Pro-197

Status
Not open for further replies.

kranky3899

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Ellsworth, Pa.
I have a Radio Shack Pro-197 Police scanner. I live in Washington County Pennsylvania. Can anyone tell me why i pick up the neighboring counties better than the county i live in?
 

w2xq

Mentor
Joined
Jul 13, 2004
Messages
2,323
Location
Burlington County, NJ
Wirelessly posted (Moto Droid Bionic: Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-us; DROID BIONIC Build/9.8.2O-72_VZW-22) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

Terrain? Antenna locations or height? Could be a bunch of things.
 

n5ims

Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2004
Messages
3,993
Simulcast system in your county where you have too much (yes, this is a real issue) signal from multiple towers so your scanner doesn't know which one to lock onto. The worst part is that this makes it appear that you have too little signal, instead of the too much signal that's actually happening.
 

kranky3899

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Ellsworth, Pa.
My base antenna is on the roof of my house about 50 feet off the ground and when i put it in my car i have the same problem.
 

N8IAA

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
7,240
Location
Fortunately, GA
I have a Radio Shack Pro-197 Police scanner. I live in Washington County Pennsylvania. Can anyone tell me why i pick up the neighboring counties better than the county i live in?

Are you talking about the conventional frequencies in your county? Trunked systems in the other counties? Without knowing, it is hard to give advice.
Larry
 

SCPD

QRT
Joined
Feb 24, 2001
Messages
0
Location
Virginia
yes

I have a Radio Shack Pro-197 Police scanner. I live in Washington County Pennsylvania. Can anyone tell me why i pick up the neighboring counties better than the county i live in?

yes! The scanner has a "hot" front end meaning it picks up extremely well,I would recomend a Variable
attenuator to go in line with your antenna.And no the built in attenuator isnt the answer. Otherwise it could be fuzzy on local channels.Because of intermod or overload.
It actually works better with the back of the set antenna here in my town.But thats no reason not
to use an outdoor antenna!Get the attenuator.
If you cant find one ,do what i did get a radio shack FM trap and rip the guts out,install a potentiometer inside and wala.This does mean having F-connector adapters though inline......
Dont try and take the 197 apart and adjust it,that wont fix it.

http://www.scannermaster.com/ATT_20_Variable_Attenuator_p/24-531021.htm <<<<<<<<<<<<here go!
 

N8IAA

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
7,240
Location
Fortunately, GA
I have only the conventional frequencies programmed in my scanner right now.

Before you go to all of the expense and aggravation, k2rty suggested, try the antenna that came with the scanner. You may find out that you really might not need the outside antenna at all!

I use magmount antennas in the shack and aftermarket antennas for the HT's. I have no problem hearing VHF/UHF conventional over thirty miles away on the 197. You may find out that less is better.
HTH,
Larry
 

kranky3899

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Aug 6, 2011
Messages
20
Location
Ellsworth, Pa.
I will try that Larry but that still wouldn't help me when i have it in my car. I could be sitting right next to the tower in Washington county i still pick up other counties better.
 

N8IAA

Member
Joined
Dec 19, 2002
Messages
7,240
Location
Fortunately, GA
I will try that Larry but that still wouldn't help me when i have it in my car. I could be sitting right next to the tower in Washington county i still pick up other counties better.

What kind of antenna are you using on the car? It seems that some of the frequencies in your county have narrow banded. Signal strength does go down when the transmitted signal gets cut in half.
But, as mentioned, try putting ATTenuation on the frequencies affected.
Larry
 

ranger821

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Jun 10, 2006
Messages
644
Location
Fort Walton Beach, Florida
Kranky. I was born in Mexico(New Hill) around the holler from Vestaburg Pa. live in Florida now. I live about a mile from one of the five towers in My county. my 197 was missing a lot of stuff because I was getting too much signal. I went to a mini 2 meter/440 mag mount with a BNC connector on it Place it in the Ham shack window. I now get all of the locals. I also purchased a fm filter that cuts down on the signal strength a little bit. works good when I hook the big scanner antenna to the 197. The gentleman from Washington might have a terrain problem. Quite hilly, same as in ellsworth.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top