Bashing Uniden

[nr2d]

I was going to reply to a post in the Uniden Forums - Uniden Tech Support forum - BCDX36HP:BCD436HP/BCD536HP Repaur Campaign thread but decided it belongs here. I think my response applies to several threads here in the Uniden Tavern forums section.

It ends when one of two things happen:

1. Uniden releases a serial number after which the changes are implimented.

2. Someone posts a NEW PURCHASE serial number that is verified to have the changes.

To date, there is only speculation that the change was made with 2015 models. I don't believe that claim.

The logic, or failure of same, is that they made the changes to the production line 12 months ago. That just does not make sense. Sorry if that was your claim and you are offended.

A poll will not help, as there are units that do not show the symptoms - even 3800 series units. But that does not mean they made the changes before production. So a poll would show nothing. We don't even know the exact changes. At this point, there may be 3800 units that were changed and sold in the past couple months, too.

The 2nd 536 HP I purchase has the serial number series 375Z3800xxxx. When I took it out of service to replace the antenna connector the RTC was still working great. The display had dimmed but was still quite readable.

I purchased this 536HP only 2 weeks after I purchased my 1st 536 HP on the day of release.

I think your demand for information is ridiculous. Companies like Apple have had well publicized problems with products like the iPhone 6S. It is reported that if a iPhone 6S has the Samsung processor in it it is a bit faster but the battery life is worse when compared to an iPhone 6S with the TSMC processor. And to find ouot which processor you have as far as I know Apple won't tell you. You will have to install 1 of 2 3rd party APPs that will give you a code for the type of processor installed in your iPhone 6S.

And just remember that Uniden is no Apple in the sense of technology manufacturing and innovation. (Sorry Paul I'm not putting Uniden down. I'm just trying to make a point.)

Until the 536HP came out I had no way of monitoring my local fire department after they went to APCO P25 Phase II. It may not be 100% perfect but it is better that I had with my BCD996T at the time. And I don't subscribe to the well you need a professional radio in order to monitor Phase II transmissions. Plus the fact the $600 I spent for each of my 536HPs is a hell of a lot cheaper than a Motorola handheld I think.

So my suggestion to anyone who doesn't like the way Uniden is handling the Headphone jack recall, the RTC recall, the display dimming or the fact that APCO P 25 Phase II transmissions aren't 100% clear all of the time then don't bye a Uniden scanner. If you have one then sell it. BUT ranting and raging how bad a company Uniden is will just raise your blood pressure. Remember radio scanners are not the only consumer electronic products that Uniden makes and sells. I have 4 wireless telephones in my house. I don't know what percentage of sales the scanner line accounts for in Uniden's bottom line but I'm sure that if is a significant amount lower than their other products then they could just say goodbye to the scanner market. And even if it is a larger amount of their business they could just say goodbye because the engineering and manufactuing costs are just too high.

 

[janetball1994]

Your "argument" is a dissertation waiting to happen for some disheveled grad student, nr2d. Pity you've come to accept junk and just plain bad behavior from the companies with which you deal. You don't even leave it at acceptance, you defend it. Lovely. Keep on sippin' that Gallo.

Pity some of us BUY [sic] Uniden junk before we said "BYE" to it.

Three words to you: Stanford Prison Experiment. Live it.

 

[buddrousa]

Janet how much Whistler stock do you own?

 

[janetball1994]

Janet how much Whistler stock do you own?

Well, I do "whistle" at the liveSTOCK around here on occasion, bud. Does that cut to the quick of your question?

 

[frazpo]

Here we go,,

 

[pjtnascar]

Apple's crappy track record is part of the reason people have come to expect being beta testers for something they bought. I'm not familiar with those models of scanners, but some of their older stuff was very well built. I think it is okay to be patient while they work out the kinks with the APCO P25, but build quality issues are a different story. Of course if the APCO was the main reasin for buying it, then you have a legit gripe.

 

[Voyager]

I think your demand for information is ridiculous.

What demand for information?

And I don't subscribe to the well you need a professional radio in order to monitor Phase II transmissions.

I never suggested you did. I mentioned that they will likely work better due to improved selectivity and sensitivity, but it was someone else who said you need the other radio.

Plus the fact the $600 I spent for each of my 536HPs is a hell of a lot cheaper than a Motorola handheld I think.

Almost an understatement.

 

[nr2d]

Your "argument" is a dissertation waiting to happen for some disheveled grad student, nr2d. Pity you've come to accept junk and just plain bad behavior from the companies with which you deal. You don't even leave it at acceptance, you defend it. Lovely. Keep on sippin' that Gallo.

Pity some of us BUY [sic] Uniden junk before we said "BYE" to it.

Three words to you: Stanford Prison Experiment. Live it.

It is a pity that I have come to expect junk. BUT this is what but consumer products these has come to. Look at the recalls for the automobile industry. Chevy, Toyota/Lexus, Honda, Ford, Chrysler have had major recalls by the millions in the past 10 years. I have a HF transceiver I own. It cost me about $6000. Works great. But I continuously have dust behind the display front glass.

And look at other snafus. The US Navy's USS Milwaukee couldn't make it to it's 1st duty station after commissioning. One of the US Air Force's fighters either the F22 or F35 had to be grounded several times because of different problems including problems with the life support systems, pilot O2 and ejection seat.

I don't care where you look trash is being sold every day. So yes I'm afraid that I have come to expect inferior quality in all of the products I purchase today and if the item works as advertised then I'm "happier than a pig in poop." As I stated even though my 1st BCD536HP wasn't 100% perfect when I first started using it and after a year it developed the RTC and display problems I consider myself lucky that I was able to receive my local fire and EMS 99.9% of the time and that Uniden was nice enough to offer to repair the RTC problem free of charge and unlike the auto industries recalls Uniden was not forced to accomplish these repairs by the government.

 

[nr2d]

What demand for information?



I never suggested you did. I mentioned that they will likely work better due to improved selectivity and sensitivity, but it was someone else who said you need the other radio.



Almost an understatement.

As you state in point 1 of your post: "1. Uniden releases a serial number after which the changes are implimented." to me that sounds like a demand.

I never said you suggested that the only way to receive reliably APCO P25 Phase II transmissions was to buy a professional radio BUT others here on RR have made that statement. I just included several point from different Uniden basking threads.

And yes that is quite the understatement.

 

[Citywide173]

I'm just a little shocked that the OP chose one of Uniden's largest proponents to quote to start this thread.....

 

[phillydjdan]

This thread ought to get good real fast. Let's take our bets now on how long it takes to get locked lol

 

[mikewazowski]

As long as the thread remains respectful, there's no need for it to be locked.

However, I would think a lot of these threads would die a natural death once people realized that certain individuals can't be argued with because they're always right.

 

[KE0GXN]

My plea to Uniden.....support your products!!

Have responsive websites with working links. Moderate and actually contribute to the forum you claim to have created to help product owners. Respond to email inquires in a timely manner, if at all. When a consumer or anybody for that matter calls your "help" line, answer the phone in a timely manner and when you finally do, employ people that know what they are supposed to b helping you with.

Some things can be accepted or excused, but not customer service and support shortcomings. There is no excuse for that. In my experience Uniden has been abysmal and to be honest it seems to me they can care less. Hence the reason Uniden will not be able to put a dollar of my hard earned money in their pockets again.....not till some major changes are made anyway.

As for the x36 owners, you have my deepest sympathies. Good luck.

 

[janetball1994]

However, I would think a lot of these threads would die a natural death once they realized that certain individuals can't be argued with because they're always right.

If I parse your syntax correctly, MO (the ambiguous pronoun "they" refers to "threads"?), it may just be that it's not correct to assume that "certain individuals can't be argued with [sic]," but rather that the arguments trotted out lack a certain pouvoir de persuasion, humm?

 

[darunimal]

NO, they = members

Now, there are some posters, whom, like to post commentary/questions; poised only as incendiary devices to inflame and affect other's health. As such; fellow members, should ignore such posters and let the commentary fall on deaf ears, just as, I, should have done numerous times!

I do believe, some threads should only be replied with previous threads URL/HTML or moved to, said, previous discussion.
por ejemplo:
http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tavern/323907-whether-still-junk-upman.html
http://forums.radioreference.com/uniden-tavern/324591-upman-i-call-thee-out.html



Pressing enter is a privilege not a right.

 

[KA1RBI]

... the only way to receive reliably APCO P25 Phase II transmissions was to buy a professional radio

haha, it is indeed _not_ necessary to purchase a professional radio to reliably receive P25 Phase II/TDMA.

Nonetheless it's quite fascinating you should mention it...

With respect to P25 phase II TDMA specifically, the official specs define the receiver as utilizing differential demodulation of the complex constellation. This requires DSP at IF, which is exceedingly common in the amateur radio space, and the manufacturers there are not the slightest bit shy about advertising it. C4FM style receivers with an FM demodulator followed by a FSK4 slicer are apparently used in all current scanners. This approach works well only with ordinary C4FM P25 Phase I FDMA. IMHO, there is no current scanner that is properly compliant with the P25 Phase II TDMA specification...

It's pretty amusing that both of the companies offer scanners they advertise as being Phase II compliant. It's my opinion that both companies could be guilty of false advertising. However no one can call them on it. They won't answer basic questions about architecture. This leaves us to speculate about what's really happening - my own guess as to why the BCDx36HP series has a slight advantage over the others is they've drank the "Integrate and Dump" kool-aid hoping that would cure the problem - it might make a marginal improvement but it doesn't go to the root cause of the issue...

73

Max

 

[buddrousa]

Thanks for the hint Mike 10-98

 

[Voyager]

As you state in point 1 of your post: "1. Uniden releases a serial number after which the changes are implimented." to me that sounds like a demand.

I prefaced that with "It ends when one of two things happen:".

What that means is that the guessing will end when one of those conditions is met - one possibility of which would be Uniden releasing a cutoff S/N after which the production units have the changes.

There was no demand. I was simply stating one condition which would resolve the issue. There is the second alternative as well, albeit less official. In fact, there may never be a serial number announced IF the issue does not affect all units, as that would imply units without the issues have them. Likely the legal eagles would prevent any such implication.

I would expect that units made this year will likely have the changes, but that is only speculation. Surely they will make the changes in the production line at some point. That only makes sense rather than build more units that will have to be replaced down the road.

 

[Voyager]

certain individuals can't be argued with because they're always right.

Not sure if you were talking about me, but if so that's the nicest thing you've ever said. Thank you, but I'm not always right. I usually am, but not always.

 

[gewecke]

My Uniden 780xlt STILL performs top notch since the year I bought it new before 2008 or so. Haven't even had issues with the display yet. Ok... back to the bloodbath . 73, n9zas