Need help with no reception

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Bob1955

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Thanks! Yeah I got the control channel and alternate control channels programmed in so it must just be some low-lying trouble spots.

I am curious though how it is officers in the field can receive near perfect reception on a hand pack radio with a stubby 4 inch antenna but for a scanner you sometimes need a much large antenna to get reception.
OK956, because a MOTOROLA 2-way radio is WAY better then a Bearcat/Whistler scanner and tuned into specific frequency range.
Hope this answers your question.
 

OK956

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Many many years ago I worked in the professional film/tv industry.
There were some extremely colorful sayings used to remember which end of the XLR audio cables were run back to the truck and which one ran to the audio source. Unfortunately that's the sort of stuff that sticks in my mind when I'm trying to remember stuff.

Yep I've got it down now though. Ordered the Triband and a trunk lip mount from Antennafarm. Excited to do another map out of my reception areas and see what improvements I got.
OK956, because a MOTOROLA 2-way radio is WAY better then a Bearcat/Whistler scanner and tuned into specific frequency range.
Hope this answers your question.

It does. Thank you. I forgot about how scanners are meant to casually scan a huge range of frequencies at what is comparatively a low price as compared to a dedicated whole Motorola system designated for only one specific band or frequency with much higher more powerful components and programmings at a much greater price.
 

tvengr

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Many many years ago I worked in the professional film/tv industry.
There were some extremely colorful sayings used to remember which end of the XLR audio cables were run back to the truck and which one ran to the audio source. Unfortunately that's the sort of stuff that sticks in my mind when I'm trying to remember stuff.
I worked as a TV broadcast engineer for 45 years. The I/O panel on remote trucks usually had female XLR's for inputs and male XLR's for outputs. I installed, repaired, and programmed scanners and 2-way radios for the news department.
 
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Bob1955

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Yep I've got it down now though. Ordered the Triband and a trunk lip mount from Antennafarm. Excited to do another map out of my reception areas and see what improvements I got.
ok956-Let me know how you like dealing with The Antenna Farm. I have spoken to John there via telephone and he's a real nice guy.
A Triaband trunk lip mount from the above dealer could work out well(What brand did you order?) I used to have a Hustler magnetic mount on my Volvo 740GLE (1987)that destroyed the roof from the cable moving around at highway speeds when I was a rep on the road. The ham radio antenna was a trunk lip mount. I also had (2) blue lights in the grill, wig wag headlight flashers and a Code 3 dash light in blue/clear with mirrors(had a valid blue light card(NY) from the chief too) plus a Bearcat BC-760XLT(was a great small scanner with 800Mhz-no trunking in those days or digital) with the CTCSS tone optional tone board on one side and a Kenwood mobile transceiver on the other side. I was a active volunteer fighter back in those days...a 1st Lt. in Rescue Hook & Ladder. So now in Lower Westchester County, NY pretty much all career. Only all volunteer department work out the best.
It should be know that my Volvo had 198,000 miles when I sold it privately. I bought a 1997 Toyota Camry to replace it. Now I own a (2018) Subaru Forester and could never sit in a low car anymore at my age. lol
Have a great night.
 

Ubbe

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The I/O panel on remote trucks usually had female XLR's for inputs and male XLR's for outputs.
That goes for all types of audio equipment that uses XLR, from microphones to mixer decks and audio enhancing boxes. Signal generating are always male and signal receiving are female. I built a few repeaters for OB trucks and had to remember which XLR type to connect to the RX line and which one went to the TX line in the duplex basestation.

/Ubbe
 

OK956

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["BOB1955"]

I ordered the larsen trunk lip mount as well. It was pricier but right now I dont have lot of time to do all the research on what brands are better than all the others and compare everything out because right now I'm just ready to get it rolling and get better coverage so I'm ok paying an extra 20 bucks for convenience and security in a good product.

I've heard good things about antennafarm and they say they are a family owned business so I'm all for supporting that in today's age. I have no doubts they will give good customer service. I emailed them a question and they got back to me promptly.

Sounds like quite the history you have there with I'm sure a lot of stories that would exceed a six pack on a porch.

At 41 years old I already have bad back problems from carrying patrol duty gear for the last 15 years but I'll still always drive a pickup truck. It's just too much of who I am and a way of life around here in Oklahoma with fishing and camping.

A little about me. My "on the job routes" are not routes. They are patrols. I'm an officer for a large suburb north of Tulsa.

But of course I was a little hesitant to divulge that right off being new to this forum. But it seems that will be ok here.

I have a scanner in patrol car because constantly toggling through the other agencies so I can get up to date info on stolen cars, armed robberies, shooting suspects etc is difficult and in the heat of the moment I dont want to forget what channel I'm on and key up on another agency's main side. That's a cringe moment I've never had and hope to keep it that way.

So having a scanner is nice worry free and hands free option. I went with the trunk lip mount because they will likely frown on a permanent hole drilled in the dept car.

Hopefully I get some better reception now and maybe this thread can be useful knowledge for someone else in the future. Everyone here has been very helpful.
 
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Bob1955

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OK956-Thanks for reaching back out to me.
What your doing makes 100 percent sense. Having your own scanner in your patrol car so you don’t key up on the wrong frequency. And also Larson is a top brand manufacturer too.
My son who’s (27) is a LEO on Atlanta Police Department and he’s in a Crime Suppression Unit but you have seen what had been going on down there, especially over July 4th weekend.
A little about me....I was never a LEO but worked for a local city police department in Lower Westchester County, NY from 1977-79 doing traffic and parking enforcement. I loved finding stolen vehicles/abandoned vehicles too. Then I was self employed in as a accountant executive with a territory of NY/NJ so I was on the roads a lot and had a Kenwood transceiver and also a Bearcat BC-760XLT with the optional ctsss tone board. I’m also a licensed ham radio operator but haven’t had any equipment since 1992 but keep my license up to date.
I started in the scanner hobby(1973) with a Electra Bearcat BC-3/BC-4/BC-210/BC-300 and then Uniden America Corporation purchased Electra based out of Cumberland, IN in 1986 or so. We had numerous other models going forward but now I have a Bearcat BCD-996P2 that’s a base/mobile analog/digital/trunking and conventional scanner and it’s the most trouble free scanner they make. I’m using it inside my home office. I’m retired from being an account executive in the wholesale furniture industry and I covered all of NJ and Lower NY state. I’m just sellIng /programming Bearcat Police/Fire scanners for my local customer base here that consists of volunteer firefighters and some LEO’S.
Thanks for reaching back out to me. Anyone out of my area, I refer them to Bearcat Warehouse in Maryland as they are the BEST source to purchase from.
Stay safe and keep in touch.
 

OK956

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OK956-Thanks for reaching back out to me.
What your doing makes 100 percent sense. Having your own scanner in your patrol car so you don’t key up on the wrong frequency. And also Larson is a top brand manufacturer too.
My son who’s (27) is a LEO on Atlanta Police Department and he’s in a Crime Suppression Unit but you have seen what had been going on down there, especially over July 4th weekend.
A little about me....I was never a LEO but worked for a local city police department in Lower Westchester County, NY from 1977-79 doing traffic and parking enforcement. I loved finding stolen vehicles/abandoned vehicles too. Then I was self employed in as a accountant executive with a territory of NY/NJ so I was on the roads a lot and had a Kenwood transceiver and also a Bearcat BC-760XLT with the optional ctsss tone board. I’m also a licensed ham radio operator but haven’t had any equipment since 1992 but keep my license up to date.
I started in the scanner hobby(1973) with a Electra Bearcat BC-3/BC-4/BC-210/BC-300 and then Uniden America Corporation purchased Electra based out of Cumberland, IN in 1986 or so. We had numerous other models going forward but now I have a Bearcat BCD-996P2 that’s a base/mobile analog/digital/trunking and conventional scanner and it’s the most trouble free scanner they make. I’m using it inside my home office. I’m retired from being an account executive in the wholesale furniture industry and I covered all of NJ and Lower NY state. I’m just sellIng /programming Bearcat Police/Fire scanners for my local customer base here that consists of volunteer firefighters and some LEO’S.
Thanks for reaching back out to me. Anyone out of my area, I refer them to Bearcat Warehouse in Maryland as they are the BEST source to purchase from.
Stay safe and keep in touch.

Thanks! You also
 

OK956

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Well I was so excited to get that Triband and trunk mount in. Was checking the tracking everyday. Finally came in. Pulled it out of the box and they put the wrong connector on. I requested BNC male and they installed female. Double checked my order and yep BNC male. Smh. What a let down. And I paid extra for faster shipping.

Called and left a message as well as emailed them yesterday. I know they are busy but I really expected them to get back with me quicker than this considering my order was wrong. What a buzzkill
 

OK956

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tvengr

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Insist that they ship the mount with the correct connector. An adapter will increase loss and put undue strain on the antenna connector.
 

OK956

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Insist that they ship the mount with the correct connector. An adapter will increase loss and put undue strain on the antenna connector.

Well hell... too late. They already shipped it. Oh well.

I've been pretty handy with different wirings in the past, lights, sirens, guitars, soldering etc.... maybe I'll just cut and crimp one on myself at this point. After some how to research at first of course.
 

OK956

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Well.... mounted the antenna and centered it on the trunk lip.

Still no improvement whatsoever. Drove to all my previous dead zones and still getting a message it cannot find the control channel in those areas. Disappointing.

I guess these areas just have too much obstruction or too deep down in valleys. Closest antennas is probably only 12 miles away if that. Ridiculous. Oh well.

Thanks guys
 

slowmover

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Stay suspicious of:

1). Antenna Construction
2). Antenna Mount Construction
3). Antenna Mount Location
4). Coax Routing
5). Coax Terminations
6). Scanner Coax Input

There are tests for some, and one can disassemble others.

I had to wonder about guys who took apart brand-new radio gear, but not anymore.

The trunk lip mount is the likeliest culprit.

— Try RF Bonds across the trunk hinges.

Use 1/2” woven copper braid; #10 SS 3/8 sheet metal screws with int/ext star washers and flat washer above. As short as is reasonable for flex; under a foot in length is preferred. Remove paint, but not primer. 9/16” bit. Do hood hinges as well. These (with exhaust system in several places) are the surfaces giving the most benefit. (DC grounds aren’t RF Bonds).

Benefits any radio gear. The above is only a start, but it’d satisfy me I’d done a minimum.

“Better” mount grip means a touch of the Dremel tool to get to primer.

Borrow another car. Different brand/model. Do a temp setup.

Go sideways to the problem.

Good luck

.
 
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OK956

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Stay suspicious of:

1). Antenna Construction
2). Antenna Mount Construction
3). Antenna Mount Location
4). Coax Routing
5). Coax Terminations
6). Scanner Coax Input

There are tests for some, and one can disassemble others.

I had to wonder about guys who took apart brand-new radio gear, but not anymore.

The trunk lip mount is the likeliest culprit.

— Try RF Bonds across the trunk hinges.

Use 1/2” woven copper braid; #10 SS 3/8 sheet metal screws with int/ext star washers and flat washer above. As short as is reasonable for flex; under a foot in length is preferred. Remove paint, but not primer. 9/16” bit. Do hood hinges as well. These (with exhaust system in several places) are the surfaces giving the most benefit. (DC grounds aren’t RF Bonds).

Benefits any radio gear. The above is only a start, but it’d satisfy me I’d done a minimum.

“Better” mount grip means a touch of the Dremel tool to get to primer.

Borrow another car. Different brand/model. Do a temp setup.

Go sideways to the problem.

Good luck

.

Appreciate all the knowledge and hard work you put forth but it's a work vehicle that I do not own. So I'm pretty restricted in the amount of mods I can do to the vehicle.
 

slowmover

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Appreciate all the knowledge and hard work you put forth but it's a work vehicle that I do not own. So I'm pretty restricted in the amount of mods I can do to the vehicle.

Mines also a work vehicle. With restrictions.

It’s a choice.
 

OK956

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Ok... so bit of an update. I switched the Larsen Triband for a Laird 806-866 specific mobile antenna. But no change in my dead zones still. But I'll keep the Laird. It's a nice spring based antenna and maybe placebo effect but I feel like my reception is clearer.

But I did discover that two agencies (OHP and Tulsa SO) also transmit from a control channel locally that is not listed in the RadioRef database.

That tower is local so now I receive those clear 100 percent of the time.

Only agency left that I have a lot of zero reception zones for is Tulsa PD. I discovered I'm receiving their transmissions from their alternate control channel and not their primary. Perhaps this alternate channel is on a tower quite some distance away? I don't know how that work exactly.

So my question is this.... since I discovered two agencies running off a control channel from a tower locally that was not listed in the database... is there maybe some Oklahomans here that could tell me another unlisted control channel TPD uses that may be closer to Owasso?

I've looked through the database and I am not really finding any that they may be using as repeaters.

I tried plugging the TPD talkgroup IDs into the Owasso control channels like OHP and TCSO are using and also did an ID search vs scan but they do not seem to be transmitting through our control tower.

I am just about to give up and chock this up to terrain interference with their control channel.

I've mapped out my driving area and I'd say about 30 percent of the area will not receive the control channel

Now of course if I switch to their channel in my patrol car its loud and clear. But that's an expensive specially tuned Motorola radio. I just can't be toggling through channels all day on my in car so I run a scanner to follow pursuits, stolen vehicles etc.

The other day the scanner tipped me to an armed robber pursuit coming into our city with Tulsa asking for our assistance so the shift was able to be there much quicker because of my scanner vs Tulsa dispatch through Owasso dispatch.

In that case, because of the numerous dead zones while I'm driving, I switched my radio to Tulsa so I could relay updates in real time and my hand pack to my agency but it would be nice if my Uniden 325P2 would just pick them up no matter where I am at.
 
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