Why Scanners today so Limited ?

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hardsuit

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Hello to All. my question is Why Scanners today are so Limited ?
scanners operate in 25-512, 758-824, 849-869, 894-960, and 1240 - 1300. where is the HF ?
and scanners only demodulate AM, FM, WFM. Digital Also. more on that later.
I have a ICOM R-30, its continuous from 10 khz to 1.3 Ghz. (cellular blocked). and it Demodulates CW, LSB, USB as well. Including the Latest Digital Modes. my ICOM does HF.
Even my old AOR 1500 could do CW, LSB, USB and was Continious to 1300.
furthermore Even modern Digital Scanners like the SDS100 lack SSB ability as well as missing out on all the HAM digital modes like D-star, dPMR, D-CR, TETRA, EJ-47 GMSK, Yeasu FUSION.
also, scanners have very limited in Tuning Steps and not very adaptable for listening to HAM radio in general.
and scanners are not capable of listening to HF or tuneing it properly.
Scanners re pretty basic, with just ONE scan mode, My ICOM can Voice Scan and Auto Memory Write, It has multiple scan and search modes. some aided with GPS.
It is 2018, so why is Uniden still using a cable and a Hockey Puck GPS ?
the ICOM has built in GPS and Bluetooth Audio. the GPS can track Towers you have programmed in wethin 100 miles of your position. so, when did Scanner company get so lazy ?
 

Citywide173

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Maybe because the customer base doesn't require it. Every feature you mentioned requires research and development, implementation design and beta testing. Where do you think the funding for that comes from? End user cost. If everything you mention were added to a scanner, the cost would be prohibitive to many.

How many channels per second does your R-30 scan? Does your R-30 have an internal memory with the most readily available frequency data that can be accessed by entering a zip code? Does your R-30 decode P25 Phase II? Does your R-30 have the capability to track a trunked radio system? I'm not slamming it, just pointing out that different radios and receivers are designed for different markets. The majority of those buying scanners are looking to listen to public safety, which means they have no need for SSB, CW, etc. Yes, there are the outliers, who are the people you find on this board, but the scanner owners here are but a small fraction of the scanner owners in the general market.
 

damando

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I agree. I had a Yupiteru MVT-7100*for yrs and also the AR -1500. Both did more than any radio that I have now. I may just purchase another Yupiteru .

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KK4JUG

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Citywide173 pretty well nailed it. Many of the features mentioned by the OP are of limited appeal and the return from the money spent on R&D would not be favorable.

Re: GPS. Most people listen to their local channels (police, fire, railroad, etc.) and don't want to pay for the GPS because they don't need it. Even without the GPS, the cost of high-end scanners is a deal breaker for most casual listeners.
 

bob550

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I agree. I had a Yupiteru MVT-7100*for yrs and also the AR -1500. Both did more than any radio that I have now. I may just purchase another Yupiteru .

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Saying that an older model scanner "does more" than today's models is a highly subjective assessment. It depends on what features you consider important. You won't be trunk-tracking P25 Phase 2 digital on your AOR AR1500. But then a Uniden SDS100 doesn't offer continuous coverage from 500 khz to 1300 Mhz either. All the features listed by the OP in one receiver would result in a multi-kilobuck unit. Think Icom R8600 or the yet-to-be-released AOR AR5700D. The takeaway is that scanners are not designed to be communication receivers.
 

Will001

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I don’t know if anyone already mentioned this, but there’s really not a high demand for HF. Yeah, there’s the ham guys, maritime traffic, SW radio, and military comms on there but it is extremely hard to get any HF on a handheld as-is. Plus, listening to public safety is kinda what scanners were made for when they were conceived.


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Blunt630

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It's almost the end of 2018, maybe you should reach out to Whistler to voice your complaints. Atleast Uniden kept to there word.

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Citywide173

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It's almost the end of 2018, maybe you should reach out to Whistler to voice your complaints. Atleast Uniden kept to there word.

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We're 7 days into the fourth quarter. Yes, near the end of 2018, but only 7 days into a 92 day period that they specified. If it was January 1st I could see the claim of a broken promise, but compared to all of the missed dates with the x36 line, it's pretty quick to be throwing that around.
 

tumegpc

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Uniden for some reason has fallen behind in quality control in the past few years. The SDS100 is a toy compared to the Icom R30 in build quality. Uniden will make you believe that adding Bluetooth and GPS will degrade performance and cost $$ way too much. Well the Icom R30 has both and out performs the SDS100 by a mile while costing $50.00 less. And that's including a hand full of other digital modes.

The R30 has dual receivers, dual record, dual bandscope, microsd that is easy to access, GPS, Bluetooth, a scanner app that actually works quite well. IP57 waterproof protection (1 m depth of water for 30 minutes).I can listen privately to the R30 while wearing wireless earbuds or headphones. R30 has a nice drop in desk top charger that was included. Battery is low profile and last easily for 8 hours. There is an optional AA battery adapter. Digital decoding of P25 and NXDN is the best I've ever heard. Exceptional UHF/VHF reception. The list goes on and on.

If my public safety when encrypted tomorrow. I would still have plenty to listen to with the R30. Can you say the same for the SDS100?
 

KK4JUG

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I'm happy with my Uniden scanners. I guess the Icom is better and that's why it outsells the others....or not.
 

Citywide173

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Uniden for some reason has fallen behind in quality control in the past few years. The SDS100 is a toy compared to the Icom R30 in build quality. Uniden will make you believe that adding Bluetooth and GPS will degrade performance and cost $$ way too much. Well the Icom R30 has both and out performs the SDS100 by a mile while costing $50.00 less. And that's including a hand full of other digital modes.

The R30 has dual receivers, dual record, dual bandscope, microsd that is easy to access, GPS, Bluetooth, a scanner app that actually works quite well. IP57 waterproof protection (1 m depth of water for 30 minutes).I can listen privately to the R30 while wearing wireless earbuds or headphones. R30 has a nice drop in desk top charger that was included. Battery is low profile and last easily for 8 hours. There is an optional AA battery adapter. Digital decoding of P25 and NXDN is the best I've ever heard. Exceptional UHF/VHF reception. The list goes on and on.

If my public safety when encrypted tomorrow. I would still have plenty to listen to with the R30. Can you say the same for the SDS100?

And that is.....that it meets your needs. If I had to drop money on a radio tomorrow, it would be one that is capable of decoding P25 Phase II, has a fast scan rate and can follow trunked systems-that is what meets my needs. Most scanner users do not need the added features of a communications receiver which is what the R30 is. Uniden and Whistler market to radio naive consumers, public safety and media primarily and have designed their products to meet the needs of those customers. Communications receivers are marketed to more hard core radio aficionados.

I would love to have an R30, it looks like a great radio for those times when I actually have time to sit at Point Judith, RI and chase signals. Unfortunately, those times have become few and far between.
 

zz0468

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Hello to All. my question is Why Scanners today are so Limited ?
Opinions rendered below...

scanners operate in 25-512, 758-824, 849-869, 894-960, and 1240 - 1300. where is the HF ?

HF is in a real HF radio. There are "DC to daylight" radios out there. They're either very expensive, or some features are compromised to make it affordable.

I have a ICOM R-30, its continuous from 10 khz to 1.3 Ghz. (cellular blocked). and it Demodulates CW, LSB, USB as well. Including the Latest Digital Modes. my ICOM does HF.

But does your R30 do trunking?

also, scanners have very limited in Tuning Steps and not very adaptable for listening to HAM radio in general.

What tuning steps are missing? For ham radio, 5 KHz, and 12.5 KHz should get you on every channelized FM frequency that's used. But they usually include 15 KHz and 25 KHz, at the minimum.

and scanners are not capable of listening to HF or tuneing it properly.
Scanners re pretty basic, with just ONE scan mode, My ICOM can Voice Scan and Auto Memory Write, It has multiple scan and search modes. some aided with GPS.

But no trunking...

It is 2018, so why is Uniden still using a cable and a Hockey Puck GPS ?

So you can put the GPS antenna outside the vehicle? Just a guess here...

the ICOM has built in GPS and Bluetooth Audio. the GPS can track Towers you have programmed in wethin 100 miles of your position.

But does it do trunking?

so, when did Scanner company get so lazy ?

When did scanner owners get so demanding?

What you want is a single portable radio that does it all. How much are you willing to pay? What are your expectations that it do everything very well?
 

W4KRR

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I agree. I had a Yupiteru MVT-7100*for yrs and also the AR -1500. Both did more than any radio that I have now. I may just purchase another Yupiteru .

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Yupiteru, AOR, and Icom don't do any form of trunk tracking. The Yupiteru doesn't do any form of digital, and even the Icom IC-R30 doesn't do DMR, a very popular format in the USA.
 

hardsuit

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Citywide - the Customer base doesn't know what they are Missing, because they don't know Communications Receivers (CR) Exist. or don't understand how to use them.
CW, SSB do not require ANY special knowledge for an RF engineer. There is nothing Special about the Digital HAM modes either, DMR is pretty standard on modern scanners. but who about WIRES, FUSION and D-Star ?
My ICOM can scan fast at 200 Ch a second with Voice Scan enabled, the ICOM has an SD card with internal memory, its up to me to create Professional Scan Lists from DATA I have compiled and from my Digital Scout frequency counter which I use to TROLL Police Towers and other targets.

Cost ? the Icom R-30 is just $599 compare that with the Uniden SDS100 that is LIMITED in what it can receive, its does NOT do HF or Above 1300 Mhz , the ICOM does both HF through to 3300 Mhz. (cellular blocked). I do wish ICOM would have a Repeater Database like RFinder or the USA/Canada database, just for ease of programming, but, its NOT a deal breaker. also the Uniden needs "updates" that the scanner can ALREADY receive, its just LOCKED OUT.
No, ICOM cannot Trunktrack but neither can Whistler in Digital Mode. not a Deal Breaker for me.
besides, what did we use before Trunktracking ? we manually entered the channels into a Search bank with the Control channel omitted or Locked out. works just fine on my Whistler. but there is NO Reason for this feature to come to Communications receivers.
Before we had SD cards for Memory , the scanner would max out at 1000 or 2000 channers, which means I had a RS Pro 95 scanner, and a AOR 1500 , I would use a Paper GRID to map out my frequencies before programming, to maximize channels, today we are spoiled by SD in a Good Way.

Overall my complaint is on both Scanners and Receivers, both can be Elevated, both should have the Latest Technology, there is no excuse .
 

frazpo

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Huh?

Most scanner hobbyist don't make listening the to ham bands a big priority. If you do you most likely own a ham radio. Also, most could care less about any of the other modes you mentioned such as USB, CW, etc.
This was sort of a silly question. I mean this whole concept applies to everything. Car makers create and build vehicles for specific purposes. Fast, powerful, economical, comfortable. Rarely do you get it all in one package. Same applies to the radio market.
 

hardsuit

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from Reading all your comments, it seams like there is NO Technical reason why scanners are not Continious coverage other than being cheaply made. there is also No reason for Scanners NOT to include SSW, CW and HAM radio Digital Modes. Scanners today don't even have Noise Filtering for AM or NBL filtering modes. that said I think there is room for Growth in both Scanners and Receivers alike.
and it would NOT add to much in price, a Entry level ICOM Receiver is $170 and scans HF - 1300 MHz NO GAPS (cellular locked) but with CW and SSB. I think TRUNKTRACKING is a licensing issue not a Technical one, so Its possible Receivers like ICOM to include Trunktracking.
Same goes for USA/Canada database, its a Lisensing issue with Radio Reference. as Whistler and RS scanners are allowed to use the Database.
 

hardsuit

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frazpo - but When you consider the Price of a Sporty's AIR scanner is almost the same Price as a Budget scanner and that Budget Scanner cost MORE than a Entry Level Receiver from ICOM. then I think in general CR are a better value even for people who want just an Analog Scanner, a ICOM R6 just performs Better and has continuous coverage (cellular locked).
 
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