Are we seeing the final death throws of a once great company?

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phask

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Took me all of 10 minutes to have a 996p2 up and running without ever cracking open any paperwork ... Used 780 and 996 previously. Programed my 2 local trunk systems (wo a lot of TG's loaded) and most VHF.

Then maybe 10 minutes to get the driver loaded and the Freescan Beta going, once it was available. I had mine before Freescan would work.

Comparing a 996 to that Whistler in not even anywhere in the same boat.

436/536 with the database might have been more you bag - but those do have issues.

I've been lurking and learning here (new to RR but not to scanning/radios) and this thread is a goldmine for all the info I should have had before investing in a new radio, but live and learn.

Not that anybody gives a hoot about a newbie's opinion, but boy, do I have to throw my lot in with the "Uniden products are half-baked" crowd. The BCD996P2 has neat hardware, cool features and capabilities...and a gawdawful manual, lousy tech support, and painful programming. Setting up the systems and groups in Freescan was very easy, and once it's in the scanner the programming is easy enough to tweak...but the weak link in the chain is that bit in between getting the computer and scanner to talk to each other. The manual is useless and terribly written, the website is worse, and what support/software/drivers are available are damn near nine years old. C'mon, Uniden, in nine years nobody could come up with a bundled plug-and-play software solution on a CD that comes with the radio? I've got to go hunting for software and drivers and tweak esoteric parameters on both the PC and scanner to get the two to even recognize each other instead of just plugging the damn thing in and having it work right out of the box? Pathetic.

After a month with this thing I've finally got it set up how I want it, and it works fine, does what I bought it to do, and....it won't fit in my console, thanks to the way the radio techs put the primary radio install together. Not their fault; they did a fine job for the agency, and I can't complain since it isn't my vehicle in the first place, but I'm back to square one.

Which is that I should have bought the Whistler. Remote head=install problem solved. Bundled software and internal database=programming problems solved. Support, decent manual, and a much more polished and well engineered design making that support and manual mostly unnecessary=everything that the Uniden should have been and just was not.
 

Boatanchor

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There is absolutely no need for mobile/base scanners manufactured later than 2010 to be manufactured in the 'old' DIN format. Very few people install their scanners into their dash/console and those that do, do so only because there is not (was not) a more convenient alternative available.

Mobile radio (LMR) manufacturers recognized years ago that the only way to sell mobile comms gear was to offer remote head capability. All of the major manufacturers and even the Chinese sell radios with compact, remote heads.

What Uniden should have done (IMHO), was to produce a top tier mobile/base scanner in a compact enclosure. The main unit did not need to be any larger than 5"x4"x1" with a compact, wired, remote head.
Those wishing to use the unit as a base scanner could either use the remote head, or use a tablet/PC to provide a larger, more detailed display. Incorporate Wifi or Bluetooth if necessary, but use it only for connecting to a nearby PC/Tablet in a base environment.

Uniden could even have sold such a unit at a $100 discount, without the wired remote head, for those wishing to use in a base environment with their own tablet/PC display.

Adopting a tablet style interface for remote mobile operation was just insane IMO..
 

marksmith

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I've been lurking and learning here (new to RR but not to scanning/radios) and this thread is a goldmine for all the info I should have had before investing in a new radio, but live and learn.

Not that anybody gives a hoot about a newbie's opinion, but boy, do I have to throw my lot in with the "Uniden products are half-baked" crowd. The BCD996P2 has neat hardware, cool features and capabilities...and a gawdawful manual, lousy tech support, and painful programming. Setting up the systems and groups in Freescan was very easy, and once it's in the scanner the programming is easy enough to tweak...but the weak link in the chain is that bit in between getting the computer and scanner to talk to each other. The manual is useless and terribly written, the website is worse, and what support/software/drivers are available are damn near nine years old. C'mon, Uniden, in nine years nobody could come up with a bundled plug-and-play software solution on a CD that comes with the radio? I've got to go hunting for software and drivers and tweak esoteric parameters on both the PC and scanner to get the two to even recognize each other instead of just plugging the damn thing in and having it work right out of the box? Pathetic.

After a month with this thing I've finally got it set up how I want it, and it works fine, does what I bought it to do, and....it won't fit in my console, thanks to the way the radio techs put the primary radio install together. Not their fault; they did a fine job for the agency, and I can't complain since it isn't my vehicle in the first place, but I'm back to square one.

Which is that I should have bought the Whistler. Remote head=install problem solved. Bundled software and internal database=programming problems solved. Support, decent manual, and a much more polished and well engineered design making that support and manual mostly unnecessary=everything that the Uniden should have been and just was not.
The Whistler 1095 is going to be the installation solution to many situations. Cars, trucks & SUV's no longer have the big dashboard with tons of space all over and underneath anymore like they used to. If you can use a DIN solution great, but I think there are few who can, and most of those only by taking out the primary radio. The DIN solution is also old because now the stock radio is also connected to the navigation, environmental controls, and everything else.

So where do you install a radio anymore? It looks like the small remote head with full controls and very little space consumed is the way to go.

Mark
WS1095/536/HP1e/HP2e/996P2/996XT/325P2/396XT/PSR800/PRO668/PRO652
 

hokisazchka

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Took me all of 10 minutes to have a 996p2 up and running without ever cracking open any paperwork ... Used 780 and 996 previously. Programed my 2 local trunk systems (wo a lot of TG's loaded) and most VHF.

Congratulations, you're obviously a superior scanner superuser than me. Silly of me to think that someone who HASN'T used the 780 and 996 previously and thus isn't familiar with the interface and design conventions and who just dropped $350 on a radio would actually want to get the most out of that radio out of the box without having to go hunting around for software and drivers.

Comparing a 996 to that Whistler in not even anywhere in the same boat.

Okay, so why not? Back that assertion up with some reasons. There are a lot of threads in these very forums that say otherwise, but I'm not about to drop another few hundred bucks on a radio that turns out to be as big a disappointment as that 996.

436/536 with the database might have been more you bag - but those do have issues.

Prior to deciding on the 996P2 I did quite a lot of research, and ended up with it instead of the HP model precisely because of extensive issues noted in various forums and articles. The 996P2 seemed to combine the capabilities I was looking for with the ability to program via PC. Unfortunately, nothing I read revealed that the fact it had a USB port and a USB cable didn't also mean that it actually connected to a PC without key software they didn't bother to put in the damn box.

Nine years ago, drivers and .dll and .int and .cab files were just the way things worked. Today, technology has matured to the point that most everything is plug-and-play, and what isn't comes with a simple installer wizard with what you need right there. Uniden is still stuck in the past, producing new products with old technology that they don't even properly implement. I mean, I had to twiddle baud rate settings on my damn PC to get it to see the scanner. No end user should ever have to know what the hell a baud rate is!

I bought my first four channel crystal scanner when I was eight years old and it was state of the art. I've had quite a few scanners over the years, several of which I killed in college trying to hack them with the help of Bill Cheek's modification guides (and a couple I eventually did successfully). That experience led to a brief stint in SigInt in the military, before I ended up in SatCom and went to work doing advanced tech support for a satellite broadband company. I've got a slew of certifications and years of poking around in esoteric hardware and software settings on radios, computers and networks of various types and kinds.

I'm not trying to bore you with my resume but rather make the point that while I'm not an RF engineer who does Windows registry hacking for fun on the weekends, I do kinda know my way around these things...and even so getting a brand new Uniden to talk to a standard recent model Dell was way more frustration and wasted time than any consumer of any product should be expected to put up with. Uniden has produced an inferior, unfinished product that does not work as advertised without adding components that they don't include with the product.

I get that you're a Uniden fanboy, but you come off like a guy saying I'm stupid for expecting my new Ford Mustang to come with oil and gas already in it and you knew where to find the gawddamn dipstick without having to check the owner manual. Well congratu-frickin'-lations Mr. Master Mechanic, but when I buy a damn car I expect to be able to turn the key and start the damn engine.
 

hokisazchka

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There is absolutely no need for mobile/base scanners manufactured later than 2010 to be manufactured in the 'old' DIN format. Very few people install their scanners into their dash/console and those that do, do so only because there is not (was not) a more convenient alternative available.

Mobile radio (LMR) manufacturers recognized years ago that the only way to sell mobile comms gear was to offer remote head capability. All of the major manufacturers and even the Chinese sell radios with compact, remote heads.

What Uniden should have done (IMHO), was to produce a top tier mobile/base scanner in a compact enclosure. The main unit did not need to be any larger than 5"x4"x1" with a compact, wired, remote head.
Those wishing to use the unit as a base scanner could either use the remote head, or use a tablet/PC to provide a larger, more detailed display. Incorporate Wifi or Bluetooth if necessary, but use it only for connecting to a nearby PC/Tablet in a base environment.

Uniden could even have sold such a unit at a $100 discount, without the wired remote head, for those wishing to use in a base environment with their own tablet/PC display.

Adopting a tablet style interface for remote mobile operation was just insane IMO..

Exactly. Spot on correct.

The radio itself doesn't need to be bigger than a pack of cigarettes (and the guts of most handhelds aren't), and for base/mobile applications doesn't need a battery pack or built-in speaker. Wi-Fi & Bluetooth that mofo, have a speaker and/or headphone jack, and let me control it either through an app or with a dedicated remote head. That way I can put the radio in the trunk thus reducing the antenna cable run, and I can put the remote head and a high quality amplified speaker wherever I damn well please.
 

hokisazchka

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The Whistler 1095 is going to be the installation solution to many situations. Cars, trucks & SUV's no longer have the big dashboard with tons of space all over and underneath anymore like they used to. If you can use a DIN solution great, but I think there are few who can, and most of those only by taking out the primary radio. The DIN solution is also old because now the stock radio is also connected to the navigation, environmental controls, and everything else.

So where do you install a radio anymore? It looks like the small remote head with full controls and very little space consumed is the way to go.

Right there with you, and exactly why the Whistler is looking like the solution that the Uniden was not. I mean, one reason I hadn't seriously looked at the Whistler was I never heard of 'em (didn't realize it was the old GRE engineering) and Uniden has always been (in the general public's mind, anyway) the defined leader of the field. So when I needed a scanner, I bought a Uniden. I wasn't prepared for the mistake that turned out to be.

Which is, to beat a dead horse, why the tired, outdated and obsolete form factor, interface and implementation of the 996 signifies...how did it go? Oh, yeah, it's the title of this friggin' thread: The death throes of a once great company.
 

phask

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Congratulations, you're obviously a superior scanner superuser than me. Silly of me to think that someone who HASN'T used the 780 and 996 previously and thus isn't familiar with the interface and design conventions and who just dropped $350 on a radio would actually want to get the most out of that radio out of the box without having to go hunting around for software and drivers.

nt to work doing advanced tech support for a satellite broadband company. I've got a slew of certifications and years of poking around in esoteric hardware and software settings on radios, computers and networks of various types and kinds.

I'm not trying to bore you with my resume but rather make the point that while I'm not an RF engineer who does Windows registry hacking for fun on the weekends, I do kinda know my way around these things...and even so getting a brand new Uniden to talk to a standard recent model Dell was way more frustration and wasted time than any consumer of any product should be expected to put up with. Uniden has produced an inferior, unfinished product that does not work as advertised without adding components that they don't include with the product.

I get that you're a Uniden fanboy, but you come off like a guy saying I'm stupid for expecting my new Ford Mustang to come with oil and gas already in it and you knew where to find the gawddamn dipstick without having to check the owner manual. Well congratu-frickin'-lations Mr. Master Mechanic, but when I buy a damn car I expect to be able to turn the key and start the damn engine.


You said issues with programing - then compare to a pre-programmed/built in database scanner - no comparison

Shoulda' bought a HP1.

Do the research before you buy - or complain later.

Not a Fanboy - I will never own a Whistler and not because of scanners, but other un-supported crap they made.

There is nothing inferior about a 996 - built off one of the best ever, the 996xt

I bought MY first when I was 19, probably when yoy were 8 -

See my Sig - spent lots of time online with Bill Cheek and still run some 2005/2006's

Edit - you had this in another post


"Part of the problem is this: I do not own a Windows computer. I"


Kudos on getting anything to work - BUT you complain about communication, baud rates, etc,, etc. and you're trying to it's like fit a Camaro with a Mustang engine.
 
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phillydjdan

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There is nothing inferior about a 996 - built off one of the best ever, the 996xt

Um, well, according to my tests the 996P2 is inferior when receiving LSM modulated P25 systems. So were all the other models I tested.
 

marksmith

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Um, well, according to my tests the 996P2 is inferior when receiving LSM modulated P25 systems. So were all the other models I tested.
Which, in essence, says nothing.

At least nothing about the 996p2 specifically.

What you address is the fact that NO scanner currently made handles simulcast distortion from simultaneously received signals from multiple towers.

The 996p2 handles it as good as any other scanner. Therefore it is not inferior to any other scanner. Therefore it is not inferior.

What you meant to say is that all scanners are inferior to non-scanner true programmed LSM system radios. That one I buy.

Mark
WS1095/536/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/325P2/396XT/PRO668/PSR800/PRO652
 

Voyager

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Which is that I should have bought the Whistler. Remote head=install problem solved. Bundled software and internal database=programming problems solved. Support, decent manual, and a much more polished and well engineered design making that support and manual mostly unnecessary=everything that the Uniden should have been and just was not.

I believe there is a saying about grass always being greener that would apply...
 

Voyager

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What you meant to say is that all scanners are inferior to non-scanner true programmed LSM system radios. That one I buy.

Yet on other LSM systems the P2 has no issues at all, and sounds as good as the "true programmed LSM system radios". Tells me the issue might be with the system and not with the scanner since it's only bad on a few LSM systems but not all (or at least between the scanners and those systems).
 

Fatman1

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I hope Uniden survives, while no company has a 100% perfect product line the products I have purchased from them still work years after perchased and provide me with a high level of enjoyment.
 

Boatanchor

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From what I can gather, due to the continuing downturn in Electroncs sales and revenue, Uniden Japan appears to be focusing more and more of it's resources and operations into the Japanese real estate sector.
 

MtnBiker2005

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From page 4 via the PDF translate on Google:

Scanner in the North American market Radio (scanner radio) is, under the influence of the major customers of poor management, sales Drop in was seen. The segment overall unit sales 250,000 is (the same quarter last year, down 28.0 percent), sales of 2,000 million yen (up It was decreased by 19.4%)
https://translate.google.com/transl...www.uniden.co.jp/ir/news/pdf/BA1Q20150812.pdf
 

Boatanchor

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From page 4 via the PDF translate on Google:

Scanner in the North American market Radio (scanner radio) is, under the influence of the major customers of poor management, sales Drop in was seen. The segment overall unit sales 250,000 is (the same quarter last year, down 28.0 percent), sales of 2,000 million yen (up It was decreased by 19.4%)
https://translate.google.com/transl...www.uniden.co.jp/ir/news/pdf/BA1Q20150812.pdf

Hmm, dirty laundry on display?

If you want updated official corporate information, you have to look at the Japanese website. The English version of the site looks like it hasn't been updated in years.

The company cannot keep losing revenue at the current trajectory, so I predict more 'restructuring' in the coming months. Uniden have already sold off all of it's office space in Australia, supposedly one of the few Global 'growth' areas, in the last few months.

There is a negative feedback loop going on here.

Reduced operating revenue and profit results in reduced R&D. Reduced R&D leads to reduced innovation. Reduced innovation leads to loss of market share and reduced market share results in reduced revenue...

Then to add salt into the wound, you have a potentially massive product recall that could cost the company a huge amount of money in administration and freight.

The takeaway message from all of this is that Uniden's ROI from the electronics division, looks increasingly dreadful and it is probably not surprising that the company is looking to diversify into other sectors like real estate.

The corporate focus is starting to change at Uniden. Where this leaves the electronics division is anyone's guess, but my personal opinion is that Uniden may be approaching (if they haven't already passed it) a tipping point where the very high cost of running the division outweighs the revenue and profit generated from it..

I do hope that Uniden can find a way to retain their scanner division. All of their other products like CB's, home security, radar detectors and safety cams can be purchased from any number of other Chinese manufacturers and would not, in my opinion, be a huge loss to the company. Radio scanners are a unique product that has only one other US competitor. Radio scanners also have a Global market and even in countries without P25, enthusiasts still purchase scanners to monitor aviation, rail and other analogue systems. How many of the US distributed scanners ultimately end up overseas is unknown, but it would not be an insignificant number. Maybe Uniden needs a Global sales portal for their scanner products?

One of the major problems for Global scanner sales at the moment, is the high value of the US$.
Virtually all Uniden scanners sold Globally (excluding Australia), have been purchased from US distributors and I'm sure that those distributors would have noticed a huge drop in overseas sales in the last 18 months to 2 years, due almost entirely to the worsening exchange rates.
 

n3ouc

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I was able to do some real world testing today between a BCD536 and a 996P2 on the Bucks County LSM system. It wasn't even remotely close. Using the exact same antenna and through a Stridesburg Combiner the 536 picked up well over 100 transmissions today and the 996P2 didn't even latch on one single transmission while Bucks was performing testing. The 996P2 works great for the Berks System here which isn't LSM, but I definitely not LSM, at least in todays test.

Mike
 

mciupa

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I was able to do some real world testing today between a BCD536 and a 996P2 on the Bucks County LSM system. It wasn't even remotely close. Using the exact same antenna and through a Stridesburg Combiner the 536 picked up well over 100 transmissions today and the 996P2 didn't even latch on one single transmission while Bucks was performing testing. The 996P2 works great for the Berks System here which isn't LSM, but I definitely not LSM, at least in todays test.

Mike

Mike, modify the P25 Hold Time on the 996P2. I did so on my 996P2 on a simulcast system on each site that I monitor.
It was defaulted to 2 sec but raising it to 10 sec. got it to latch on. One weird observation with doing that is that it will rapidly flash on a talkgroup (almost seizure inducingly :p) but it will work and you will hear some nice P25 decode P1 or P2.
 

Voyager

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It will also destroy scanning anything else. Better off to simply use System HOLD.
 
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