Pro-651: Problems with super-slow scan speed - help needed

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StingrayJG

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Hey guys,

Asking for a friend with a new (as in maybe a little old but just out of the box, never used before) Pro-651 that I've been helping to get his scanner programmed and running tip-top.

Using win500 and my RS programming cable to download from RR database, I programmed his scanner with 16 different scan lists, same as what I have in mine, no problems at all. Everything went in just fine and tested great from what I saw. I should mention that prior to programming I did a firmware update to version 2.9 which was the most recent I could find out there. I thought we were in business except that I noticed that the scanning speed was ridiculously slow, like maybe only 3 frequencies per second slow. Never saw that happen before. You can miss entire calls it was scanning so slow. They should be going by like lightning like on my Pro-96 that I also programmed using the exact same win500 and wire I'm using now. I turned the scanner off and back on a few times and suddenly on about the third try at this, suddenly it was scanning like lightning again. Great! I thought. We were in business. I still don't know what caused the slowness but it was gone and working great again so we didn't care anymore. A few days later, the slowness came back with a vengeance. Once again, it's scanning super slow to where you can literally read each frequency going by where they should be flying by when it's scanning at the proper high-speed. Turning the scanner off and back on numerous times did nothing to resolve the issue this time like it did the first time, unfortunately.
I guess my/our question is: Does anyone have any ideas on what the root-cause of the super slow scanning might be and if so, how to eliminate it? Is there a win500 setting that controls/sets scanning speed that I don't know about? Ugh! After I programmed it, it was slow, then it got fast again just by turning it off and back on again a few times (I don't remember doing anything more than that) and then a few days later it started acting up again out of the clear blue. We know the scanner is capable of fast scanning since we saw it working that way for a few days before the second episode of slowness, so I doubt the scanner is faulty. Has anyone else with a Pro-651 encountered this before? Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!
Jim.
 

bama9999

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I hate to state the obvious, but have you checked to make sure the squelch setting is set high enough? A low setting will make it scan slow, and if the channels you are receiving have PL tones, you won't hear any background hiss, like you would if you have any channels programmed without PL tones.
 

StingrayJG

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No, Please. State the obvious. We're looking for any help at all, no matter how Duh! it might sound!

I did not check the squelch settings at any time during the process but I will do so with him as soon as I see him again when he'll have it with him which should be in just a couple hours hopefully and I'll report back with the results.

Thanks again for your quick response/suggestion.
Jim.
 

ScannerSK

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I would check the "SQ Wait 1" and "SQ Wait 2" settings in the expert/advanced settings menu. I believe there is a default button to set them back to their default values.

Some scanners use the following as their defaults:
"SQ Wait 1" set to 10 (In-band SQ Timeout in Win500)
"SQ Wait 2" set to 15 (Out-of-band SQ Timeout in Win500)

Shawn
 

N8IAA

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Wouldn't one think that if

You are running 16 scanlists at one time that the scanning time would be slow??
 

StingrayJG

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I hate to state the obvious, but have you checked to make sure the squelch setting is set high enough? A low setting will make it scan slow, and if the channels you are receiving have PL tones, you won't hear any background hiss, like you would if you have any channels programmed without PL tones.

Bingo! It was the squelch dial. We must have been accidentally messing with it when we were twisting the volume dial. I feel like a fool for not checking something so simple before posting on here.

Thanks again to you and ScannerSK for your contributions to help solve the problem. Much appreciated.
Jim.
 

StingrayJG

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Wouldn't one think that if You are running 16 scanlists at one time that the scanning time would be slow??

No.
Only if you're assuming that I'm making it scan through 1000+ channels to get back to a call it just let go of, and then not understanding why it takes a while, which is far from the case.

Some lists only have 6 or 7 channels in them, some have many more than that, none of them are full to the max like you may be assuming, not even close. I/we just have the lists set up in an ideal way (for us) to lock out or include certain groups of channels as easily as possible with one press of a button if need be. They're not always all active at once either, but there for when wanted/needed.
As noted above, the issue was solved rather easily once an almost embarrassingly easy fix was proposed, so there is now peace and harmony throughout the land again, thankfully.
Thanks,
Jim.
 

bama9999

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Bingo! It was the squelch dial. We must have been accidentally messing with it when we were twisting the volume dial. I feel like a fool for not checking something so simple before posting on here.

Thanks again to you and ScannerSK for your contributions to help solve the problem. Much appreciated.
Jim.

You are quite welcome. Happy that I could be of assistance. Also, don't feel bad, as I'm sure all of us have overlooked the obvious more than once as well!
 

greggk

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Damn! I knew the answer to this but got here too late. Good to see its running well now.
 
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