yaesumofo
Member
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