BCD436HP/BCD536HP: Bye Bye Uniden 436HP

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yaesumofo

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Jan 4, 2003
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los Angeles
I was going to post something to that effect the other day. Yes, I have the 536HP and 436HP, and there are some good features, but do not sell your other scanners. There is still a lot I (we) can do with our 396XT, 996XT, and GRE/RS scanners that is not available on new units. Better sensitivity on the 396XT vs 436HP is just one issue. Control channel status, CC dump, recording out, some P25 issues and on and on.....This should be a thread in of itself. Do not get sell your other scanners.

Steve AA6IO

I have all of the above mentioned radios.
My 436 is amazingly sensitive. It really pulls in weak signals.
Thats not to say that the 396 is not sensitive. It is. but From where I am sitting the difference is negligible. A change in antenna may represent the difference.
It would not surprise me one tiny bit to learn that the receivers (436 396XX) are virtually identical.
I have a couple old radios that receive UHF well WITHOUT AN ANTENNA. Those radios also suffer from intermod.
The receivers do not need much work really. Its the front end filters (tracking and otherwise) that make the difference, for me anyway. Los Angeles is a RF Heavy saturated city. I am happy to give up a little sensitivity to loose INTERMOD.
Like I said my 436 is VERY sensitive and I have not heard even a single blip of INTERMOD.
Sensitivity is NOT the only thing thats important here. and the new Uniden's seem to do most of it well.
I suspect UNIDEN built these radios with the idea that they would be used often in mind. Why would a person spend $500.00 on a radio that would be used only occasionally? IS PROBABLY WHAT THEY WERE THINKING.

If the radio has a full charge of fresh primaries does the clock battery go dead before the radios batteries go flat?
It would make sence to me anyway for the radio to charge the RTC battery from the batteries in the radio. Maybe this is a simple firmware fix????

Yaesumofo
 

VE3RADIO

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I suspect UNIDEN built these radios with the idea that they would be used often in mind. Why would a person spend $500.00 on a radio that would be used only occasionally? IS PROBABLY WHAT THEY WERE THINKING.

If the radio has a full charge of fresh primaries does the clock battery go dead before the radios batteries go flat?
It would make sence to me anyway for the radio to charge the RTC battery from the batteries in the radio. Maybe this is a simple firmware fix????

Yaesumofo


To answer your questions.. Perhaps I have enough money that it is not an issue and I can buy things I like when I want and not have to worry?

Yes the internal battery would die long before my enerloops 2900 Mah NIMH batteries,.
 

SCPD

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Feb 24, 2001
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Location
Virginia
ok so

Ok so if you have the scanner on and plugged in ,then the Internal capacitor charges,this controls the clock .
And when its plugged in and off,then the rechargeable batteries that run the scanner get charged.
I would say not to leave the Usb plugged in with the power transformer not connected,this would goof up the
scanner clock.Anyone want to defunct this?
 

al95

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Jun 8, 2006
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751
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Brownsville,Texas
I don't use my cell phone for some 3-4 days and the batteries will drain. The same thing is with the new radio BCD436HP to keep the clock settings up to date and time. I don't own this radio yet but I'm learning by reading the comments of other users. Thanks to all
 

AZScanner

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Dec 19, 2002
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Somewhere in this room. Right now, you're very col
I remember commenting on this when the radio first came out. I haven't had a problem but I also use the scanner all the time. It was a concern of mine though at the time and I agree with the OP that the design for the RTC doesn't seem to make a whole lot of sense. Seems weird to have to charge up an internal battery that only lasts a week when even the cheapest PC motherboard comes with a CMOS battery that will last about 5-10 years.

I think Uniden could have learned a few things from the cell phone industry as well. Your smartphone is a device that can tell time without a special clock battery, tell you where you are in the world via precise GPS location, last for days on a single charge and even connect to other devices via bluetooth. I'd love to see a scanner take these cues from the cellphone industry. Imagine being able to pair your scanner with your phone and use the phone's GPS for location based scanning and 3G or 4G internet for automatic database updates. Lots of possibilities there.

-AZ
 

Essexscan

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Oct 14, 2008
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North Jersey
I have only set the clock the day I received it but my 436 is on everyday minimum 4 hours. I did connect it for 40+ hours to my cell phone USB adapter when I first had it but not since and I don't charge the batteries from the USB
 

rooivalk

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Jun 11, 2007
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The clock issue is an engineering failure for these radios. Would a firmware update provide the capability to disable the date/time feature?
 
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