Very Strange Problem

[jhowelljr]

I have a radio shack pro-197 scanner that I use to broadcast my local safety forces for RR and I started to notice strange noise when listening to my live feed. After some investigation I discovered to my surprise that somehow I am broadcasting not only the scanner audio, but also the background noise in the room my rig is set up in, so our voices, the dogs barking, cats meowing etc are also being fed to the live stream, so logically I started with the computer, not the problem, ok so maybe the disable speaker switch was bad in my scanner causing the internal speaker to act as a microphone, so I opened up the scanner and unplugged the speaker, yet I can still hear every word and noise on my live feed. I have no idea why my scanner is acting like a microphone, I switched to a different model scanner no "microphone" effect, I tested another pro-197 scanner to see if maybe mine was defective nope the other pro-197 did the same thing. so i tore the scanner completely apart and I can not find a microphone anywhere, not that I thought a scanner should or would have any reason to include a microphone, so now what??? has anyone ever heard of something like this, were you able to fix it. if so how??? it really creeps me out that people listening to my feed can hear my family so any help would be much appreciated, thank you

John

 

[W4EMS]

Do you have a mike attached anywhere on your computer, i.e. headset, monitor, Skype? If so the program may be incidentally activating it as part of the audio drivers.

 

[jhowelljr]

thats the thing there is no microphone hooked to the computer i even checked to see if there was a microphone built into the monitor as some do and no built in mic either it is so strange

 

[frazpo]

thats the thing there is no microphone hooked to the computer i even checked to see if there was a microphone built into the monitor as some do and no built in mic either it is so strange

Open up your sound mixer and mute what you need to. It should show the available mics being used.

 

[jhowelljr]

no microphones show up in the volume mixer they are disabled and the only input device active is line in

 

[frazpo]

no microphones show up in the volume mixer they are disabled and the only input device active is line in

You try the Mic in instead of the Line In?

 

[jfhtm350]

What about a phone connecting to the computer via bluetooth or something along those lines?
What model computer is it?

 

[frazpo]

no microphones show up in the volume mixer they are disabled and the only input device active is line in

When I turn it up using earbuds I can hear something. But it is not enough to even understand. Sounds like a muffled TV possibly. I don't see it causing enough noise to be an issue.

 

[Bubba1661]

Back Ground and Wierd Noises

Mine did that in the beginning, I got a newer PC that comes with newer operating sound system and Wa La it sounds great and no noise. Had a Dell with XP, then went to a new Dell Laptop with Windows 8.1. Much Better.

 

[Spitfire8520]

Someone else noted the exact same thing over at http://forums.radioreference.com/li...0858-pro197-speaker-acting-open-mic-feed.html just recently as well. It seems to be a really weird quirk with the Pro-197 that people should check for.

 

[jhowelljr]

When I turn it up using earbuds I can hear something. But it is not enough to even understand. Sounds like a muffled TV possibly. I don't see it causing enough noise to be an issue.

Thank you for checking it out, here is the thing that concerns me the tv sound you were hearing was in another room, had my family been talking or someone else been talking in my office where the scanner is located you would have been able to hear us clear as day, I conducted several hours of testing last evening and this scanner is indeed acting as an open mic, so if i were to have say a confidential phone conversation on my office phone everyone listening would hear crystal clear audio of my half of the conversation it is down right creepy that radio shack has branded a scanner that somehow acts as a microphone when using the external speaker or headphone jack, I am going to try one more thing before I take my live feed down, I am going to hook the line in on the pc directly to the speaker port on the board inside the scanner thus not using the headphone or EXT speaker jacks and see if this corrects the issue, If not I will have no other option than to take my feed down until I can do more testing or possibly replace the scanner with a different model.

 

[jhowelljr]

Someone else noted the exact same thing over at http://forums.radioreference.com/li...0858-pro197-speaker-acting-open-mic-feed.html just recently as well. It seems to be a really weird quirk with the Pro-197 that people should check for.

Thank you for pointing out this post, I will see if we can collectively find a solution and if we do rest assured I will post it here so hopefully someone else can benefit from my frustration.

 

[jhowelljr]

When I turn it up using earbuds I can hear something. But it is not enough to even understand. Sounds like a muffled TV possibly. I don't see it causing enough noise to be an issue.

I have tried different computer equipment, the feed is currently using a dedicated machine which is a Dell Power Edge T105, but i have tried several other machines as well with no luck eliminating the open mic.

 

[jfhtm350]

Very strange problem. I dont broadcast a feed but I would like to know what it causing the issue if you figure it out since I have a 106 and 197. Have you tried a 106? It is basically the same thing in a different wrapper.

Try this:
Put scanner in a box with blankets where it cannot possibly hear background noise. Try it with and without antenna while being hooked up to the computer of course. If you still get background noise it couldnt be the scanner.

 

[mm]

It could be the result of a microphonic Synthesizer in the scanner, perhaps?

I would guess that the speaker and audio sections are always active and not muted enough even if a headphone plug is plugged in.

You may have to tap the audio from the scanner ahead of the volume control or better yet place a toggle switch in series with the hot side of the scanners speaker to switch the speaker out of the circuit.

If you tap on the scanners case can you hear the tapping in the feeds audio?

 

[jhowelljr]

It could be the result of a microphonic Synthesizer in the scanner, perhaps?

I would guess that the speaker and audio sections are always active and not muted enough even if a headphone plug is plugged in.

You may have to tap the audio from the scanner ahead of the volume control or better yet place a toggle switch in series with the hot side of the scanners speaker to switch the speaker out of the circuit.

If you tap on the scanners case can you hear the tapping in the feeds audio?

yes i can hear sounds like typing or voices and if i actually tap on the scanner case it peaks out the vu meters on my sound card and you can hear it on the feed just like i was tapping on an actual microphone, from your post i sort of understand what you mean by tapping ahead of the volume control or using a togglke switch however i have unhooked the speaker completely and it is still open mic, i am going to do some more research on microphonic synthesizer because although i am not 100 percent familiar of what that it i do recall back in the day on very old scanners they actually had a very small very low power transmitter that was used for some type of synthesizer or sync or something and this sounds like it may be the issue. I will post updates as I discover more about this problem since it is pretty clear I am not the only one having this issue and so far it seems to be a design flaw in the pro197 scanner itself, i am not a board level electronics guru but i have friends that are and I will get to the bottom of this somehow, thank you for pointing me in what seems like the right direction

 

[iMONITOR]

No web-cams, no built in mic on a laptop screen, something like that?

 

[N2UJZ]

I noticed this on my 2096. I think the speaker acts as a microphone & is not isolated from the line out.

 

[jhowelljr]

No web-cams, no built in mic on a laptop screen, something like that?

no mics cameras or other hardware and the power edge is a server no built ins

 

[jhowelljr]

I noticed this on my 2096. I think the speaker acts as a microphone & is not isolated from the line out.

i have unhooked the speaker from the main board inside the scanner so it can not be the speaker unless there is a second speaker behind the front panel which is the only place i have not investigated inside the scanner, however the only reason i could think of to have a second speaker would be for the key beeps however even those are played through the main speaker so im taking the front panel off will let you know if i find anything hiding in there