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XTL/XTS5000 Strange Pulsing White Noise on all channels

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ECetron

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Mar 22, 2019
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All of a sudden, my XTS 5000 has started to act strange on receive. Instead of nice clear audio, I get the audio in the background somewhat obscured by a Pulsing White Noise/Static. The pulsing is reminiscent of the interference patterns I remember when tuning a trumpet against a tone generator or when flying a prop plane where the engines or out of sync. I have reprogrammed twice to no avail. I have tried with Remote Commander mic and without. I have tried 3 different antennas. I have tried two different batteries (though both Impress Li-ion). I have tried it with scan on and with scan off. Nothing seems to work. I though most of the AGC settings where from transmit so not sure if that would help. And it happens on repeater and direct channels.

XTS is a VHF Model II and the display shows nothing amiss when this happens. The 'pulse' rate seems to be around 3 per second. It is not a squelch issue as the XTS only opens when it should. And I have 3 radios right next to the XTS that work perfectly. Transmit seems to work correctly. I am at a loss ... but am leaning to an alignment. Though why it would go from spot on to way off over the course of 1 day has me confused.

Any suggestions to try next? And potentially a solid Moto shop to do the alignment in Jersey Shore area?
 

wgbecks

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Jan 17, 2005
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Location
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On the off chance your radio is off frequency, you might fire up the Astro 25 Tuner program and run the Reference Oscillator alignment under the Transmitter Alignment section. On VHF models, this is the only alignment point available in Tuner and applies and is common to both the transmitter and to the receiver VCO/PLL chain.

If the reference oscillator adjustment checks out, then I would connect the radio to a service monitor or signal generator to determine if this behavior is consistent regardless of receiving off-air or from your test instruments.
 

ECetron

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Mar 22, 2019
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Did the agency you are listening to recently move to a simulcast system? Did you recently change antennas or location?

Nope -- It is happening on all channels -- and across at least 3 Agencies... Even including USCG 16..
 

wowologist

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Jul 21, 2013
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275
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CM87
Did you feed it after midnight....well there ya go....those gremlins....happens every time.
 

ECetron

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Mar 22, 2019
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Bad RF board. Swap it out. the XTS5000s are now in their senior years. We're seeing more of them die sudden deaths. Makes sense, many are 15-18 years old.
Not cost effective unfortunately -- same with visit to the bench. Unfortunately the cost for repair/new RF board is more expensive than buying a replacement on Ebay. Sad state of affairs but accurate nonetheless... So I will put this one away for spare parts and go get another. I'd rather go with an APX but even used they are 3 to 4 times as expensive.

That said, thanks to all here for your assistance
 

WB9YBM

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All of a sudden, my XTS 5000 has started to act strange on receive. Instead of nice clear audio, I get the audio in the background somewhat obscured by a Pulsing White Noise/Static.

Pulsing indicates some kind of clock pulse coming from somewhere; with computers becoming increasingly faster, they're operating at some pretty high frequencies where either the actual or harmonic of their clock pulses are heard on the air. Admittedly as computers have gotten better the noise they spew isn't as bad as it used to be, it can still happen (that's why I've got to keep my radios at least one to two feet away from my laptop). (The worst luck I ever had was about forty years ago when I tried to use an Apple to decode RTTY--that computer kicked out so much hash I couldn't decode a damn thing--and I was using an outdoor antenna on a good grade ham transceiver!)
 
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