BCD436HP Discussion Thread

[gonzalu]

Ham Station has the BCD536HP in stock and shipping today for new orders if anyone is interested ...

 

[mrkelso]

Date Ordered: Wednesday 22 January, 2014

The comments for your order are: ships next week

Your order has been updated to the following status:
New status: Processing

Please reply to this email if you have any questions.

 

[AZScanner]

That figures.

Wow, that's great Hamstation has 'em in stock. Meanwhile, I get nothing but crickets chirping when I email Scanner Master. I'm more than a little bit pissed. I PRE-ORDERED my scanner back on 12/3/2013. Has ANYONE heard back from Scanner Master on the 436 yet? I'm giving them another 24 hours to respond and if I don't hear back I'm calling 'em up tomorrow. I understand the weather has been atrocious for them and that they have no control over when the scanner arrives at their store, but even if the answer is "I don't know" it's not too hard to click reply and say so. It's not like they're sitting on $500 of my money or anything - oh wait, yes they are.

-AZ

 

[Finto]

IMHO Scannermaster has great inventory but their constomer service and pricing seem arrogant. I've spoken to them on the phone before and they were short and not helpful and had an air of "why the @&$!? Are you calling?" Also selling an HP1 "preprogrammed" for a fee is ridiculous

 

[gonzalu]

I think they just haven't gotten into the 21st century Customer Service mode we are all getting used to. They are very old fashioned and their Customer Service is ok once you do get a hold of someone. The problem is that they don;t seem to be sufficiently staffed to handle an on-onslaught of customers ... perhaps on a regular mundane day to day operation when there are no hot products coming out, they handle it fine.

I have called five times today and got through only twice. Once to check on the order and the next one to cancel it. However, if you paid via PayPal, cancellations can only be done by a specific person. I have not been able to raise that extension in the past few hours.

Certainly not worried and only sharing the experience ... not bashing them in any way.

 

[wfrancis16]

I'll add that it's same as the HP-1, you can do a "replay" of the comms being recorded up to 240 seconds, or you can set the radio to record everything when the squelch is broken.

And as Jay points out, the radio won't allow you to hear (or record) the audio being recorded during playback, but it does work a lot like a digital voice recorder.

I have never used an HP-1. That is the feature that I want though. I would like to be able to just jump back a few seconds if I miss something. Many of the people on my for department are awful on the radio and you need a second shot in order to understand what they are saying.

 

[AZScanner]

I guess I haven't had enough caffeine this morning. When I read your previous post Gonazlu, I thought you said Hamstation had the BC436HP in stock. Upon rereading, I realized that no one has the 436 yet. Trying to be patient, but the frustation of having to wait (and wait) on this new scanner which quite honestly sounds like the greatest thing to hit the scanner industry EVER is reaching a peak for me. As a result, for a minute there I thought that while I was waiting on my nearly 2 month old pre-order, other people were able to just order an in stock unit today and still have their BC436HP before mine even ships. That would suck, seeing as how I've been waiting (and floating Scanner Master a 2 month long interest free loan in the process) all this time. But upon rereading the post, I see this is not the case.

Sigh. I'm fine with having to wait another week or two(what choice do I have), but this is quite ridiculous and I will not do any pre-orders like this in the future. Lesson learned.

EDIT: I saw in another thread that the Scanner Master site has been updated and the preorders of the 536 will start shipping this Friday (as in tomorrow). So for others like me who ordered the 436, the place to watch will be that page on their site as you'll probably get your answer faster on when it will ship than sending them an email (and that's probably why they haven't responded to the flood of "when? when? when?" emails that I'm sure have come in since January 1st). So I feel a bit better about it now. If the 536 starts shipping tomorrow, then the 436 can't be far behind and I'm pretty sure my pre-order was one of the first 20 or so that came in. It should hopefully go out on day 1.

-AZ

 

[kf4uuz]

I.spoke to to a nice guy at Scanner Master yesterday. He couldn't tell me anything about my preordered 436.
To try to be fair, I haven't read or heard about anyone else receiving/shipping the 436 yet.
If I am incorrect about this, I'm sure I'll hear from others soon enough.

 

[gonzalu]

I.spoke to to a nice guy at Scanner Master yesterday. He couldn't tell me anything about my preordered 436.
To try to be fair, I haven't read or heard about anyone else receiving/shipping the 436 yet.
If I am incorrect about this, I'm sure I'll hear from others soon enough.

Nope, you're correct. Ans yes, so far shipping of 436 is tentatively expected to be next week or week after but more realistically, first week of February as stated by Uniden in these forums.

I guess I haven't had enough caffeine this morning. When I read your previous post gonzalu, I thought you said Hamstation had the BC436HP in stock. Upon rereading, I realized that no one has the 436 yet. Trying to be patient, but the frustation of having to wait (and wait)... <snip>

-AZ

Sorry about that didn't mean to confuse anyone. Yes, 536 only... not 436.

Cheers!

 

[AK9R]

Sigh. I'm fine with having to wait another week or two(what choice do I have), but this is quite ridiculous and I will not do any pre-orders like this in the future. Lesson learned.

In the words of Sgt. Hulka, "lighten up, Francis".

Upman says in this post:

We expect the BCD436HP to ship to distributors this week.

 

[AZScanner]

In the words of Sgt. Hulka, "lighten up, Francis".

Upman says in this post:

Heh. Yeah I suppose I should.
-AZ

 

[EarlSuitor]

Just spoke with Universal Radio. They have 12 BCD536HP NOW and estimate the 436 to be in around the 6th of February.

 

[Ramathorne]

Unfortunately, while waiting for these new scanners to be released and after selling my 396xt, the RCMP in my area went Encrypted. So I guess I will take my $600 and start a new hobby lol. It is disappointing. But what can ya do. The entire province is going the same way this year.

 

[Dewey]

Just spoke with Universal Radio. They have 12 BCD536HP NOW and estimate the 436 to be in around the 6th of February.

Posted by Paul today in another thread...

We expect the BCD436HP to ship to distributors this week.

I'm sure glad I didn't order from Universal Radio!!!

 

[AZScanner]

Unfortunately, while waiting for these new scanners to be released and after selling my 396xt, the RCMP in my area went Encrypted. So I guess I will take my $600 and start a new hobby lol. It is disappointing. But what can ya do. The entire province is going the same way this year.

A couple of things about supposedly "full time encrypted" radio systems.

1. The encryption doesn't always work/isn't always used.
2. Plenty of other P25 (and analog) stuff still out there worth listening to.

You also might eventually move to an area where they don't use encryption.

I'm not saying not to spend your $600 on a different hobby. Merely suggesting that you get into RTL-SDR, build yourself a "$20 digital scanner" and enjoy both! You might be pleasantly surprised at what all there is out there to listen to still.

-AZ

 

[03msc]

Posted by Paul today in another thread...

We expect the BCD436HP to ship to distributors this week.

I'm sure glad I didn't order from Universal Radio!!!

Keep in mind that the order of transit for the radios is...

Overseas factory > Uniden DFW > distributors > retailers > consumers.

So...Universal radio saying Feb 6 could be right on target or maybe just a few days later than others (and they may say that so if they ship early, folks are happy instead of mad if shipped late...)

 

[wise871]

When UPMan says there shipping to Distributers, that's from Uniden in Texas, not from overseas. When they shipped the 536, the Texas distributers had them the next day.

 

[wm8s]

Keep in mind that the order of transit for the radios is...
Overseas factory > Uniden DFW > distributors > retailers > consumers.

And here I am a few hours from Dallas and not expecting a radio until late next week . . . .

 

[N8IAA]

Just to post something here about the 436...It is actually larger than the Pro-106 and Pro-96. Uniden is going back to bricks again. 396XT and 125AT size would have made me think a bit more about getting one.
Larry

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

Just to post something here about the 436...It is actually larger than the Pro-106 and Pro-96. Uniden is going back to bricks again. 396XT and 125AT size would have made me think a bit more about getting one.
Larry

I don't think Uniden could have made the 436HP the size of a 125AT. I have my 125 sitting here in front of me (next to my 396XT to compare size), and with the larger screen the 436 has, I don't see how how they could make it much smaller than it appears to be in pictures I've seen. Unless, of course, you want to eliminate the speaker and just listen through earbuds / headphones.