Disappointed

[n5ypj]

Take me with a grain of salt, I've only had the 536 almost a week but I find it disappointing compared to the 996XT in that it seems impossible to get a reliable audio source for recording purposes on my PC with ProScan. FWIW my son & I use recordings a lot to catch up on happenings.

Streaming audio over the dongle either utilizing AP or infrastructure gives high quality audio but after a while the wireless link fails for some reason. In the case of AP the dongle and PC w/ WiFi card are about 3 ft apart and on a channel that doesn't show up as in use. In the case of infrastructure other devices in the house work fine and link failures occur even when no one is home using the wifi. My PC is on ethernet and the infrastructure stream would come in on ethernet.

The SD card recording quality is good. I prefer the way ProScan will sort out the recordings for us and they are easy to handle. Wish the 536 could be set up for software recording too, software bugs can be and are taken care of much quicker than firmware upgrades are. Firmware upgrades tend to peter out after a while also.

I'm not Uniden bashing, it's a great radio and worth the price but what would it cost to put a Line Out / Rec jack on the rear panel like the 996 has and apparently from photos the 536 had at one time?

 

[buddrousa]

I have been using my 536 19 months. First I am a static IP address person I only have had 1 problem and it was caused by a power loss and not from the 536 now the PC and all my scanners are UPS backed up and have had no problems. You problem is your router renewing IP addresses if I was betting.

 

[n5ypj]

I've tried both the access point and the infrastructure thinking there maybe an issue with the router but AP drops out also. Would the router affect affect access point? They are on different channels.

 

[buddrousa]

Like I said I have lost my network connection to my 536 1 time in 19 months and that was power related.

 

[kruser]

Like I said I have lost my network connection to my 536 1 time in 19 months and that was power related.

Try living in an apartment complex with hundreds of wireless routers or access points and your view may be changed!

Also, if you have two or more 536 models, see what happens when you power them on at the same time. Often, I find that only one will connect to my wireless network but sometimes, neither will. If I power them on and wait for the 1st to connect, I can then power more on one at a time and they will all connect and work with any of the wireless apps out there.

I do reserve the IP they are assigned based on each units MAC but that does not work when they are powered on all at the same time.

I've even tried about a dozen different APs or Wireless routers but all exhibit the same behavior so the problem must lie within the dongles negotiation with your wireless network.

My laptops or other wireless devices can be powered up together and they all get their assigned IP and connect successfully but the 536HP models sure will not.

To overcome all the wireless signals in my immediate area, I must place an AP within a few feet of the 536 dongles for a mostly error free wireless connection.

I also noticed I must run any of my wireless routers or APs at full strength while before the 536 dongles came out, I was able to run at medium or low power to reduce interference to my neighbors from my wireless network.

These apartments are small. If everyone here ran their wifi devices at low power, that would help eliminate some of the interference between each other but most users barely know how to change or even set a password in their devices so expecting them to know how to reduce the wireless signal strength is like telling a puppy dog to sit!
Of course not all wireless routers or access points even have power level settings.
I can run that windows program that sniffs wireless signals and it is amazing that wireless even works here when you see all the overlapping signals running at high power on the same channel.

I myself use the 5 GHz band as amazingly, hardly anyone here has dual band routers. So 5 GHz is very quiet but unfortunately, the Uniden dongle does not support the 5GHz band.

I myself would greatly welcome a hardwired ethernet dongle for the reasons above.

 

[buddrousa]

Kruser you have valid points I use a Mikrotik router that has lots of built in toys for networking. When i turn on the router to look at the wireless networks around me I see 7 at 60DB to 80 DB. So I would support the hardwired option also. 1 other thing you might not have known wireless security alarm systems are using the 2.4 range also.

 

[kruser]

1 other thing you might not have known wireless security alarm systems are using the 2.4 range also.

Yep, it seems many things are crammed into the 2.4 range these days!
I also see a lot more devices using the ISM band with FHSS technology.

I recall when 5 GHz wifi devices were not allowed to have removable antennas and were intended for indoor use only but it seems like those restrictions have been lifted today as many FCC certified 5 GHZ devices are on the market today. Even Cisco's Meraki devices offer Omni or Directional antennas for use on the 5 GHz band and are marketed for outdoor use.
The Meraki MR72 is one such device.

 

[n5ypj]

Yep, it seems many things are crammed into the 2.4 range these days!
I also see a lot more devices using the ISM band with FHSS technology.

I recall when 5 GHz wifi devices were not allowed to have removable antennas and were intended for indoor use only but it seems like those restrictions have been lifted today as many FCC certified 5 GHZ devices are on the market today. Even Cisco's Meraki devices offer Omni or Directional antennas for use on the 5 GHz band and are marketed for outdoor use.
The Meraki MR72 is one such device.

Gosh yes there is an enormous amount of activity at 2.4 Ghz. It's surprising that wireless devices work so well considering the amount of users. It would be great to see more availability of 5 Ghz capable devices here.

 

[phask]

Most newer tablets, phones and PC's have 2.5 capability.

Even Dish's newest DVR and Amazon's Echo do.

 

[eaf1956]

Most newer tablets, phones and PC's have 2.5 capability.

Even Dish's newest DVR and Amazon's Echo do.

Do you perhaps mean 5 GHz?

 

[phask]

Do you perhaps mean 5 GHz?

Yep