PSR-800...so far, not impressed.

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ratboy

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I got it yesterday, and put the Ohio MARCS and a few conventional freqs into it, and tonight at work, I've got it side by side with my PSR-500, and it's losing the comparison. Digital is about 50% as good as the 500, at best. A lot of signals are almost totally unreadable on the 800 that are nearly 100% on the 500. Conventional is fine, no complaints there at all, but even my Pro-96 is better on digital. Maybe I've got a bad one. There's a bug in it too, if I search railband, and it stops on 161.415, and at home, it does it every time, I hit "Skip" and the scanner locks up, and shuts off. I have to take a battery out to get it to come back on. I think it's going back tomorrow. Anyone had a similar problem? A friend's 800 works fine, except his locks up exactly like mine does doing the same railband search. He's down in Columbus, so I can't compare his reception to mine directly.
 

safetyobc

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I haven't had any reception problems with mine I am using a RS 800 MHZ antenna though.


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BeerNutz

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Have you updated the firmware? This fixed most freezing issues.

My 800 works much better with a dedicated 800MHZ antenna. With this setup, it picks up everything my base/ mobile units do. The dedicated antenna also greatly improved audio quality.

You own a great scanner. Hope you get it tweaked for the systems you are listening to.
 

NWI_Scanner_Guy

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I haven't had any reception problems with mine I am using a RS 800 MHZ antenna though.


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Have you updated the firmware? This fixed most freezing issues.

My 800 works much better with a dedicated 800MHZ antenna. With this setup, it picks up everything my base/ mobile units do. The dedicated antenna also greatly improved audio quality.

You own a great scanner. Hope you get it tweaked for the systems you are listening to.

I'm just gonna parrot what has already been said.....

Antenna that came with 800 = not so good reception on certain systems in my area.

Dedicated 800MHz antenna = much better reception on same systems.

As for the locking up problem, I haven't had that happen with my 800. But then again, I don't do too much searching through the rail band so I can't speak to that.
 
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ratboy

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Thanks for the replies..

Well, I did update the firmware and DSP last night after I posted. It took many attempts to get it working for some reason. The EZ-scan kept saying that no scanner was connected, and I was about to give up for the night, and suddenly it started working. The updates took a long time, but finally finished. I put the antenna on it that works great for 800MHZ on my PSR-500 and Pro-96, and it's a little better than it was, but it still seems to be much worse (Lots of underwater and muting) on digital than the 500, but a little better than the 96. Actually, it's about the same on digital stuff as my Uniden HP-1 is most of the time.

The lockup issue seems to be greatly improved, but I managed to lock it up a few minutes ago while searching, but it's not nearly as bad as it was before the update. I've been into scanners since they've had scanners, and so far, there doesn't seem to be anything "EZ" about the 800, and it's probably the most annoying scanner I've had since I bought my friend's AR-1000, which locked up constantly.
 

BeerNutz

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"there doesn't seem to be anything EZ about the 800." A classic LOL

Also, you may try toggling the ATT button for best reception.

Just like the early days of dial-up modems, it depends on which way you hold your mouth for any scanner to communicate with a PC.
 

DaveIN

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The lockup issue seems to be greatly improved, but I managed to lock it up a few minutes ago while searching, but it's not nearly as bad as it was before the update. I've been into scanners since they've had scanners, and so far, there doesn't seem to be anything "EZ" about the 800, and it's probably the most annoying scanner I've had since I bought my friend's AR-1000, which locked up constantly.

You may want to go tho the GRE America site and submit a ticket for your lockup problem, but I suspect you need to reformat the MicroSD card from the EZ software. To do it, select the Scanner/SD Card pull down menu at the top of the program, select Prepare scanner memory/SD Card for use, check the Copy current configuration data to SD card after format and Copy Library Files to the SD Card after Format, then select the Format button and follow the instructions. After that, power on the radio and try the searching again to see if your lockup problem still exists.
 

Arizona_Scanner

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Take the stock antenna and throw it away. It seems to have been an aesthetic choice. The standard GRE antenna is much better and the RS800 antenna is better for 700/800 MHz stuff. I base this not just on my observation, but on some pretty sharp people on the forums that have done scientific tests with instruments. Mine never has locked up once, but it is fully updated and programmed correctly. It has about the same reception capacity as the 106/500. I own both, and have done plenty of side by side comparisons. You may well have a bad unit.
 

ratboy

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You may want to go tho the GRE America site and submit a ticket for your lockup problem, but I suspect you need to reformat the MicroSD card from the EZ software. To do it, select the Scanner/SD Card pull down menu at the top of the program, select Prepare scanner memory/SD Card for use, check the Copy current configuration data to SD card after format and Copy Library Files to the SD Card after Format, then select the Format button and follow the instructions. After that, power on the radio and try the searching again to see if your lockup problem still exists.

Thanks, I guess it's worth a shot. I have a Sandisk 4 gig micro SD card someplace around here, but I can't find it. I was going to try it and see if it did anything, but smaller cap cards are cheap.

I was listening to it side by side with my 500 this morning, lots of traffic with all the wrecks (snow), and it was muting a lot, and also was nearly unreadable on other signals that were at least 90% on the 500. Something tells me it's going to be going off to GRE on Monday.
 

ratboy

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Take the stock antenna and throw it away. It seems to have been an aesthetic choice. The standard GRE antenna is much better and the RS800 antenna is better for 700/800 MHz stuff. I base this not just on my observation, but on some pretty sharp people on the forums that have done scientific tests with instruments. Mine never has locked up once, but it is fully updated and programmed correctly. It has about the same reception capacity as the 106/500. I own both, and have done plenty of side by side comparisons. You may well have a bad unit.

I have the other antenna on it, and since it works fine on the 96/106/500 and the HP-1 when I've tried it, it should be fine on the 800, and it is better than the stock one, it's pretty sad. My first lockup was almost as soon as I turned it on the first time after I put the batteries in it, and in the 20 minutes I played with it before I had to go to bed, it locked up at least 12 times. I will try formatting the card and see what that does, and if that doesn't help, I will open a ticket with GRE and probably send it off next week.
 

ratboy

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"there doesn't seem to be anything EZ about the 800." A classic LOL

Also, you may try toggling the ATT button for best reception.

Just like the early days of dial-up modems, it depends on which way you hold your mouth for any scanner to communicate with a PC.

The ATT just makes it worse. Just like on my 500. I've never been anywhere where the ATT helps at all with reception. I had a friend's I was programming and it did help on his, so it must be mine isn't as sensitive as most. If the 800 is a dud, and I have to send it back, I have other stuff to play with, including an old tube CB I just got yeaterday, in amazing shape for 34 years old, and two Yaesu FRG-7's coming Monday, one great shape, and one not so great shape. Both supposedly work fine. We will see.
 

BeerNutz

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As mentioned, reformat the SD card that is in the unit using EZ scan. Then copy your config back to your SD card using EZ scan.
 

Ed_Seedhouse

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Just like on my 500. I've never been anywhere where the ATT helps at all with reception.

I have. Often.

There's a spot downtown where they've recently put up another set of antennas for the local police/fire/ambulance trunk system (CREST) and anywhere near it my 800 is overloaded and stops on any conventional frequency, even with no activity on that channel. ATT allows me to keep hearing some systems that are otherwise, inaudible when I am with a block of that antenna.

Yes, ATT makes a lot of transmitters inaudible that normally would be audible, but at least it allows me to keep scanning, and the main trunking system still hits five bars with the ATT on when I am near that antenna tower, which I often am. That may be because I bought a more sensitive antenna and if I remember i might carry the stock one with me and see if putting that back on helps.
 

w2xq

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There's a bug in it too, if I search railband, and it stops on 161.415, and at home, it does it every time, I hit "Skip" and the scanner locks up, and shuts off. I have to take a battery out to get it to come back on.

Yesterday I loaded the AAR frequencies into the -106 and I also found a spurious signal in that range. (I think it was AAR 67.) Scanning restarts as soon as I press the Lockout button; it certainly doesn't require removal of a battery to regain control. On my VX-6R, I have no problems scanning the 97 channels.

With all the synthesizers in these new toys, you will have internally-generated spurious signals to deal with. Disconnect the antenna and take the radio a distance from noisemakers (TV, computer, et al) and let the radio search the entire coverage range. Lock out any internally-generated spurs you come across... job done.

Radio Shack going back to my PRO-2004 has the spurs listed in the back of the manual. Good as a double-check on what you find.

Hope this helps.
 
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ratboy

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Well, there is definitely a problem with my PSR-800. After reformatting the card, the lockup issues seem to be pretty well resolved, but the radio is seriously deaf across the board, and no the ATT is not on. On railband, it hears maybe 25% of what the PSR-500, the Pro-96 (with the same antenna), or the HP-1 hears. On WX, it picks up Toledo, that's it. With the ATT on, it hears nothing. The 500 hears 4 WX transmitters with the same antenna, and even with the ATT on, it's better than the 800. 800MHZ is down too, just not as bad as the lower freqs are. It looks like it's going to GRE for a check up. Thanks for all the help.
 

BeerNutz

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Must be driving you crazy.

One last thing, all of my radios and WiFi signals don't play well together. Is reception any better outside?
 

a388sig2

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I'm in the same boat.

I put the 800 side by side with my 500 and even locked on a conventional frequency it picks up about 50% of the 500's traffic.

I'm not pleased with the 800 for anything other than record ability.
 

ratboy

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Nah, I'm too old to let one dead radio get me going. I have 3 other digital scanners here and other SW toys to play with. When it comes back, hopefully it will be worth keeping. But if it isn't Ebay is where it's going, and I will buy another 500 or a 106 and that will be that until the next generation of radios comes along.
 

Chris45

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The PSR-800

The PRS-800 has charm and some bling to be sure. I think that it is a step, and only a step in the right direction. However, I do feel fortunate by having my Pro-106. My personal disappointment is with battery life. Even while using new, freshly charged, and high mah batteries, the PSR simply hogs too much power. I have even considered one of the battery acid Quantum battery packs like we much had for the amateur handhelds. We should not have to do that. If GRE would marry the good of a Pro-106 with a PSR-800 then we might get something great. The 106 out performs the 800 in power consumption; receive distance, and simplicity of a more functional keypad. TDMA in the 106 would make things nicer. I was hoping to love the 800 but I can only sometimes like it.
 
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