PRS-500 is missing uhf-ultra public safety search..

[walter900]

PRS-500 is missing UHF-T Band public safety search..

Taken from page 57 of owners manual. I noticed that my local public safety (police & fire) which are all in the 470-512mhz UHF-T Band are not included in the pre-prgrammed service search list. So this would be useless for me. Why would GRE not include this range in there list? Oh well.... I hope they can add this in with firmware, as well as the missing selectable steps. This is strike-2 for me.


Public Safety (PubSafety) - Searches commonly used public
safety frequencies. Groups are as follows:
" 0: 33.4-46.5 MHz" " VHF Low Band
" 1: 151-170 MHz" " VHF High Band
" 2: 453-467 MHz" " UHF Band
" 3: 764-806 MHz" " 700 MHz Band
" 4: 851-869 MHz" " 800 MHz Band

 

[diskmonger]

So use the programmable seach limits for 470-512.

 

[walter900]

>So use the programmable seach limits for 470-512.

Then you would lose the ability to chain search with the rest of the public safety bands.

 

[DaveIN]

It's actually 453-465MHz in the PRO-96/2096 and PRO-97/2055 PS service search. Two MHz less than mentioned in the PSR-500 manual.

 

[n4jri]

>So use the programmable seach limits for 470-512.

Then you would lose the ability to chain search with the rest of the public safety bands.

Actually, you don't lose that ability outright. You just don't get it with a single keystroke. (even if it's true--which we can't be sure of until we see the radio or hear from GRE--that the T-band is omited)

A scanlist could be used to correct this, because band searches, service searches, and stalker/sweeper/near-field searches can all be programmed as individual objects just like frequencies and talkgroups.

You could have a public safety search scanlist which would involve:
1 - A public safety service search object straight from the radio's programming.
2 - One or more band searches for the public safety ranges of the various T-bands. (If for local use, you could make the scan more efficient by only searching the T-band(s) that apply to your area.

All objects would be scanned in sequence so that one thing doesn't have to be excluded for the other. You could also decide whether you want to include repeater input frequencies into your service searches. That's the essence of this whole object-oriented thing unless I am gravely wrong in my read of the manual and advertisements. Heck, you could even enter the freqs you find in the same bank, and combine monitoring and searching.

Actually, I'm GLAD not to have the T-band(s) in service search (if it's true that we don't) because I live outside of T-band territory and my efficiency would be negatively affected by scanning 7 different 6 MHz T-bands for UHF TV stations which would only make the radio buzz and sputter, make my scan time much longer, and use up lockout slots.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[walter900]

>Actually, I'm GLAD not to have the T-band(s) in service search (if it's true that we don't) because I live outside of T-band territory and my efficiency would be negatively affected..


No it wouldn't, if the T-band was there, you could easily turn it on/off by hitting the number that corisponds to it.

Sooooo.... If GRE ever decided to have it like they way i edited it below (which they wont), you would just press button "3" to toggle it off and on. I did 470-484.00 because that's where the majority of everything is... 484-512 is hardly used, if at all.

" 0: 33.4-46.5 MHz" " VHF Low Band
" 1: 151-170 MHz" " VHF High Band
" 2: 453-467 MHz" " UHF Band
" 3: 470-484 Mhz" " UHF-T Band <<<<<< This needs to be added in.
" 4: 764-806 MHz" " 700 MHz Band
" 5: 851-869 MHz" " 800 MHz Band

So far... Uniden is the only one that has gotten this setup right by having the UHF-T band included in there public safety search.. I have been scannng for many years... just like most folks around here... Don't get me wrong.. I'm not trying to put GRE down, just would like to see them have the best possible competitive product.

 

[n4jri]

> .. 484-512 is hardly used, if at all.

This would be quite a surprise for those living along the eastern seaboard from Fredericksburg, VA to past Philadelphia, PA. Not to mention southern California.

But no matter. You could link up to 1800 searches in that radio.

 

[DaveNF2G]

This would be quite a surprise for those living along the eastern seaboard from Fredericksburg, VA to past Philadelphia, PA. Not to mention southern California.

So? You're talking about maybe 10% at most of the land mass of the USA, and maybe a slightly larger fraction of the population. That meets the definition of "not common."

 

[rdale]

So can we cut to the chase - will the loss of this feature REALLY affect your scanner usage? Will people not buy it because that search range isn't a preset?

 

[diskmonger]

No, it won't effect anything. Just another thing for someone to complain about.

To consider this a "strike" against the radio is just ridiculous.

 

[bc780l]

I don't see anyone mentioning inclusion of the desired range as a pre-defined Spectrum Sweeper group, as is verified in the specifications on pages 82 and 93 of the DRAFT manual. Spectrum Sweeper beats Service Search hands down compared to other methods by the looks of its capabilities for serious searching. It does seem odd that the developers would not include the same pre-defined ranges for both Service Search and Spectrum Sweeper--perhaps an oversight, perhaps because it's DRAFT documentation, and perhaps/hopefully such things may be changed with subsequent firmware updates.

 

[walter900]

>perhaps an oversight, perhaps because it's DRAFT documentation, and perhaps/hopefully such things may be changed with subsequent firmware updates.


Spectrum Sweeper is very nice, but the range is very limited. You can't beat having the preset frequency (470-512mhz) in a service search when it comes to range. As for a firmware update, at this point, who knows if GRE will ever find out about this problem as well as the lack of having no changeable steps.. As far as we all know, the firmware from GRE could just be small bug fixes for the digital trunking that they have noticed themselfs.

*IMO.... Our best bet in getting the 470-512mhz range added into the public safety search, and getting selectable steps of 5khz, 6.25khz, 7.5khz, 8.33khz, 10khz, 12.5khz, 15khz, 20khz, 25khz, 50khz, 100kHz added in for searching and manual tuning will have to be suggested from one of the beta testers.

 

[yaesumofo]

The 470-512mhz range is very a important range in southern California since the LA County sheriff and LAPD are to be found there. This would be a huge hole fo those guys who want to be able to scan and store frequencies in this range.
Those step are important as well since the mandate from the feds is to become more spectrally efficient we need to be able to scan channels which are closer together.
One feature I love in the AOR 8000 is the ability to create ANY step size you want.
Maybe a programable step size would also be a good addition..
All of these issure should be addressable with a firmware implementation of these stps sizes and missing frequency ranges.

Just hope that they haven't withheld them in because of some cellular image monitoring problem.
Some radio have lost the ability to monitor spectrum because of this. I have seen this most with HAM radios. I suppose it is unlikley but possible issue.
Yaesumofo

 

[rdale]

Don't confuse the issue. They can scan frequencies in that range just fine, the user above just wants to have that range included in the preset search. I can't imagine there are many LAPD / LACS frequencies that are completely unknown.

 

[trooperdude]

Don't confuse the issue. They can scan frequencies in that range just fine, the user above just wants to have that range included in the preset search. I can't imagine there are many LAPD / LACS frequencies that are completely unknown.

It's not just Los Angeles.

T-Band is used all over the country in various areas.

It's a big gap in features.

 

[diskmonger]

It's not a big gap in features. A big gap in features would be no 800mhz trunking.

 

[loumaag]

It's not just Los Angeles.

T-Band is used all over the country in various areas.

It's a big gap in features.

Well not really. It is used in various areas, but it is not used "all over the country" unless you mean the specific areas it is allowed in are spread around. It's use is limited geographically by the rules (§ 90.303) to only urbanized areas as specified in the rules. Those areas are as follows:

Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
New York/NE NJ
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
San Francisco/Oakland, CA
Washington, DC/MD/VA​

So although the "T" band may be important in those limited areas, it is not important to the vast majority of the country.

 

[kevins669]

It's use is limited geographically by the rules (§ 90.303) to only urbanized areas as specified in the rules.

Wayyyyy to much time on your hands, Lou.

-- Kevin

 

[trooperdude]

Well not really. It is used in various areas, but it is not used "all over the country" unless you mean the specific areas it is allowed in are spread around. It's use is limited geographically by the rules (§ 90.303) to only urbanized areas as specified in the rules. Those areas are as follows:

Boston, MA
Chicago, IL
Cleveland, OH
Dallas/Fort Worth, TX
Detroit, MI
Houston, TX
Los Angeles, CA
Miami, FL
New York/NE NJ
Philadelphia, PA
Pittsburgh, PA
San Francisco/Oakland, CA
Washington, DC/MD/VA​

So although the "T" band may be important in those limited areas, it is not important to the vast majority of the country.

Well really.

Major cities coast to coast is "all over the country"

Yes it's important to the "vast majority of the country" if you count population centers ie: buyers

We agree to disagree.

:roll:

 

[loumaag]

...We agree to disagree.

You have that privilege.