Pro-651 programming help please

[Lattedahdah]

This is a great forum and I want to thank you in advance for being here for us. I bought a Radio Shack Pro-651 and have been trying to program it since yesterday. I have the 20-546 cable, purchased the premium subscription to RR as well as the ARC500 software. I've read and searched for help and my eyes are getting buggy, lol. So...I downloaded the Win500 software to see if that would be any easier. The scanner just scans and never finds any communication.

I'm trying to listen to Portland, OR in Multnomah county. I selected the sites for a trunked system for Portland Public Safety Radio System and then the talk groups. Everything seemed fine. I could see it uploading to the scanner and completing. I have those in the scan list 01. I saved a Win500 file and reset the scanner to factory default and tried again. I'm still not successful.
I'm so frustrated since buying the subs for here and ARC500 with no refund for those and thinking I may have to take the scanner back and never get my use out of it. If anyone has any other ideas for me I'd sure appreciate it.

I have an old Pro-164 that is still working just fine. But, I programed that a long time ago and my how things have changed since then.

Thanks again for your patience,
Kat

 

[Benzman66]

See this thread;

http://forums.radioreference.com/radio-shack-scanners/313370-pro-197-wont-program.html

Pro 197/106 is the same basically as the Pro 652/651 programming wise.

 

[Lattedahdah]

Thanks, I had read that one. I'm not having problems with the software. It seemed to upload the info to the scanner just fine. The scanner just doesn't "speak" to me. I am able to see the talk group info on it though.

See this thread;

http://forums.radioreference.com/radio-shack-scanners/313370-pro-197-wont-program.html

Pro 197/106 is the same basically as the Pro 652/651 programming wise.

 

[robnj74]

If you don't mind posting the file you've loaded to the scanner here I can take a quick look for you.


Rob
K2RJJ

 

[Lattedahdah]

You know, I think it might be the antenna. I took it off and put it back on and I got noise where it was silent before. It went silent again pretty quickly. I'm not sure how to post my file here. I'd be glad to and thanks so much for your help.

Kat

If you don't mind posting the file you've loaded to the scanner here I can take a quick look for you.


Rob
K2RJJ

 

[robnj74]

Click Post reply, scroll down to and click "Manage Attachments", Choose File, Upload.. Assuming it wasn't the antenna, it's usually a minor programming error that's easy to miss.


Rob
K2RJJ

 

[Lattedahdah]

I says invalid file when I tried to upload it. Maybe I should just go throw this in the pond, lol.

Click Post reply, scroll down to and click "Manage Attachments", Choose File, Upload.. Assuming it wasn't the antenna, it's usually a minor programming error that's easy to miss.


Rob
K2RJJ

 

[robnj74]

Sorry forgot about that, right click on the file and goto Send To, and click on Compressed (zipped) folder. That will create a file that the forum will allow you to upload.. Alternately you could also change the .gr5 at the end to a .txt and that will also allow it to be uploaded.

Rob
K2RJJ

 

[Lattedahdah]

Hopefully this works. Thanks again!

Kat

 

[robnj74]

Ok it appears to be configured properly, so my question now would be signal strength. We can check this by pressing PGM, F2, use left arrow till TSYS appears over F3 and then press it.. From there press MAN, and finally F3 again. Now use your up arrow till you land on the control channel, your volume should be turned up (you will recognize it right away). Make note of the numbers and post them here.


Rob
K2RJJ

 

[Lattedahdah]

I've scrolled through all of them and have no sounds, nothing.

 

[robnj74]

You should see a screen similar to this, if you're not seeing any signal then I'd recommend moving around the house and such. Also verify your distance to the repeater.


Rob
K2RJJ

 

[Lattedahdah]

That's not what I'm seeing. I think I'll take it back. My pro-164 is working just fine. I bet you're right. It's the signal strength and I really am thinking it has a whacky antenna. Bummer, I called Radio Shack and they don't have any more. It makes me kind of angry that I wasted that $54 on software and premium membership here. Oh well, can't win 'em all I guess.

Thanks so much for all your time and effort.

Kat

 

[robnj74]

Since I'm not familiar with your particular area I can only say that the scanner should work as configured. I would recommend you visit here Portland Public Safety Radio System Trunking System, Portland, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies and verify that the control channels and talk groups are what you want to hear.
Also do a read of the Pro-164 and compare the two, yes the formatting will look different but the frequencies will not change and that may help you further.

Rob
K2RJJ

 

[Lattedahdah]

Thanks, yes, I've been there and verified the control channels at that URL and my Pro-164. Time to admit, I've been defeated. Last time I buy from Radio Shack. I just bought it yesterday. No wonder they went bankrupt.

Kat

Since I'm not familiar with your particular area I can only say that the scanner should work as configured. I would recommend you visit here Portland Public Safety Radio System Trunking System, Portland, Multi-State - Scanner Frequencies and verify that the control channels and talk groups are what you want to hear.
Also do a read of the Pro-164 and compare the two, yes the formatting will look different but the frequencies will not change and that may help you further.

Rob
K2RJJ

 

[robnj74]

Try swapping antennas? Worth a try and a cheap fix if it works instead of returning a radio that may be fine...

 

[Lattedahdah]

Good idea, I'll give it a try.

Kat

 

[Spitfire8520]

Can you get NOAA Weather with the scanner? Also, do you happen to see an 'A' at the top of your screen when you're scanning? I don't remember off the top of my head, but its possible that the attenuator defaults to being on. You would need to press the ATT button to make it go away.

 

[Lattedahdah]

Hi, no to both of your questions. I haven't been able to get any sound from it except when I took the antenna off and put it back on. Then I briefly got the squelchy (is that a word? lol) noise.

Thanks for your ideas though.

Kat

Can you get NOAA Weather with the scanner? Also, do you happen to see an 'A' at the top of your screen when you're scanning? I don't remember off the top of my head, but its possible that the attenuator defaults to being on. You would need to press the ATT button to make it go away.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Does your Pro-164 pick up weather from the same location? The only thing I would have left to suggest is playing with the squelch and maybe even running the scanner through all the frequencies in TUNE mode (you would need to release the Pause using the PSE button), though I would imagine you've already done that quite a bit by now.

It would sound like you're not receiving anything in general. I know some of the comments about the PSR-500/Pro-106/Pro-651 family of scanners is a poor quality BNC connector that sometimes breaks internally, but I don't think I've ever heard of one being defective out of the box.

It would be unfortunate if that were the case and is unfortunate that they don't have a replacement available.