The DMR previews have highlighted the tedious nature of inputting names manually on a Uniden scanner.
The only features provided when inputting names of the scanner are the ability to go back and forwards using the 4 and 6 keys, and scroll thru a long list of characters, many of which are in no logical order. (They are in fact in ASCII character number - which is irrelevant without a keyboard.)
Inserting or deleting a character involves recreating everything after that character, which is absurdly archaic.
Yet the 1,2,3,5,7,8,9,0 keys (Eight of them) do NOTHING. This is both both unhelpful and inefficient. There is clearly an opportunity to make better use of these keys which just a firmware update.
I see several subsets of characters that could be defined to make manual keying much easier and quicker when you don't have access to a computer.
* Upper case letters
* Lower Case letter
* Digits 0-9
* Punctuation . , ; : ! ? ' " ` ^ _ |
* Mathematical symbols # % = + - * / \
* Brackets & misc ( ) [ ] { } < > @ $
That's six blocks, leaving 2 keys spare for insertion and deletion.
So we make use of the eight spare keys to access those blocks quickly thus:
(† Future models could have a symbol printed on the keys to reflect this.)
1 Upper case letters, starting at M, allowing any UC letter to be selected in just 13 clicks
2 Insert after current position, moving succeeding characters right († up arrow)
3 Brackets & misc symbols starting at @ or $
4 Move left as at present († labelled with a left arrow)
5 Digits (starting helpfully at 5 making an additional label unnecessary†) allowing any digit to be selected in just 5 clicks
6 Move right as at present († labelled with a right arrow)
7 Lower case letters, starting at m, allowing any LC letter to be selected in just 13 clicks
8 Punctuation († starting at a question mark because it would make a more obvious label)
9 Mathematical symbols († starting at - because it is also a dash)
0 Delete current position, moving succeeding characters to the left. († down arrow)
This could be rolled out across all Uniden scanners by a firmware update and would make manual input much easier for everyone.
The only features provided when inputting names of the scanner are the ability to go back and forwards using the 4 and 6 keys, and scroll thru a long list of characters, many of which are in no logical order. (They are in fact in ASCII character number - which is irrelevant without a keyboard.)
Inserting or deleting a character involves recreating everything after that character, which is absurdly archaic.
Yet the 1,2,3,5,7,8,9,0 keys (Eight of them) do NOTHING. This is both both unhelpful and inefficient. There is clearly an opportunity to make better use of these keys which just a firmware update.
I see several subsets of characters that could be defined to make manual keying much easier and quicker when you don't have access to a computer.
* Upper case letters
* Lower Case letter
* Digits 0-9
* Punctuation . , ; : ! ? ' " ` ^ _ |
* Mathematical symbols # % = + - * / \
* Brackets & misc ( ) [ ] { } < > @ $
That's six blocks, leaving 2 keys spare for insertion and deletion.
So we make use of the eight spare keys to access those blocks quickly thus:
(† Future models could have a symbol printed on the keys to reflect this.)
1 Upper case letters, starting at M, allowing any UC letter to be selected in just 13 clicks
2 Insert after current position, moving succeeding characters right († up arrow)
3 Brackets & misc symbols starting at @ or $
4 Move left as at present († labelled with a left arrow)
5 Digits (starting helpfully at 5 making an additional label unnecessary†) allowing any digit to be selected in just 5 clicks
6 Move right as at present († labelled with a right arrow)
7 Lower case letters, starting at m, allowing any LC letter to be selected in just 13 clicks
8 Punctuation († starting at a question mark because it would make a more obvious label)
9 Mathematical symbols († starting at - because it is also a dash)
0 Delete current position, moving succeeding characters to the left. († down arrow)
This could be rolled out across all Uniden scanners by a firmware update and would make manual input much easier for everyone.
