Signal issues

[scotttish]

I have had a TRX-1 for a few months now. I had Whistler customer service help me with updating and loading new scan lists and such. Generally, it is very "temperamental" and has trouble latching onto any specific channel. It could be analog conventional, P25 1, DMR, etc. some days DMR will come in fine and other times I will go three days without hearing a single thing from the same busy station that my other scanners pick up very well. If I am in a big city like OKC, no problem. As soon as I get 20 miles out, little to nothing gets scanned. I have tried many antennas, exchanging my TRX-1 with a new one, switching three different roof antennas, moving to different locations, etc. The problem is very intermittent and the radio has some signal sensitivity and latching issues. I am still very hopeful that things will work out eventually.

 

[troymail]

As I understand it, the scanners monitor the control channel for active talkgroups. If it finds a talkgroup you have programmed to monitor (or a wildcard), the radio will tune to the calculated (or table looked up) voice frequency and monitor for activity. If nothing that breaks squelch is there (or it drops off), the radio will return and check the control frequency again.

It sounds like the radio is detecting activity on the CC and switching but the voice frequency is either too weak or not present (or something is being calculated incorrectly).

Keep in mind that the listings on RRDB can be incomplete, in need of update, and or just wrong. In fact, the FCC license information isn't always 100% either.

Some things that come to mind -- some you seem to have already tried -

1. squelch setting?
2. trunking tables - auto fill vs. standard, etc.

Other things to try:

1. if you're sure you know the CC frequency for a given site, create a (new) V-Scanner/folder and a new system with a single site and only that single frequency -- and ensuring the tables are auto fill. You can just add a wildcard talkgroup.

2. for the existing or new programming in #1 above, navigate directly to the talkgroup in question, HOLD on it, and monitor. What happens?

I mostly only monitor STARS when passing through Virginia but I stopped driving through (I-95) earlier this year if at all possible (road rage tends to kick in ). However, when I visited Staunton a few times over the last few years, reception there was nearly non-existent.

Sorry if you've tried all of this and/or it doesn't help.... I might have some other things to try if I think a bit harder....

 

[UPMan]

Watching the display, the scanner repeatedly thinks it is being directed by a control channel to go to that voice channel frequency, the scanner goes to that frequency, but there is not a good signal there, so it returns to the control channel where it again is directed back to that frequency. So, either it is (1) somehow using a bad band plan (which is used by the scanner to calculate the VC frequency based on the channel grant/update it receives on the CC), (2) it is catching a site where the CC signal is receivable but that particular VC signal is not receivable, or (3) it is misunderstanding the channel grant/update issued on the control channel. It is very consistently going to the same frequency, so misreading the CC is unlikely (if it was misreading the CC due to bad signal, you'd expect the frequency to jump around...each misread channel grant/update would be unique; of course, the likelihood of interference only rendering the VC channel designator bad but being otherwise OK is infinitesimally small for even a single occurrence...happening multiple times is practically impossible, so I'll rule out my own #3 option as result of bad signal...if it is Option 3 it is a bug of some kind).

 

[Ed6698]

I run my squelch as low as possible with my 1080 and 1095 when monitoring 2 trunked systems. I seem to get better results with no squelch at all, that can also bring up a issue if a person monitors any conventional along with it.

 

[UPMan]

Not being that familiar with this particular scanner's operation (go figure), is there no way to show what site it is on when this happens?

If not, for diagnosis I'd program each site as separate system (or whatever it is called in GRE/Whistler speak) with unique names so you can at least isolate which site this is occurring on. Then, you could do some signal analysis on just that site.

 

[UPMan]

Oh, and as to why I'm in this forum, I'm testing doing "Whistler Wednesdays." (It is Wednesday in Tokyo, where I am at present.)

 

[slicerwizard]

Not being that familiar with this particular scanner's operation (go figure)

Say what? You're not studying the competition's product? Ok...

 

[Dafe1er]

Watching the display, the scanner repeatedly thinks it is being directed by a control channel to go to that voice channel frequency, the scanner goes to that frequency, but there is not a good signal there, so it returns to the control channel where it again is directed back to that frequency. So, either it is (1) somehow using a bad band plan (which is used by the scanner to calculate the VC frequency based on the channel grant/update it receives on the CC), (2) it is catching a site where the CC signal is receivable but that particular VC signal is not receivable, or (3) it is misunderstanding the channel grant/update issued on the control channel. It is very consistently going to the same frequency, so misreading the CC is unlikely (if it was misreading the CC due to bad signal, you'd expect the frequency to jump around...each misread channel grant/update would be unique; of course, the likelihood of interference only rendering the VC channel designator bad but being otherwise OK is infinitesimally small for even a single occurrence...happening multiple times is practically impossible, so I'll rule out my own #3 option as result of bad signal...if it is Option 3 it is a bug of some kind).

I'm going to say option 3 (being a bug) just might be it. The reasoning for this idea is due to the sites I have plugged into the scanner do not have this CC listed in them at all. I've locked out this channel before and programed one close by site into the scanner by itself that does not use this CC and it keeps popping up like my above video.

My signal strength is great for all other channels I monitor on this system and I noticed that when someone does go to talk on this channel, the 436 picks it up without issue while the TRX just does what I have above plus the signal meter goes from five full bars down to a one and then fights between one and five bars while it does this flashing on the screen.

Can anyone from whistler chime in with ideas or will I need to take a day next week to call them and hope to get this issue resolved?

Thanks for your input upman!

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