Pro-651: Scanner is not trunking at all

[apocdragon]

Howdy y'all. I just picked up a Pro 651 from a pawn shop fairly cheap. I was excited to have another digital scanner. I live in El Paso, Texas. The city uses P25. I am able to listen on both my Pro 652 and my Uniden BCD396XT without any issues. I have programmed the Pro 651 manually, through ARC500 and win500. I have even cloned from my 652 to my 651 directly. Nothing seems to be working on being able to listen to the P25 system here. I have looked up and tried various expert settings that I have found on the forum but nothing works. Though I did get my RSSI bars working. When I analyze the trunking, I am able to go to the known control channel and I can pick it up no problem. The scanner isn't classifying it as a P25 channel though. I am starting to think that the previous owner messed up the setting and wasn't able to get it back to normal so they pawned it. Eitherway, Does anyone have and/or know what working settings should look like? I reset back to factory by holding PGM as I turn on and pressing 1 and then doing it again pressing 0, but those setting seem to break a lot. I am running version uP App ver 2.9. DSP AppVer:RF1.4, DSP VocVer:1.0.

Any help is appreciate. I appologize before hand if it my post isn't as coherent as it should be. I am frustrated with this thing. Thanks in advance!!!

 

[marksmith]

Your 652 settings, if those are working, are what you need for the 651. It's basically the same radio. No difference in the operation of the two, and I think they even use the same firmware.

Whatever the previous owner might have done as far as settings you undid with the reset.

I would re-clone after the reset.

Mark
WS1095/536/436/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652

 

[troymail]

Given all the information you've provided - including the fact that two other radios are hearing the system - including a PRO-652 (which is pretty much the same radio as the PRO-651 but in a handheld) - I'd suspect that there is something wrong with the radio itself.

I assume this was not a brand new unit in a sealed package.

One thing I'd try if it is still possible - reinstall the firmware and see if that helps. WARNING however: http://forums.radioreference.com/radio-shack-scanners/303130-gre-made-scanner-firmware-updates.html

https://www.radioshack.com/products...held-radio-scanner?variant=5717071749#start=3

 

[tglendye]

Sounds like you've done everything right. I would attempt the above suggestions and see what happens. Good luck!

 

[apocdragon]

Thanks!

Thanks for the replies y'all. I did some further troubleshooting last night. I went on to Analyze the control channel on both my 651 and 652 simultaneously. The 651 detects the channel as digital. but it unable to decode p25. My 652 sounds identical to the 651, also detects at a digital channel but it does display NAC information. I sat through and matched all the settings. It still doesn't detect P25. I reapplied the radio shack firmware which is available on the site and still nothing.

My gut insticts are telling it is something with the DSP. The firmwares are all up todate. I am wondering if it is even reapplying the firmware. i might try bricking it on purpose to that I know its wiped and re-imaging it with the manufacturer provided one. I'll update y'all progress later this weekend. Thanks for the suggestions, please keep them coming.

 

[apocdragon]

Still no go

I downloaded the WS1040 firmware and attempted to install on the 651. I knew it would brick it. I did this on purpose to make sure that the old firmware did in fact get erased. After which i proceeded to re-install the 2.9 firmware. This did not fix the issue completely. I am able to detect that it is a digital signal now., but it isn't able to decode the p25.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

 

[N8IAA]

I downloaded the WS1040 firmware and attempted to install on the 651. I knew it would brick it. I did this on purpose to make sure that the old firmware did in fact get erased. After which i proceeded to re-install the 2.9 firmware. This did not fix the issue completely. I am able to detect that it is a digital signal now., but it isn't able to decode the p25.

Any suggestions would be helpful.

Could it be that the scanner not working is the reason it made its way to the pawn shop? The digital decoder is more than likely messed up ( I know it's not the correct terminology.). You may want to get it repaired to make it work correctly.
Larry

 

[troymail]

... I'd suspect that there is something wrong with the radio itself.

I've never purchased from a pawn shop but I'd classify it roughly the same as buying something at a yard sale -- that is, no way I'd hand over any money until I verified it works.

 

[apocdragon]

Progress

So far it looks like a problem with a tap into the DSP. After messing with the settings I got it to start responding to digital channels. I'm to take it apart this coming weekend and trace out the board and see if I can dump the EEPROM and see what I can see.