BCD436HP/BCD536HP Firmware Upgrade Wish List

[KA2ZEY]

1. Full trunked system analyzing

Must show Zone/RFSS / Site ID / Primary and alt CCs / Site neighbors.

2. The ability to do a simple conventional 'search' and, when it stops on a known control channel [P25, Type II, EDACS, LTR] it displays the relevant details of the trunked system.

The scanner is absolutely useless for anybody serious about the hobby [and anyone serious about actually finding new information to add to the database that Uniden relies so heavily upon].

Give us the damned tools. The GRE guts have been doing #2 for years.

3. Give us a CC dump [PC / IF] dump

At this point the scanners are out -- there isn't going to be any hardware changes. So one must make due with what they have. All of these types of features need to exist. Otherwise it's just a dumb device for people who only want to add what somebody else has already discovered / documented / submitted to the RRDB for inclusion.

Mike

This.

The x36 radios are a fine update but nothing really new for the hobby. It reorganizes the way a user can access monitoring systems...and oh yeah....Phase II P25. This is not a huge step up. There's no need to sell my BCD396XT.

Again, this scanner would be a huge step up if it had DMR, NXDN, access to more information regarding what's monitored (as mentioned above), built in GPS and SDR use. That would have been a game changer.

 

[TedRHayes]

Would like to see at least one higher level to the Backlight on the 436. Have found it isn't quite bright enough to make readable in a brightly lit car. (The highest level isn't as bright as the highest Backlight level on the PSR-800 for comparison). I realize this could hurt battery life, but I generally have it connected to power.

Would like at least one alternate display mode on the 436 that displayed less information but with larger fonts. It's often hard to read the small fonts when I'm using it mobile, especially with my aging eyes!

 

[JoeyC]

I would like a user option to toggle the display to show the SQKs and DQKs in the top two lines instead of the FQKs and SQKs. Hitting FUNC does this, but only for 3 seconds. Would be nice to be able to choose either or. I find it more informative on a regular basis to see the x0:-*****67** display for Systems and Departments rather than Favorite lists and Systems.

Also would love to see on the Quick Key Navigation Page after you press the E for the Alpha tag given to the option you just turned on or off to display:

Quick Key
02 = OFF
Alpha Tag given to 02 key

 

[JamesO]

Noticed that the 64 character description does not scroll horizonatally or toggle back and forth.

Seems to display only around 30-35 characters on the display depending on the font size and the actual line of the display.

Seems that if you allow for more characters, they should be able to scroll or give the user and option for scrolling or toggling text.

 

[jeffrogerson]

SQKs and DQKs over FQKs and SQKs!! PLEASE!

 

[LIScanner101]

I am almost 100% convinced that Uniden took out so many "sacred" features simply to lower the selling prices of these new scanners. They had a lot of catching up to do where GRE left off and that probably blew a humongous hole in their R&D budget. They probably knew ahead of all of us that Whistler was breathing down their necks so they rushed the x36HP's out.

 

[LIScanner101]

Noticed that the 64 character description does not scroll horizonatally or toggle back and forth.

Seems to display only around 30-35 characters on the display depending on the font size and the actual line of the display.

Seems that if you allow for more characters, they should be able to scroll or give the user and option for scrolling or toggling text.

WHAAAAAAAAAATTTT????

You can't see all 64 characters of the 64 character display?

 

[JoeyC]

Here is another. Give us a way to alpha tag the 8 Custom Service Types. I'd like to create my own specialized tags and have them tagged with a usable name so that I can turn that service on/off with the SERV button without having to remember what I assigned to Custom 1.

Also, along the same lines with Service tags, is it possible to restrict the list that shows when you hit the SERV button to ONLY those service tags that exist in your FLs instead of showing a --- in its place where none exist? I would like to program FLs with a few service types for specific scenarios and be able to toggle the services with the SERV button but there are 38 entrys to scrolls through - which is annoying. If they aren't there, don't show it because you can't do anything with it anyway.

 

[Gilligan]

I would like a user option to toggle the display to show the SQKs and DQKs in the top two lines instead of the FQKs and SQKs. Hitting FUNC does this, but only for 3 seconds. Would be nice to be able to choose either or. I find it more informative on a regular basis to see the x0:-*****67** display for Systems and Departments rather than Favorite lists and Systems.

Completely agree -- especially if people are only using one favorites list with a lot of systems and departments. It should be an option.

 

[policefreak]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 4.1.2; en-us; LG-LS720 Build/JZO54K) AppleWebKit/534.30 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/534.30)

Ok a few things...First off lots of times the signal meter will not show any bars, even though the radio is receiving a signal. This is especially a problem when trying to tell if you are receiving a distant trunk non-p25 system. It needs to be more sensitive. When scanning a non-p25 system there needs to be an indication of control channel decode. Either the DAT comes on or better still, display the control channel frequency. There should also be an option to display the voice frequency along with that. The 436 needs to do a much better job of acquiring the unit ID on P25 Phase 2 systems. On my local system, theres almost no point in displaying unit ID since most of the time, it is either not there, or the ID from the last transmission. This is how I determine if its my local FD going to the building, or the guys at the opposite end of the county. My PSR 800 has no trouble with this. Finally, it would be nice to be able to program multiple colors for a single alert. The bcd436hp is a good receiver. Addressing these issues and adding these features would make it more complete. Right now I have a 436 and thats as far as I am willing to go. If these are cleared up, I may be looking to acquire a 536.

 

[southernCTscan]

P25 decoding of RID's on a convential P25 system and the ability to alias the unit id's. The P25 One Frequency solution is just silly, the radio is clearly capable of decoding the data stream please allow it to do so.

 

[brennank]

Scrolling text. For the love of god, my $60 dollar car radio can scroll text that is too long for the screen.

Replace FQK - SQK with SQK - DQK.

Make Sentinel better. Most of my gripes are with that software.

Add more decoding if you can. DMR and NXDN.

I would like to see an option for 'favorite lists' of service types. Depending on where I am I like to change around service types. It would be sweet if we could have several presets of this so I could quickly change between them without having to go through the whole list every time.

 

[LIScanner101]

I have a question about the alpha tag display.

I know there is a 64 character max per line.

However, I now realize that you can't see all 64 characters at one time and, to add insult to injury, these text lines do not scroll.

With that said, how many characters ARE visible per line? Because whatsoever that is - be it 16, 20, 24 or some other number - is the TRUE number of characters.

 

[AZScanner]

Here is another. Give us a way to alpha tag the 8 Custom Service Types. I'd like to create my own specialized tags and have them tagged with a usable name so that I can turn that service on/off with the SERV button without having to remember what I assigned to Custom 1.

Adding to this, I want to be able to create my own service types, beyond the 8 custom ones. I'd use them for individual cities, turning each one on or off at will.

-AZ

 

[JamesO]

I have a question about the alpha tag display.

I know there is a 64 character max per line.

However, I now realize that you can't see all 64 characters at one time and, to add insult to injury, these text lines do not scroll.

With that said, how many characters ARE visible per line? Because whatsoever that is - be it 16, 20, 24 or some other number - is the TRUE number of characters.

As I mentioned in my above post:

Seems to display only around 30-35 characters on the display depending on the font size and the actual line of the display.

 

[JamesO]

This is a 2 for 1, Firmware and Sentinel Software Wish!!

Something I just ran into today, being a very new user of the HP/Sentinel software and Service Types.

I was setting up a Favorites List from scratch for my 536HP, was getting Nothing To Scan message on the screen. Tried and tired and tried to get this sorted. To be honest I was probably missing a frequency and Talk Groups at some point, but once I resolved all of that, still nothing. Same message, Nothing To Scan. Went to Channel button, it showed No Talk Groups. But I clearly had Talk Groups programmed and entered. I also found that the Favorites list was sent to the scanner.

It appeared that the incorrect/wrong/not enabled Service Type was the problem.

Seems that the Sentinel software defaults to Custom 1 for the Service Type. There is also NO drop down for Service Type choices. I am new to these radios, so I do not have all the Service Types committed to memory and I am SURE if there is a syntax error on my part it still will not scan!!!

I am CLEARLY not the only user that was caught by this learning curve. Once you learn it, probably not an issue, but should not be a stumbling block for users.

So we need a few things.

Lets start with Firmware as this is what this thread is for.

The scanner Firmware needs 2 things.

1. It needs to support a Service Type "Wild Card", a name that will not be filtered by the Service Type. This would be useful for setting up Favorites Lists to scan everything you configure and/or will allow special frequencies/channels/Talk Groups to be scanned all the time regardless of Service Type.

2. The firmware needs to give users an option to Scan All Service Types. This feature should not alter or turn on ALL of the Service Types, it should leave your choice of the Service Types as you have set them, this is basically an Override of the current selected Service Types. Then when you toggle the Scan All Service Types off, the scanner would revert to the Service Types you had previously enabled.

Now the Sentinel Software side of this Service Type Issue.

The Sentinel Software defaults to "Custom 1" for Service Type, this may have even been a lazy programmers place holder carry over. The software MUST have a drop box choice of all the Service Types as well as be populated with any custom Service Types you add. This way there is NO SYNTAX or Typo errors that will paint a user in the corner. You will not miss things you are trying to scan or end up with a message that says Nothing To Scan after a few hours of hard work setting up your Favorites.

The software/scanner needs to be a bit more self healing and idiot proof. Uniden is marketing this as a simple to operate device, which it is on the surface, but the Sentinel software and Service Type is a real stumbling block for many users.

These changes also need to be implemented in the HP1 as well.

One more Sentinel issue, maybe I have missed it, but batch deleting, copying and editing is really WEAK.

Unlike the Windows commands of holding down the Shift, Control or Alt buttons for selecting a group of individual records or a range or records does not appear to exist. This make editing large systems appended to a Favorites List PAINFUL and SLOW.

This only works for data light frequencies and Talk Groups on the right side of the software, inside the list box.

You CANNOT batch edit in the tree on the left side of the software. You can select only individual records on the left side of the screen.

For example VA State STARS system has like 50 transmitter sites. I only want 1 or 2.

I have to individually delete each transmit site one at a time and even confirm each deletion.

So unless there is something I am missing, the software is missing the ability to fully edit higher level folders in the tree, it only allow modifying individual records at the lowest level of the tree/file structure.

 

[dsj3]

A battery meter displaying the battery charge strength (like your cell phone), the option to charge your phone while plugged in - would ask for verification as a safety measure, agree on the colored light staying on the duration of the transmission - I miss the whole screen changing color, direct entering frequencies is more cumbersome than the BCD396XT though. Big improvement on reception, especially with a upgraded antennae but I am I asking for too much for it to be even better? Great Scanner though. Best I've seen for reception since the Regency HX1000 back in like 1985-1986.

 

[TedRHayes]

Multiple Profiles on the Scanners

I would like to see the scanners and the Sentinel software modified to allow saving multiple profiles onto the scanner, and provide a mechanism for the profile to be changed by the user from the scanner's menu.

Right now, you can save multiple profiles on your computer, but only one can be loaded onto the scanner at a time, and it must be done from the Sentinel software.

I would use this capability to create different profiles for the for my specific setups (e.g., active FLs, Service Type subsets, locations, etc.) to which I'd like to "rapidly" switch based on current activity or unfolding events. Even if it required a reboot/reload of the scanner, that would generally be quicker than going into the menus and making all the setup changes.

 

[AZScanner]

I posted this in another thread, but I'll post it here as well so Paul only has to look in one place for it.

1. I'd like the scanner to be able to hold on a unit ID and follow it all over the system.

2. I noticed that when I hold on a single talkgroup, the scanner holds on the site too. I'd like it to check all sites during talkgroup hold like it does when scanning, unless I specifically have it in site hold mode.

3. How about some new colors for the alert light?

4. Site hold and Department hold appear to be interconnected. If I am holding on a site, I cannot hold or resume scanning on departments without releasing the site hold. Shouldn't those two function independently? I think so.

5. (since this is a WISH list) I'd like a place to enter known encryption keys. Come on, let me at least guess!

That's all I can think of for now. This scanner does everything except make cole slaw and crinkle fries. I can't wait to see what other new goodies we'll get to play with thanks to future updates.

-AZ

 

[AZScanner]

I would like to see the scanners and the Sentinel software modified to allow saving multiple profiles onto the scanner, and provide a mechanism for the profile to be changed by the user from the scanner's menu.

Right now, you can save multiple profiles on your computer, but only one can be loaded onto the scanner at a time, and it must be done from the Sentinel software.

I would use this capability to create different profiles for the for my specific setups (e.g., active FLs, Service Type subsets, locations, etc.) to which I'd like to "rapidly" switch based on current activity or unfolding events. Even if it required a reboot/reload of the scanner, that would generally be quicker than going into the menus and making all the setup changes.

I'm sure Uniden would have loved to do that, but I think that might infringe on GRE's patents for their V-Folders which were essentially the same thing back in the old days of the PRO-96. I could be wrong - I'm not an attorney nor do I play one on TV.

You could accomplish this with mulitple SD cards. Set up one for normal listening and one for special events, POTUS visits, whatever. Then you can just swap out the cards when needed.
-AZ