A bit OT... Bearcat BC785D problems

[turtlexiv]

This is slightly off topic, but "Technical Assistance" seemed the most appropriate place to post this. If I am mistaken, the moderators can smite me down

I have a BC785D scanner (no digital card) which has been installed in my vehicle. Recently, the scanner has quite simply stopped receiving anything whatsoever. Even with the squelch all the way down and changing antennas, even on frequencies where I know there is currently traffic, I get nothing but static.

As a second symptom, the scanner now "seems" to scan through frequencies much slower. Whereas channel numbers would formerly fly by too fast to read, I'm now able to actually read off the channel numbers as it scans.

A full reset of the scanner did not change anything. I also popped the covers off and looked at all of the boards for any obvious signs of damage, especially near the antenna connector, but found none. I e-mailed Uniden about the issue but they didn't even bother to send me a reply.

With the knowledge of the userbase here, I figured that I'd at least ask if anybody knew anything that I could try or hadn't thought of. Thanks for any assistance you may be able to provide.

[Zack08]

The fact that it scans slower and a reset did nothing leads me to believe that the fault is within the processor.

I dont know exactly what you're powering it from, but it almost sounds as if it has suffered from a power spike or overvoltage. If this is the case, theres probably not much hope of repairing it.

The other thing I was thinking of is that there is something wrong with the ceramic oscillator and associated circuitry that controls the processor speed. This would account for the slower scan speed and possibly even improper operation of the PLL, since the timing of data controlling the PLL's frequency is incorrect.

Just my two cents, maybe somebody has some other ideas.

[SVEMT359]

Are you scanning a lot of trunking systems? That could slow it down, otherwise check your power.