Pro 197 no sound

mjbjr

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Just got me another scanner and plugged all the stuff in. I actually plugged in my county (Bibb county in GA) and added everything i could find just to get some sound and see it works.. Well with 3 counties police fire and SO i am getting nothing. I have my scanner inside but my antenna outside on the railing. This is the setup i used before and it worked great. Any ideas?
 

fxdscon

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Just got me another scanner and plugged all the stuff in. I actually plugged in my county (Bibb county in GA) and added everything i could find just to get some sound and see it works.. Well with 3 counties police fire and SO i am getting nothing. I have my scanner inside but my antenna outside on the railing. This is the setup i used before and it worked great. Any ideas?
Try your local NOAA weather frequencies and see if you can hear anything from those.
 

jtwalker

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rk911

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what scanner do i need then? So, the 197 is useless to my county?
I don't know about useless. My county here in Illinois has gone to P25. but the fire depts are on both P25 and their legacy analog frequencies. perhaps the same is true for your county? beyond that there's aviation, railroads, etc. If public safety is all you care about then, at a minimum, you'll need a scanner that can receive P25 Phase 2. This is a list of Phase 2 capable scanners.

The RR database indicates that Bibb County is on a simulcast system. Many users have reported receiving issues on simulcast systems with most radios other than the Uniden SDS100 and SDS 200. Those are the top-of-the-line receivers and will run ~$600. But for reference I'm using a Pro-197 and a Uniden 536 on my county's simulcast system with no issues.

You might want to check-in at the Georgia Radio Discussion Forum. There might be others there familiar with Bibb County who can advise you in more detail as to what scanners should be considered. Also, many public safety depts. are encrypting their radio transmissions. Other than one of the sheriff's talk groups (Macon-Bibb County Sheriff -South) it appears that none of the talk groups are encrypted. The single exception seems to be part-time encryption. No consumer grade scanner can decode an encrypted signal. Again, check-in with the Georgia Forum. Be certain before you buy anything.

Good luck to you.
 

tvengr

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so my 197 can pick up my city?
Yes, if you are not experiencing simulcast distortion. Do you see the talkgroups scanning and stopping on the trunked systems? What programming software are you using? Plug headphones or an earpiece into the headphone jack. Dirty contacts on the headphone jack or external speaker jack can mute the internal speaker.
 
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mjbjr

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Yes, if you are not experiencing simulcast distortion. Do you see the talkgroups scanning and stopping on the trunked systems? What programming software are you using? Plug headphones or an earpiece into the headphone jack. Dirty contacts on the headphone jack or external speaker jack can mute the internal speaker.
I see stuff scanning but doesnt stop on anything. And i plugged in everything in range just to get something. I didnt think about headphones. Ill give it a shot tomorrow when i get home from work
 

rk911

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My first point means it is possible, but the second point means it is not likely to decode the signal well.

I’d be more worried why you can’t receive NOAA weather first. That tends to make me think your scanner has an issue.
that's a good point. i'm also wondering if the OP programmed the 197 manually or with software? a third possibility is that the system is now phase 2 and RR database has not been updated. i still think he needs to check-in with Georgia forum.
 

jtwalker

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that's a good point. i'm also wondering if the OP programmed the 197 manually or with software? a third possibility is that the system is now phase 2 and RR database has not been updated. i still think he needs to check-in with Georgia forum.
Yes I was trying to word my comments carefully as I have no knowledge of the system, and database could be incorrect.
 

tvengr

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I see your post in the GA forum. Let me know if you hear any audio from the headphone jack. I have seen a couple of PRO-197's where the TDA1905 audio output IC is shorted. If it is, the resistors around it should be discolored. If power is on, the IC and resistors will be extremely hot. Be careful not to burn yourself. The IC can be replaced with a NTE7000. Let's hope that is not the case. If you attach your PSREdit500 programming file, I will check it for problems.
 
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mjbjr

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I see your post in the GA forum. Let me know if you hear any audio from the headphone jack. I have seen a couple of PRO-197's where the TDA1905 audio output IC is shorted. If it is, the resistors around it should be discolored. If power is on, the IC and resistors will be extremely hot. Be careful not to burn yourself. The IC can be replaced with a NTE7000. Let's hope that is not the case. If you attach your PSREdit500 programming file, I will check it for problems.
Still same static with our w/o headphones. Heres the bin file from my radio
 

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tvengr

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Your local NOAA weather frequency is 162.475 MHz in Macon. If you can't receive that, there is a problem with your scanner. If you hear static, you have audio. I see several problems with your programming. As setup, you should be able receive but you will often be clipping the audio on the beginning of transmissions. You have the same Central Georgia Regional Bibb County site on 3 different systems. You should have only a single system using that site with the talkgroups in different scan lists. While scanning the site on one system, you will be missing the beginning of any transmissions on the other 2 systems. If all of the talkgroups are using a single system, the scanner will immediatlely go to traffic on any talkgroup. Since Bibb Co has only a single site, I would set Multi Site Mode to Off. As presently setup, you will be able to scan only the Houston County OR Peach County site. With Multi Site Mode set to Roam, the scanner will find the site with the best control channel signal and stay there. If you change Multi Site Mode to STAT (Stationary), The system will scan both sites. Another option is to set up 2 systems with one using the Houston County site and the other using the Peach County site with the same talkgroups on each system. The talkgroups on one system would be assigned to a scan list and the talkgroups on the other system would be assigned to a different scan list. Multi Site Mode for both systems would be set to Off. That would enable you to select the Houston County site, the Peach County site, or both by selecting scan lists. I would also set digital audio AGC to Off. The AGC action can increase garbled audio problems when dealing with simulcast.
 

mjbjr

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My apologies,i sent the wrong file. I loaded it all up just to try and hear something. Here is what i am actually trying to hear
 

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