The 436/536 were the very best consumer grade scanners available for P25 simulcast up until Uniden released the SDS units last year. Some will argue the Whistler offerings were better, but that wasn’t my experience. In any case, with the 436/536 Uniden was trying to solve a modern radio problem with old radio technology. They never quite made it work. SDR is the solution to simulcast, and SDR has actually been around for quite awhile. It’s not clear why it took so long for Uniden to incorporate SDR technology into a scanner, but it seemingly took forever. The scanner community had been clamoring for a simulcast solution for years, but they finally did deliver a truly good solution with the SDS units. So yes, a $20 dongle vs. a $700 scanner is a personal thing. But an SDR dongle plugged into a laptop is not very portable, nor in my opinion is it much fun. Your mileage may vary.
I agree the 536 is overly complicated. There is a lot to fiddle with under the hood. It’s partly because a lot is asked of it. There are so many transmission modes in use now: p25, DMR, NXDN, Pro-Voice, analog FM, analog AM. Many different PL codes now like CTCSS, DCS, RAN, Color Code, NAC. And many, many, many system types to boot. The 536 is complicated because modern public safety radio is complicated. Once you get the hang of it though, it all makes sense.
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