Any new 396's in the B'More area yet?

[troymail]

If you got one, let's hear what you think!

(mine is one the way - hopefully Tuesday - Wednesday at the
latest...)

 

[doctordave]

Mine should arrive Tue or Wed, as well. Will let you know. Frankly, it will not do me much good until Uniden releases the software....hopefully that is almost ready to go. UPMan (the Uniden contact w/ posts over on the "Uniden" board) indicated that the software package was just getting the finishing touches last week.

 

[TinEar]

Those of us waiting for the 896 (or whatever they'll call it) base version will be very interested also to get the impressions of the 396. The few reports I've heard so far seem to think trunked signals are as clear as they've ever heard on a radio - primarily due to the AGC and auto tuning. The only complaints I've heard are physical features rather than operational. People don't seem to care for that post on the back nor do they like that three-function knob on top. The knob is something that will just take getting used to and the post can be removed. Problems solved. The SMA antenna connector is also causing consternation but Uniden includes a BNC to SMA adapter with the 396. I think that knob will wind up as two distinct features on the 896 rather than all incorporated into one. Time will tell. I just wish they'd get with it and give us some news about the base/mobile version.

 

[troymail]

I'm one who likes to carry my radio around all over the place so the handheld (296/396) is what I really want... unfortunately,you have to give up some features usually to do that (like the speaker usually sucks in the handhelds)

The important featurs I'll be looking for include:

- regular batteries!!!! YES!!!!!
- improved charging circuit (knows when to stop) YES!!!!
- improved voice clarity - particularly in digital mode - AGC and autoadjust should really help here... I've been extremely disappointed with the 296 digital voice quality - luckily, my local system isn't digitalyet (but surrounding jurisditions are)
- fire tone out - interesting but they really need to make that work without having to place the unit into standby mode

I'm curious about the channel/frequency layouts and capacities, etc. as well...

 

[RyanXTS]

Anyone win the lotto and care to donate one to me? :lol:

 

[troymail]

ya gotta play to win..... that leaves me out. Sorry.

 

[RyanXTS]

I'll buy one when AA goes digi

 

[troymail]

they'll probably be up to a BCD-596 by then....

:lol:

 

[RyanXTS]

they'll probably be up to a BCD-596 by then....

:lol:

Good then I get buy a 396 cheaper 8) :wink:

 

[1080iAddict]

I live in Baltimore County. I got mine, its sick, and its sleek. It is the best radio I ever owned. And this goes back to the days of crystals and that cinder block sized 8 channel crystal radio from RS, and everything in between that I happened to own at any given time.

I can comment that now that I am really into it, I need a roof antenna. I am not saying it has bad reception - but now I want to listen to everything within 100 miles (I would accept 50 miles). :lol:

I am working on the tone out feature now. I downloaded ScanRec (see the pre-release thread at around page 10 +/- 3 pages) and I am simply letting it run for 24 hours or so until I get the stations I want to tone-out. Then, using Adobe Audition, I load the .wav file to isolate the tone I need (first tone A and then tone B) to get a HZ reading. One thing I noticed is that to get a truly accurate tone reading, your signal should be 5X5 to eliminate static. The Audition software shows the HZ value of the tone (and, I think it will tell you the milliseconds also but I haven't figured that part out as of yet).

I was able to get a reading on a random tone for Station 22 in Baltimore County (dont even know where that is within the County) but it happened to be the first tone so it is my test bed. Now I just have to wait for Station 22 to tone out to see of it works - and the 396 has to be in stand-by mode which it NEVER is since I am always playing with it.

I agree Uniden needs a firmware release to keep the squelch open and still alert if it senses the tone - - as an optional setting of course. OR, you really need two radios to test this so you can hear the tones come over on another radio to really see if the 396 is working. Station 22 probably wont get a run for 10 days now.

If you have specific questions I can try to answer your posts.

 

[h8tdigitalradio]

I agree Uniden needs a firmware release to keep the squelch open and still alert if it senses the tone - - as an optional setting of course. OR, you really need two radios to test this so you can hear the tones come over on another radio to really see if the 396 is working. Station 22 probably wont get a run for 10 days now.

Hello,

You can Monitor the Frequency for Fire Calls regardless of tone by Pressing HOLD. The next firmware revision will include the ability to scan 10 FTO's at a time, provided the frequency is the same. You can set it for 1 long or short tone.

It is not the same as you described, it is all or nothing. FTO does work well.

73

Dave AKA The Tripzter :shock:

 

[1080iAddict]

h8digital radio...


COOL!! I definitely did not catch that feature. You are correct sir!

-ach

 

[doctordave]

Plenty of 396 comments over on the Uniden forum....but since we have our own little discussion going on, I must say I am tremendously impressed w/ the sound quality. Interestingly, the radio is even far more crystal clear on the Balt Co 800 analog comms than my 296, 796, 780, 93 or 95. Don't seem to have the same intermod problems in my area w/ the 396...and this is without using atten. at all. Best sounding radio I've ever encountered.

 

[troymail]

Well, I now have mine and so far, I am pretty satisfied with my upgrade from my BC-296 to the 396... I'm still a bit unhappy the fire tone out isn't working (yet) but the voice quality and the auto-adjusting digital tuning is much better than previous models. The recption seems somewhat better as well although that may just be due to the fact that I can understand more of the digital conversations than I could with the 296.

And the batteries !!! They (currently) last 2-4 times the length of the battery packs in the 296 (possibly because the charging circuit on the 296 "burned up" the batteries). Still, the fact that I can stick 3 AA batteries in the radio is a huge step up (even though my 3 rotating sets of NiMH keep me going just fine).

I am also pretty happy that we are no longer stuck with 10 banks of 10 talkgroups... that's pretty nice although you need to get used to turning "groups" of channels on and off with 2 hands (I used to be able to do that with 1 hand on the 296).

I have 6-8 systems programmed into my radio and I'm only using about 7% of the available memory.... so, when I leave the area of travel, I'll no longer need to remove a system to add the systems for my destination city... there's plenty of room many, many systems.

There are some things I don't like but overall, I'm ready to put my 296 up for sale.

 

[Admin0140434]

I have 6-8 systems programmed into my radio and I'm only using about 7% of the available memory

EMPHASES ADDED

let me know what that number is when you program Mont Co system in there

 

[troymail]

I have 6-8 systems programmed into my radio and I'm only using about 7% of the available memory

EMPHASES ADDED

let me know what that number is when you program Mont Co system in there

I assumed from your note that they have alot of talkgroups... I just looked and it appears that as each new system comes online, they try to outdo the last new system in the number of TGs they create.... how many does Montgomery have?

You may have seen one of my previous posts that said we are limited to 20 "groups" of ?? channels... a response I got to that suggested that the systems themselves are limited to 200 TGs.... Montgomery County makes me think that's not true.

I have to work on getting it loaded but I may work on a parser to format the RR listing into a UASD file rather than retyping all that stuff...

 

[UPMan]

the systems themselves are limited to 200 TGs

The scanner itself is limited to 200 TG per system.

I may work on a parser to format the RR listing into a UASD file rather than retyping all that stuff...

There is such a parser in the files area of the BC246T Yahoo group. RRDB Reader directly reads the RR Database and outputs in UASD format (for the 246, but 396 UASD will read it fine). You have to be a contributing member of RadioReference.com for it to work, though.

 

[Admin0140434]

weve been blessed, UPMan has visited the MD forum

 

[troymail]

the systems themselves are limited to 200 TGs

The scanner itself is limited to 200 TG per system.

I may work on a parser to format the RR listing into a UASD file rather than retyping all that stuff...

There is such a parser in the files area of the BC246T Yahoo group. RRDB Reader directly reads the RR Database and outputs in UASD format (for the 246, but 396 UASD will read it fine). You have to be a contributing member of RadioReference.com for it to work, though.

OK - I downloaded RRDB Reader from Yahoo groups... install didn't
work... I'm not sure why...

Anyway - is the reason you need to be a contributing member of
RR is to access the XML files?

 

[UPMan]

That is one benefit. Also, you get access to the very nicely formatted PDF versions of all the trunk system pages. Most of all, though, you help support Lindsay and the site's future enhancements and ongoing upkeep.