Still analog. The systems come in fine on other units.

 

[cpfinlay]

I definitely recommend utilizing the Extreme Upgrade tools. In addition to the Power Plot mentioned by tumegpc, try the "Find a Local Interference Source". The "System Load / Reception" status will give you a quick look at the signal strength, quality and system load.

 

[darkness975]

I definitely recommend utilizing the Extreme Upgrade tools. In addition to the Power Plot mentioned by tumegpc, try the "Find a Local Interference Source". The "System Load / Reception" status will give you a quick look at the signal strength, quality and system load.

I haven't gotten around to doing this yet, might end up being an after work project for tomorrow.

 

[majoco]

The real test here is that your SDS200 has not lost any of its signals. Have you tried the SDS on the same frequency as the one the HP2 has lost? If that gets the signal well, then the problem definitely lies in the HP2 or its antenna system, not in any external influences. Try swapping over the antennas from one to the to the other - if the signal swaps over, then you're 90% done - it's the antenna, it's cable or the plugs and sockets. If it doesn't swap over, then you're HP2 is suspect - if it's only 2 years old there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. Aah - I went back to your posts - you've had it a 'few' years - how many really, it may be longer than you think! Internal components do age and change their values, your radio might just need a "Tune-up"! Some of my daily use radios are getting on for 40 years old and have benefited from a 'once over' - fortunately I have the test equipment and the experience to carry out the job.

One thing occurred to me. You didn't say what frequency you've lost. Is the position of the antenna the same as it's always been or have things around the antenna been moved? Once you get around 400MHz and up, a movement of the antenna or a nearby metal object of only a few inches can cause cancellation of the signal - you might try moving things around a bit - have you added anything recently - that nice new desk lamp may have to go!

 

[darkness975]

The real test here is that your SDS200 has not lost any of its signals. Have you tried the SDS on the same frequency as the one the HP2 has lost? If that gets the signal well, then the problem definitely lies in the HP2 or its antenna system, not in any external influences. Try swapping over the antennas from one to the to the other - if the signal swaps over, then you're 90% done - it's the antenna, it's cable or the plugs and sockets. If it doesn't swap over, then you're HP2 is suspect - if it's only 2 years old there shouldn't be anything wrong with it. Aah - I went back to your posts - you've had it a 'few' years - how many really, it may be longer than you think! Internal components do age and change their values, your radio might just need a "Tune-up"! Some of my daily use radios are getting on for 40 years old and have benefited from a 'once over' - fortunately I have the test equipment and the experience to carry out the job.

One thing occurred to me. You didn't say what frequency you've lost. Is the position of the antenna the same as it's always been or have things around the antenna been moved? Once you get around 400MHz and up, a movement of the antenna or a nearby metal object of only a few inches can cause cancellation of the signal - you might try moving things around a bit - have you added anything recently - that nice new desk lamp may have to go!

Nothing new added.

Sds100, Sds200, Bcd325p2. Etc all receive the signal the same as they always have.

 

[darkness975]

Well I am sad to report that swapping antennas for another Diamond srh789 did not change anything.
Every other system comes in correctly except for the two in question.

The two in question come in just fine on every other scanner that I have.

Guess I'm going to have to try reformatting the whole thing although I'm really not looking forward to doing that.

 

[Marauder]

Well I am sad to report that swapping antennas for another Diamond srh789 did not change anything.
Every other system comes in correctly except for the two in question.

The two in question come in just fine on every other scanner that I have.

Guess I'm going to have to try reformatting the whole thing although I'm really not looking forward to doing that.

Please keep updated, having the same issues !

 

[cpfinlay]

I love a good RF mystery, so I have been trying to think about all the various factors and data points. I understand the issue to be that there are a couple (2) analog systems that the HPII used to recieve better now have static. Otherwise, the HPII is showing no issues and other scanners have no issues with those 2 systems.

HPII - Diamond SRH789 wideband antenna
SDS100 - Antenna unknown
SDS200 - Antenna unknown
BCD325P2 - Antenna unknown

The location in the house is away from most potential internal sources of interference. The exterior terrain is wooded and a mountain area. Given that the SDS100, SDS200 and BCD325P2 all have no issues even with those 2 systems, I believe we can narrow this down to differences in the radios themselves affecting sensitivity and selectivity. We'd all hope that newer devices have better specs than older ones, but that data does not seem to be published by Uniden.

Possible causes and resolutions

SENSITIVITY - I believe we can eliminate sensitivity as the culprit because the issue only affects the reception of 2 systems. Using the extreme upgrade's Power Plot function to log the signal over time won't provide the data needed to compare with before the issues surfaced.

The OP asked is it's possible to have a slow failure of the HPII front end as the unit ages. I think it's possible to damage the front end with a very strong transmitter if it's in close proximity, but again only 2 systems are degraded.

The OP mentions that the signal strength appears to be the same as before.

Antenna - Is the same used previously when there were no issues and the OP has cleaned the connections in addition to swapping it out (for another wide-band antenna).

SELECTIVITY - I am leaning to this as the issue based on an assumption that the HPII is older and likely not as selective as the newer units. I don't know this to be true since I can't find where Uniden publishes that information. I believe that a new source of interference is impacting the HPII for those 2 systems and not on the newer scanners. A difference in selectivity can render a device to be more susceptible to inference from external sources. These sources tend to fall into 2 categories: (1) Spurious emissions from nearby sources (2) Strong RF signals

Since the antenna is omnidirectional and wide-band, it is more susceptible to interference than a tuned, directional antenna pointed in the direction of the desired system(s). The extreme upgrade "Find a Local Interference Signal" can show you what the unit itself is seeing.

Some related conversations that may help:

Some scanners are more susceptible to interference than others. An interesting comparison and explanation is found here:

Uniden and Whistler Scanner selectivity shootout ..

The purpose of this thread is to allow some understanding as to why our scanners work (or don't work) as we would like. It is not going to be an exercise in RF design .. it is going to be a bit more simple so that everyone has an opportunity to somewhat understand what it being said. Me .. I...

forums.radioreference.com

Here's a conversation mentioning using band pass, low pass and high pass filters to eliminate issues BCD996T: - Scanner Sensitivity

 

[darkness975]

I love a good RF mystery, so I have been trying to think about all the various factors and data points. I understand the issue to be that there are a couple (2) analog systems that the HPII used to recieve better now have static. Otherwise, the HPII is showing no issues and other scanners have no issues with those 2 systems.

HPII - Diamond SRH789 wideband antenna
SDS100 - Antenna unknown
SDS200 - Antenna unknown
BCD325P2 - Antenna unknown

The location in the house is away from most potential internal sources of interference. The exterior terrain is wooded and a mountain area. Given that the SDS100, SDS200 and BCD325P2 all have no issues even with those 2 systems, I believe we can narrow this down to differences in the radios themselves affecting sensitivity and selectivity. We'd all hope that newer devices have better specs than older ones, but that data does not seem to be published by Uniden.

Possible causes and resolutions

SENSITIVITY - I believe we can eliminate sensitivity as the culprit because the issue only affects the reception of 2 systems. Using the extreme upgrade's Power Plot function to log the signal over time won't provide the data needed to compare with before the issues surfaced.

The OP asked is it's possible to have a slow failure of the HPII front end as the unit ages. I think it's possible to damage the front end with a very strong transmitter if it's in close proximity, but again only 2 systems are degraded.

The OP mentions that the signal strength appears to be the same as before.

Antenna - Is the same used previously when there were no issues and the OP has cleaned the connections in addition to swapping it out (for another wide-band antenna).

SELECTIVITY - I am leaning to this as the issue based on an assumption that the HPII is older and likely not as selective as the newer units. I don't know this to be true since I can't find where Uniden publishes that information. I believe that a new source of interference is impacting the HPII for those 2 systems and not on the newer scanners. A difference in selectivity can render a device to be more susceptible to inference from external sources. These sources tend to fall into 2 categories: (1) Spurious emissions from nearby sources (2) Strong RF signals

Since the antenna is omnidirectional and wide-band, it is more susceptible to interference than a tuned, directional antenna pointed in the direction of the desired system(s). The extreme upgrade "Find a Local Interference Signal" can show you what the unit itself is seeing.

Some related conversations that may help:

Some scanners are more susceptible to interference than others. An interesting comparison and explanation is found here:

Uniden and Whistler Scanner selectivity shootout ..

The purpose of this thread is to allow some understanding as to why our scanners work (or don't work) as we would like. It is not going to be an exercise in RF design .. it is going to be a bit more simple so that everyone has an opportunity to somewhat understand what it being said. Me .. I...

forums.radioreference.com

Here's a conversation mentioning using band pass, low pass and high pass filters to eliminate issues BCD996T: - Scanner Sensitivity

Wow that was an unexpectedly thorough reply! I will have to re-read it when I am on my PC and can see it better.

SDS100 Antenna - Remtronix 700/800 (the one made for it)
SDS200 Antenna - Comet BNC W100RX
BCD325P2 Antenna - Comet BNC W100RX

 

[darkness975]

Wow that was an unexpectedly thorough reply! I will have to re-read it when I am on my PC and can see it better.

SDS100 Antenna - Remtronix 700/800 (the one made for it)
SDS200 Antenna - Comet BNC W100RX
BCD325P2 Antenna - Comet BNC W100RX

Also there is a laptop on the table though rarely used.

 

[darkness975]

So just to add some further confusion to this Saga.

I haven't had a chance to actually reformat everything yet. The more active of the two systems in question here are a fire/ems channel. Unfortunately the PD in that town is encrypted. However, it's a string type of encryption and that's the homepatrol-2 still recognizes when there is activity on the channel and will briefly flash it across the screen. An extremely rare occasions, likely due to them forgetting, an unencrypted transmission will break through. But the fact that it is still stopping on that talk group ID for the PD despite the encryption shows that it's not distance that's affecting the reception of the EMS and fire Channel.

One can only hope that when I reformat it it fixes the problem..

if not then it's going to be very disheartening. Since it may be a precursor for the even if it's slow demise. But I'm hoping not to jump to that conclusion just yet.

I'm also going to clean off all of the recordings I have saved on the card in case somehow they are causing this though I wouldn't see how.