GRE To Release New Digital Handheld, Others

[DaveIN]

In general I think everyone will know more if/when the manual hits the FCC OET site, but I have used a beta unit for a bit, and will answer what I can.. Again, yes it has full remote controllable and has a full set of Control channel dump capability (much more than the P96), so there is really no longer a need for a Disc-tap. The trunking is all re-done with the bug mentioned above fixed. It is very clear that the development team has spent a lot of time reading the forums and listening to requests, etc.

Well, if Voyager is right, the FCC type may not be needed if it is indeed an improvement on an existing model (i.e. PRO-97).

Glad to hear that control channel dump is available. Will I-Call work on both 3600 and 9600 buad systems?

 

[SCPD]

The PC/IF dump seems to cover -every- supported trunking system (simple ASCII output) and then some

There are 21 V-Scanners.

They call the storage method "Object Oriented Memory" and it seems very easy to use and I do not see any "please wait" messages even with the radio full with test systems and such..

 

[DaveIN]

The PC/IF dump seems to cover -every- supported trunking system (simple ASCII output) and then some

There are 21 V-Scanners.

They call the storage method "Object Oriented Memory" and it seems very easy to use and I do not see any "please wait" messages even with the radio full with test systems and such..

Holy @#$%, That is great! Were you pleased with the audio performance and the delay between multiple systems during scanning?

What type of format is the I-call displayed? The standard 700000, or as a hex number?

 

[SCPD]

Audio was as good as the Pro-96, and the scanning if anything is faster. I do not remember off the top of my head re the displayed I-call format. The Audio and 3-color LED alert modes were a blast to play with.

 

[John_M]

DaveIN Wrote:

Ok, now were getting somewhere, I-Call and 700MHz tracking. I too would love to see it support 3600 as well as 9600 baud packets out so that Mike can update PRO96COM. Any chance it will support EDACS output as well?

It doesn't include V-Scanner as I can see from the pdf information, but the dynamic talkgroup lists are a huge step forward.

Any more tidbits you can give us?

Why would they need V-scanners if they are using dynamic memory?

 

[DaveIN]

Audio was as good as the Pro-96, and the scanning if anything is faster. I do not remember off the top of my head re the displayed I-call format. The Audio and 3-color LED alert modes were a blast to play with.

Cool! So, do you assign a channel number to the user function key or frequency? Can you assign a talkgroup to one of those three keys?

How about the talkgroup ID hold, can you just type a talkgroup ID in from the keypad and hold on it, or does it need to be active in the system first?

It looks like four AA batteries, just like the PRO-96/97. How was battery life?

 

[n4voxgill]

uniden sure has its work cut out if they are going to remain competitive. one great point is that we might well see some competitive pricing. The Radio Shack/GRE units have been on sale regularly, yet i can't recall seeing a sale by Uniden. Price war may not develop for a while as GRE can probably sell all they can produce for a while. Only after Uniden catches up will there be price competition.

I'm really glad to see the new GRE units have wider bandwith on 700 MHz as there are still proposals before the FCC to expand the public safety allocation. I don't know if the latest uniden's can be modified if the bandplan changes or not.

Thankgoodness that Don Starr will be on board with software. I have some Butel but prefer Starrsoft.

 

[John_M]

It looks like some kind of mixed V-scanners and Dynamic memory.

 

[DaveIN]

DaveIN Wrote:



Why would they need V-scanners if they are using dynamic memory?

I think V-Scanner is a good idea, it lets you setup different configurations for travel or monitoring situations. It looks like the talkgroup lists are dynamic. Maybe the bank sizes are as well?

 

[DaveIN]

Pricing would be set by individual dealers, not Radio Shack. It looks like this will be a GRE product sold independently.

uniden sure has its work cut out if they are going to remain competitive. one great point is that we might well see some competitive pricing. The Radio Shack/GRE units have been on sale regularly, yet i can't recall seeing a sale by Uniden. Price war may not develop for a while as GRE can probably sell all they can produce for a while. Only after Uniden catches up will there be price competition.

I'm really glad to see the new GRE units have wider bandwith on 700 MHz as there are still proposals before the FCC to expand the public safety allocation. I don't know if the latest uniden's can be modified if the bandplan changes or not.

Thankgoodness that Don Starr will be on board with software. I have some Butel but prefer Starrsoft.

 

[DaveIN]

Audio was as good as the Pro-96, and the scanning if anything is faster. I do not remember off the top of my head re the displayed I-call format. The Audio and 3-color LED alert modes were a blast to play with.

Thanks for the preview!

 

[unitcharlie]

Cool info.... hope GRE has figured out a way to move between individual freqs in dynamic memory more easily... looks like it will be "one-handed".... thanx for the info folks....

 

[windigofer]

Oh my *god*, I think I'm drowning in my own drool here (re the PSR-500)...pretty much what is apparently the *perfect* scanner being put out by GRE, one which I'm not beholden to get from Rat Shack, *and* for the price of a Pro-96?

I. Want. OMG I WANT. I'm now going to be very, very impatiently waiting for this bad boy to come out now...

As I notified my husband: "You got a laptop for your birthday...this is what I'm gettin' *me* for Christmas and my birthday. I will sell my bodily fluids to science if I have to. MINE."


(And this may well solve the Christmas present dilemma--give the family the old Pro-96 so that when my hometown finally goes APCO-25 they can listen...and till then they'll have a good radio for trips and stuff. I'll have the radio that can pick up everything short of ProVoice and AEGIS... )

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

New Scanner Announcements: The Usual Pattern

So a new scanner is anounced. Everyone wants it.

Now the pre-release thread is sticky'd. Gotta have it now. We want photos, specs, dates,...people even keep track of when the boat is getting here. :roll:

Then it's "when is it arriving in Ft. Worth?" Whose taking pre-orders. When do dealers start shipping ?

Next, it's the first person to get their paws on it posting a review. Now the thread explodes and triples in length.

Yada yada.

Now more people have their scanner. People are noticing a bug or a defect in the scanner. Now the scanner goes back and you wait a month, or you wait for a firmware update.

Now the pre-release thread is closed and the post-release thread fun begins. Every molecule of every pro and con is discussed while everyone waits for the bug fix....

Then they come out with a newer better version. You're kickin' yourself for not waiting in the first place.


Now another new scanner is announced and everyone wants it........ :twisted:

 

[SCPD]

Hold: You can pause while scanning, or now the MAN mode is fully trunking so you can just "FIND" on some Conventional, Search, or Talkgroup, Sweeper, alpha or number data, and then press MAN. It is all very easy to use. There are no channels per-se, although it does show you the memory file system number so you can (instead of "FIND") type that number and either edit or hold on that "object". All of the menus have built in help, and yes it is one hand operation.

There are "Scan Lists" where you group the objects as you wish for scanning. So you do not need to enter frequency or talkgroup info more than once as you can just use those "Objects" in the scan lists as you desire. That is a big memory saver. There is some very enhanced Weather/SAME functions.

Lets see if some of the people who were at Dayton and saw it / played with it will jump in with some of their thoughts in the next days. I do not want to hog the impressions I might need to check with the folks that let me test before I say too much more.

 

[JohnnyGalaga]

Will it let you manually step through talkgroups in your ID's list using the up/down arrow keys without having to get out of trunk mode? :roll:

 

[safetyobc]

There are "Scan Lists" where you group the objects as you wish for scanning. So you do not need to enter frequency or talkgroup info more than once as you can just use those "Objects" in the scan lists as you desire. That is a big memory saver. There is some very enhanced Weather/SAME functions.

I would be interested to know more about the talkgroup set up. Is it similar to Uniden's Multi Site Trunking where you can have multiple sites using the same group of TGIDs?

What type of "enhanced Weather/SAME" functions?

 

[windigofer]

So a new scanner is anounced. Everyone wants it.

Now the pre-release thread is sticky'd. Gotta have it now. We want photos, specs, dates,...people even keep track of when the boat is getting here. :roll:

Then it's "when is it arriving in Ft. Worth?" Whose taking pre-orders. When do dealers start shipping ?

Next, it's the first person to get their paws on it posting a review. Now the thread explodes and triples in length.

Yada yada.

Now more people have their scanner. People are noticing a bug or a defect in the scanner. Now the scanner goes back and you wait a month, or you wait for a firmware update.

Now the pre-release thread is closed and the post-release thread fun begins. Every molecule of every pro and con is discussed while everyone waits for the bug fix....

Then they come out with a newer better version. You're kickin' yourself for not waiting in the first place.


Now another new scanner is announced and everyone wants it........ :twisted:

True, true that...then again, with me, if I start saving up now I can probably afford to get it when it comes out (as it is, being in an area where the only major retailer of scanners is Radio Shack (and seeing as I literally had to special order one as they didn't carry them in stock at my local Rat Shack, which I think is one of the last in the country actually staffed by ham radio operators ), I'll be ordering online anyways and will do some price comparison between online retailers as it is).

As it is, there were only two things I had complaint about re my Pro-96--that being that it was without LTR scanning (there's quite a lot of businesses still using LTR trunked systems in my locality) and that it was without fairly good mil-air coverage (which I knew getting in, the opening of the accessory frequencies in Win-96 is ok, but I also know the radio isn't really designed for milair ). As the Indiana SAFE-T system has been growing like crazy, I'm also starting to feel some minor hurt with talkgroup space.

The proposed new radio does fix these for me, and also apparently adds some niftiness like I-Talk that meshes up with a few features that have been in Uniden scanners; plus it has milair proper (great for air shows ) that I don't have to basically use a software hack for. Essentially, this sounds like a Pro-96 (which has been one of my favourite radios *ever*) with all the toys I've missed with a Pro-96, so all is good.

Then again, I've never had all that much issue with the GRE kit. Your mileage may vary. (Heck, your mileage probably WILL vary). I know it may be a while before I can get one (once they come out) because I have to deal with a non-radio-geek spouse, but it's on my shopping list (and frankly has been the first one in a while to be on my shopping list). :3

 

[windigofer]

I would be interested to know more about the talkgroup set up. Is it similar to Uniden's Multi Site Trunking where you can have multiple sites using the same group of TGIDs?

What type of "enhanced Weather/SAME" functions?

This *would* be something to know, seriously. (If it allows multisite trunking, this would be perfect--Indiana's SAFE-T system in particular would be good on this, as well as a multistate EDACS system I monitor on occasion when out of town)

The SAME function enhancements, I think, may be allowing one to select what particular warnings it alerts on as well as with county (aka, "Only alert for tornado or severe thunderstorm warnings for Foo County")--if so, this will also be quite a plum indeed.

 

[DaveIN]

Hold: You can pause while scanning, or now the MAN mode is fully trunking so you can just "FIND" on some Conventional, Search, or Talkgroup, Sweeper, alpha or number data, and then press MAN. It is all very easy to use. There are no channels per-se, although it does show you the memory file system number so you can (instead of "FIND") type that number and either edit or hold on that "object". All of the menus have built in help, and yes it is one hand operation.

There are "Scan Lists" where you group the objects as you wish for scanning. So you do not need to enter frequency or talkgroup info more than once as you can just use those "Objects" in the scan lists as you desire. That is a big memory saver. There is some very enhanced Weather/SAME functions.

Interesting, so if I wanted to use a statewide talkgroup list for multiple sites I can assign the object to each of them?