A scanner I'd like to see...

[pcole]

With so much of the country going to TRS systems I'd like to see a hand held designed strickly for them.
It would cover trunked frequencies and related simplex channels only. No UHF, VHF, or low band.
A reasonable size to hold a high capacity battery, a quality receiver designed strickly for 800-900 Mhz,
and an audio section equal to a comercial HT.
ID tagging and P-25 of course.
I'm looking for a unit that would appeal to not only the hobbiest but commercial users such as police, firefighters,
and news media. A quality radio without all the bells and whistles.

What do you think.........

 

[GrumpyAeroGuy]

I like the idea. My only question would be (and I am asking because I really don't have the answer)....

how big is the market for one of those? I could see that a lot of scanner customers want one that does everything. I mean, sooner or later, everything will be trunked and digital, as u say.

Maybe they could work on the P25 reception in lieu of the bells and whistles...


Of course, to add to your spec above, what about one that is rugged, shock and water proof.....(?).... on top of what you have already indicated...

 

[CrabbyMilton]

I don't see the point in something like that. Why would you want to restrict yourself when you can program a scanner to receive what you want?

 

[W6KRU]

What the OP really wants is an 800MHz only scanner? There are TRSs in the 150, 450,and 700MHz bands. There are plenty of simplex channels in use for interoperability. I think most wildland fire channels are on non-trunked vhf. The air band and marine channels are simplex. I'll stick with the current scanners.

 

[kruser]

What the OP really wants is an 800MHz only scanner? There are TRSs in the 150, 450,and 700MHz bands. There are plenty of simplex channels in use for interoperability. I think most wildland fire channels are on non-trunked vhf. The air band and marine channels are simplex. I'll stick with the current scanners.

I agree this would not sell very well if at all. There are tons of TRSs that are not in the 800 bands.

 

[pcole]

I think the market for this is growing with all the conversions to 800 going on.
My thoughts are for the person who wants to carry it daily in a working enviorment
and for a high quality receiver. You can obtain much better performance from one
designed for one band rather than one that covers all.

 

[sfd119]

WISCOM is all VHF, this would be pointless for the Wisconsin Statewide system...

 

[kruser]

WISCOM is all VHF, this would be pointless for the Wisconsin Statewide system...

Yep and the MOSWIN system being built as I type will be both VHF and 700 & 800.
The P25 system in the city of saint louis is also on 700 and 800.

I just do not see a market for something so limited.

I do agree with the OP that the radio design is often better if just a single band is involved but there are just not many areas (are there any?) that are ALL on 800 MHz systems. I don't see anyone spending the time and money designing such a limited radio for the few areas that may be exclusively on 800. If anything, they would be better off spending the money and resources on improving the reception in the wideband models they will be offering in the future.
I also think you will have a lot of good ole VHF & 450 UHF analog conventionals out there for many many years. Not everyone is making the switch to 800 even though the radio dealers told them this was the next best thing since sliced bread. They could see right through that crud.

 

[rwier]

I think, that on a web forum, for every dreamer, there are dozens of dream breakers, lol.

 

[SquierStrat]

terrible idea. i also would have no use for this, since Nebraskas new statewide p25 system for the state patrol is all vhf hi

 

[W8RMH]

I think the market for this is growing with all the conversions to 800 going on.
My thoughts are for the person who wants to carry it daily in a working enviorment
and for a high quality receiver. You can obtain much better performance from one
designed for one band rather than one that covers all.

I have carried my Uniden BCD396T daily at work for over five years without any problems.
It's performance is excellent. If you follow radio it appears that 800 trunking may slowly be on the way out. Seems to be a lot of VHF and UHF trunked and P25 systems coming online these days.

 

[tcomm_specialist]

I have carried my Uniden BCD396T daily at work for over five years without any problems.
It's performance is excellent. If you follow radio it appears that 800 trunking may slowly be on the way out. Seems to be a lot of VHF and UHF trunked and P25 systems coming online these days.

As the requirement for more efficient use of availible bandwidth increases there will be more TRS's on the various bands, except for VHF-Lo. A TRS can have, lets say 2,000 talkgroups and 20 frequencies. Before TRS you would have to have 2,000 frequencies. So look for trunking to really take off in the future on multiple bands as the technology becomes availible.

Frequencies all have their good and bad points. 800MHz was the first band where trunking was made a requirement. The success of this has bulit on to other frequencies that have better range for larger footprints with less equipment required.

 

[N0WEF]

I think, that on a web forum, for every dreamer, there are dozens of dream breakers, lol.

How true, Sir. How true!


But, all in all, if someone introduced a scanner with less "bells and whistles" and better reception/decoding and improved battery life(even if it was band specific) I'd buy it.

Heck, how many of us use 75% of the features that are currently included?

 

[kruser]

Well, maybe they could build a box (portable or mobile) that houses all the brains and DSP components and then offer swappable RF modules designed and tuned to the band you desire. Something that the end user just plugs into the box. Want VHF, just remove your 850 UHF RF module and insert the VHF RF module and the brains would detect the module you inserted and adjust accordingly to its capabilities as well as load the systems and frequencies for the band module you inserted.
Maybe base or mobile units could be made that hold more than one RF module and of course the same RF modules could be used in a small portable as well but limited to one module to keep the size small.

They kind of had this with the old Bearcat III's. You could buy the base scanner with a single band installed. There was room for one additional board for a 2nd band of your choice. Of course one still needed to purchase crystals. I just opened up a brand new unused Bearcat III the other day. It only has the VHF Low band board installed. I crystalled it up for the states low band highway patrol before it goes away when the VHF High & UHF statewide system comes online. The thing works great and has amazing audio.

I guess a receiver like the OP wishes for would appeal to some and maybe it could be made affordable being a single band design. I bet it would still be expensive though if the RF section was built to Motorola specs and quality.

I think someone once designed an airband only scanner. The idea sounded good and I'd guess the performance could have been good but I don't think there was much of a market.
I don't remember if that thing ever made it to market or if the idea was shelved. I think I recall something on the market though but I think it was crystal.

I think if there were a true market for single band scanners, the air bands would already have several with models covering both the military and civil bands. There is a very large user base that are only interested in air band monitoring.

 

[pcole]

TRS radio only

Thanks folks for all the replys. This is what's great with this web site and forums like this.
A great way to kick ideas around.
Having used comercial radios my whole career I always longed for a scanner with equal performance.
I'm in the Charleston, SC area where the bulk of the traffic is 800 analog and P-25.
I use a 396T and a Home Patrol, both excellent.

Thanks for all the responces......