Making it harder?

[N8IAA]

But some want their radios to work right out of the box with no programming. Doesn't work that way. Research what you're getting yourself into before you buy.

This is the problem with the 'throw away' society of today. They are used to their electronics to work when plugged into the power grid.

People will research their phones and TV's endlessly. But bit into the hype that was almost a year in waiting for the new x36HP scanners. All the misinformation that was here on RR in multiple posts led people to believe what they wanted to be true.

Now, all those who have the new scanners will have to send them back to Uniden at their own expense to get them fixed. Oh, and you get an extra two years of warranty.

I own a HP-1, and for what I use it for, it is adequate. Also own one of those supposedly 'dumb downed' PSR-800's. It is a more sophisticated scanner out of the box than the HP-1.

As someone posted, Uniden went for the new 'it works right out of the box' portion of the scanner world. Those that are not as familiar with custom programming their scanners as some of us.

Some are even surprised that the scanners didn't work any better than the ones they sold to get the latest and greatest. Wow:roll: No beta testing, other than the early adopters. Uniden save a ton of money letting those that paid $500/$600 for a scanner to find all the faults.

I remember an old saying, "Patience is a Virtue".
Larry

 

[WB4CS]

It's not the scanner manufacturers that are making it more difficult to scan, it's the evolving technology of two way radios. Long gone are the days of each city having one or two VHF frequencies to monitor. Trunking, P25, encryption, and other digital modes have replaced the old analog systems with one or two channels for each department. If anything, the scanner manufacturers have done a good job of keeping up the best they can with new technology. If it weren't for those manufacturers, we wouldn't be able to even listen to most of the systems out there.

Second, I agree it's the "out of the box plug and play" mentality that causes so much confusion. How many times have we seen threads on here where people just don't understand why their brand new scanner won't receive the local PD? Come to find out, their local PD is encrypted, or on a P25 system and they purchased a new analog scanner on sale. They admit they haven't done their research and just assumed that a "scanner" would pick up everything.

 

[fxdscon]

All the misinformation that was here on RR in multiple posts led people to believe what they wanted to be true.

Now, all those who have the new scanners will have to send them back to Uniden at their own expense to get them fixed. Larry

Speaking of misinformation.....

The process we are setting up will provide you with a prepaid UPS shipping label and information.

 

[Randdon]

In addition to this disturbing trend in scanner development we now have manufacturers skimping on quality control and not delivering what they promised.

Not to mention Uniden is a public traded company and I think activist investors had way more say over when the X36 scanners were released than when we wanted them ...

 

[cdknapp]

I kind of view radio technology a bit like photography when it comes to development.
I did a lot of crime scene photography over my career, most if it working midnights. Not only very specialized, but challenging at time.
When digital photography first came out, everything was point and shoot; you couldn't make many (if any) adjustments when taking photos. While that was great for the masses that had limited (if any) experience, I could no longer do what I had done all those years, do get the photos the way I wanted to.
With time, more and more digital SLR cameras came out, and over that time they also became much more affordable. Now I have a camera that I can use on my terms, even though digital will never be 35 mm ever in many ways.
So, I have a point and shoot, a camera on the smart phone, and the SLR camera for more serious photography.
The same has happended to an extent with scanners, but in reverse order where the "old, harder" stuff is being replaced with the present generation of new scanners. The manufacturers have made it more apealling to/for the masses; those who don't know VHF from P25 (nor care) - they just want to plug and play as much as possible, and listen.
Hopefully someone will continue to make scanners for those of us who have above average knowledge in radios; sort of like getting the SLR to be able the have more manual options for the above average user.
I have been into radios for 40 + years myself, back to the good old go the RS and get the crystals you need to plug in and listen days. Then we had the newer programable scanners- no more crystals and a LOT more channels. Than was even better.
Denpending on who you are (experience-wise) and what you're looking to do, there are options oit there now. The latest and greatest is always the best fit for everyone. While P25 Phase II is starting to roll out in a few places, it's going to be a while before it goes main stream. And with any luck, the manufacturers will continue to develop more units with this capacity; units that will have a better appeal to the advanced users.

That's just my $0.02 for what its worth.

 

[N8IAA]

Speaking of misinformation.....

Thank you for so graciously pointing out something that I remembered well after I posted and didn't correct.

Larry

 

[AZScanner]

Wow... I don't even know where to begin with half of what's been said in this thread. I guess I'll start with number one.

#1. My scanner isn't going back to Uniden. It works just fine. I got the 436HP.

#2. The problems that require the 536 to go back to Uniden DID NOT EXIST in the beta units, per postings here on this very site. So how were the beta testers supposed to catch that, exactly? :roll:

#3. I LOVE the fact that all I have to do is punch in a zip code and I can scan ANYWHERE in the country. Who in their right mind wants to spend hours or even days on vacation programming a scanner? My FL for my home area is of course very detailed and goes well beyond what the RRDB has in it, but do I want to do that if I take the kids to Disneyland for the weekend? Hell no! You go right on ahead and do that tedious crap if that's what blows your hair back, but I prefer to just punch in a zip code and listen. Takes less than a minute. I love it. LOVE LOVE LOVE IT! Best. Feature. Ever.

#4. Most of the grumbling I keep reading on here sounds like my old man giving me one of his famous "back in my day" speeches: "Back in MY day, we didn't have no fancy internets with the RRDB and what not. We had a year-old frequency book printed on recycled news print to program from! And we programmed our scanners with our bare fingers! There were no web services to download stuff from or fancy computer cables attached! Back in MY DAY scanners didn't even have alpha tags - you had to memorize what frequency was used for what! And we didn't have none of this dynamic memory malarkey - we had BANKS and CHANNELS and THAT WAS IT! If you had a 4 frequency trunked system to program in then you wasted the other 46 channels in that bank. Trunking? Talkgroups? Unit ID's? We didn't care about that crap! We just hit SCAN until we found part of the conversation we wanted to hear and when they changed frequencies then we hit SCAN AGAIN! AND WE LIKED IT!!!!"

I mean really, what next? Will someone in here pine away for the days of the horse and buggy?

Don't like the new Uniden? Don't buy it then. I have one and I love it. That's all that really matters to me.

I too can't wait to see what Whistler comes out with. No doubt it will have bugs, flaws, missing features and other problems too that people will complain about especially for $500. What'll the difference be? Well there ain't gonna be no "WhistlerMan" on here to complain about it to, for starters....

My 2 cents. Keep the change.
-AZ

 

[Highpockets]

Well there ain't gonna be no "WhistlerMan" on here to complain about it to, for starters....

You sure. :roll:

 

[nd5y]

#3. I LOVE the fact that all I have to do is punch in a zip code and I can scan ANYWHERE in the country.

You are assuming that the database info is complete and accurate for the entire country.

 

[AZScanner]

You sure. :roll:

Yeah, I'm sure. GRE never had one in here, why would Whistler? The closest thing we have to an "official spokesman" for them was/is Don Starr, and he's a 3rd party software developer. That would make him more like Gommert from Butel than Paul from Uniden, really. The closest thing Whistler *might* have to Paul would be GRE's Wayne Wilson. He's never posted here before (let alone in an official capacity) so I seriously doubt that's gonna change. I could be wrong of course. But I doubt it. So yeah. I'm "sure". :roll:

You are assuming that the database info is complete and accurate for the entire country.

Not really. In fact I'm positive that it's NOT 100% complete and accurate for the entire country. But it's what we in the industry would consider "close enough". Remember, I used to do work on Police Call, too. It was maintained in much the same way the RRDB is. Raw FCC data was combined with usage info from readers. Was that more accurate than today's RRDB? I doubt it. Quite the opposite in fact. Also, the RRDB is updated constantly. Police Call was updated like clockwork once a year. So, if the day after publication a new system came online you didn't find out about in Police Call until a YEAR later. No wonder video killed the radio star, or in this case, the internet killed Police Call. At best, the info in Police Call was a couple months old when it hit the presses. At best! And it was NEVER 100% accurate. That's impossible. Feel free to prove me wrong on that by creating your own, perfect frequency database. I double dog dare ya.

-AZ

 

[Highpockets]

Yeah, I'm sure. GRE never had one in here, why would Whistler? The closest thing we have to an "official spokesman" for them was/is Don Starr, and he's a 3rd party software developer. That would make him more like Gommert from Butel than Paul from Uniden, really. The closest thing Whistler *might* have to Paul would be GRE's Wayne Wilson. He's never posted here before (let alone in an official capacity) so I seriously doubt that's gonna change. I could be wrong of course. But I doubt it. So yeah. I'm "sure".

Think back, I believe Raj posted here and helped with problems. Are you still sure know it all.

 

[AZScanner]

Think back, I believe Raj posted here and helped with problems. Are you still sure know it all.

Tell you what, Hot Pockets, just for you I'll amend my "sure" to a "reasonably certain" with the caveat that I'd love to be wrong on this. I think it's great that Uniden got on the ball and let their product manager post on here and would love to see Whistler do that as well.

Better? Good lord. I haven't had my you-know-what's busted this much since before I finally divorced my ex-wife! :roll: You guys would probably get along great.

-AZ

 

[SCPD]

ref :Well there ain't gonna be no "WhistlerMan" on here to complain about it to, for starters


How do you know he or she aint here already?They are very nice I email them alot and they get back to me right away! i was shocked,but now I know its a good company .There was someone on here that sent me some info and I didnt even ask for it on here,claimed they were from Whistler.
So ya never know.....

 

[Highpockets]

Tell you what, Hot Pockets, just for you I'll amend my "sure" to a "reasonably certain" with the caveat that I'd love to be wrong on this. I think it's great that Uniden got on the ball and let their product manager post on here and would love to see Whistler do that as well.

Better? Good lord. I haven't had my you-know-what's busted this much since before I finally divorced my ex-wife! :roll: You guys would probably get along great.

-AZ

We'll see, time will tell.

You deserve to be busted.

 

[Highpockets]

ref :Well there ain't gonna be no "WhistlerMan" on here to complain about it to, for starters


How do you know he or she aint here already?They are very nice I email them alot and they get back to me right away! i was shocked,but now I know its a good company .There was someone on here that sent me some info and I didnt even ask for it on here,claimed they were from Whistler.
So ya never know.....

He know everything. :roll:

 

[fxdscon]

The closest thing we have to an "official spokesman" for them was/is Don Starr, and he's a 3rd party software developer.

In all fairness to Don Starr, in addition to authoring third party software I believe he was actually employed by GRE.

He wrote the firmware for the PSR-500, PSR-600, PSR-700, and PSR-800 series of scanners, and.....

He wrote and still runs the database update software and server for the EZscan series of GRE scanners (paid to him in advance by GRE thru 12/2014).

.

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

Good grief, there's more cattiness going on in this thread than in a high school gym girls locker room.

 

[Skip_Wilson]

Good grief, there's more cattiness going on in this thread than in a high school gym girls locker room.

Better known as "Reality Scanning"

 

[NWI_Scanner_Guy]

Better known as "Reality Scanning"

LOL!

 

[AZScanner]

You deserve to be busted.

If you say so. I think you could find far better entertainment for yourself by picking up a hobby of some sort instead hovering over my posts waiting for an opportunity to bust my chops. But that's just me. If you're looking for a suggestion, I recommend needlepoint. Very relaxing.

He know everything. :roll:

I don't know everything. Just most everything about scanning. That's what happens when you spend 3 decades doing something - you learn quite a bit about it.

Again, I'd love to be wrong - I'd love nothing more than for Whistler to step up and put their own "UPMan" on here for the community to ask questions and offer suggestions to. It would be great for the hobby if all the manufacturers did this. But I'm not holding my breath - it's quite a commitment to make to have someone like that specifically on your payroll to deal with some of the downright childish nonsense Paul endures here daily. As much as I envy Paul (who here doesn't) I'm not sure I'd be able to handle it without flying off the handle at some of these people.

Tell you what, for the benefit of everyone here, if you want to contine to give me crap, do so via PM. I'll be happy to debate you ad nauseum, but we don't need to turn it into a sideshow spectacle for the rest of the forum to read.

Thanks,
-AZ