GRE PSR-500 Post Release Thread

[DonS]

Each object takes up a specific number of Object ID "blocks":

CONV - 1 block
TGRP - 1 block
TSYS - MOT/P25 10 blocks, EDACS 5 blocks, LTR 5 blocks

EDACS and LTR are 4 blocks each.

 

[jpryor]

Sounds like a lot of work. The latest release of Win 500 allows me to manipulate and assign Object ID's at will.

Thanks for the head's up TES. My above process was what I had to do as of last night prior to having a version of Win500 that would allow programming. It is good to see that this latest version of Win500 will allow this level of editing. Once the trunking programming and web import become available, Win500 should be able to meet most of my needs.

 

[jpryor]

EDACS and LTR are 4 blocks each.

Thanks for the correction Don, I only played around with EDACS and LTR a couple times and guess I didn't do the math on those.

 

[kikito]

Overall it is still better off that the traditional banks and channels of the 96/97, but just does not have the sub-grouping capability of the 396.

Lately I've been wondering how, if possible, GRE could add "sub-scanlists" to each main scanlist. I thought one possible way is how currently on the Pro-96 when you're scanning a trunked system, you can press FUNC + TRUNK and the site tag changes to show the ID sub-banks. From there you can enable and disable individual ID sub-banks. Well, we could have the same on the PSR-500. When the radio is scanning a particular scanlist, just punch a couple of keys, have the radio show the 10 sub-lists and from there you can just press a single number key to enable/disable any of the 10 sub-list (0-9). Sounds do-able to me. I mean they already had the feature so to speak on their older models and now with the flexible memory format and upgradeable firmware.....

What other ideas or ways could we suggest to GRE, since I'm pretty sure they're paying attention to these forums lately.

EDIT: I guess I'll add this to the "future firmware wishlist" thread....

 

[bonus1331]

Just for info I did hear back from GRE and am in communication with them. They have been very responsive to the issue and are doing all they can to help me though things here.

I'm confident they will make things right if it ends up being something other than a stupid mistake on my part.

Doubtful it's your issue. Myself and others are having the same decode issues.
Again, how does this get past the beta testing?

 

[mancow]

It could be a parts issue or even a manufacturer problem....anything. I bet the design was nailed down pretty well. Once it goes into production it's kind of out of their hands but at this point anything is a guess.

One way or the other it will be nice to get it up and running. When it was working it sounded great.


BTW, it makes a great Satcom receiver. There is a strong signal right now on 253.850 and it sounds great on the GRE.

 

[wwhitby]

Again, how does this get past the beta testing?

Its quite possible that GRE didn't have any beta testers in those areas to attempt to monitor those systems.

I don't know anything about how GRE did their beta testing, so that's just a WAG on my part.

Warren

 

[DaveNF2G]

Some thoughts...

"Subgroups" - can't you create an object that simulates the GQK style of operation? Like, say, a fire object and a police object. Then you can lock out the police object if all you want to hear at the moment is fire calls. Am I visualizing this correctly?

Direct channel access - some have mentioned this already in terms of being able to jump directly to a specific frequency or talkgroup as we used to be able to do on "normal" scanners. Here's another GRE feature I miss on my Unidens, and apparently will also miss on the PSR-500 - the TUNE button. I like being able to punch in a frequency and mode and just sit on it for as long as I want without having to go through a full-fledged programming sequence.

Is there any function on the PSR-500 that works this way?

 

[rvawatch]

Some thoughts...

"Subgroups" - can't you create an object that simulates the GQK style of operation? Like, say, a fire object and a police object. Then you can lock out the police object if all you want to hear at the moment is fire calls. Am I visualizing this correctly?

Direct channel access - some have mentioned this already in terms of being able to jump directly to a specific frequency or talkgroup as we used to be able to do on "normal" scanners. Here's another GRE feature I miss on my Unidens, and apparently will also miss on the PSR-500 - the TUNE button. I like being able to punch in a frequency and mode and just sit on it for as long as I want without having to go through a full-fledged programming sequence.

Is there any function on the PSR-500 that works this way?

yea theres a tune button

 

[kikito]

Doubtful it's your issue. Myself and others are having the same decode issues.
Again, how does this get past the beta testing?

The same way Uniden overlooked some stuff or didn't get it right the first time, some of it major, when they released the BCD396T. Including the bug about the radio couldn't track talkgroups higher than 5000 on P25 systems.

It's unfortunate but it happens.....

 

[kikito]

Here's another GRE feature I miss on my Unidens, and apparently will also miss on the PSR-500 - the TUNE button.

So what's that button below the MAN button and above the ATT button for? Page 71 of the manual.

 

[rvawatch]

duplicate post...my internet froze

 

[kikito]

Well, a quick report from me:

The PSR-500 is tracking our ALMR P25 9600 VHF trunked system perfectly. http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=2447

What's even better is that using the "FlexStep" expert setting works great at properly tuning and displaying the irregular frequency steps of 12.5kHz in the 154.6500 to 156.2400 range. This was an annoyance with the PRO-96 since it would tune to the nearest fixed step instead.

It's been running side by side with the Pro-96 and BCD396T and doing great so far.

I'll post more by tomorrow to see if it keeps working fine since there's reports that some radios have gradually stop decoding P25 in the long run.....

 

[Russell]

Some thoughts...

"Subgroups" - can't you create an object that simulates the GQK style of operation? Like, say, a fire object and a police object. Then you can lock out the police object if all you want to hear at the moment is fire calls. Am I visualizing this correctly?

Direct channel access - some have mentioned this already in terms of being able to jump directly to a specific frequency or talkgroup as we used to be able to do on "normal" scanners. Here's another GRE feature I miss on my Unidens, and apparently will also miss on the PSR-500 - the TUNE button. I like being able to punch in a frequency and mode and just sit on it for as long as I want without having to go through a full-fledged programming sequence.

Is there any function on the PSR-500 that works this way?

For Direct Channel Access you use the Object ID. If the talkgroup object you want is stored at 0368, the press MAN 368 ENT, and you will be taken directly to that TG or Freq. You kind of have to remember object addresses, but it works great. This number is listed after the Scanlist number in the upper left hand corner while scanning, e.g. 10-0368. It works great.

Russell

 

[rvawatch]

For Direct Channel Access you use the Object ID. If the talkgroup object you want is stored at 0368, the press MAN 368 ENT, and you will be taken directly to that TG or Freq. You kind of have to remember object addresses, but it works great. This number is listed after the Scanlist number in the upper left hand corner while scanning, e.g. 10-0368. It works great.

Russell

doesnt having to remember object ids kinda void the whole point of not having to remember talkgroup ids?

 

[rvawatch]

Well, a quick report from me:

The PSR-500 is tracking our ALMR P25 9600 VHF trunked system perfectly. http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=2447

What's even better is that using the "FlexStep" expert setting works great at properly tuning and displaying the irregular frequency steps of 12.5kHz in the 154.6500 to 156.2400 range. This was an annoyance with the PRO-96 since it would tune to the nearest fixed step instead.

It's been running side by side with the Pro-96 and BCD396T and doing great so far.

I'll post more by tomorrow to see if it keeps working fine since there's reports that some radios have gradually stop decoding P25 in the long run.....

good to hear. jw, have you been running it under stat, roam, or none?

 

[kikito]

good to hear. jw, have you been running it under stat, roam, or none?

So far on STAT.

 

[DaveIN]

It could be a parts issue or even a manufacturer problem....anything. I bet the design was nailed down pretty well. Once it goes into production it's kind of out of their hands but at this point anything is a guess.

One way or the other it will be nice to get it up and running. When it was working it sounded great.


BTW, it makes a great Satcom receiver. There is a strong signal right now on 253.850 and it sounds great on the GRE.

What antenna were you using for that mancow?

 

[DaveIN]

Well, a quick report from me:

The PSR-500 is tracking our ALMR P25 9600 VHF trunked system perfectly. http://www.radioreference.com/modules.php?name=RR&sid=2447

What's even better is that using the "FlexStep" expert setting works great at properly tuning and displaying the irregular frequency steps of 12.5kHz in the 154.6500 to 156.2400 range. This was an annoyance with the PRO-96 since it would tune to the nearest fixed step instead.

It's been running side by side with the Pro-96 and BCD396T and doing great so far.

I'll post more by tomorrow to see if it keeps working fine since there's reports that some radios have gradually stop decoding P25 in the long run.....

Finally, another success story. Let us know if anything changes JE. Maybe you should try roam, or none and see if that changes.

 

[Air490]

Motorola UHF systems?

Has anybody had any issues on UHF systems, or is it just 800MHz systems?