odd Pro197 behavior...

[tvengr]

Before you reload firmware, try resetting the global settings to factory defaults. Turn the scanner off. Turn the scanner on. At the Welcome screen, press 0 and then press 2. That will not erase your programming.

 

[rjvalenta]

How well does aircraft monitoring work? Unfortunately, I don't have a schematic for the scanner. If it does use diodes for band selection, a high RF level is not going to fry a band selection diode where it is located in the circuit. Some scanners use varactor diodes (variable capacitance controlled by voltage) to adjust RF tuning. It is possible a bad varactor could cause low sensitivity at the low end of the VHF band. The control voltage applied to a varactor is adjusted depending upon the frequency being received which would be a function of the firmware. What firmware version do you have in the scanner? The latest CPU (uP) firmware is v2.1 and the latest DSP firmware is v1.4. It wouldn't hurt to reload the CPU firmware even if it is the latest version. To determine the firmware versions in your scanner: Turn off the scanner. Turn on the scanner. At the welcome screen, press 3.

uP App Ver: RU2.1
DSP AppVer: RU1.4
DSP VocVer:RF1.0

i turned on just my VHF test scanlist and the Air scalist and was picking up air traffic, weather reports from Lambert airport... i'm surprised i was hearing them, i usually don't hear much.

so i got the latest file per RR and ran both updates, i'm hearing the Air systems, but still no 2m ham.

i am coming to terms with the device being damaged in some way, and if it's 2m ham that i have to miss out on with this scanner that's ok - i'm literally hearing everything else and i have 2 radios on the desk that can hear 2m ham.

my bigger concern is trying to figure out if i'm the one that caused the problem. i'd hate to someday replace this scanner and fry out the replacement by having it too close to my 2m transmitters. will i have to put a diplexer in the antenna line to block out the 2m transmissions? and why is this not frying out the 2 radios that are transmitting? they're closer to each other than the scanner antenna...

and how did this happen?? i thought that the 6-8+ ft of space was the safe zone! ha... so much to learn...

 

[tvengr]

Does 146.85 use a PL tone? If so, set it to carrier squelch or search and see if you can hear it. Did you reset the global settings to factory default?

 

[rjvalenta]

Does 146.85 use a PL tone? If so, set it to carrier squelch or search and see if you can hear it. Did you reset the global settings to factory default?

i have everything in the VHF test group on carrier sq, and i have reset it a few times... i even reset it once and manually added just the 146.85 frequency so i could be sure that something in Win500 wasn't causing this... it's so odd.

 

[krokus]

With the scanner paused/held on he 2m freq, what do you hear with the squelch open? Listen for more than a few seconds. I wonder if you are getting enough interference, possibly on one of the IF freqs, to cause a problem.

 

[tvengr]

With the scanner paused/held on he 2m freq, what do you hear with the squelch open?

With no signal using carrier squelch, you should hear RF noise. If you have quieting, there is interference.

 

[db_gain]

Wether a varactor or discrete diode front end, it seems yours is fooched. I would not be txing 50w near a same band rig/antenna, vhf, uhf, etc. Now 100w hf power shouldn't do much to a scanner with rational separation distances, as most all scanners will have highpass filters in their front ends so they won't pass hf energy to the scanner, but 50w on vhf 10ft away is my bet.
There was a setup I know of with large base dual band verticals up around 70ft and a nearby discone rx ant at about 20ft and even with 100w out on the tx ants the scanner never had issue.

 

[tvengr]

The OP's last response was about a month ago. I'm still waiting to hear if there is quieting with no signal on 146.85. There could an image or intermod from a TV channel. TV channels are 6 MHz wide which could wipe out the entire 2 meter amateur band.

 

[rjvalenta]

The OP's last response was about a month ago. I'm still waiting to hear if there is quieting with no signal on 146.85. There could an image or intermod from a TV channel. TV channels are 6 MHz wide which could wipe out the entire 2 meter amateur band.

just as i read this i looked up and saw the scanner stopped in the 2m ham band... completely silent but stopped, then i realized my IC7100 was transmitting FT8 12m... i'm starting to think... maybe a strong harmonic damaged the front end for the 2m band? i dunno, i'm still lost...

to answer your question... i currently have no tone for 146.85 and hear nothing but static with the squelch open just as i do on the FTM-400 next to it when i set the VFO to the same, so i assume no interference. though i have considered the idea of it as i noticed some issues receiving the 146.91 repeater (it seems... quieted...), and PD P2P at 155.37 is so staticy i can almost not understand the and after they transmit the scanner will just be stuck on static.

 

[rjvalenta]

The OP's last response was about a month ago. I'm still waiting to hear if there is quieting with no signal on 146.85. There could an image or intermod from a TV channel. TV channels are 6 MHz wide which could wipe out the entire 2 meter amateur band.

i just put PD P2P into the FTM400 at 155.37 and it's SIGNIFICANTLY clearer - they are on two different antennas, but the scanner is on a discone and the FTM400 on a little Comet tribander, they should be hearing just as well...

 

[tvengr]

What happens if you try the back of scanner antenna?