VHF- Scan Won't Stay Locked on Transmission

[Joel H.]

I have a West Marine VHF radio, something like the 580.
Anyway I run it on scan a lot, just to hear what's going on on the lake, (Mich.), and the locks and river traffic. Unfortunately, it does an annoying thing while on scan.

Now, this may be hard to articulate, so here goes:
What I noticed is that even when it locks on to a strong signal with a long conversation going on, the radio still will cut out at regular intervals that chops up the transmission.
Another way to say it is, it seems to briefly go back to scanning even when a strong transmission is still in progress. It does this even with the squelch set low and it's just for a split second, like clockwork, every 3 seconds (maybe more). It seems like it's programed to do that but it makes you miss every third word, (or so), so it just doesn't make sense to me why it would be like that.
Can anyone tell me why this would be?
Thanks in advance,
Joel H.

[colemj]

Is it set to priority scan or dual watch mode? This mode has the radio monitoring channel 16 and will regularly go to it to look for traffic.

Mark

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, Joel.

[westwinds]

The motion of the boat may be causing an intermittent disconnect on a coax or even power source. Look for loose wires

[Krakato]

Typically on radios that scan you can set different scan modes/options:

- Priority scan: Every few second(s) it will pop back to the channel designated as the priority channel to check for traffic on it. If it finds traffic there, it will stay there.

- Scan delay: If traffic is found on a channel, the scan will pause there for X number of seconds (typically 3 or 5 seconds), then continue on.

- Non priority scan: (probably what you are looking for) If traffic is found on a channel it will stop and stay there until it looses the signal.

You will have to get into the menu system on the radio you have to set the above. To do that you will have to consult your owners manual.

Hope this helps!

Mike

[Joel H.]

Of course, it must be the scan mode. That's what it's doing, it's going to 16 momentarily. Thanks everyone, great responses!

[Joel H.]

Yup, that was it.