PSR-500 Intermittent Receive Problem

[Astrak]

To be honest I never paid any attention to weither or not it goes out I charge my radio let it run for 8 hrs then chg it again I've noticed the battery flash before but figured it was just telling me it was running on the wall wart.

Rick

If you change the charge time in global settings to 0 it won't flash the battery and won't attempt to charge batteries.

 

[TheBreeze]

If you change the charge time in global settings to 0 it won't flash the battery and won't attempt to charge batteries.

So, if set to "0", will it charge when the radio is off, or will it need to be reset to something other than "0" to charge? It's funny there is not an automatic charging system in this radio. I am almost ready to just run Alkaline batteries.

 

[Bill1426]

So, if set to "0", will it charge when the radio is off, or will it need to be reset to something other than "0" to charge? It's funny there is not an automatic charging system in this radio. I am almost ready to just run Alkaline batteries.

0 means do not charge... The unit will not charge in the off position, even if the settings is 99 (default)..

The unit has to be ON and the charge time set to anything other than 0, in order to charge.

 

[marauder6]

0 means do not charge... The unit will not charge in the off position, even if the settings is 99 (default)..

The unit has to be ON and the charge time set to anything other than 0, in order to charge.

I don't think that's correct. There is voltage across the 2 outer battery contacts when the unit is turned off and plugged in (I don't recall the details tho). More on that here:
http://forums.radioreference.com/gr...mal-battery-specific-settings.html#post747483

And here:
http://forums.radioreference.com/gre-scanners/104937-psr-500-battery-charging.html

SMG

 

[mobile1]

My PSR500 has this problem too sometimes, but only when I use it with the AC adapter and NI-MH rechargables in the yellow holder.

I think that my PSR500 stops receiving because the batteries are over charging in the radio. When I unplug it from the DC adapter it works fine for 10-to-12 hours unit the batteries are dead. I charged the batteries outside the radio then inserted them and plugged in the DC adapter. After a few minutes it stopped receiving. I then installed dead batteries and plugged in the DC adapter and it worked fine for about 6 hours and then stopped receiving again.The batteries were quite warm I checked them and they were fully charged so I think they are charging too fast with the DC adapter.

 

[stlouisx50]

I too have the problem as mentioned. I checked the screw a year ago and the screw was pretty tight. I messed with the antenna (bnc connector) and got it to work in certain possessions.

It's odd but depending on the batteries, it will either have more or less of an effect.


Can someone post up some photos of where the shield is that would need to be taken off along with the solder points. It would be appreciated .

 

[cfr301]

The Batteries DO charge when the Radio is Off. I do not advise doing this for more than 8 or 9 Hours because you CAN over charge the batteries and get the radio too hot and that WILL make it malfunction and maybe cause other issues like the batteries leaking and so on. I usually charge my radio during the Day when its on after 9 hours of charging it runs 8 hrs on the batteries usually about 8.5 hours, then I re charge it, its worked fine for me this way. I would suggest you MAKE SURE what batteries your using and the radio is set for that type of battery.

 

[hoser147]

Hey all since the thread has drifted toward batteries, there are other threads where people have had serious problems with charging in the scanner. I would suggest that you invest in a charger and do them outside of the scanner to prevent heat damage, and leaky battery damage. It will work fine in a pinch but overtime its going to lead to problems.

 

[DaveIN]

I'll second that. I do not re-charge my batteries in my PSR500 or BCD396XT scanners, I use an external charger. Batteries age at different times and can and most likely will overload with the possibility of excessive heat in the plastic radio case, IMHO. It's cheaper to get a charger than to replace a half a kilo-buck scanner.

 

[stlouisx50]

I'll second that. I do not re-charge my batteries in my PSR500 or BCD396XT scanners, I use an external charger. Batteries age at different times and can and most likely will overload with the possibility of excessive heat in the plastic radio case, IMHO. It's cheaper to get a charger than to replace a half a kilo-buck scanner.

Sorry if I helped contribute to the battery talk. I was not actually getting off topic, just stating that certian rechargeable batteries caused more of a problem with the BNC connection than others. I have no clue why.

I still would like to see a photo of the soldered cover that I need to remove in-order to re-solder the connection.

 

[usswood]

thats why I only use the black battery holder in my radio....then it will not charge PERIOD...mine was charging also when the unit was off....well I guess topping off the batteries even if the charger was OFF

 

[TheBreeze]

I switched over to alkaline batteries, so the radio is not charging anymore, so that eliminates that from the problem. The radio still stops receiving. I have channels saved in the favorites and it will stop receiving, then I switch to regular trunk scan and it will receive just fine. I saved the FAV channels into skywarn, and it will stop receiving there as well until I set it back to scan and it starts receiving just fine again, and then scan stops receiving till I switch to something else. This makes the radio practically useless IMO.

Has anyone called GRE about this? Seems like it is not an isolated problem, if so many are experiencing the same thing. I tried to today, but didn't have the time. Possibly tomorrow I will be able to.

I am about ready to send the radio back and get a Uniden like I should of in the first place. It never seems to work out when I try to save a buck or two, I guess it is true...you get what you pay for.


I opened a repair ticket up with GRE, and gave the link to this discussion. Maybe we will find an answer.

 

[cfr301]

Is the Battery Flashing while your plugged into the wall wart? If so mine does that too, It stops when I unplug the radio and run it on batteries, its most likely suppose to do that to remind you its plugged into the wall wart
Rick

In response to this post I watched my Portable charge today (Running on the wall wart ) for 9 Hours the Battery Light stopped flashing after the radio had been on for 9 hours which is the time I have set to allow the batteries to recharge.
I really think the batteries should be charged when ever possible externally, but I wanted to see what happened to the battery light during the charging process, so I put some nearly dead batteries in the radio charged them up that way.

Rick

 

[TheBreeze]

If the rechargable batteries are charged in a battery charger and not the radio, do you still need to use the yellow holder, or can the black one be used?

 

[ERADIO]

Just a suggestion

Scannerjunkie made a good point a while back about using an external battery charger,because when charging the batteries in the unit itself god forbid that this would ever happen to anybody,but you just never know batteries can explode causing damage to your scanner.

 

[TheBreeze]

Hi, I was hoping someone could help me figure out a problem I've been having with my PSR-500. The scanner at times will not receive anything that I am scanning at all. Even though it shows to be scanning, it will simply not pick up anything. Other times it works perfectly. The problem just comes and goes. I have some p25 trunked stuff as well as some p25 simplex and analog. I believe it has all the latest updates.

The scanner will just stop picking up trunking data, and also won't receive conventional signals even if I hold a transmitter right up to it. Does not matter whether it is actually scanning or on manual mode. I use the same program in a couple of Pro 197s, which work fine, so I know it's not related to the programming.

Any ideas? Thanks.

RodStrong, I changed a couple settings on my scanner, and it seems to have helped with this problem.
First I took the rechargeable batteries out and put in Alkaline. I run on the wall wart constantly here at the house anyway. The scanner stays much cooler. Then I set the Multisite mode to "stationary". It was set to "roam". I also adjusted the squelch to about 11 o'clock. So far it has continued to scan noninterrupted.

I have been emailing Jack at GRE technical support. This is a suggestion he ask me to do. If I get more tips, I will pass them along. The customer service GRE provides seems to be second to none!!!

"First, try setting the squelch to the 11:00 position. If it is at 7:00
> it is fully open, and this will drastically slow down the scanning
> process and cause the scanner to hang up on inactive conventional
> channels and inactive trunking control channels. It will most
> certainly result in missed calls."

 

[RodStrong]

RodStrong, I changed a couple settings on my scanner, and it seems to have helped with this problem.
First I took the rechargeable batteries out and put in Alkaline. I run on the wall wart constantly here at the house anyway. The scanner stays much cooler. Then I set the Multisite mode to "stationary". It was set to "roam". I also adjusted the squelch to about 11 o'clock. So far it has continued to scan noninterrupted.

I have been emailing Jack at GRE technical support. The customer service GRE provides seems to be second to none!!!

I don't think my issue was related to settings on the radio or programming. That is only based on the fact that I have the exact same program in two Pro 197's that have worked flawlessly, and I rarely, if ever, mess with the settings.

As I mentioned before, I simply took the radio case off, separating the two main boards numerous times, and fiddling with the connection as I put them back together. I was trying to find something loose, out of order, etc. I saw nothing unusual.

When I had the problem, the scanner would not receive anything at all. I could hold a tranceiver right up to it on a selected frequency, and although the radio looked like it was working and scanning, it would not pick up a thing. No trunking data from my local system, no weather channel (very strong), nothing. It was almost like the receiving capabilities of the scanner went dormant, and would at times wake up and work normally. This problem developed weeks ago, and was come and go. It got progressively worse until it was having the problem at least half the time or more, and the scanner was starting to become totally unreliable.

I can only speculate when putting the boards back together I lined something up just right, or re-aligned something that wasn't right. I know that probably sounds silly, but the scanner is magically working perfectly again. Maybe just fingering the boards and taking them apart did something. Static buildup? I dunno. I wish I knew what I did. The scanner is in a scanner master soft leather case as well. Don't know if the scanner being wrapped up in a case for months and my opening things up and tearing it all apart made any difference or not either. You can probably tell I am struggling for an explanation.

I too dealt with the GRE guy named Jack, and he seemed very nice and genuinely concerned about helping me. I felt like I wasn't just an ordinary customer that couldn't figure out how to program his/her scanner. We had been emailing back and forth for a couple of days and we were just about to go over repair pricing when somehow I got it working. It's still hanging in there. Thanks again to all of you for a good discussion, and I hope we can all benefit if the problem I had occurs with others in the future.

 

[Steve2003]

PSR-500 Reception Issues

I am having the same problem. I have a screw that was loose (rattling around) in my scanner. I put it back in once already and it did not solve the problem. I contacted GRE, but my scanner is out of warranty. Anybody know what repair costs could be?

I think I could also have a bad solder connection to my BNC connector; Reception seems to be normal when I apply pressure to my antenna/bnc connector.

-Steve
Littleton, CO

 

[Steve2003]

I hate to bring an old thread back to life... but I did get new life in my PSR-500! After sending in my radio to GRE, I found out the soldering on the center pin of my BNC connector had came loose.

GRE made the repair- no parts, labor and shipping was around $60 (out of warranty). GRE is great!

 

[Willcoele]

GRE-500 Audio

I just purchased a GRE scanner and with help from a friend who is an expert with P25 and GRE scanners and my limited knowledge of QPSK demodulation and DSP technology, I came to this conclusion.

Reception problems with P25 are caused by systems that have multiple sites. On some P25 systems, talk groups are simulcast on several sites on the same frequency. If your in a location where both towers are the same strength, the data from both towers can enter the receiver’s antenna at different times and interfere with each other.

Even if the system only has a single tower there is an interference problem known as multipath. Multipath is caused by the RF signal from the tower bouncing off a building, a mountain or even an airplane. The reflected and the direct data from the tower enters the receive antenna at different times and interferes with each other. Both scenarios are known as multipath

Normally in the analog world multipath isn’t a problem. It can cause fading or picket fencing, while moving in a car but in most cases, voice reception is unaffected. In the digital world, data bits are embedded in the RF signal are very fast. Multipath can cause latency delays in the RF signals and during demodulation process, data is recovered along with the latency delays. The latency delays can cause unknown digital states that will confuse the digital decoder causing the gargling noise in the audio or no audio at all.


You can reduce the problem by using a directional antenna, in the case of a base scanner or by finding a “sweet” spot in your home for your hand held. The sweet spot is a condition where the second tower or the reflected signal is in a null and your only receiving one tower. I found that placing my PSR-500 flat on the table and then rotating it can reduce the digital gargling and copy trunk groups that I couldn’t copy before.