Signal Strength

[Ubbe]

I tried that holding the 2, 9, and the department key and turning it on. Was it supposed to do something?

The display should say "All Memory Clear Please Wait" and it can take a long while until it is done, depending of how much stuff there is on the SD card. If it didn't say anything you probably failed to properly holding in the buttons, it's a bit difficult to do.

/Ubbe

 

[JoplinFossil]

The display should say "All Memory Clear Please Wait" and it can take a long while until it is done, depending of how much stuff there is on the SD card. If it didn't say anything you probably failed to properly holding in the buttons, it's a bit difficult to do.

/Ubbe

Finally got it, but it didn’t help. Thanks for trying.

 

[Ubbe]

Finally got it, but it didn’t help. Thanks for trying.

After the reset, did you first try and manually enter a known active frequency, could be a control data channel, directly on the scanner and check the signal bars?

I don't know if the programming you have in Sentinel could be screwed up somehow to disable the signal strenght bars, but better to check with a "clean" scanner and testing with just a punched in frequency, channel+frequency+channel.

/Ubbe

 

[DudleyG]

Great idea @Ubbe - enter something like a National Weather Service frequency. They always produce a strong signal to test with. 162.425 shows as being in Joplin

 

[JoplinFossil]

Tried that still no signal strength but good volume. ??? About to give up and live with it. I have the very same loaded on my 436 and have signal strength on it.

 

[jonwienke]

Probably just the bar display indicator borked somehow. As long as actual RX is as good as the 436, I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[DudleyG]

Here is a quick picture from the owners manual that shows what the screen looks when displaying the volume and squelch. Do they show on your screen along with the WiFi status to the left? If not, it is likely a screen problem, if they show it is something to do with the scanner not displaying that one item.

 

[JoplinFossil]

Here is a quick picture from the owners manual that shows what the screen looks when displaying the volume and squelch. Do they show on your screen along with the WiFi status to the left? If not, it is likely a screen problem, if they show it is something to do with the scanner not displaying that one item.

View attachment 98465

My screen looks exactly like this except I don’t have the bars between the exclamation mark and the squelch-volume.

 

[JoplinFossil]

I have a friend that has a 536 and an outside antenna. I asked if he would set mine and his up and compare them. All mine did at best was two bars and his showed full five bars. And mine wasn’t picking up some channels. I sent it in to Uniden for repairs.