I can remember making an appointment to meet up with a county deputy on the phone. As the time approached and I got close to the meeting spot I started trying to get him on inter-agency. I kept calling until I was within sight of the meeting spot, maybe 3/4 mile away. That's when he could finally hear me. I never put much faith in the radio after that.
Another neat thing, since the thread is drifting nicely, was the way the antenna connection on the actual radio that was in the truck would vibrate loose. Usually that happened when the Capt or some cranky Zone Sgt was trying to get you for something vitally important, like a miscounted number of cans of shoe polish at the station or maybe to check on the status of the soap dispenser or some other life and death type of thing. Of course with the antenna disconnected you never knew anything until you went to call in a plate or sign out at a diner or something. You'd realize something was wrong, start to panic a bit, race to trunk and tighten the connection and suddenly the radio would start working again. By then everyone and their brother in scanner land had heard them calling for you for 45 minutes and had called Troop to let them know you'd just driven by their house looking fat, dumb and happy. This information would be relayed to the Zonie that already had an ulcer named after you and when you finally did talk to him it was made very clear that you wouldn't be getting any Christmas cards from him this century.
I hated that radio.