PSR-500 and ORION

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TheUrge

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PSR-500 and ORIN

So the the other day I bought a PRO-96 to hear ORIN. I got it all programmed and I wasn't impressed in the least. I probably was getting only 25-30% of the conversation - the rest was all digital artifacting. I upgraded the firmware, tried my 800mhz antenna and I still did not get much improvement. So the 96 is now up on ebay. :lol:

Anyways I've been eyeballing the new PSR-500's, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger (should be here on Wednesday). I was just curious if anyone has any experience with the new gre radios here in Omaha? From what I've read in the GRE fourm I understand there still is some simulcasting issues but it sounds like there is some improvement. Will there be a noticable difference with the 500 or am I going to still experience about the same error rate?
 
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ScanTheFreqs

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i own a psr 500 and use it to listen to the ORION a few times a week. although ive never used a pro 96 to compare this to, i can definetely relate to the poor audio quality issue. i created a thread regarding this in the GRE forum and the answer i was given is that the problem is that its a simulcast system. if im inside the city of omaha it usually works perfectly, but when i get out in the county, like near waterloo or valley, i still get all 5 signal bars, but the audio suffers miserably. the non simulcast oppd towers i listen to (elkhorn, telbasta, and cedar bluffs) all sound AMAZING (from my house in fremont) i owned a uniden bcd396t and i can say the psr500 definetely does better then the 396, even with its new 2.0 firmware update. but still, theres room for improvment on the psr500

hope this helps. also i cant wait to hear your review of how it performs on this system
 
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TheUrge

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Thanks for the report. I actually live in the city limits so it will be interesting to see how it sounds. When I get my radio on Wednesday, I'll definitely post a review.
 

TheUrge

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Wow this forum is dead...

I got my 500 in the mail yesterday and I've had some time to test it out. I got ORIN plugged in yesterday and gave it a try. It works alot better than the Pro-96 IMO. If you are indoors you still have to move the scanner around the house a bit to get the channel to decode right. But it works pretty well.

I also got a chance to drive around a bit with it and it works very well in town. There are a couple spots where it cuts out, but for the most part I was able to recieve about 85-90% of transmissions (which is a far cry from what I was geting with the 96). Of course this is to be expected on a multicast system. I did upgrade the firmware to the latest, so I think that probably helped a bit.

Anyways, this is my initial review of decoding Omaha with the PSR-500. If anyone is thinking about picking one up here in Omaha I would have to recommend it.
 

43g70

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How much different is the programming on the PSR 500 compared to the Pro 97? I understand it object base, right?
 

TheUrge

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How much different is the programming on the PSR 500 compared to the Pro 97? I understand it object base, right?

Yeah it's a little bit differant, but not too much. If anything it's easier to program a system on the 500 compared to the 97. Of course I use win500 to program my scanner, but I did program one by hand. Once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad.
 

43g70

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Ok, I thought you programmed the Pro 97 with Win97. Which I have used.
 
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Hello Urge.

I have audio/decode problems with my PRO96, also. But only listening to ORION.

I have tried everything to improve the decode rate. Different antennas, coax, nothing made any real difference in reception with the exception of a yagi I purchased, it is pointed at 102nd and Maple site, I live near 72nd and Military. It made a fair improvement, but I still have decode/reception problems.

From what I understand, besides the simulcasting, PRO 96 does not digest CQPSK modulation very well, which ORION uses CQPSK. C4FM and other types of modulation work wonders with the PRO96.

Speaking of OPPD, I get Elkhorn, Blair, Cedar Bluffs, Gretna, Telbasta, all within no less thant 95% decode rate, on omnidirectional scanner antenna, except Telbasta, it is around 55% and during good conditions, Murray tower drops in at 35%.

At least I can hear OPPD without any fuss when the lights go out.
Fire and Police, iffy at best.
At least my fire dept. still gets toned out over 453.3250 and I can hear what they are up to over good 'ole analog.
 

ScanTheFreqs

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you mention a site at 102nd and maple, i thought there were only 2 sites; one at hummel park and the other at the intersection of interstates 80 and 480. are there other sites? if so where are they all?
 

ScanTheFreqs

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that first link lists all the sites for the entire ORION, i was referring to just the douglas county simulcast, the site used by douglas county law enforcment. does anyone know if there is more then 2 towers for the douglas county simulcast, and if so where
 

NeFire242

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There's a PDF around here some where, and if you look you'll see Titan Tower (28th and B Streets) plus the one down town, Elkhorn, Hummel Park.

I want to say there's like 5 sites maybe. Just look at the map and click away. Any within the city are going to be simulcasted tower sites for the OPD 800trk sys.
 

43g70

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102nd and Maple

111nd and I street

Elkhorn Water Tower

156th and Maple

Hummel Park

Titan Tower(480 and 80)

Down Town

40th and Nicholas St.

These are the sites for the Douglas County Simulcast system.
 

miked2000

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messing around

Have you messed with your settings at all? Living on the back side of the bluffs in Iowa I was having the same problem and after messing around found out that by adding a inline pre-amp my problem was that I was getting some interferance from somplace (I assume a cell tower), anyway after trying diferent combination I am getting almost 100% audio decoding with a 3 element yagi inside, using a cheap radio shack preamp and turning the attinuation on (I know it sounds like one is defeating the other but it works) and I almost never have any break up any more. In additon the preamp lets me receive the local stuff on vhf and uhf ok with the yagi.

By the way I feed the scanner into a little FM broadcast unit when I am working around the house and can pick it up on any FM radio in the house or yard.

Sometimes you just have to mess around a bit. I think the Pro 96 / 2096 has problems decoding the simulcasting systems but if you hit the right combiation it does work so it is not imposible.



Hello Urge.

I have audio/decode problems with my PRO96, also. But only listening to ORION.

I have tried everything to improve the decode rate. Different antennas, coax, nothing made any real difference in reception with the exception of a yagi I purchased, it is pointed at 102nd and Maple site, I live near 72nd and Military. It made a fair improvement, but I still have decode/reception problems.

From what I understand, besides the simulcasting, PRO 96 does not digest CQPSK modulation very well, which ORION uses CQPSK. C4FM and other types of modulation work wonders with the PRO96.
 
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