HP-2 vs x36HP: Do the keys lag and/or is the audio late to the party?

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OregonScanner

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I have a 536HP for mobile and a 436HP for base use and they both are horrible on the Oregon State Radio Project new state trunking system which is Phase II. When the radios are decoding P25 Phase II audio the keys are unusable until the audio stops, then I can finally press the keys and they work. Also, the radios are late to the party and do not decode the first word or so that's spoken. I think that this is unacceptable since the system only has 2 known sites up and running with only a couple of TGs being used by techs off and on.

Also, the x36HP radios miss one or two word transmissions on Motorola Type II analog systems in the Portland, OR metro area. For example, I had my WS1080 next to my 436HP a few days ago and a unit did a traffic stop and the dispatcher replied by saying the time "at 2:33." The WS1080 decoded it perfectly but the 436HP missed that transmission altogether. There are other times I hear mic clicks on my 436HP when it was the radio finally decoding a brief transmission and only capturing the user unkeying their mic at the end of their short transmission.

My understanding is that uniden added a new CPU to the HP-2. I have a WS1080 for base use but for mobile I love the GPS feature of the Unidens and I am hoping the HP-2 is a better radio over the x36HPs.

My questions:
1) Does the touch screen work when decoding P25 Phase II audio or does it lag like the keys on the x36HP?
2) Does the HP-2 miss the first word or so on P25 Phase II?
3) Does the HP-2 miss the first word or so on Motorola Type II analog?
4) How does the HP-2 perform on P25 simulcast compared to the 436HP? While the x36HPs do have their problems, they did solve any simulcast issues I had so I don't want to get a radio that's worse.

Thanks for your input!
 

Jay911

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Your lag issues are almost certainly caused by having a lot of data on a cheap (stock) memory card. For whatever reason, the cards that come with the radios seem to not be designed for fast data transfer. You need to get a "class 10" (or better) card and I would bet at that stage your lag would go away.

Whether or not a transmission is picked up has so many variables that it's often pointless to try to track it down. If you're scanning, you have to take into account the number of channels, departments, and systems being scanned; what hold time (if any) is enabled; whether or not the radio took 1.0 seconds or 1.01 seconds to "find" the control channel when it hits a trunk system; what the P25 Wait Time is, if applicable; etc. If you're parked on one particular frequency or TG, you have a better chance of having both radios receive "the same", but it's still not going to be perfect.
 

OregonScanner

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Your lag issues are almost certainly caused by having a lot of data on a cheap (stock) memory card. For whatever reason, the cards that come with the radios seem to not be designed for fast data transfer. You need to get a "class 10" (or better) card and I would bet at that stage your lag would go away.

Thanks Jay!

Would this work with the x36HP radios?

Amazon.com: SanDisk Ultra 16GB UHI-I/Class 10 Micro SDHC Memory Card Up To 48MB/s With Adapter- SDSDQUAN-016G-G4A [Newest Version]: Computers & Accessories
 

Jay911

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That is almost exactly the card I use with both my HP1s and my 436HP, except I use the 32GB variant. You'll have no problems with it.
 

troymail

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For what it is worth (or not) I see the same issues and I'm using Class 10 cards. It just seems like the radio firmware has it's priority designed to be in the signal processing and it just queues up keypresses. Weirdest thing I've ever seen when it comes to user interface/control. It is most noticable during Phase 2 activity but not limited to it.

I too am frustrated with the x36 simply scanning through systems where my other radios are stopped and actively listen to something. I've always described it as the x36 is looking for a "perfect" situation decoding the control channel. Lately I been experiementing with increasing the system/site HOLD times up from the default 0 to 1 second to see if I can force the radio to really look at these system on each pass. It's a work in progress. It's probably a combination of thing to include the "late to the game" observation you mentioed as well...by the time the radio "gets to the game", the game is over...still doesn't explain why it scans right past other activity -sometimes multiple passes.

I will say this iisn't the case 100% of the time...I just haven't pinned downwhat the situations and conditions are yet. It does seem to me though that if I have different "flavors" of systems being scanned, that is when "scan by" seems to happen most often.
 

jonwienke

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For what it is worth (or not) I see the same issues and I'm using Class 10 cards. It just seems like the radio firmware has it's priority designed to be in the signal processing and it just queues up keypresses.

If you have a bunch of audio files on the card, that can make the scanner lag, especially if you have a slow card. Clear out the Audio folder and see if that helps.
 

OregonScanner

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I just got the new cards loaded into the radios and I will post back later when I hear some TDMA audio. The TDMA system I monitor is still in the development / testing stage so it could be a little while until I hear TDMA audio again. Also I'm keeping the old cards programmed up as a backup for each radio.
 

stingray327

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For what it is worth (or not) I see the same issues and I'm using Class 10 cards. It just seems like the radio firmware has it's priority designed to be in the signal processing and it just queues up keypresses. Weirdest thing I've ever seen when it comes to user interface/control. It is most noticable during Phase 2 activity but not limited to it.

I too am frustrated with the x36 simply scanning through systems where my other radios are stopped and actively listen to something. I've always described it as the x36 is looking for a "perfect" situation decoding the control channel. Lately I been experiementing with increasing the system/site HOLD times up from the default 0 to 1 second to see if I can force the radio to really look at these system on each pass. It's a work in progress. It's probably a combination of thing to include the "late to the game" observation you mentioed as well...by the time the radio "gets to the game", the game is over...still doesn't explain why it scans right past other activity -sometimes multiple passes.

I will say this iisn't the case 100% of the time...I just haven't pinned downwhat the situations and conditions are yet. It does seem to me though that if I have different "flavors" of systems being scanned, that is when "scan by" seems to happen most often.

I got that Samsung Class 10 32 GB memory card and did change and it helped with that problem I had with the delay of the function key on side of scanner having a slow response.
 

Voyager

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I didn't have any recordings yet the 4 GB SanDisk card that came in scanner slowed down.

I betcha do.....

The scanner is always recording files for the REPLAY feature. I'm not sure if it erases them and writes in the same file area or not, but I suspect it does not which could mean fragmented files for your FLs. I know some say fragmentation is not an issue on SD cards for reading/writing speed, but...
 

stingray327

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I betcha do.....

The scanner is always recording files for the REPLAY feature. I'm not sure if it erases them and writes in the same file area or not, but I suspect it does not which could mean fragmented files for your FLs. I know some say fragmentation is not an issue on SD cards for reading/writing speed, but...

I have never used this feature or have any interest in using it.
 

Voyager

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I have never used this feature or have any interest in using it.

Doesn't matter - it's part of the basic operation. If the scanner is receiving, it's recording (to either the REPLAY folder or the RECORD folder - no, they are not called that; I used a generic term).
 

Voyager

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Can they be erased?

They are automatically erased based on your set record time. When your record time exceeds that time, the oldest recordings are erased. You can delete them in Windows Explorer, but they will just be replaced the next time the scanner receives something.

Come to think of it, I think they are erased at boot-up, as you can press the REPLAY button and it responds with nothing to play (or some such terms).
 

stingray327

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They are automatically erased based on your set record time. When your record time exceeds that time, the oldest recordings are erased. You can delete them in Windows Explorer, but they will just be replaced the next time the scanner receives something.

Come to think of it, I think they are erased at boot-up, as you can press the REPLAY button and it responds with nothing to play (or some such terms).

So in other words just don't be conerned about this?
 

Voyager

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So in other words just don't be conerned about this?

It can still lead to fragmentation of things such as FLs. Some occasional housekeeping like copying the card contents to a PC, erasing the card, then copying back might be in order.
 

AA6IO

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With all of the newer scanners (HP1/2, x36HPs, WS-1080, and future WS-1095) now using microSD cards, I think there are going to be some of these issues where a lot of the basic scanner operation is happening on the SD card. That is probably going to affect scanning speed, decoding, and lots of other basic functions of the scanners.
We didn't have these issues with older models without SD cards, but of course, we didn't have the entire US/Canada database, built-in record/replay, or discovery/logging features either. So its all kind of a trade-off.
I have two 536HPs with 16 Mb cards. Forgot about the long key delay issues. Just bought a third 536HP for my daughter/son-in-law in Phoenix. Was playing with it, all of a sudden, the slower key response (with original 4 Gb) card. I guess the lesson learned, as others have pointed out, is if you are using a scanner where so much is happening back and forth between the scanner and SD card, put a high quality, high storage SD card in there.
Kind of like the stock antennas, adequate, but not great. Seems like this is the same for the "stock SD cards,"

Steve AA6IO
 
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