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Requesting some advice on setting the squelch level on a VX-264 VHF handheld radio

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firemedic78

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Joined
Dec 15, 2007
Messages
71
Location
Menlo, IA
Hello all,

I am in need of some advice regarding programming my vertex vx-264 handheld VHF radio. The problem I'm running into is my Wireless computer router for my internet is running interference and when I go to scan my radio, or simply taking it off of pager mode when it's not scanning and just monitoring channel 1, which is our main county fire paging frequency, at locks on one channel because of the router interference. If I unplug the router then the radio works just fine and I can scan all 16 channels just fine with no static interference or any channels locking up or catching any interference.

What I'm wanting to know is, do I need to tighten up my squelch level? Right now I have it set at the default level of 4. I just don't know which way is tight and which way is loose, I tried programming squelch level at 2, which seemed to make it worse and made every channel lock up and interfere with the router, which by the way, makes one hell of a god-awful sound, LOL, which is leading me to believe that the lower you go towards zero, the looser your programming your squelch, and the exact opposite, the higher squelch level setting which goes to 15, the tighter it would be.

I just want to make sure that what I'm thinking is correct. I'm thinking of setting the squelch level around a 10 or an 11. Maybe that will fix the problem with the router interfering with the radio during scan mode or when its monitoring the County Fire frequency. When I have it on, and set to the on-duty option, all I seem to get is constant static, so I have to switch it to off duty, which I have programmed as my pager mode when I go to bed, or when I need to make it silent until our tones are paged out.

There may not even be a fix when it comes to wireless routers and modem interfering with handheld radios, but if I'm going to try anything, I guess I'm looking for suggestions. Should I start with simply setting my squelch level higher versus lower? Like I said, its default setting was at a 4 and that seemed to only lock up on one channel, which coincidentally, is our County Fire Channel, which I have located in the channel number one spot, but when I programmed it and set the squelch level to 2, then almost every channel would lock on and would be static.

So again any advice would be greatly appreciated, but I'm thinking I went the wrong way and should have programmed it to a higher squelch setting, because it seems like the lower I go the loser the squelch level and I seem to be getting more interference on multiple channels instead of just the one channel, and the higher you go the tighter it gets, and anybody can correct me if I'm wrong, it's just that I never had more than one channel lock up with static from the interference from the wireless router until I changed the squelch setting to 2, then every channel started interfering with the router so I'm assuming if I go back in and reprogram the squelch level to a higher number, again, say a10 or even higher if need be, then maybe that could fix the problem and I can actually use the radio as it is intended for in the house while still keeping my internet plugged in. So any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much and have a safe weekend.

Chris
 

MBill

Member
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Oct 7, 2006
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168
Your thinking is correct. The lower squelch setting "loosens" and the higher setting "tightens".
In other words, it takes more signal strength to unsquelch the radio when it is set for level 10
than for level 4. Set the radio for level 15. See if that solves the problem. It it does, then you
can experiment, if you want, with a lower squelch setting, such as 12 or 10 and find the lowest
level that overcomes the interference.
If level 15, or whatever the highest level setting is, doesn't solve your problem, can you physically
move the radio away from the router until the interference stops? It might take only a few inches,
but could take a few feet or more.
 
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