Object Oriented Scanners Overload Issues

The scanners being discussed in this article include the following;

GRE Model	Older RS Model	Newest RS Model	Whistler Model
PSR-3101
PSR-4101
PSR-500	Pro-106	Pro-651	WS1040
PSR-600	Pro-197	Pro-652	WS1065

1. Trunking w/ Analog Voice Only scanners, others shown in table can handle up-to Digital P25 Phase I

These scanners have a very sensitive front end. In urban and semi urban environments, or those living in or near areas with numerous radio towers, this causes a serious problem with overloading and desense. The cause is likely to be insufficient filtering in the front end, allowing high power FM stations, pagers and so forth to blast into the amplifier (more information on this is needed).

If you are putting an outside antenna (or even something indoors of any size) on these scanners, it's very likely that you will run into this issue. While you can run the attenuator on the frequencies where you have trouble, a far better approach is to add filtering. When adding a filter to your scanner, make the connection as short as possible to minimize the possibility of stray pickup. The following distributors/manufacturers of filters have been mentioned on RR in the past; please add any others that are found to be helpful.

• ICE Filters Page
• Par Electronics
• Scanner Master Filters page
• Stridsberg Engineering Filters
• Winegard FT7600 Variable FM trap
  • You can read chgomonitor's comments about this unit here

Return to the GRE/RS Object Oriented Scanners FAQ