396XT with decode errors

[scannersnstuff]

don't get me wrong. i know gre has their share of product problems too. now i read on another website that uniden is making their cr*p in vietnam. people are reporting problems with their newly purchased scanner case's cracking after a few week's. so who the heck know's what will be up with the new bc125at. i'm just considering not buying any more scanner's, and getting another amateur rig that will hold up.

more scanner competition needed !!!!! .

 

[torontokris]

Your 396xt should say right in the battery compartment under where the batteries go... above the serial number on that tag where it was made... yes it was made in vietnam.. all the 396/996/HP-1 that I own are now made in Vietnam (only a few of the 2010 HP-1 were made in china, now all Vietnam). No need to read that from another website.

If your looking for a high end top of the line unit made in Japan Canada or the USA the bc125at wont be it... so no need to look at it.

Check where a lot of the amaeur rigs are made, it depends on the price point

But we are getting off topic.

don't get me wrong. i know gre has their share of product problems too. now i read on another website that uniden is making their cr*p in vietnam. people are reporting problems with their newly purchased scanner case's cracking after a few week's. so who the heck know's what will be up with the new bc125at. i'm just considering not buying any more scanner's, and getting another amateur rig that will hold up.

more scanner competition needed !!!!! .

 

[Highpockets]

I don't think people should blame Mr. Opitz though because he is not the one that caused the issues to happen in the first place.

Jacob (J-Duncs)
XBL: Pilot135R

Uniden BCD396XT
Radio Shack Pro-79

Nobody is blaming him, but he does represent Uniden, he is there Product Manager. I would say they are passing the problems with a Uniden Scanner to Uniden through him, hoping they will look into it.

 

[scannersnstuff]

torontokris. not saying that all amateur radio's are stellar in construction. i have had at least 3 or 4 yaesu/vertex's that are darn near bulletproof. this discussion didn't get derailed,because we are talking about several problem's with uniden scanner's. i will not comment further. i'm taking a "wait and see" approach. yes, i realize that amateur radio's don't trunk etc. and in all fairness to uniden, i have to say that i could have just bought a psr-310. i've read/seen just about everything i can find about it. it just appear's to be the analog version of my psr-500. i already only get marginal use out of that one. i guess if i had to listen to a simulcast system, that would be the one i'd be using. there just does not seem to be any real good basic scanner's out there yet. one's that cover mil-air anyway.

 

[blutarsky]

well, unfortunately it seems this is a lost cause and we're just stuck... which is regrettable.

in all other respects, i love my 396xt, however it's crippled for listening to my local system which is a multi-site simulcast site. since uniden apparently has no interest in correcting the problem, let alone even simply acknowledging our issues, i've got to look at other options. in a way it's good that i found this problem with the product and the lacking customer support, since it's just me right now -- two other members of my family also want to get a scanner and were going to get these until this problem. and it seems i have until the end of the month to return this one.

SO, what other scanners out there can play nice with mutli-site simulcast systems? i'd like to keep essentially the same or similar features as the 396xt but also be able to listen to my local system. like i said, in all other respects i think this scanner is just about perfect, but it doesn't mean much if you can't hear what you need to hear.

 

[scanningisfun]

well, unfortunately it seems this is a lost cause and we're just stuck... which is regrettable.

in all other respects, i love my 396xt, however it's crippled for listening to my local system which is a multi-site simulcast site. since uniden apparently has no interest in correcting the problem, let alone even simply acknowledging our issues, i've got to look at other options. in a way it's good that i found this problem with the product and the lacking customer support, since it's just me right now -- two other members of my family also want to get a scanner and were going to get these until this problem. and it seems i have until the end of the month to return this one.

SO, what other scanners out there can play nice with mutli-site simulcast systems? i'd like to keep essentially the same or similar features as the 396xt but also be able to listen to my local system. like i said, in all other respects i think this scanner is just about perfect, but it doesn't mean much if you can't hear what you need to hear.

Scanners Like the 396XT:

-RS Pro-106
-RS Pro-197

-GRE PSR-500
-GRE PSR-600

The 197 and the 600 are both base units. The 106 and the 500 are handhelds. They still suffer the same problem. The 106 says in the manual something relating to it's ability to try to avoid multi path but it's not true.

Here are two vids I found on this with RS scanners:

P25 Simulcast Distortion - YouTube
P-25 Simulcast Distortion - YouTube

 

[W6KRU]

This thread has veered completely off topic again. I started this topic to solicit suggestions for my 396XT with a P25 error level over 50 and the completely garbage audio caused by it.

 

[scanningisfun]

This thread has veered completely off topic again. I started this topic to solicit suggestions for my 396XT with a P25 error level over 50 and the completely garbage audio caused by it.

There is nothing else to suggest. If you were referring to my post telling which scanners are related, i was just answering a question.

 

[blutarsky]

This thread has veered completely off topic again. I started this topic to solicit suggestions for my 396XT with a P25 error level over 50 and the completely garbage audio caused by it.

there are no suggestions -- the only "fix" appears to be uniden releasing an update to allow us to manually adjust the p25 levels. if that option is not made available to us, there is no fix with the current firmware and it will remain broken for these types of systems.

 

[Highpockets]

there are no suggestions -- the only "fix" appears to be uniden releasing an update to allow us to manually adjust the p25 levels. if that option is not made available to us, there is no fix with the current firmware and it will remain broken for these types of systems.

I see UPMan is on now answering posts on the HP-1, so he must be reading this thread, or has read it in the past.

Once and for all, UPMan at least post if Uniden is working on something for the XT models, a Yes or No, or we are looking into a few things. You should have the authority to at least say that.

 

[WayneH]

No more OT please! If you can't contribute to the original topic then please move along. Thanks.

 

[Tryton]

Well, the silence is deafening! We can now safely assume the answer..

 

[blutarsky]

yeah -- offering up company people to give "official" company feedback on forums like this is great, unless the official decision is to say nothing, absolutely nothing, then it's more insulting than anything, almost worse than if they had no presence here at all. especially since there's been no shortage of attention to the HP-1 threads.

i suspect the 396xt is simply EOL (end of life) in uniden's eyes, given their response (lack of response in this case IS, in itself, a response, in my view) which is really unfortunate since they should just admit it's a discontinued product if they're not going to support it.

 

[N0WEF]

What I am utterly amazed by is the lack of Paul's Web 2.0 training. If a thread like this happened to any of my 130 brands, not only would I know within minutes, but a reply would be given within an hour.

How does Uniden put up with this? Do they think ignoring a problem makes it go away? As we've all seen in this thread, it doesn't, it just makes people madder and more vocal. Even if an answer is unpopular, people prefer an honest answer. This thread would have stopped at "We're sorry, but we cannot fix this issue."

Paul, if you need me to recommend conferences that focus on Web 2.0 PM me. Right now you're just shooting your employer in the foot.

 

[W6KRU]

yeah -- offering up company people to give "official" company feedback on forums like this is great, unless the official decision is to say nothing, absolutely nothing, then it's more insulting than anything, almost worse than if they had no presence here at all. especially since there's been no shortage of attention to the HP-1 threads.

i suspect the 396xt is simply EOL (end of life) in uniden's eyes, given their response (lack of response in this case IS, in itself, a response, in my view) which is really unfortunate since they should just admit it's a discontinued product if they're not going to support it.

I agree with all of that. There has been no shortage of attention to conveniences on the HP while ignoring a required basic function shortcoming on the XTs. This is beyond annoying. Having intelligible audio is a little more important than the methods used to enter frequencies.

Unidens support policies are definitely lacking. GRE just released new firmware for the PSR-500/600 which is older than the XTs. Ignoring this XT issue will not be forgotten. GRE trumps Uniden on support.

 

[scannersnstuff]

although i'm basically undecided as to what to buy next. vote with your hard earned bucks !.

 

[N0WEF]

although i'm basically undecided as to what to buy next. vote with your hard earned bucks !.

Something much worse than just a few people "voting with their dollars" is occurring.

This, and threads like it, are spinning off very adamant people who are telling everyone who listens not to buy the XT.

With recent studies showing that 80% of consumers look to their peers before making a purchase. I fear this is causing a much larger problem than Uniden realizes. This thread has been allowed to become the third most viewed Uniden thread this month, which is a shame, when a simple reply would have stopped it.

 

[Highpockets]

Nothing yet! It sure is a shame.

 

[Highpockets]

I agree with all of that. There has been no shortage of attention to conveniences on the HP while ignoring a required basic function shortcoming on the XTs. This is beyond annoying. Having intelligible audio is a little more important than the methods used to enter frequencies.

Unidens support policies are definitely lacking. GRE just released new firmware for the PSR-500/600 which is older than the XTs. Ignoring this XT issue will not be forgotten. GRE trumps Uniden on support.

Looks like users have run out of ideas on what to try with your problem. I guess the only answer is for Uniden to set some time aside to work on a fix to put the manual adjustment back with a firmware update if it is possible. I guess you'll never know one way or the other.

 

[Tryton]

You can now add me to the Official list. I just bought the 996xt again after selling my older one a year ago.
I love Uniden Scanners. In my area Pinellas county Fl, we have a new P25 system. I have done everything that was suggested to "fine tune" it. no luck. I get LONG periods of silence, and when a transmission does come thru, it's garbled and incomplete. Here is a you tube video I made. it's only 2 minuets long. P25 Multipath Distortion