Pro-106 Signal Strength Section on Screen

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jfhtm350

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I have a brand new Pro-106 and i turned it on and noticed something wierd. When im scanning and no signals are detected the signal meter is trying to light up. Anywhere from one bar to all of them. It is dim and not the full brightness as when you pick up a signal and it shows the signal strength. Does anyone elses 106 do this or is something wrong with it? I have a Pro-164 that does not do this. Seems like im getting more background noise with the 106 than what i get with my 164 or maybe its just me.
 

vinzep491

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If you are monitoring a trunked radio system the signal meter is displaying the strength of the control channel as it is waiting for voice traffic, at which point the signal meter would display the strength of the voice frequency.

If you are scanning analog channels you might have you squelch down too low.
 

jfhtm350

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Yes i have a trunked system programmed in, but i have it in a different scanlist (bank) that is not active. I can turn the squelch all the way up and same thing also so that cant be the problem.

What it is doing, is when it is scanning for an active channel i can see the signal meter coming on and off, flashing with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 bars. That dont happen on any other scanner ive seen or had. Its like its picking up a signal but not changing over to monitor it. I think there must be something wrong with the display or something internal. Maybe its supposed to do that, I dont know.

Maybe someone with a 106 will say if that happens on theirs or not.
 

03msc

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I know this was already mentioned but what you describe sounds like you're scanning a TSYS even if you don't think you are. If it was only 'lighting up' one or two bars I'd think it was just picking up some interference or something but you say it is showing 5 bars (and it sounds like you mean pretty consistently) so that makes me think it is scanning a trunking system.

When I scan solely conventional with my 106 it doesn't show 5 bars until it stops on a transmission.

Sorry I'm not more help.


Sent from my Samsung Captivate using Tapatalk
 

jfhtm350

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Well its not neccessarily just 5 bars all the time. can be anywhere from 1 to 5. Sometimes you see them flash alot and go back later at night and not flash near as much. Now when it stops on a signal it gets 4 or 5 bars and stays light just like normal until it goes to scanning again. I am scanning conventional channels.

Mancow are you saying yours does that too when its scanning for an active channel?
Does yours not do that 03msc?
 

03msc

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Well its not neccessarily just 5 bars all the time. can be anywhere from 1 to 5. Sometimes you see them flash alot and go back later at night and not flash near as much. Now when it stops on a signal it gets 4 or 5 bars and stays light just like normal until it goes to scanning again. I am scanning conventional channels.

Mancow are you saying yours does that too when its scanning for an active channel?
Does yours not do that 03msc?

If you're saying it is 'stopping' on a channel and showing full bars but you hear no audio that sounds like an audio problem. If it is showing scanning when you are seeing the full bars that sounds like it is scanning a trunked system. From this description it sounds like it is stopping on a channel, however...am I right?
 

bama9999

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Another thing that can cause this is if you are using tone squelch, and there's another agency you can receive on the same frequency, but has a different tone, you'll see the signal bars but it won't stop on the frequency since the tone doesn't match what you've got programmed in.
 

jfhtm350

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Yes i have a few PL and DPL codes programmed in along with open squelch on most.

This is what it looks like:
http://jfhtm350.webs.com/Scanner.wmv
It is a small file (250kb) and it will not let you download it for whatever reason but it will stream through windows media player. The audio is nothing but the tv and the video is not great but you can see the signal meter going crazy above where it says scanning. If you can make that out on there.

Does everyones signal meter do that? I have a Pro-164 that does not do that with or without a trunking system programmed in or PL or DPL codes either.
 

mancow

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My signal meter will flutter at times while scanning. I'm watching it right now. It's bouncing up to 3 bars at times. It depends on the noise floor in the area. It's doing exactly as you described.


That's normal. It's sampling the signal level as it tunes.
 

jfhtm350

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Well im noticing something. I have THP programmed in a separate scanlist with about half or better programmed with PL codes the others are open squelch and it is really lighting up the signal meter when it is scanning just on that scanlist. Even the S will come on and it is as dark as when you get a signal.
Now i have another scanlist that has no PL or DPL or P25 codes programmed in and the signal meter is barely lighting up when scanning just on that scanlist. I would say bamma is right about the codes being programmed in.
 
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