Lectro range issues...

[curleysound]

All,

  I have been encountering issues with my Lectro 211 rig recently, and I wonder if anyone here has had the same, or similar issues? Ive owned three of these for over four years now, and have never had any "problems" with them, other than typical trappings of wireless. Recently, the signals have become less reliable. This is happening in the bag with whip antenna, and also in the quad coupler with 2 meter 50 ohm antenna cables plugging into zaxcom batwing antenna. The freqs are in block 21 and 22, and I scan them at every location to choose the cleanest freqs. The issues are happening indoors and out. Most recently, I was doing a 4 person round table talk, and 2 mics had perfect signal, the other two were dancing between one dot, and about 1/2 way up the meter. One bag shoot I was on had a talent with perfect signal, and the other one never got higher than 1/2 way, and when talent walked behind anything, including the other talent, the signal went to zero (the P began to blink). These packs are certainly used, but not abused, and I'm wondering what might be the issue. Do they drift out of tune over time? Would it be the xmtr or rcvr most likely? I'm going to call lectro eventually, but I'd like to hear some thoughts first.

Thanks,

Tom

[Philip Perkins]

Lectros are pretty stable, but if you can spare them the only real way to know is to have them looked at by someone with the experience and gear to do a real test.  (I saw that DW is doing Lectro work in LA now, if you didn't want to ship them off to Lectro service.)  Bill Ruck used to lecture me that the problems w/ small wireless setups (ie portables) were almost always with the receiver, so you might start there.  Has it been the same sets that have had the problems, or different sets on different days?  I do know that Blk 21-2 is a lot more crowded than it used to be--and someone might have started to step on you AFTER you scanned.  One last thought--have you changed your start freqs lately (freqs where you normally start the channels at for your area)?  If you haven't already, you might want to consult the Lectro freq coordination tables online and see if you have drifted into a "red" zone where the sets will interfere with each other--it's easy to do in the heat of battle....

Philip Perkins

[Guest Ken Mantlo]

Send it to Lectrosonics.  It's been my experience that they are the only ones that can fix it like new no matter what the other shops in town say.

[Rob Lewis]

Definitely time for a tuneup from Lectro.  I could be two things.  Either the crystal needs tuned or the pilot tone crystal is going as well.  Try putting the unit into bypass mode (hold menu then up arrow and see if your signal diminishes just like in normal mode)  If the signal remains strong in bypass mode than you have a pilot tone crystal that is going bad.  Either way, they should go to Lectro for some TLC.

[studiomprd]

the signal strength indicator is independent of the pilot function and shows signal with the pilot (squelch) enabled or bypassed.

BTW, the pilot squelch function pretty much works, or does not work!

many RF components are subject to aging effects, and sometimes "crap happens".

[DWsoundservice]

Send it to Lectrosonics.  It's been my experience that they are the only ones that can fix it like new no matter what the other shops in town say.

I'm sorry that you feel that way, Ken. For a quick and shameless plug, I have more experience working on Lectrosonics equipment than many of their techs. I have been repairing wireless mics for almost 20 years. 

[DWsoundservice]

There could be several different things happening here. When you have these problems, are they the same units giving you trouble?? If so, there may be problems with the units themselves. The RF power may be low in the tx. There may be a sensitivity problem in the rx. Or, you might just have a bad antenna. When we were still using the crystal controlled units (185,187,190,195,Vega), we had lots of tuning to deal with and they detuned themselves on a regular basis. Now that we have the Microprocessor controlled units (200,400,700) while there is a small amount of tuning involved, most of the tuning is handled via the processor and firmware. In the Hybrid (400) and digital (700), the pilot tone is created and controlled by the Digital Signal Processor (DSP) and there are no pilot xtals in the units at all.

On the other hand, if it is not the same units that are giving you problems, it could be external issues that are to blame. BK21-22 are starting to get more crowded as the broadcast channels that were up in the 700MHz move to lower frequencies. You could be experiencing coordination problems. Just because you have scanned a block and found open frequencies does not mean that when you turn on all your wireless that you have them on freqs that will work well together. If you are working in a city like L.A., it might end up being what part of town you are in. Several years ago I helped coordinate wireless freqs for a reality show that was shot in Malibu. They ended up using 43 separate wireless freqs and never had a single problem. But, I have had problems coordinating 5-6 wireless on across 2 blocks in Downtown L.A. 

If you are using RX's in a bag, you very well might be getting interference from other equipment in your bag. I have seen some recorders transmit R.F. very wide band, across several hundred MHz, Creating all sorts of troubles for any of the wireless that were close. If you are using a tx in the bag as a camera hop and have it close to any rx, you could be de-sensing the front end of the rx.

David W White

D.W. Sound Service

www.dwsoundservice.com