I’ve been wondering about something lately. Since we see all the cheap radios from China that have been showing up for awhile, why hasn’t one the manufacturers over there developed a scanner? I’ve wonder if licensing is a consideration, I don’t recall ever seeing a CCR that does P25 or NXDN but I’ve seen a lot with DMR. I own a couple of the radios that I use for some scanning but if a manufacturer can make a profit on a radio that costs $100 (or less), why not try to produce a scanner? Another question would be who on here would buy one?
Cheap Chinese Scanner
- Thread starter KG4KHQ
- Start date
- Status
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2011
- Messages
- 1,431
I suspect with all the problems that everyone complains about here with the 'name brand' scanners, that a Chinese built unit would be a disaster. I can only imagine how well the receiver would be if it were anything similar to the CCR radios we've all come to love and hate.
marksmith
Member
Agree with above viewpoint, plus licensing is an obvious hurdle. Why do you think Uniden has thos $50 adds. Those are to cover license fees. Motorola and the whole trunking process has something similar.
The Chinese can and do make high level scanners. I have one here with the venerable Chinese name Uniden. No you say Uniden is made in Vietnam. Get real. Nowadays they are assembled in Vietnam from Chinese components. It is a way to avoid tariffs. Would the Chinese decide to compete with US brands? Yes, if they saw a reason to do so. Are Chinese made electronics inferior? Not if they see a market for a product. I have high resolution digital audio players made by FiiO. Reasonable priced and very high quality. FiiO is a native Chinese company which saw a big market in the US and worldwide. Scanners don't have a worldwide market. Illegal in some places and useless in others because of encrypted systems.
Ubbe
Member
I guess that a Vietnames built Uniden scanners are almost just as cheap to manufacture as those chinese radios. It's the development costs for the software for the PC and the firmware that are the biggest expensis for Uniden and also the profit in the whole delivery chain to the customer.
Chinese are terrible at software as if they always use students fresh from school and they only have a minimal description from their supervisors of what they are supposed to code. You tell them what they must do and what they have done wrong but they still stack mistakes on mistakes. It's very frustrating. I think most of it can be blamed on their hierarki system, that never allows a lower rank person to speak up to a higher rank and that the higher rank person tries to keep as much information as possible to himself and doesn't pass it on to the lower ranks. That's always a huge problem when working with asian countries.
/Ubbe
Chinese are terrible at software as if they always use students fresh from school and they only have a minimal description from their supervisors of what they are supposed to code. You tell them what they must do and what they have done wrong but they still stack mistakes on mistakes. It's very frustrating. I think most of it can be blamed on their hierarki system, that never allows a lower rank person to speak up to a higher rank and that the higher rank person tries to keep as much information as possible to himself and doesn't pass it on to the lower ranks. That's always a huge problem when working with asian countries.
/Ubbe
Actually, Uniden is a Japanese company that has manufacturing facilities in Vietnam. It's likely some components are sourced from China, but Uniden is in no way a Chinese company. Get your facts straight.
DMR Conventional and repeated is OPEN SOURCE from my reading here.
NXDN is not OPEN SOURCE.
NXDN is not OPEN SOURCE.
bill4long
Member
Aren't the "name brand" scanners made in China?
Unidens are made in Vietnam, not China. I don't know about Whistler.
In regards to P25 and NXDN, aren’t the Chinese known for ripping off various intellectual and proprietary properties?
chrismol1
P25 TruCking!
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2008
- Messages
- 1,313
I'd love to buy a cheap chinese scanner with a color screen, no it'd be so cheap I really wouldn't care as long as its SDR based and super fast scanning. I think they could pull that off
With regards to proprietary stuff, I have free software that decodes all those formats I downloaded from github for free and run with a $20 SDR. Whats preventing the chinese from doing the same with a ready made product? If thats such a hold up the chinese could make something up where you download and install software yourself if theres some sort of hold up on that
With regards to proprietary stuff, I have free software that decodes all those formats I downloaded from github for free and run with a $20 SDR. Whats preventing the chinese from doing the same with a ready made product? If thats such a hold up the chinese could make something up where you download and install software yourself if theres some sort of hold up on that
Did you check your sense of humor when you logged on to RR?
maxxkatt
Maxx Katt, once upon time artist.
Cannot speak for scanners. But in my metal detecting hobby some guys bought cheap chinese knockoff of the popular Garrett AT Pro and it was a disaster. Many stopped working after several months and absolutely no customer support what so ever. And to think the chinese (other than the gov) could create sophisticated signal processing software is not realistic at this time.
I avoid all chinese products when I expect high quality and very good customer support.
I avoid all chinese products when I expect high quality and very good customer support.
maxxkatt
Maxx Katt, once upon time artist.
Below is a quote from a Hi-Fi forum which is much like the complaints when some of my fellow detectorists bought chinese knock off products. The only products made in china that I trust are those contracted by a large US electronics firm like Apple who insist on top shelf quality control and have a US based network of customer support locations with a
AthenaZephyrian
100+ Head-Fier
JoinedJan 22, 2017LocationSoutheastern U.S.Posts279Likes150
Hi all.
I've been through two FiiO players--the X3II, and the X5II. The X3II randomly stopped working after about a year and a half, and I used squaretrade to upgrade to the X5. I've treated my X5II well, and a week ago, I set it down, functioning, and picked it up to find that it was not outputting sound through either line-out or the amplified jack.
I tried everything--different headphones, different SD chips, new drivers, factory resets...nothing worked.
Contacted squaretrade again, and they directed me to FiiO since they have a 1 year warranty. They want me to ship the darn thing to China, let them spend weeks fixing it, and ship it back. This is going to take a month or more, most probably. Meanwhile, I'll be stuck using my iphone 8 with dongle, or my ancient nano, which only holds...1/10th of my library, and only a few full discogs. The iphone is right out (dongle? REALLY?) ... so I'll be stuck listening to the same 10 bands on repeat when away from my computer.
God save me.
GRE and "non-Uniden" Radio Shack branded scanners were manufactured in China. I don't know if Whistler's are made there or if that changed when Whistler took over from GRE.
rhodester
Member
Just bought a whistler 1040 date code May 2020 made in the Philippines
majoco
Stirrer
If you want to stop the proliferation of cheap Chinese radio and the interference that they cause - THEN STOP BUYING THEM!
- Status
Similar threads
