A guy answered on the GRE forum replied and said the contrast problem should not be there, referred me to a page on the PDF manual. That's another concern. It comes on bright and normal, but after 2-3 minutes, it darkens and there all the black squares come. I am so afraid this radio may be bad, but I hope and pray not. Well, looks like my computer is joining the parade of blood pressure-spiking problems. I can't even download the PDF file the guy gave me!
I guess this all should be happening. Today makes two years since my wife was called to her heavenly home with God. Not a good anniversary for me.
The manual (in pdf format) should also be on the same CD that you used to install the drivers for the pc cable. (That's the way it was for my PSR-500, which, as I've said, is the 'handheld' sibling to your PSR-600.)
Well, Steve, I hate to have to share all this but will. I just hope I haven't bought a radio that was on sale due to having "problems".
Here goes:
1. After it being on a while, lost all Dyess traffic. Nothing more heard the rest of the night.
2. DPS digital crazy. A car called the base clear as day. Base responded. After that, nothing heard. Couldn't hear the car.
3. Once when either a car or base came on, heard the craziest tones and garble for a second or two. Made no sense.
Not sure what's up there with Dyess.
However, with DPS, remember that they often use "duplex":
The base transmits on one frequency, the mobile replies on another. You'll hear the base, because it's a strong signal, from up on a transmitter tower. However, the car is a much weaker signal, from a whip antenna on a vehicle. So, unless he's reasonably close, say 6 to 10 miles from you (this could be more, or less, depending on whether he's up on a hill, or down behind one), you may not hear the mobile responding back to the base.
The exception to this is that sometimes DPS flips the base stations over into "repeater" mode (instead of 'duplex'), so when they are doing that, you do hear both sides of the conversation. The other exception for this is for the repeaters, such as "Throckmorton Dispatch" on 159.21. These are remote transmit locations, and you hear both sides of the locations on these.
I wonder if the 'crazy tones & garble' might not have been from his MDT (the in-vehicle computer terminal)
4. I was getting a birdy on Dyess air ground 3, so locked it out. After radio had been off a while, turned it back on, lock out forgotten and channel open again. Forgot the lockout I had set. Other setting being forgotten? Don't know.
Your scanner does what is called "temporary lockout" when you lock a channel out by pressing the key only one time. That lockout is released when you turn the scanner off, then back on the next time. That's the way it is designed (it's the same on my PSR-500 & my newer Uniden scanners). The reason is so that you can take a channel out for a short time (so that it won't stop there when you're monitoring something else, like a big fire, stormchasers, or a chase), but then you can restore those frequencies quickly by simply turning the scanner off, then back on.
For more on lockouts, use these instructions (copied from the 'Easier to Read Manual' link I posted for you earlier).
For temporary lockouts:
To Temporarily Lockout a programmed object:When the scanner stops on an object, press the L/OUT button.
Or, In Manual or Program Mode,
Press
or
to select the Scan List where the object is located.
Press
or
to locate the object in the list.
Press the L/OUT button.
The lowercase 'l' flashes in the display to show the object is temporarily locked out.
To make that lockout permanent (until you change your mind):
Permanent Lockout (FUNC then L/OUT button) locks out conventional objects and programmed talkgroup objects (not IDs found with Wildcard IDs), and programmed search objects (not frequencies within search objects) permanently until they are unlocked.
To Permanently Lockout a programmed object:When the scanner stops on an object, press FUNC then the L/OUT button.
Or, In Manual or Program Mode,
Press
or
to select the Scan List where the object is located.
Press
or
to locate the object in the list.
Press FUNC then the L/OUT button.
The uppercase 'L' appears in the display to show the object is permanently locked out.
5. Not receiving neighboring counties. I was getting Callahan Co. loud and clear most nights on the 433. Now, not even getting that. At nearly 10:30p.m. before turning it off, I "thought" I could hear a Callahan Co. car number calling in so weak, just barely readable.
6. Trunking definitely not working right. Does sound like it's just scanning the trunking channels. Fire dept. base is only one that didn't have the beeping after unkeying. Civic Center and others do.
I have a theory what is up, here, but without looking at it I'm just guessing long distance. (I think it may be signal overload.)
7. Display frequencies crazy. When Rural Metro was talking, it read "Trent VFD"! And another one or two were wrong.
Remember that a lot of the frequencies are re-used by more than one agency. 155.340 is one used in several different counties. 154.280 is used statewide. The text tag is going to show the name listed for the frequency when the scanner finds a transmission. Since many of these are in the database without a listed PL tone or DCS code,, it causes confusion. If the scanner is in the Taylor County list, when it finds a certain frequency, it's going to display that name, even though the actual transmission is in another county. The only way around that is to watch the display and update the tone or code information for each county as the scanner finds them. (This is easier to show you than explain.)
Rural Metro is an EMS contractor. They use whoever's frequency they are contracting for. They do not show any licenses in your area at all (at least under their own name).
So, Steve there is either something bad wrong with the software or bad wrong with the radio, I don't know which.
Signals from Taylor Co., Union Pacific RR and others were consistently good. Signals on trunking were good, just not trunking right.
That is a big wad of "strange" to dump on you, and I'm sorry I had to do it, but there are some things way off on it. I nearly didn't get to sleep last night I was so upset and concerned about what is wrong with the radio.
I don't know which two days you are talking about. Refresh me on that.
Thanks so much. I hope this can all be resolved. There is no way I can return the radio to HRO. All the packaging has been torn, ripped and the styrofoam chips gone. I do have the box the radio came in and that's all.
I am talking about Thursday of next week (I am off that day,12/29/2011, as well as the following day). I work all this week.
What I suspect is the issue, for most, if not all, of your concerns, is signal overload. I found that with my PSR-500, and solved it easily. If we find a happy medium with the antenna, maybe use the ATT function where needed, we may clear it all up. If that does not clear it up, then we'll figure out the next step.
