Improving Reception (RS Pro-97)

[tscott]

I've owned my scanner ( a RadioShack Pro-97) for about 8 months and had terrible reception on the rubber ducky antenna that came with it. So, I went to RadioShack and bought their telescoping antenna and a glass-mount for my car; but they're not much better. I usually scan about 30 frequencies at a time and can hear traffic, it's just very distorted and noisy. I can usually fix it by adjusting the squelch; but each time a frequency changes, I need to make another adjustment.

I'm scanning mostly 800mHZ frequencies and am wondering if it would be a good idea to purchase RadioShack's 800mHZ antenna? Is there something else I should be looking at instead?

Thanks!

 

[Taloniilm]

yep, get the RS 800 I have one on my 396 and it works great

 

[Raven95150]

If you are listening to maily 800 mhz, then you should have an antenna tuned specifically for 800 mhz. The RS 800 is a great choice. If you are using the scanner in a vehicle or indoors, it is best to have an antenna outside the vehicle or structure, connected to the scanner with coax.

 

[KR4BD]

I am surprised that you have poor reception with the Pro-97. I have found the Pro-97 to be one of the better scanners for 800 MHZ reception. I do have the 800 MHZ RS duckie which definitely improves 800 MHZ reception. You might have some other issues going on like a poor or broken connection (internally) to your antenna port. This can happen if you are frequently changing antennas on the scanner. This tends to loosen or break the solder connection to the BNC connector on the scanner.

 

[tscott]

Thanks!

Great advice! I've actually had to replace the entire BNC solder and circuit board through Radio Shack from frequently changing antennas. It was a $65 mistake and about a month without my scanner. Since then, I've been extremely careful with it...

We'll give it a shot and I'll let you know how it turns out!

 

[wmbio]

I have found in some urban settings, Nextel puts so much noise into the 800 mhz band I find channels hard to listen to and the 800MHZ antenna does not help, only makes things worse.

Try turning on your attenuator setting if you find a real bad channel.

Enjoy,
Wmbio