PRO 96 Problems

[LFRfreak]

I have had my PRO 96 for about 6 months now and I am fairly comfortable with using it. Fairly soon after I started using it, it stopped picking up Douglas County Fire Dispatch (id 1053). Several weeks after this problem started, it started to work again. I can't remember if I simply reinstalled the firmware or if it just started picking up that talkgroup again. It has been working like a charm until today. Today, when I was trying to monitor Douglas County Fire Dipatch, it wasn't picking it up. I don't think I accidently hit any buttons that would do this. I tried reloading my Win96 file onto my scanner (the same Win96 file that it used to work on). I also checked to see if the channel was locked out and it was not. Has anyone else been having a problem like this? Should I go to a Radio Shack store and complain since it should still be under warranty? Please help!

Thanks,

LFRfreak

 

[Thayne]

Were you in the same location as usual or were you traveling?
You may be tracking another site that does not have that talkgroup affiliated at the time you were listening. Unless you are in Castle rock or something, you need to be able to "listen" to more than one control channel.
Another thing is that the control channel may have changed for some reason (if you are doing CC only)

 

[LFRfreak]

I was trying to listen to it at home which I have been able to do before. Here is the way that I have it set up in Win96:

LITTLETON 868.23750 MOT
LITTLETON 867.93750 MOT
LITTLETON 868.43750 MOT
LITTLETON 868.66250 MOT
RILEY PEAK 868.91250 MOT
RILEY PEAK 867.73750 MOT
RILEY PEAK 868.33750 MOT
RILEY PEAK 868.58750 MOT
CASTLE ROCK 868.52500 MOT
CASTLE ROCK 867.92500 MOT
CASTLE ROCK 868.20000 MOT
WEST CREEK 868.93750 MOT
WEST CREEK 866.97500 MOT
WEST CREEK 867.31250 MOT
WEST CREEK 867.90000 MOT
THORODIN 868.97500 MOT
THORODIN 867.98750 MOT
THORODIN 868.16250 MOT
THORODIN 868.55000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 868.85000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 867.95000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 868.45000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 868.61250 MOT
GOLDEN 868.77500 MOT
GOLDEN 868.06250 MOT
GOLDEN 868.41250 MOT
GOLDEN 868.48750 MOT
DENVER 868.70000 MOT
DENVER 867.56250 MOT
DENVER 867.81250 MOT
DENVER 868.11250 MOT
GREENWOOD 868.83750 MOT
GREENWOOD 867.87500 MOT

-LFRfreak

 

[fmon]

LFRfreak,

Reply and attach your p96 file. You will need to rename it with .txt after the .p96. Ie, LFRfreak.p96.txt

 

[LarrySC]

He's not doing it right. There would not be that many controllers. Also he may have all these freqs jammed together. That in itself is a problem. And if he locked in on a tower that does not have the ID simulcast then he would never hear it anyway. I would put other freqs in between towers and cut it down to controllers only. Then I would cut out some of the other towers and start over.

 

[jimmnn]

I was trying to listen to it at home which I have been able to do before. Here is the way that I have it set up in Win96:

LITTLETON 868.23750 MOT **
LITTLETON 867.93750 MOT
LITTLETON 868.43750 MOT
LITTLETON 868.66250 MOT
RILEY PEAK 868.91250 MOT **
RILEY PEAK 867.73750 MOT
RILEY PEAK 868.33750 MOT
RILEY PEAK 868.58750 MOT
CASTLE ROCK 868.52500 MOT **
CASTLE ROCK 867.92500 MOT
CASTLE ROCK 868.20000 MOT
WEST CREEK 868.93750 MOT
WEST CREEK 866.97500 MOT **
WEST CREEK 867.31250 MOT
WEST CREEK 867.90000 MOT
THORODIN 868.97500 MOT **
THORODIN 867.98750 MOT
THORODIN 868.16250 MOT
THORODIN 868.55000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 868.85000 MOT **
SQUAW MTN 867.95000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 868.45000 MOT
SQUAW MTN 868.61250 MOT
GOLDEN 868.77500 MOT **
GOLDEN 868.06250 MOT
GOLDEN 868.41250 MOT
GOLDEN 868.48750 MOT
DENVER 868.70000 MOT **
DENVER 867.56250 MOT
DENVER 867.81250 MOT
DENVER 868.11250 MOT
GREENWOOD 868.83750 MOT **
GREENWOOD 867.87500 MOT

-LFRfreak

Why so many control channels? Each of those sites only has one that you need. Such as the ones I've identfied with a **. Try removing all the others and spreading them out among your banks.

You also might not receive Squaw Mtn from Castle Rock. Surprised to see Franktown, Littleton and Smoky Hill missing?

Try downloading some of the excellent existing p96 files and try them.

Jim<

Jim<

 

[LFRfreak]

The reason that I have so many control channels is that if they switch to an alternate control channel, I can pick it up right away without a problem. If programming that many control channels into my scanner is not a good idea, then how come it can pick up every agency I listen to without a problem (with the exception of DC Fire which shouldn't be related anyway because it has worked more often than not)? Why wouldn't having all of those control channels make sense in case they go to an alternate one? The really strange thing is that it started to pick up Douglas County Fire again on its own. Before it started picking up DC Fire again, I reset it with a paper clip and uploaded my Win96 file several times. About 20 min. after I did this, it decided that it wanted to pick up DC Fire again. Does this stupid thing have a mind of its own?

I attatched the Win96 file that I have currently been using.

-LFRfreak

 

[Todd-NG]

I actually have had some similar problems lately with my scanner also. I generally monitor Northglenn PD, Thornton PD, CSP 1D and CSP 6C with one of my PRO-96's and then most of the Denver Metro area with my other PRO-96. My Northglenn, Thornton, CSP scanner will be working just fine for a while then I notice that it gets quiet. I will turn on my Adams County bank on the other scanner and find that there is activity on the channels that the first scanner should be picking up. I will sometimes pick up a Thornton unit if it associates with the Aurora or Squaw Mt. repeaters, but none of the traffic from the Thorodin repeater will come through. I use an outside antenna, I have reinstalled my P96 files, added the same Thorodin control channel into the bank in a different location (ch.0 and ch.7), set it to scan down rather than scan up, turned it off and back on again. None of these seem to help, however if I turn on another bank and then turn it off again the scanner starts working right again (at least for awhile). Another thing that has worked is to set the scanner in manual mode and go through all of the control channels one at a time and then start the scan mode again. It's like I have to remind the scanner that the Thorodin channels are in the bank. LFRfreak made the statement "Does this stupid thing have a mind of its own?", well mine does, but it's also losing it's mind!

 

[fmon]

I attatched the Win96 file that I have currently been using.
-LFRfreak

I concur with using alt CC's. Also, if a system quit working on my scanners, I would immediately run trunker on the system as well as do a search on the freq range for a previously unknown CC.

BTW, your file indicates appears to be invalid format when attempting to open it in Win96.

 

[LFRfreak]

I tried to open the Win96 file from the attatchment and I couldn't open it either. If anyone would like a copy of my Win96 file just let me know and I will e-mail it to you. You will have to e-mail me with your e-mail address because the website's e-mail won't let me attach anything.

-LFRfreak

 

[scanlist]

I've had flamethrowers aimed at me in pointing out issues with the PRO-96 in relation to the Colorado DTRS system such as the hang-time problem and TG images. The radio occasionally going brain dead seems to be yet another one to add to the list as some of this discussion has brought out.

Anyway....

I just updated the MetroTrunked p96 format file and am getting ready to release it this week on the radiohacker.com site.

I have Uniden 296/796 versions in progress as well.

The file attach in this message is for the PRO-96.

Lemme know if this update is useful.

Phil.

 

[Halfpint]

I am begining to wonder if one of GRE's *old* `problems' just *might* be back to `haunt' us? Those of us who own and have owned PRO-2004s may remember the `exquisite?' little problems with the `poor?' solder joints? Well... My first PRO-96 had exactly the same type of problems for the first couple months! Turn the thing on start listening, get up go to another room or outside for something come back and the scanner would look like it was busy just scanning away. Bump it, remove it from the wallwart in preparation to either taking it outside or with me in the car and suddenly there all sorts of `traffic'. Turn it of then back on for some reason and it looks like it is scanning but then decide to listen to WX and it seems to just continually cycle and not pick up a danged thing even though you've listened to the WX earlier that day...

Well... to make a long story short I got out my `handy-dandy' toolbox, cordless soldering iron w/`micropoint' tip, and some very fine `silverbearing' solder, laid out a portable anti-stat workstation mat and went to work. The first trip through I found over 30 joints that needed `rework'. I then closed it up and set it running like I had been before and everything seemed to be `tickety-boo'. But... Like the `olde fashioned' tech / engineer I am I made it a point to `burn' for a while and then went back into again. After four more trips inside and probably close to another 100 or so joints `reworked' it hasn't given me anymore problems. Just for `belt-n-suspenders' a while back I decided to go through my second PRO-96 and do the same thing. After 5 trips in I was only able to say that I had to `rework' only about 25 joints and most of those were mainly because they just didn't `look quite perfect'. Probably most of them actually were `servicable' and only a `QC Inspector' who was `having a bad day' would have sent the scanner back to be `reworked'.

*If* one either is `certified', has spent many hours `slaving away over a hot iron' or whatever *and* has a quality iron with a quality `micropoint' tip and proper solder it is something that by taking one's time and not trying to do it all in one `whack' one could try to see if it `fixes' any of the problems. *If* one *doesn't* feel `comfortable' doing such work then a trip into repair just might be on order. Heck! If you haven't sent it in for the `upgrade', DO IT! You will probably be very pleasantly surprised at just how good a scanner it is once it's been `bopped-and-rebopped' by the people down in Texas.