iSCAN Pre-Release Discussion Thread

[AlabamaRS]

Looks all well & good, but NO digital... not for me unless its under $500.00 maybe

[WayneH]

I think some of you are missing the market for this scanner. This is for people who have difficulty programming scanners. The reasoning by including the RR database is so they don't have to program anything. Considering this market's interest what's in the database will be adequate enough to listen to so if XYZ is not there they will not know or miss it, and if they want it they can program it in.

Myself, I'd much rather see GRE try to match an ICOM product with their typical interface.

[milf]

High Five to Wayne! Now your talking.... Though I do miss the old school RS black bricks for cases since they did feel more like real HT's.

[jpryor]

Interesting looking at least, now for the real question, does it come with white ear buds?

[milf]

LOL Earbuds/headphones/lapel speakers are buyer supplied I believe... I have yet to see any scanner come supplied with the extra listening gear.... Glad I have both earbuds, and a lapel speaker already for my gear.

[PeterGV]

Originally Posted by DickH

Yes, some great new features there, but the thing looks FUNKY.

I'm always happy to see ANY new scanner introduced.

But, can't these manufacturers hire a decent industrial designer? Gad, there devices are all ugly, with some of the poorest ergonomics you could ever design.

Can't they give us a device that's nice to look and use, instead of merely utilitarian?

Peter
K1PGV

[DaveIN]

Maybe the entry level radio needs to be easy to navigate. It's setup to be more like a media player, you press play to scan, you use the arrows to navigate through menus, just like my SanDisk player. It's small, just like a media player, and works with one handed operation, this is attractive too.

If the entire database is available, the user should be able to navigate to their closest state/county/city/agency, select it as a playlist, then hear the system. Too many entry level users are baffled by the menu systems of the new radios. This could be an easer way to get them scanning fairly painlessly.

Once the radio hits the mass market via RadioShack, we'll see what the everyday user thinks. After all, that is the market it appears they are looking for, not the super-user.

On a digital version, top of the line, I would want a keypad for direct entry in addition to select/navagation buttons. In the field, you may not want to carry a laptop around to add or edit the database, or alpha-tags.

[eorange]

From the manual:

- Scanlists are now Playlists
- full airband - VHF and UHF
- SD card is 2GB, and can hold 10 million objects (!)
- backlight flash can be controlled with built-in "flash patterns"
- look like the search step size is once again fixed

This entry-level scanner would need to be < $200 to hit its target market, IMO.

[Squad10]

Originally Posted by milf

LOL Earbuds/headphones/lapel speakers are buyer supplied I believe... I have yet to see any scanner come supplied with the extra listening gear.... Glad I have both earbuds, and a lapel speaker already for my gear.

Speaking of audio accessories, I hope they spent a few pennies on a high pass filter to filter out subaudible (which I hear Loud and Clear) tone heard when using an earbud/headphone with good low frequency response. And what about a MDC1200 Data Operated Squelch feature? After all, it is an analog receiver and alot of PD/FDs use PTT ID.

[DaveIN]

Originally Posted by Squad10

Speaking of audio accessories, I hope they spent a few pennies on a high pass filter to filter out subaudible (which I hear Loud and Clear) tone heard when using an earbud/headphone with good low frequency response. And what about a MDC1200 Data Operated Squelch feature? After all, it is an analog receiver and alot of PD/FDs use PTT ID.

I don't expect to see either of those in this model.

[DaveIN]

Originally Posted by eorange

From the manual:

- SD card is 2GB, and can hold 10 million objects (!)

This entry-level scanner would need to be < $200 to hit its target market, IMO.

However, the playlist are still limited to 21. We'l have to see how this works out for actual scanning.

I think it will be closer to $250, based on the $200 price of the PRO-164 (AKA PSR300) and the $100 PRO-404 (PSR100), but maybe your right.

[eorange]

The # of frequencies from 225 - 400 MHz, using a 5 kHz step, is only 35,001. So I'm pretty confident you could program every frequency the scanner can receive as an object, and still have a couple million objects left over for TG IDs.

If GRE provided the ability to search a range of object IDs, then you wouldn't need any other search.

But seriously, 21 Playlists is not proportional to the object capacity. The # of Playlists needs to be extensible just like they've done with the # of objects. Otherwise, what's the point of such a huge object store? The only thing you can guarantee to do is decrease your scanner's performance.

[DaveIN]

You have 10 million possible objects with the supplied 2GB SD card, why limit the playlists to just 21 when there isn't a display limitation such as an icon? I can set up a playlist for each of my music collections on my media player. I don't know about you, but I could use more.

[Voyager]

That wouldn't exactly be useful on those who use post MDC IDs. The thing would unsquelch just in time to hear the squelch tail.

Really, unsquelching on MDC is not very useful compared with standard unsquelching and muting the MDC ID (like the real radios do).

Also, given the relatively sparse use of MDC, it's much less likely to be a feature many people would/could use.

Joe M.

Originally Posted by Squad10

And what about a MDC1200 Data Operated Squelch feature?

[scannerfreak]

Moved thread to RS forum and renamed thread title

[jamesa53]

This is a great idea, but for me and where I am located, almost everything important to listen to is digital. So I will wait for the digital version of this to come out before I think about buying.

On second thought, I probably WILL buy one.

[jamesa53]

Originally Posted by blantonl

Think about it folks, the target market for this scanner does not include a single person in this thread, however everyone in this thread will buy the radio.

Exactly 100 pecent correct.

[Mickel1138]

I think is going to be a cool little toy!

Offcourse I had to post it on my blog: » RadioShack PRO-107 iScan Scanner Big Dutch Blog

There are some "stiched" pictures on there...

Mickel

[milf]

I wouldn't mind beta testing it.. But won't buy it... With more and more of the agencies here going to the Statewide P-25 TRS....Itd have to become a real easy machine to feed say T88, or UniTrunker before I'd think of it for permanent addition to my listening post. It is a pretty cool lil toy though... Give em 6 months to an year for the full featured P-25 megatrunking model to come out.... And still I foresee it becoming the iPod of the scanner world.... If they increase playlist functionality, make it CC decoding friendly, add the digital, and etc.... Then I would see it becoming a must for me... Heres a hint for next gen..... LOL

[bubbaearle]

Originally Posted by KD4YGG

First thing... "iScan?" sounds like a ripe opening for a copyright infrinement from the iPhone guys...

iScan the scanner for iDiots. I reckon Radio Shack thinks their customers are as clueless as their employees? I assume the iScan is marketed toward noobie scanner buyers with a slant toward a familiar control set-up most would be accustomed to?

Originally Posted by KD4YGG

Better solution would be to add on/improve on the PSR-500s:
- SD RAM for additional memory
- 100 scanlists
- Increased number of control channels for Motorola systems (like Indiana's Hoosier SAFE-T)
- Provoice, NexEdge, and D-Star digital formats
- LTR Multinet, LTR Passport, MPT-1327, NexEdge trunking

"You got questions? So do we!!!"

They oughtta upgrade the PSR 500 with a more rugged case in a smaller form factor. Upgraded firmware to support 100 scanlists at least! I dunno how Uniden does theirs but GRE needs to get away from the scanlist / pseudo-bank system and make something more flexible.

If it's a good performer I may buy one if they upgrade to P25.........otherwise I'll save my $$$ for beans & bullets. My bet is this will go straight to the discontinued list.