BCD996XT still at ver. 1.04 ??

[KE4ZNR]

I don't care how the XTs work for other people in other locations.Mine is broken.

See, I do care about how radios work for folks across the entire US. Because there are times where I have to travel and hearing others experiences can help me prepare monitoring wise for the trip.

Again, just like I said in an earlier post, everyones experiences are unique. I am sorry you feel your XT is "broken".

My 396T is pretty good and I can live with the digital decoding that I get from it if that is the best that Uniden can do. The problem is with my 396XT. For some reason Uniden took away the option to manually adjust the digital threshold. The auto adjustment of the digital threshold on my 396XT is dismal. I just want a manual adjustment on the XT like my 396T. I am not alone on this as several of us have made the same request.

I can understand your frustration above. I don't agree with it but I understand it.

The silence from Uniden on a firmware upgrade with this simple fix has been deafening.

Companies have policies in place for Product Managers like UPMan. He has related what company policy is regarding product & software releases. He cannot speak about specific products or software releases until given the green light by folks above him.
We may not like it but that is the reality of the situation.

The XTs were broken before they hit the shelves.

This I do have to correct you on. Broken how? And all XTs? Nah. Surprising for a "broken" radio it has gotten lots of great reviews here and around the interwebs. Is it perfect? No of course not. There is no such thing as a perfect radio. But doing a search of 396XT reviews online contradicts your "broken" comment. Overall satisfaction with the XT series of radios is positive.

How about an attempt to fix them?

Again, "fixing" a radio requires a major defect to begin with.

I started out as a Uniden fan. I only bought my PSR-500 after months of frustration with my 396XT.

Which of course that is what makes the hobby so great! You can vote with your wallet.
You have chosen the type of radio you feel works best in your area.
Kudos. All I have said above is that Unidens have seem to work better for me.

Marshall, If someones Uniden scanner burst into flames and complained on here, you would answer that the instant campfire feature worked well for you and that the smores came out great.

Which I would do if that was my honest opinion that comes from personal experience as well as having gotten feedback from Uniden XT scanner owners across NC & SC.
I have not said in any way shape or form that you (or anyone elses) concerns are invalid.
I have just given opposing viewpoints so that people don't get confused by comments such as "all XTs are broken."
And smores rock!
I do wish you happiness with all of your radios whether they are Uniden, GRE, Realistic, Sony, whatever.
Marshall KE4ZNR

 

[W6KRU]

Silly me, I thought threads were for everyone to share their experiences.



Please don't accuse me of saying things I have not said. I have only related my experiences with radio monitoring here in Central NC. I have not tried to convince anyone that they "don't have problems". I have only related my experiences monitoring with both GRE & Uniden radios here in Central NC.



Like all companies these days Uniden has a fixed amount for R&D, testing, marketing, and bringing products to consumers. Obviously UPMan has seen the vitriol present in this thread. It is up to his bosses as to when (or if) an update for the XT radios will be offered.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Your koolaid inspired comments sure frustrate me. If you're not trying to negate comments about the XTs that are counter to the company line, you are making excuses for what Uniden might not be able do in the future.

If Unidens R&D budget is running low, then they should stop putting band aids on the beta code running on HPs and attempt to fix the scanners that have been in customers hands for more than 2 years and have been broken the entire time.

 

[SCPD]

Gabrielle at UNIDEN Repair

Took Uniden 3 weeks to sign my scanner in..
took 1 week to say nothing was wrong with it..
and NEVER to use radioreferences CTCSS and DCS tones and that radio reference was deleting all thier CTCSS and DCS tones on this site.......

so here i have a 500.00 scanner that will search custom frequencies and display the found ctcss tones but when programmed in the scanner skips over everything and my 996xt works just fine with the 396xt programming file through arcxt and same with freescan on same antenna,,
also the 396xt seems to get very hot to the touch for some reason... anyone else have this problem>?
and are there known issues with the 396xt and conventional frequencies using ctcss or dcs and skipping the active frequency>?

is there a digital threshhold like on the pro 197 that would cause the bcd396xt to stop recieving with proper ctcss tones programmed in?
if so i would like to know how to change it and then maybe my outlook toward this scanner would be a little better...

 

[Highpockets]

Marshall,

Posting is for all. It's just funny that a thread that almost all users are stating their problems with their XT scanners and you post about how well it works in NC, like the problems are geographical. We are happy it works that well in NC, we just wish it worked as well for all of us wherever we are. Look at my sig, I own a few Unidens (add a BC780xlt that I don't use much any more, only in emergencies) and a GRE600.

I had a request that I emailed GRE about at 11AM one day and by 1:30PM I received an email with an answer, although the answer informed me that the request could not be done until a new model came out, it was an answer, not our policy does not allow us to answer.

Your are correct about it's Uniden's decision when or if to upgrade the XT models, I believe UPMan should have some strong input whether it is necessary and how important it is to customer relations.

No use in going back and forth, maybe you just see the world through rose colored glasses.

 

[kma371]

Uniden listens allright....I asked about improving conventional P25 radio IDs for the 996, but they only improved it to the HP1 and continue to do nothing for 996 users


Sent from my iPhone 4 using Tapatalk

 

[Danny6569]

Uniden scanners

I dont know whats going on here with uniden scanners with all the complaints about them but i have the 396 xt and the 996 xt and they work fine for me, ive had them for a couple years now and the decoding on them works great, both on the digital side and the conventional side it sounds fine, no scanner is going to be perfect either all the time, sometimes the radios the police and whoever else youre listening to have the same problems too with their systems! ive heard in the last year from listening to police and other companies numerous complaints from the dispatchers and other people talking to each other how they couldnt read them or their radio was garbled, so when you pick up a transmisson that you cant understand dont blame it all on the scanners because thats how everyones hearing it on both sides sometimes, the digital systems in my opinion suck and do break up a lot and this has been going on for a while now, but what can you do ? everyones switching from conventional channels to digital systems, i liked it when everyone was on the conv channels it sounded so much better! now we have all different kinds of digital systems and we have to put up with the way they are, you can do this update and that update but these scanners will never be perfect.

 

[W6KRU]

Daniel, You are correct The mobiles/portables go digital sometimes. Then you hear the dispatcher ask for a repeat. The issue I am complaining about happens even with the dispatcher transmissions. You are lucky you're not trying to listen to a simulcast system or you would have the same issue. I have seen comments about the MERA, MECA, RWS, and the Starcom systems in addition to my problems with the RCS system, Therefore I am betting the problem exists on many simulcast systems.The users who continue to defend Uniden probably aren't listening to a simulcast system.

My PSR-500 works well and my 396T works acceptably. That is why I am of the opinion that my 39XT is broken. Two other types of scanners work and the 396XT doesn't.

 

[jambo]

Which of course that is what makes the hobby so great! You can vote with your wallet.
Marshall KE4ZNR

And that's exactly why Uniden needs to take the muzzle off Upman, and get rid of their jacked up policies that are restricting him. Otherwise Uniden will only be selling radios to those who claim to have no issues. All Uniden is doing is crushing their sales of future radios by doing crap like that. We're not asking for TOP SECRET info. We're just asking for legitimate fixes to issues many of us have had for way to long.

 

[nanZor]

I wonder if it is more of a licensing / business issue rather than outright engineering?

Why is it that only GRE products are on the shelves at RS, whereas to get a Uniden, you can only get them via special order?

Are there proprietary tweaks to the common P25 protocol that requires licensing? - might be a software licensing issue.

This is all conjecture, and I doubt we'll be privvy to the reasons behind the business decisions.

 

[jambo]

I wonder if it is more of a licensing / business issue rather than outright engineering?

Why is it that only GRE products are on the shelves at RS, whereas to get a Uniden, you can only get them via special order?

Are there proprietary tweaks to the common P25 protocol that requires licensing? - might be a software licensing issue.

This is all conjecture, and I doubt we'll be privy to the reasons behind the business decisions.

IMHO, I feel they don't want to do anything about it in hopes you'll just go buy another one of their $600 paper weights. What their failing to realize, is people like myself are spending our money elsewhere on radios that do offer outstanding support. Pretty sad Uniden is letting greed get in the way of long time customers by using excuses like company policy, or software releases.

 

[OCO]

Suggestion

There are about fifteen people posting their dissatisfactions with current Uniden products. You know that UPMan is watching this thread, because he's posted to it seven times. Why don't you all appoint a spokesman, create one list with the issues that you'd like to see changes on and actually direct it to Paul to for a response? I see multiple assumptions, based on nothing more than WAG's to what may or may not be Uniden policy, what may or may not be possible with software changes and what may or may not be Uniden marketing plans.
Yes, I bought a HP1 as my re-entrance into the hobby, but there's plenty of older products from both manufacturers in my house, including the RS-2042 that was my last acquisition and still works fine. I don't really have a dog in the fight, just thought I'd make a suggestion..

 

[Highpockets]

There are about fifteen people posting their dissatisfactions with current Uniden products. You know that UPMan is watching this thread, because he's posted to it seven times. Why don't you all appoint a spokesman, create one list with the issues that you'd like to see changes on and actually direct it to Paul to for a response? I see multiple assumptions, based on nothing more than WAG's to what may or may not be Uniden policy, what may or may not be possible with software changes and what may or may not be Uniden marketing plans.
Yes, I bought a HP1 as my re-entrance into the hobby, but there's plenty of older products from both manufacturers in my house, including the RS-2042 that was my last acquisition and still works fine. I don't really have a dog in the fight, just thought I'd make a suggestion..

The problem with that is this isn't the only thread about the XT additions/fixes update requests. It could take months to compile a list because some users only log on once a month, others whenever and some daily. Paul should already have a pretty good list compiled as he reads the Uniden threads and I'm sure he takes notes. Uniden policy prohibits him from saying to much as he has stated. It's like a post and wait atmosphere here, and that leads to frustration and it shows in the posts.

 

[OCO]

Well, I'd say most of the recurring themes are right here in this thread... These are the issues that this group has commented on:

Non of your P25 scanners follow a patch properly on a p25 system.

some sort of firmware change for the XTs to improve the decoding on a simulcast system

One thing I would like to see on my old BCT15 is the volume numbering adjustment

All I ever asked for was to put back the 3-4 second delay

possibly to have a display mode selection one for trunking systems and another for conventional (if it is possible)

make the XT display operate more like the older T model. Instead of alternating SITE/GROUP on the top line, that it would alternate SYSTEM/GROUP on the top line......a firmware update to either alternate all three (SYSTEM/SITE/GROUP), or to make the display line selectable from choices already.

Personally I just want my 396XT to perform as was advertised during it's release. The P25 decoding was supposed to be better than the 396T. It is not.

How about UASD for the XT series? And how about a UASD update for T series to program rebanded systems

(

Manual P25 setting)'d like 3 options with those settings, leave it automatic like it is now, Let us choose the threshold for each system and it stays there, and 3, let us choose the threshold for each system and it automatically fine tunes only 1 threshold number up or 1 down

the update I'd like to see is the ability for the scanners to remember the volume level when I power them off, then back on (rotating the VOL knob to off and then back to on)

It's a pain with conventional federal stuff to program each freq as trunked system, just to get radio ids

This list is long enough that somebody will probably want to edit it down, but rather than the continuous P&M, bad karma session, why not ask for some kind of response, even if it takes Paul a month or two to respond?

 

[Highpockets]

Even if it takes Paul a month or two to respond?

Do you know how long this has been going on, I know you mean well, you monitor this thread and see if Paul responds and to what!

 

[OCO]

Do you know how long this has been going on,

Well, the guy with the dust collecting paperweight has been complaining for about four years IIRC...I'll slink back into my cave....

 

[Highpockets]

Well, the guy with the dust collecting paperweight has been complaining for about four years IIRC...I'll slink back into my cave....

I meant no disrespect, I know you meant well. I just hope you guys with the HP-1E don't go through this when a new model comes out covering P25 Phase 2. Thanks for trying to help!

 

[jambo]

I meant no disrespect, I know you meant well. I just hope you guys with the HP-1E don't go through this when a new model comes out covering P25 Phase 2. Thanks for trying to help!

I a round about way, I hope they do. Some people will never understand the frustration until they have to go through it themselves. The sad thing is, what an expensive lesson to learn when you count on something being all it's pumped up to be, and then find out it's the total opposite. So needless to say, I won't be buying any Uniden products ever again.

 

[Danny6569]

Uniden scanners

Daniel, You are correct The mobiles/portables go digital sometimes. Then you hear the dispatcher ask for a repeat. The issue I am complaining about happens even with the dispatcher transmissions. You are lucky you're not trying to listen to a simulcast system or you would have the same issue. I have seen comments about the MERA, MECA, RWS, and the Starcom systems in addition to my problems with the RCS system, Therefore I am betting the problem exists on many simulcast systems.The users who continue to defend Uniden probably aren't listening to a simulcast system.

My PSR-500 works well and my 396T works acceptably. That is why I am of the opinion that my 39XT is broken. Two other types of scanners work and the 396XT doesn't.

I am listening to a simulcast system DDan with 10 different sites and it sounds fine here ? did you try adjusting the decode rate ?

 

[Highpockets]

I am listening to a simulcast system DDan with 10 different sites and it sounds fine here ? did you try adjusting the decode rate ?

What system are you listening to?

 

[KE4ZNR]

The users who continue to defend Uniden probably aren't listening to a simulcast system.

Actually I listen to one hell of a large simulcast system in VIPER.

And before you even go there, yes VIPER is actually a Smartzone system but the Wake County part of VIPER operates in Simulcast format
and has both analog & digital TGs.

I have also used both my 396XT and 996XT (and HP-1) on other simulcast systems across NC as well as in SC.

So your assumption would be wrong.
Marshall KE4ZNR