PRO-163 priority bug or user error?

[KentFitzgerald]

Hi, forum

I recently bought a slightly used (store demo) PRO-163 off eBay. The features, memory capacity, and receive audio are all great, and programming really wasn't as bad as I had feared. However, I'm encountering a problem that seems like a significant bug, if it's not user error.

Current setup:
Bank 0 is programmed with conventional channels for Lehigh County, PA, with the Fire/EMS alert freq saved as Ch 000 and set as priority.
Bank 1 is programmed for the Allentown EDACS system.
Firmware version is 1.10.

When scanning Banks 0 and 1, with priority on, the unit will sporadically come to a halt on the priority freq, with the S meter showing full scale, but no audio. Pressing scan or fiddling with the squelch resumes scanning. If I lock out Bank 1 or switch off priority, all is normal.

Web searching produced exactly one hit that seems to describe a similar problem: "The Priority feature does not work properly while trunking an EDACS or Motorola system...." (Easier to Read Pro-164/163 PSR300/C/400/C Scanner Manual).

So, what's up with that? This is a popular scanner that's been on the market for over 5 years and several firmware revision. Are thousands of users quietly putting up with this limitation? Or am I doing something stupid?

 

[gmclam]

I don't use the priority feature and rarely use EDACS. You have to use both at the same time to see the bug. It was likely considered to be "low priority" to fix.

 

[KentFitzgerald]

I don't use the priority feature and rarely use EDACS. You have to use both at the same time to see the bug. It was likely considered to be "low priority" to fix.

While I've only tried EDACS, the link I posted suggests that the problem occurs with all trunking systems.Any other PRO-163 users care to comment?

 

[themadman364]

While I've only tried EDACS, the link I posted suggests that the problem occurs with all trunking systems.Any other PRO-163 users care to comment?

It mainly happens with EDACS, I know most of the GRE / Shack scanners have a problem with EDACS and priority. When it scans priority and switches back from it, the scanner will just hang, or open squelch and hang on the control channel.