I've been reading your posts about the PSR 500 P25 reception. I have been pretty lucky with P25 reception in Central Texas. However, when I visit relatives in Sloan, outside of Sioux City, Iowa, I have less than optimal reception. When I listen to STARCOMM
Siouxland Tri-State Area Radio Communications (STARCOMM) Trunking System, Sioux City, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies, reception is very poor. When I drive north of Sioux City, reception shows significant improvement. In this case, it seems that tower location is a major factor in reception. In some cases like GATTRS in Austin, Texas, it is necessary to use the ATT feature. So, I hope you eventually figure out what is going on. When I have been stumped by my GRE's performance, I have often written to GRE specifically. I have an email of one of their representatives. He has been very helpful. So, if you want his email address, I will send it via PM. I hope you eventually work things out because I love my 500.
As indicated in one of my previous posts, I am amazed that the RS 800 antenna improved things as much as it did.
I am largely happy with the P25 performance at the moment. The improvement I experienced I would almost classify as an
"order of magnitude" type of improvement over the supplied antenna, all other things being equal.
From a manufacturers standpoint, and, via searching other posts around here, I am not the only one that has made this observation. Surely, not everyone's circumstances will result in this kind of improvement. But, in my case at least, it made the PSR500 beast act like a completely different device.
that being said: why wouldn't GRE supply a better 800Mhz antenna with their unit???, or, TWO antennas with their unit. Regualr duck, and a specific 800MHz duck. For THEM, I would be hard pressed to believe that it would make more than a few Dollars per unit cost difference. For someone like me, it would have given me an entirely DIFFERENT first impression (which are sometimes lasting).
Well, OK, maybe the reception on other bands is then degraded, and they might argue that OVERALL this would represent a DOWNGRADE, and that their supplied antenna is the best OVERALL compromise.
I have to believe that most of us are buying this scanner to receive 800MHz trunked transmissions --- maybe not, but this is my assumption looking at the shear volume of posts on these forums regarding PS type of listening.
I dunno.... my $0.05