Prince William County help

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tackerv

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Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jan 7, 2007
Messages
2
Location
Culpeper, VA
For the last few months I have been having problems scanning PWC. It seems there is some sort of interference in the system. The talk groups have been looking up like there is an open mic but no one is saying anything. I don't think it is an open mic because it happens on multiple talk groups. I have checked the squelch and it is normal. I have had this problem with my BCD996T (using ARC996PRO), BCD996XT, BCD396XT, (both using ARC XT PRO). I have been auto programming (letting the software download directly from Radio Reference) without making any changes. I also have been hearing the buses on the PD West talk group (may for security reasons). I am assuming it is a programming issue? Being a novice at programming the newer systems can anyone help me? I would love to have all three running correctly.
Thank you,
Tacker
 

yank108

Member
Joined
May 27, 2005
Messages
29
Location
Loveland, OH
I'm having the exact same problem and it's driving me crazy. It's like an open mike or lazy frequency. It does disappear after someone starts talking on another channel but its aggravating. This is recently a new issue and I have a pretty powerful PRO-96 with zero issues.
 

brownlab

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
708
Location
Washington DC, Alexandria/Fairfax County /Loudoun
This has happened to me before on other systems and the quick and dirty fix is to see if you can identify if this open mike sound is happening on one particular trunk frequency (not Talk Group) and if so, delete the frequency from your PW data base (opposed to locking out the talk group).
 

fireradio

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Joined
Nov 24, 2001
Messages
139
Location
Southwest USA
Prince William County is in the process of upgrading from their existing SmartZone system to an ASTRO 25 system. What you are experiencing might be the result of a testing process utilized by the technicians during this upgrade. Sometimes, a channel (frequency) is keyed up strictly for testing purposes, and it is possible for technicians to accidentally leave a channel keyed once they are done with the testing process. Unlike with your scanner, leaving a channel keyed 24/7 does not negatively affect an actual Motorola subscriber radio, nor does it harm the repeater (they're built for a 100% duty-cycle).

So, if you just hear a dead carrier on a frequency of the trunked system, especially if it is not county-wide (stronger in one area than another), you can bet that there's probably a channel keyed up (either accidentally or intentionally) at a nearby site.
 
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