SSN571
Member
I have been playing with a HP-1 for the past 2 weeks to try and figure out all this new radio stuff. It is ultimately going to live with my wife's aunt in East Texas.
I was going to try and get back into Shortwave listening (had not done any since around '88), but my wife is not interested in all that 'far away stuff', and said that I can have another 'more local' toy. Well what's an old retired kinda guy gonna do? Get the durn 'local' toy!
But says I. . . I be liking bells, whistles, knobs, buttons and all that old stuff that showed that this box is indeed a real radio, Yarrr. So to me that 536hp looks pretty much like one. No I ain't interested in the HP-2, not no way, not no how.
Not long ago, I had ordered a Whistler scanner, for the aunt, on Amazon. Well, it had been clearly used, and was even missing parts. Back it went and I bought the HP-1 from ScanMaster, and I am very reluctant to buy another radio from Amazon, although it appears to be 50 bucks cheaper. That is a pretty big "discount", and I can't help but wonder what's missing? So Scanmaster it is.
Then there is ScanMaster. I was looking at the "buy it" page, and the CHOOSE YOUR OPTIONS section, and there are a lot of options:
SETUP: well, I had to buy a Windoze tablet to install software on the HP-1, so I suppose that I can just as easily do the same for the BCD536HP (Apple user since 80).
SOFTWARE: ARC536, is that not what one downloads for the above, or is that something else special?
MANUAL: Easier to read format.... I'll think about it.
DMR UPDATE: now there's the kicker. It looks to me that the BCD536HP has been around for a while, and I have yet to find any announcements with regard to updating this 'Flag Ship' hardware. Heck, it seems that Microsoft and Apple update their 'Flag Ship' items every 13.5 hours (except for the Mac Pro). Further it appears that this DMR Update was announced and or has been out for almost a year. So why the heck is this Update not included in the, hopefully, brand new radios that Uniden and/or Scanmaster are selling now?
It also appears that if one does not have upgrade installed, which asks where and how is it installed on the radio? Hopefully not on the SD card which, based on my experience with the HP-1, is corrupted any time the static gods are running around my carpet or one plugs the A/C adapter in the radio and then into the wall.
Back to the subject, it appears that if one does not get this upgrade when ordering the radio, the one will have to send it back to get it installed at a later date. $75; but I may have missed a link.
Therefore are/is the concern(s) valid? Should I just bite the silver dollar and pay for the DMR Update and buy this scanner? Or seeing as how this HP-1 does not work all that well where we currently live, I think that Phase 2 has hit the area, tell my wife that the 'local' idea is not all that hot, and I really need to get a Shortwave radio? yarrr.
I was going to try and get back into Shortwave listening (had not done any since around '88), but my wife is not interested in all that 'far away stuff', and said that I can have another 'more local' toy. Well what's an old retired kinda guy gonna do? Get the durn 'local' toy!
But says I. . . I be liking bells, whistles, knobs, buttons and all that old stuff that showed that this box is indeed a real radio, Yarrr. So to me that 536hp looks pretty much like one. No I ain't interested in the HP-2, not no way, not no how.
Not long ago, I had ordered a Whistler scanner, for the aunt, on Amazon. Well, it had been clearly used, and was even missing parts. Back it went and I bought the HP-1 from ScanMaster, and I am very reluctant to buy another radio from Amazon, although it appears to be 50 bucks cheaper. That is a pretty big "discount", and I can't help but wonder what's missing? So Scanmaster it is.
Then there is ScanMaster. I was looking at the "buy it" page, and the CHOOSE YOUR OPTIONS section, and there are a lot of options:
SETUP: well, I had to buy a Windoze tablet to install software on the HP-1, so I suppose that I can just as easily do the same for the BCD536HP (Apple user since 80).
SOFTWARE: ARC536, is that not what one downloads for the above, or is that something else special?
MANUAL: Easier to read format.... I'll think about it.
DMR UPDATE: now there's the kicker. It looks to me that the BCD536HP has been around for a while, and I have yet to find any announcements with regard to updating this 'Flag Ship' hardware. Heck, it seems that Microsoft and Apple update their 'Flag Ship' items every 13.5 hours (except for the Mac Pro). Further it appears that this DMR Update was announced and or has been out for almost a year. So why the heck is this Update not included in the, hopefully, brand new radios that Uniden and/or Scanmaster are selling now?
It also appears that if one does not have upgrade installed, which asks where and how is it installed on the radio? Hopefully not on the SD card which, based on my experience with the HP-1, is corrupted any time the static gods are running around my carpet or one plugs the A/C adapter in the radio and then into the wall.
Back to the subject, it appears that if one does not get this upgrade when ordering the radio, the one will have to send it back to get it installed at a later date. $75; but I may have missed a link.
Therefore are/is the concern(s) valid? Should I just bite the silver dollar and pay for the DMR Update and buy this scanner? Or seeing as how this HP-1 does not work all that well where we currently live, I think that Phase 2 has hit the area, tell my wife that the 'local' idea is not all that hot, and I really need to get a Shortwave radio? yarrr.