Scan on Pro-96 went silent

[Snaf]

About 36 hours or so ago I stopped getting any traffic on my scanner.

I can still hear it when I use the search function. There are no channels locked out as far as I can tell. The lists on applicable banks are empty.

I well may have hit something that I'm not aware of that's doing this. Or, I guess the scanner might have a fault.

Does this sound familiar to anyone or have suggestions on troubleshooting?

The only thing I can think to do now is to program it again as I did for rebanding several years ago.

 

[emt_531]

That scanner is notorious for having the soldering at the antenna break loose.

 

[Snaf]

Thanks for the response, but I doubt that's my problem.

When I go to the banks I normally listen to using the search function, I can hear everything just fine and the WX comes through fine, too.

 

[Michael-SATX]

Hmm do you have a copy of your config in a Virtual folder ?

About 36 hours or so ago I stopped getting any traffic on my scanner.
The only thing I can think to do now is to program it again as I did for rebanding several years ago.

Hmm, well do you have a copy of your last working configuration in one of your scanners Virtual folders ?
I do this after downloading from my WIN96 computer software just in case I need to do a quick restore.
Example: I press "PGM" "Func" "PGM" and then Load or Save from that point depending on situation, etc.
I have my Pro-96's virtual folder memory full of different custom loads for different surrounding counties.

Hopefully you don't have to hand program all your banks the way you had them before ... not GREat fun

 

[Snaf]

Unfortunately, I was not aware of the V-folders and there's nothing there. (I'm a novice.)

Here's something I noticed last night that might provide a clue to what's wrong for those of you familiar with the Pro-96.

In scan mode, the channel numbers normally sort of fade and have an underscore under them as the scanner passes through them. That is not happening now. The numbers are just all static with no visible activity during scan.

When I go to search, in the bank where my local police/fire is located, the numbers do fade and get the underscore as they're received.

As I recall, the programming process wasn't that terrible back after rebanding. I used ARC96 and it was pretty simple, though I'd rather find the problem than reprogram.

 

[kb3isq]

You can go to the bank you want to listen to and manually scroll through your channels. If a channel is locked out you will see an L in the top line of the readout IE: M001...L+FM. Do you have the Win 96 program from Don Starr, if so you can download your scanner and see what is going on. If you don't have
Win 96 you can download a free 30 day trial program.

 

[kb3isq]

How did you make out?

 

[Ronaldski]

On this fading item, it could be a connector going to the display inside is little loose and just needs to be push together.

When you say SEARCH are you saying you can pickup your stuff up but is a bit off from frequency say. 050 MHz or so?
Since you don't have your profile set to what area you are and haven't said where you are, all we can do is guess at this time.

I have seen-fixed several pro 96's and had a few that I couldn't too, that over time the frequency will drift affecting mainly 700-800 MHz area, if you're agencies are using the 700-800 MHz range.

This is a fairly common problem to this model and entails a slight tweak of about 5-10% generally counterclockwise of VR4 inside the unit with say a plastic screwdriver or maybe an eyeglass screwdriver in size.
Picture of area where it is - FileRO96 Adjustments.JPG - The RadioReference Wiki

Message 25 - https://forums.radioreference.com/radio-shack-scanners/178696-modifying-rs-pro96.html#post1335048

 

[MallardHunter]

Ref RS Pro96
I have the same issue. If I manually go through my banks, I can hear transmissions just fine. Scanning the same bank produces no audio result. Yes, I adjusted the squelch. Turning it on and off (universal fix for all things electronic) did not affect it. The paper clip reset did not change anything. It was working last week. I can search a pre-preprogrammed list (marine, aircraft, CB, etc.) and it works just fine. Any ideas?

 

[Snaf]

I disappeared because a couple of days after my last post it started working normally again.

Then, yesterday, it did the same thing again. It seems like a fault of some kind. I doubt it's the drift issue because it wouldn't have come back again instantly and now stopped working just as suddenly, would it?

I'm fairly certain I haven't accidentally hit any settings to cause this because I don't monkey around with it. Once I got it set up for my area I left it alone. I'm in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Thanks again for all the replies.