What's The Straight Scoop On Squelch

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dcisive

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I've been reading some interesting takes on the settings of the Squelch on say the 536 and 436. Someone mentioned that if you turn the squelch to a higher setting it simple speeds up the scan speeds. If set lower it slows the scanning speeds down. I generally have mine on 2 as it's the setting that begins the scan process. I've ALWAYS done this with every scanner I've owned since the 80's. Are these scanners different? So does turning the squelch to a higher figure make it scan faster while not missing channels? Thanks for hopefully exposing the truth of this.
 

pinballwiz86

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I think it would only slow the scanning down if your squelch is set too loose and it keeps stopping on channels and outputting static.
 

jonwienke

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Optimal squelch is the same as always--tight enough to squelch static, but loose enough to open on intelligible signals.
 

Ubbe

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If there is a big hysteres in the squelch, it opens on a low value and closes on a significant bigger value, then there should be no slowing down in scan rate. But when the squelch level where it opens and close are almost the same, my 536 opens on 2 and close on 3, then there is a risk that it hesitates on some channels that are on the brink of opening the squelch. There is a lot of static even on sq level 4 and 5 so I leave it at 5.

I guess that scanning digital channels will first check if squelch opens, no point in trying to decode if there is no carrier, so squelch level will also have an impact on the digital channels scan rate.

/Ubbe
 

dcisive

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Like I said for me 2 is the magic number. It doesn't open unless there IS something there worth opening for. So I guess I'll just leave it there. I was just wondering if it had a actual speed effect, which it apparently does NOT. Good to know and confirm.
 

seth21w

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I have found this i will share with everyone, i too started out with my 536 using 2 squelch which is the number it takes to scan without static, however after listening for a week with another radio beside it scanning about 15 total dmr and analog conventional frequencies, i noticed the 536 would pick up the first part of transmission, then if there was a delay in reply it took much longer to scan back to that channel therefore the other was missed. So i turned it to 8 and got the best for what im scanning. Meaning yes a 2 squelch does scan slower than a 5-8 squelch which is where mine stays.
 

raisindot

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From my own experience, I definitely feel that scanning is much slower at lower squelch settings than at higher settings.
 

jonwienke

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I guess that scanning digital channels will first check if squelch opens, no point in trying to decode if there is no carrier, so squelch level will also have an impact on the digital channels scan rate.

Exactly. The first thing the scanner does is check for a carrier, because if there is no carrier, then attempting any flavor of digital decode is pointless. If you have the squelch too open, the scanner will spend time trying to decode marginal digital signals and play analog traffic that is mostly static, both of which will slow down scanning.
 

N9JIG

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The other thing to remember is that if the squelch is set too low on channels with PL, DPL or NAC codes programmed it will slow down the scan as it checks for the proper code to decode. Even though you don't hear anything it would slow the scan to a crawl until it hits on a CSQ channel or one with a signal matching the programmed code.
 
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