Addressing .. "The Elephant in the Room"

[rvacs]

I took a little break from scanning.
Noticed the thread about Paul's death (so sad).

I have seen this industry change dramatically....
From digging in the crystal box at Radio Shack's to find my correct frequencies and modifying the Pro-2004's etc to listen in on cellular.
From creating early speech inversion boxes to get around rude forms of scrambling signals.
To the Bearcat Trunktrackers getting us in the newer era.
And of course more recently in the past using my SDS200 and Unication G5 to listen to P25 with Simulcast challenges.

So as I am about to shell out more $ for the SDS100 to add to my arsenal. I start to think...

"Who will be picking up the slack from Paul?"
Scanner Master - appreciate what you have been doing and expect to be purchasing from you all if I do go through with an SDS100.
Seems you all are trying to strengthen the community.

But mostly concerned like others - will we see continued firmware support?
When was the last time we saw updated firmware?

Who will pick up the slack?
Uniden I am sure is missing a very important engineer.

 

[K7MFC]

What exactly is the elephant in the room?

 

[KK4JUG]

Uniden is a for-profit corporation. While Paul's shoes will be tough to fill, I feel Uniden will continue to try to stay in the lead by taking advantage of new technology and will continue to maintain their existing electronics.

 

[trentbob]

Yes so this has been discussed in many threads.

It's basically universally understood that no one can do the job that Paul did, he was indeed one of a kind.

No one knows the direction that Uniden is going in and our last firmware update was April 15th 2019.

Paul's complications from his surgery, aggressive cancer and difficult chemotherapy was not anticipated by him per his log, he fully expected to return ASAP.

He was a great loss to everyone in this community and to his Corporation.

Uniden tech support is intact and has their system that we work within to the best of our advantage.

Not sure we can ever expect a presence like Paul on our Forum again.

We all look forward to Firmware updates and time will tell what comes along.

 

[MississippiPI]

I dont see an elephant either...

 

[rvacs]

What exactly is the elephant in the room?

The fact that the main man for Uniden "Paul" has passed away and is there going to be continued efforts to continue to work firmware fixes and all the things that Paul brought to the table. Lots of people that spent lots of $ wanting support and Paul brought a bunch of that.

 

[K7MFC]

Is it an elephant in the room? It's been a widely discussed topic here..

 

[rvacs]

@trentbob - Thank you for your reply.

I am sure there was lots of discussion.
And happy to see people like the guys from Scanner Master continue to support.
And sure there are lots of others. Was curious who posted the April firmware update?

Is the best way for issues or "room for improvement" suggestions to just send to support@uniden.com or do we have a contact or place to get it to the correct Uniden Engineers to "look at".

 

[doctordialtone]

 

[trentbob]

The fact that the main man for Uniden "Paul" has passed away and is there going to be continued efforts to continue to work firmware fixes and all the things that Paul brought to the table. Lots of people that spent lots of $ wanting support and Paul brought a bunch of that.

@trentbob - Thank you for your reply.

I am sure there was lots of discussion.
And happy to see people like the guys from Scanner Master continue to support.
And sure there are lots of others. Was curious who posted the April firmware update?

Is the best way for issues or "room for improvement" suggestions to just send to support@uniden.com or do we have a contact or place to get it to the correct Uniden Engineers to "look at".

I certainly do understand your frustration not only in the loss of Paul and his efforts and ongoing attention to the SDS series but the void that has been created by his absence.

I do think Uniden is reading and listening. This is the Premier forum for their scanner operations.

What their business plan is and how they run their business we just don't know. There are so many factors now involved here.

Let's hope that there's a grand plan in effect and we can expect Uniden to try to meet our needs and respond to our concerns.

 

[K7MFC]

I don't know anything about Uniden and their business, nor did I personally know Paul from Uniden. But at most businesses, when a critical position is vacated for any reason, they usually don't just throw up their arms up and give up. They typically try to find the best candidates they can to backfill that position. No doubt he added incredible value to the company, but I'd be surprised if they didn't attempt to fill the void his passing left.

 

[slicerwizard]

So no new updates in a year? That's evidence you can take to the bank. Y'all's former expectations are not going to be met.

Paul's passing was a huge loss, and not just for us.

 

[trentbob]

I don't know anything about Uniden and their business, nor did I personally know Paul from Uniden. But at most businesses, when a critical position is vacated for any reason, they usually don't just throw up their arms up and give up. They typically try to find the best candidates they can to backfill that position. No doubt he added incredible value to the company, but I'd be surprised if they didn't attempt to fill the void his passing left.

So no new updates in a year? That's evidence you can take to the bank. Y'all's former expectations are not going to be met.

Paul's passing was a huge loss, and not just for us.

I guess there are some folks here who have an inside track to Uniden but for the most part, nobody knows anything about how their business runs but I've been watching them since they took over the Bearcat line in the mid-80s from Electra Corporation.

I agree the fact there has been nothing new in a year doesn't look good and we may just have to face reality that it is what it is. We can try to keep a positive spin on it but also be prepared to face the possible reality of the situation.

This is where the Serenity Prayer is most appropriate.

 

[K7MFC]

Yep, unless anyone in this thread is a Uniden employee with actual insight into what that division of their business is doing, we're all just guessing here.

 

[iMONITOR]

We all know the kind of person Paul was. I'm certain he maintained impeccable engineering notes and documentation related to product development and manufacturing for current models as well as improvements, ideas and projects he was planning for the future. Hopefully Uniden will find a person with similar skills and enthusiasm that can pick up where Paul left off. For Paul it was more than just a job, it was a true passion and drive to create the best scanner radios available! For many of us Paul was more than just a Uniden engineer, he was our friend and his memory will live on as well his work. R.I.P Paul Opitz.

 

[ten13]

Paul was a nice guy, but I thought the "Elephant in the Room" was the big "E" prohibited from being spoken here, as clearly stated at the top of each forum, and which is moving swiftly through the public safety community.

 

[jonwienke]

So no new updates in a year? That's evidence you can take to the bank. Y'all's former expectations are not going to be met.

It's not the first time more than a year has passed between scanner firmware updates.

 

[Hit_Factor]

It's hard to know what Uniden has planned for forum participation. The comparatively low profile of Uniden Support on this site / forum may be the answer.

 

[R0am3r]

Silly question - is there a definitive list of bugs for the SDS100 and SDS200 (assuming the radio has the latest firmware)? For me, there are few things that come to mind.

1. Encrypted P25 Phase 2 transmissions seldom mute
2. Encrypted Conventional P25 transmissions seldom mute (same problem as #1?)
3. The hex value to the right of the P25 Phase 2 NAC seems random.

Are there bigger issues than these annoyances?

 

[KevinC]

I thought he was talking about me and my weight gain. Whew...