Why would a handheld receive better than mobile or base station?

[kcody]

This is about a VHF system used by a volunteer fire department.

By day I'm a computer guy, so apologies in advance if I get any of the lingo wrong.

Our station is in an island community, and about 9 miles away from county dispatch. We are not the town's main station. There is not a whole lot of topography, and sometimes the radios work just fine. Sometimes they don't.

Each Sunday, dispatch conducts a radio check of all police, fire, and EMS units. This past Sunday, only the handheld received anything at all during the radio check.

We have a base station with an antenna on the roof, a mobile in the fire truck which was parked outside the building at the time, a mobile in the utility truck which was off at the time, and that handheld.

Today, there was an alarm call. The utility truck was no more than 1/4 mile down the road when the responder radioed into dispatch, successfully. The base station picked him up, but not dispatch.

As I said I'm not a radio expert, but I was pretty stunned that the mobile worked better than the base.

Getting any paid help would be unlikely. I'm all we've got. What should I be looking for?

Thanks in advance.

[5B4AJB]

Most likely water in the coaxial cable, it's not repairable. Change the coax and make sure the new one is properly sealed with self-amalgamating tape at the antenna end...

[KD3WB]

Also, check the squelches on all three radios. They should be set so that even a weak signal opens the receiver.

Ben

[WZ7U]

Is there a CTCSSish issue here? Maybe someone monkeyed with a programming preset on accident.

I would be getting all over that problem if it were me & my station.