I have heard that the Learning Curve is fairly difficult for the GRE PSR-500 on a scale of 1-10 for users that have the PSR-500 how would you rate the difficultly (10 being the hardest). This is in comparison with other scanners you have used in the past.
Learning Curve with the PSR-500 (POLL)
- Thread starter Jono40141
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Statevillian
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Poll Question......
I would say a 3 on a scale of 10 being the hardest. Having had the Pro96 and Uniden 246 and 396 taught me some concepts that helped make this easier....plus, online manual in advance and this forum helped.
Jono40141 said:
I would say a 3 on a scale of 10 being the hardest. Having had the Pro96 and Uniden 246 and 396 taught me some concepts that helped make this easier....plus, online manual in advance and this forum helped.
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troymail
Silent Key
Opinions will vary w-i-de-l-y.... depends on how long you've been into this hobby, how many radios you already have, the type of systems you listen to (some work right off the bat - others require fine tuning and advanced concepts, etc.)....
I think this was the most difficult to initially understand. But, once the light went on in my head it's now the easiest to program if that makes any sense.
My problem was two fold. I did't bother to really sit and read the manual and I had it in my mind that the menu system would be similar to the Uniden models.
Once I figured out the whole * to assign the object to a scan list right off the bat as they suggest in the manual it all made sense.
My problem was two fold. I did't bother to really sit and read the manual and I had it in my mind that the menu system would be similar to the Uniden models.
Once I figured out the whole * to assign the object to a scan list right off the bat as they suggest in the manual it all made sense.
You refer to the learning curve (how hard it is to learn the radio) but the ranking is on how easy the radio is to operate... Which one are you trying to measure? Difficulty in learning the scanner, or overall difficulty of the scanner?
If you read the manual you'll notice that they mention varied amount of experience in the hobby. The fact that it gives you help on the display when using the Funct+Select button in the center of the five way switch, and examples in the manual on how to get started. If that's not enough, Glenn at Scanners Unlimited wrote some step by step examples that are on the GRE America support site under the Knowledgebase Articles:
http://www.greamerica.com/support/
It's good to see that nobody thinks it's extremely hard to program. I would agree it is about the "3" range on the scale with Radioreference support, maybe closer to "5" if you had not heard about Radioreference. Having a group of hands on users to learn from makes a difference.
http://www.greamerica.com/support/
It's good to see that nobody thinks it's extremely hard to program. I would agree it is about the "3" range on the scale with Radioreference support, maybe closer to "5" if you had not heard about Radioreference. Having a group of hands on users to learn from makes a difference.
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troymail
Silent Key
A friend just purchased a PRO-96 on eBay and I went to help him set it up. I've played with PRO-96's before so it wasn't new to me but being a Uniden user, I felt totally lost. Thank god for RR and Win96....
I have the keystrokes for the PSR500 down pretty well now - at least for the standard day-to-day functions and I agree, the on screen prompts on the PSR500 make it pretty easy once you know the basic keys to push (but you still need to read the manual and have a basic understanding of trunk radio systems).
I have the keystrokes for the PSR500 down pretty well now - at least for the standard day-to-day functions and I agree, the on screen prompts on the PSR500 make it pretty easy once you know the basic keys to push (but you still need to read the manual and have a basic understanding of trunk radio systems).
For basic functions, the 500 is fairly easy to use (once you figure out that the default puts ALL your input into scan list 1).
For all the features, tweaks and such that you can do, the radio is the most complex that I have encountered.
For all the features, tweaks and such that you can do, the radio is the most complex that I have encountered.
So you get the best of both worlds and why its called Global "Expert" menu, for those of us that want to be able to modify and tweak the abilities of the radio.
As I look at the results now at least 70% fell that they are able to handle the programming, with 30% having some difficulty. I wonder how many of the 30% have actually read the manual?
As I look at the results now at least 70% fell that they are able to handle the programming, with 30% having some difficulty. I wonder how many of the 30% have actually read the manual?
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I voted as a "3" as i read the manual i printed about three times and own a PRO96/2096 so the text and V-Folders came very easy...Following the conv and TSYS programming in the manual made it easy....I wish some of the Func-Glob-Expert setting had more of a explanation...I had to set the "EDACS Unmute to "0" from "18' because thats the only setting it does not cut off the first part of the conversation but i have to put up with the Edacs "eek" at the start...I asked this question on another board but received no answer=My 96/2096 have no status-bit so unique talkgroups are received on "ALLCALL" on 176 and 208, but on my Uniden 396/246/245 i hear them on 183 and 215, so i guess the GRE500 still has no status-bit adjustment as they are still received like the PRO96/2096////...
doug408
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It really depends on what you are trying to accomplish. I love the idea of factory-supplied v-scanner folders for such a wide range of locations. Because of that alone, I had mine running pretty well in under 5 minutes. That has the side effect of making the user relax, knowing that a psr-500 really will work in their area, which then makes it easier to have the patience to read the manual for the details of setting things up to match the finer points of their individual preferences.
At the time I got mine, WIN500 and psredit were not yet available. Those certainly help, and with almost daily improvements in both, I can only see that getting better over time. No doubt Butel wil lhave their equivalent out before long, too. A little friendly competition to keep the innovation coming and license fees sane can't be a bad thing.
I also really like how fast the psr-500 can be reprogrammed with these programs compared to older scanners I have used. With a BC796D, it took several minutes of data transfer to reprogram everything with Butel software. With psredit or WIN500, it's only a few seconds and a few keystrokes to reprogram myy psr-500, thanks in large part to the Radio Reference web download features and all the folks who contribute to keeping that database current. This came in really handy when I returned from some Thanksgiving travel, and realized there was a big police event going on right across the street from me, but that my psr-500 was still programmed for the area I had just returned from. Even though I had not updated the v-scanner folders yet, I was able to quickly restore the original programming and not miss too much of the radio action.
The real beauty of a psr-500 to me is the flexibility it offers. Those who just want to listen and don't care about technology can quickly get their basic needs met, even on today's rather complicated radio systems. Those who want to tweak every last option have that ability, too.
Kudos to GRE for making the firmware update process easy. Some of the early PSR-500 users were quite frustrated by problems listening to specific radio systems. Many of those problems have already been fixed in the first few weeks of sale. Problems of this type are probably unavoidable, given all the variations in radio technology, but it's great to see that fixes can be so rapidly deployed, and that GRE can so effectively use volunteers from the user community for rapid, large-scale beta testing. That's probably the best we can hope for in the real world.
At the time I got mine, WIN500 and psredit were not yet available. Those certainly help, and with almost daily improvements in both, I can only see that getting better over time. No doubt Butel wil lhave their equivalent out before long, too. A little friendly competition to keep the innovation coming and license fees sane can't be a bad thing.
I also really like how fast the psr-500 can be reprogrammed with these programs compared to older scanners I have used. With a BC796D, it took several minutes of data transfer to reprogram everything with Butel software. With psredit or WIN500, it's only a few seconds and a few keystrokes to reprogram myy psr-500, thanks in large part to the Radio Reference web download features and all the folks who contribute to keeping that database current. This came in really handy when I returned from some Thanksgiving travel, and realized there was a big police event going on right across the street from me, but that my psr-500 was still programmed for the area I had just returned from. Even though I had not updated the v-scanner folders yet, I was able to quickly restore the original programming and not miss too much of the radio action.
The real beauty of a psr-500 to me is the flexibility it offers. Those who just want to listen and don't care about technology can quickly get their basic needs met, even on today's rather complicated radio systems. Those who want to tweak every last option have that ability, too.
Kudos to GRE for making the firmware update process easy. Some of the early PSR-500 users were quite frustrated by problems listening to specific radio systems. Many of those problems have already been fixed in the first few weeks of sale. Problems of this type are probably unavoidable, given all the variations in radio technology, but it's great to see that fixes can be so rapidly deployed, and that GRE can so effectively use volunteers from the user community for rapid, large-scale beta testing. That's probably the best we can hope for in the real world.
I voted 2.
Since I was able to program it and use it without looking at the manual.
Ive been using radios since 1962 and programming computers and robots for
years. I've always felt that good software doesnt need a manual. But thats just
me and my experence.
Since I was able to program it and use it without looking at the manual.
Ive been using radios since 1962 and programming computers and robots for
years. I've always felt that good software doesnt need a manual. But thats just
me and my experence.
Stick0413
Member
I voted 2. Skimmed over the manual (prior to getting the 500, didn't really read it in depth) and within I would say 5 or so minutes after I fired it up I had programmed in a TSYS and a couple of TGRPs. For me it was a lot easier to program than the 96 is. Maybe it has a little something to do with having more knowledge on it now but still to this day I would say the 96 is much harder to program by hand. Personally I find the menu system in the 500 very easy to use compared to the non menu based 96/2096 and the menu based 996. Out of the 4 digital scanners I own (well lets count 3 since the 96 and 2096 are the same in this case) the PSR 500 by far is the easiest to program.
Stick0413 said:
Ditto, except I did read the manual in debth.
It's not fair to me to vote, since I haven't actually used the radio. But after reading the online manual and reading the forum, I'd have to say ~2. I agree that it depends on previous history. I have a Pro-96, so I get the concept of V-Folders.
The rest of the programming seems to look like a 20 bank scanner, where each bank can store a frequency, a TSYS, a TGID, etc...
The rest of the programming seems to look like a 20 bank scanner, where each bank can store a frequency, a TSYS, a TGID, etc...
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