OnQue and TRX-1 Scanner Issue

[VE3SCP]

I have been monitoring the OnQue NXDN system, Site 1 (CN Tower) with my TRX-1 scanner. I notice on several occasions that the radio broadcasts sometime end abruptly mid stream. Has anyone else noticed this on their TRX-1 or TRX-2 scanner with this system? I do not see this when I monitor the same system with DSD+. The latest Whistler NXDN update did not rectify this issue.

I am trying to determine if its a scanner firmware issue or not before I send a report to Whistler.

Thanks....

 

[gary123]

many have reported in the whistler forums that the upgrade tends to be unstable. My guess is that the fault is that the decoder is loosing sync or getting too many errors and stops decoding until a new transmission starts.

 

[DaveH]

Have you ruled out signal overload? Don't know about this particular scanner but some older GRE models (at least the PSR600) have issues on VHF and 800MHz, maybe on UHF also.

Engage attenuator and (assuming you still have a good signal) see what happens....

Dave

 

[VE3SCP]

Hi DaveH.

It does not appear to be an overloading issue, at least not an obvious one. I have had the same thing happen on strong signals, moderate signals and even weaker signals. I have tried using the attenuator as well and it made no difference.

It also happens in many different locations which should help rule out overloading. I have gone to fairly remote locations to try to rule that idea out.

 

[slicerwizard]

You should be watching the spectrum display in DSD+ to see what's going on in adjacent channels when you lose a call. Maybe the scanner isn't filtering out carriers that are only 6.25 kHz away.

I suppose you could try parking on a voice channel that's right next to the current control channel. So if channel 34 (422.2) is the control channel, can you park on channel 35 (422.20625) and hear voice calls?

 

[VE3SCP]

slicerwizard -

That's what I thought too and I have been monitoring that on DSD+. It seems hit and miss. Sometimes adjacent frequencies drop out the broadcasts and other times it does not. I need to spend more time looking at that.

Tonight I took the discriminator audio from the scanner and feed it to DSD+. Unless I got lucky, the radio broadcasts did not stop mid-stream. I am wondering if maybe the digital decoder firmware needs some minor tweaks in the scanner. I will do more testing with the discriminator as time permits to get good data.

Thanks for everyone's input.