Bill Cheek

[yaesumofo]

I think Bill Cheek would have liked the BCD396T scanner. This radio does a lot of the things he devoloped mods in other radios to do. Things like the squelch engaging the light.
Lots of memories. And much more.
Bill was a pioneer. I do not see much credit going his way for all the work he did. Boy am I glad I don't need to break out the solding iron like I to in the past.
Too bad Bill is not here to enjoy what is close to being ultimate fruts of his labors.
Yaesumofo

 

[John_M]

Give me some background on Bill Cheek I have never heard of him.

Update: Radio, Scanner hacker.

 

[DaveIN]

Too True! I think Bill, would have thought the 396 is as close to the "Ultimate Scanner" as he had ever seen. The hardware is up to date (as legally possible). Hopefully we will see many more firmware and dynamic memory advancements in future Uniden models to come.

 

[DaveIN]

Give me some background on Bill Cheek I have never heard of him.

Bill Cheek was the greatest of scanner hackers in the business. He made many enhancments to all diffrent models of scanners available at the time in his quest to perfect the "Ultimate Scanner" and was a regular contributer to Popular Communication and Monitoring times magazines. http://www.dis.org/radio/radios/icf-sc1/sc1mod.pdf

He had small shop that was on a BBS and then the internet called COMMtronics and published a monthly newsletter.

From the Popular Communications about the Probe software: "The status of this unit may also be in question with the recent death of Bill Cheek (from lung cancer), Commtronics founder and owner. Many of Bill Cheek's publications dealt with modifications to the PRO-2004/2005 and 2006 series of receivers which were internally very similar. Those books are widely available through many electronics stores and have projects ranging from very simple to quite complex if you have one of these receivers and are interested."
http://www.datafileinc.com/popcom6.htm

Bill had some leagle problems with Manhattan District Attorneys Office about decoding MDT data over radio, just about the time he stated having heath problems: http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=C102199

He was helpful for discriminator taps on several scanners: http://www.nettwerked.net/discriminator.txt

The PRO-2006 was one of his favorites: http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/861

His books are still available I believe: http://www.alibris.com/search/searc...eek&siteID=1JSk6CbYEf0-xFQFaDX_W_oHjferr4PHgQ

 

[John_M]

Thanks Dave for the info.

 

[Jay911]

Bill Cheek was a famous scanner hobbyist in the 80s and 90s who has since passed away. He literally "wrote the book" on a number of mods for scanners, back when mods actually did something and were worthwhile - He also wrote a book called "The Ultimate Scanner", which one might think was the inspiration for the 396.

Do a Google search on "Bill Cheek" scanner and you will find a tremendous amount of commentary on him and his books and mods.

 

[BiGtRuNk]

Cheek was one of the best!
I have all three of his scanner mod books money well spent!!!

 

[ICP963]

I think Bill Cheek would have liked the BCD396T scanner. This radio does a lot of the things he devoloped mods in other radios to do. Things like the squelch engaging the light.
Lots of memories. And much more.
Bill was a pioneer. I do not see much credit going his way for all the work he did. Boy am I glad I don't need to break out the solding iron like I to in the past.
Too bad Bill is not here to enjoy what is close to being ultimate fruts of his labors.
Yaesumofo

Bill Cheek had a great reputation as a rabble rouser which was well deserved because he would not back down one bit from an opinion. Especially an opinion that he held from experience he had from preforming and documenting modifications to radio equipment. He managed to get into federal trouble at least one due to his publication of the 11 Meter Times, which detailed out of band modifications to CB radios. Once his attention was directed to scanners he made a name for himself there as well. It was not until he got into the discriminator taps and decoding pagers and such that the federal trouble returned.

I met him for dinner about the time he came out with the HB/CE-232 interface for the PRO-2005/6 and he and his wife along with several local scanner nuts had a great evening of conversation about scanners and such. I still have a 2006 with the CE-232 interface that works to this day, though I rarely use the interface now.

I think that had GRE/Radio Shack or Uniden hired him back in those days as a consultant we would have seen the face of scanners change well before now. That is water under the bridge, but I am glad to see that others remember Bill for the pioneer that he was.

 

[n2nxz]

God Bless Bill Cheek

 

[Dewey]

Everything about Bill Cheek said so far is oh so true! One thing not yet mentioned was that Bill was NEVER too busy to help. All one would have to do was drop him an email, and he would normally answer within 24 hours! Bill was so helpful with me when I built my first data slicer that I wished TO MYSELF that he would stop emailing me every 10 or 15 minutes requesting status updates and giving additional ideas. I emphasized wished "to myself" because through it all, I knew that all Bill wanted was for me to have the best slicer that I could build (kind of in line with the earlier and true comment about how Bill never backed down from his belief). He served the hobby WELL!!!

Dewey

 

[cnw3859]

So, speaking of Bill Cheek and his books, what are the best scanner books out there?

Anyone read this one?
http://www.amazon.com/Scanners-Secr...1581600720/ref=pd_sim_b_1/103-4030900-9604618

If there is already a thread on this topic, please point me in it's direction.

thanks

 

[iMONITOR]

Anyone read this one?
http://www.amazon.com/Scanners-Secret-Frequencies-Electronic-Underground/dp/1581600720/ref=pd_sim_b_1/103-4030900-9604618

That book will be 14 years old in another week! Most of the info is basic, and general, and some is obsolete, and an awful lot is totally missing.

 

[cnw3859]

That book will be 14 years old in another week! Most of the info is basic, and general, and some is obsolete, and an awful lot is totally missing.

Thanks, I won't put that one on the top of my Amazon wish list. From a quick search, I did not find too many scanner books.

Perhaps the various magazines (and, of course, RadioReference) are the best way to keep up with the scanning hobby - with the tech changes, etc., books can be out of date by their publishing date.

 

[iMONITOR]

Thanks, I won't put that one on the top of my Amazon wish list. From a quick search, I did not find too many scanner books.

Perhaps the various magazines (and, of course, RadioReference) are the best way to keep up with the scanning hobby - with the tech changes, etc., books can be out of date by their publishing date.

My favorites are Monitoring Times, and Popular Communications. There is also Scanner USA, not one of my favorites.

 

[rbm]

I still have a 2006 with the CE-232 interface that works to this day, though I rarely use the interface now.

I have seven PRO-2006's with the CE-232 built into them. I still use them as my work horse scanners for conventional frequencies. Three of them are logging audio 24/7.

I spoke with Bill quite a bit back in the early/mid 1990's (by phone) and found him to be a pretty decent guy. (I wrote some script files for the CE-232 that he used.)

There were a few people who had it in for him. A clash of egos I guess. I see the same thing happen today from time to time on various forums around the web. Some things never change.

One thing the feds got after him for was selling data slicers as I recall.

Bill Cheek's Last Stand
http://www.sdreader.com/php/cityshow.php?id=310

One count of violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 2512 (1) (a), a felony. "BILL CHEEK," the indictment read, "did knowingly and intentionally send through the mail and send in interstate commerce electronic, mechanical and other devices, knowing and having reason to know that the design of such devices rendered them primarily useful for the purpose of surreptitious interception of wire and electronic communications...."