My question and answer uniden gave me onDStar and MotoTurbo

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BamaScan

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Here is the question I submited to Uniden. Not to bash Uniden I own 2 Uniden Scanners. I hope this Customer Service Rep just did not have all of the answers.

Your Question :
Hi, Are you working on a digital scanner that will hear DStar Ham Radio ? Or and Digital Motorola Turbo ? Thanks.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Solution :
Thank you for using our system.

Thank you for contacting Uniden with your question.


Unfortunately we have not heard of these systems to be able to verfiy them for you. All we can say is that our radios are manufactured to receive standard systems.

Thank you for choosing Uniden.
Sincerely,
 

JoeyC

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Well, technically, Uniden is right. There is no such thing as DSTAR, its D-STAR, nor is there any Digital Motorola Turbo, its MOTOTRBO.
 

KE4ZNR

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Not surprising that a (probably outsourced) customer service rep did not know specifics on this. Remember: these customer service reps handle ALL of Uniden's product lines, not just scanners.
And if even if Uniden is working on something behind closed doors they would not let their customer service reps know about it. Both GRE & Uniden work on next generation features/options but keep that type of info close to the vest for competitive reasons.
Marshall KE4ZNR

Here is the question I submited to Uniden. Not to bash Uniden I own 2 Uniden Scanners. I hope this Customer Service Rep just did not have all of the answers.

Your Question :
Hi, Are you working on a digital scanner that will hear DStar Ham Radio ? Or and Digital Motorola Turbo ? Thanks.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our Solution :
Thank you for using our system.

Thank you for contacting Uniden with your question.


Unfortunately we have not heard of these systems to be able to verfiy them for you. All we can say is that our radios are manufactured to receive standard systems.

Thank you for choosing Uniden.
Sincerely,
 

torontokris

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Well MOTOTRBO is proprietary (I believe) so Uniden wont be working on that (nor any other scanner maker)

D-star might be possible but would be costly.. so maybe not worth it.
At the moment I dont see it being a popular highly used "standard" (yes some people use it) but again maybe not enough to make a $800-$900 scanner out of it (my own personal estimate based on what it costs to upgrade to Dstar on a HAM radio)

Anyways I dont see Uniden or GRE making either...
 

Josh

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Personally, I don't see why Uniden would make a scanner capable of decoding Ham D-Star when you can easily purchase a ham radio that does D-Star. The ham radio could possibly cover multiple bands of TX and RX and have as many memories as many scanners and the ease of programming by front panel or computer right out of the box.

Although it wouldn't decode trunking systems or P25/IMBE, a d-star portable radio is just as feature rich as a scanner is.
 

mike_s104

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maybe Upman could chime in and give us a real answer. maybe Upman could let us know if a firmware update for the x96XT series would allow for TDMA capability.
 
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torontokris

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Let me play UpMan for a minute (call me the Canada UpMan)...

Here is what I would say

"neither have been officially announced, and there is no comment as to what is in development
but I can say... MOTOTRBO is a proprietary code and as such we can not even work on it much less release a scanner with that feature."


Uniden / UpMan is not going to just tell us via an unofficial announcement (because someone asked) what they have in development and give away to the competitors what they are doing.

Until an official announcement is made assume they are not.



maybe Upman could chime in and give us a real answer.
 

mike_s104

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Let me play UpMan for a minute (call me the Canada UpMan)...

Here is what I would say

"neither have been officially announced, and there is no comment as to what is in development
but I can say... MOTOTRBO is a proprietary code and as such we can not even work on it much less release a scanner with that feature."


Uniden / UpMan is not going to just tell us via an unofficial announcement (because someone asked) what they have in development and give away to the competitors what they are doing.

Until an official announcement is made assume they are not.

Thought I'd try. :) I'd buy a 996XT now if I knew it would support TDMA with a future firmware update.
 

torontokris

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Thought I'd try. :) I'd buy a 996XT now if I knew it would support TDMA with a future firmware update.

Agree would be nice, I personally dont think it will happen via a firmware update. seems a bit more complicated then that (but thats my opninion only).
Maybe we will ahve to wait for an XTS model


I did a search and UpMans official comment would be..

For competitive reasons, I do not publicly (or privately, so the phone calls aren't terribly productive :) ) discuss upcoming firmware updates. There have been a few very rare exceptions. I will say that it is normal for us to have one or more incremental improvements under development or test at any particular time. Updates typically require several months of beta testing amongst from 10-20 confidential testers around the country (and, again, if I need you I can and do contact you).

As mentioned, there are other topics and/or comments that I cannot (and should not) touch
 

rvictor

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Originally Posted by UPMan
For competitive reasons, I do not publicly (or privately, so the phone calls aren't terribly productive ) discuss upcoming firmware updates. There have been a few very rare exceptions. I will say that it is normal for us to have one or more incremental improvements under development or test at any particular time. Updates typically require several months of beta testing amongst from 10-20 confidential testers around the country (and, again, if I need you I can and do contact you).

As mentioned, there are other topics and/or comments that I cannot (and should not) touch

Perhaps UPman should just make that quoted material a part of his sig and maybe people would get the idea. :) Sure seems pretty clear to me, but people seem to think that he doesn't really mean it, I guess.

Dick
 

ronenp

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The Motorola Trunk is also a properiaty and stil the Uniden (and others ) can track and decode it
Im sure that in a matter of time there will be scanners capable of tracking TRBO NEXTEDGE ans IDAS
otherwise uniden will have to sell only DECT phones .. because the world goes digital and the analog start to fade .....

I can tell that i start to see project that individuals and groups makes for decoders for D-star and others
with PC and minimal Hardware ...

So im sure (and i wrote it before few month ago) that it will be available in a matter of time ....
 

torontokris

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Well unless Motorola sells the rights/license to TRBO to scanner makers I'm sure it won't happen. So far Motorola has said they won't.

If they won't then Uniden isn't even working on it, and would be a lot longer then a few months

Trunk and APCO are allowed (we pay for the P25 licensing in the cost of the scanner.)



The Motorola Trunk is also a properiaty and stil the Uniden (and others ) can track and decode it
Im sure that in a matter of time there will be scanners capable of tracking TRBO NEXTEDGE ans IDAS
otherwise uniden will have to sell only DECT phones .. because the world goes digital and the analog start to fade .....

I can tell that i start to see project that individuals and groups makes for decoders for D-star and others
with PC and minimal Hardware ...

So im sure (and i wrote it before few month ago) that it will be available in a matter of time ....
 

ButchGone

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I don't know why D-Star would be that big of a deal to add. It's an open format for amateur radio use. In fact there are hams right now who have built their own gateways and radios that work well on D-Star systems and repeaters. Adding this capability to a scanner that already has a vocoder shouldn't be hard at all. After working a little D-Star all I can say is wow...the voice quality and ability to link to other states/countries is endless.
BG..
 

torontokris

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I agree with you but how much are you willing to pay for it?

I see a D-Star board at my local radio store for $270 extra.. so lets use that as an estimate
are you willing to spend $270 over the $500 price tag just to listen to D-star on a scanner?

Also how many others will pay to listen to D-star on scanner for $270 extra? Would it even be worth Unidens time for the small amount who will buy it?



I don't know why D-Star would be that big of a deal to add. It's an open format for amateur radio use. In fact there are hams right now who have built their own gateways and radios that work well on D-Star systems and repeaters. Adding this capability to a scanner that already has a vocoder shouldn't be hard at all. After working a little D-Star all I can say is wow...the voice quality and ability to link to other states/countries is endless.
BG..
 

motomeso

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I agree with you but how much are you willing to pay for it?

I see a D-Star board at my local radio store for $270 extra.. so lets use that as an estimate
are you willing to spend $270 over the $500 price tag just to listen to D-star on a scanner?

Also how many others will pay to listen to D-star on scanner for $270 extra? Would it even be worth Unidens time for the small amount who will buy it?

I think the better question is how much of a demand is there for a D-Star capable scanner?
 
N

N_Jay

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I think the better question is how much of a demand is there for a D-Star capable scanner?


DING DING DING: We have a winner.

EVEN if the existing HW will handle it, there are costs to SW development that need to be covered, as well as support costs.

If the market is small, the cost per unit will be high.

If the cost is high, the sales will be low.

If the sales are predicted to be low, the feature/project does not get funded.

Welcome to the life of a product manager.
 

wb0wao

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For D-Star, get an Icom IC-92AD which (if I read the instruction manual correctly) will work with digital voice between 118 - 174 MHz and 350 - 470 MHz on receive. That should take care of the D-Star request.

As far as MotoTRBO is concerned, if I understand the system correctly, it isn't just a "mode" but has some built-in parameters that are set up by the system installer at the time of installation make it somewhat unique. So, say the local PD goes to MotoTRBO and is on 155.250 MHz, you cannot go on eBay and pick up a MotoTRBO unit and have it programmed for 155.250 and expect to listen to the PD unless you know the parameters that were used during system installation. If I am incorrect in my understanding, someone please correct me!

Dennis
 

PeterGV

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Actually, MOTOTRBO is not a proprietary Motorola thing, it's a version (or, perhaps, an exact implementation... I'm not sure) of the ETSI Digital Mobile Radio standard, which is an open standard.

Whether you just pick-up a radio and use it has been discussed on RR recently on this thread.

The open question is whether we'll see a MOTOTRBO capable scanner. It's an interesting standard, and it can support a lot of really interesting "value added" applications features (text delivery, location-based services, etc). The jury appears to be out, however, as to whether it's appropriate for public safety use (yes, I know Moto had tried to SELL MOTOTRBO into the PS markets).

Peter
K1PGV
 

JStemann

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not quite

For D-Star, get an Icom IC-92AD which (if I read the instruction manual correctly) will work with digital voice between 118 - 174 MHz and 350 - 470 MHz on receive. That should take care of the D-Star request.

As far as MotoTRBO is concerned, if I understand the system correctly, it isn't just a "mode" but has some built-in parameters that are set up by the system installer at the time of installation make it somewhat unique. So, say the local PD goes to MotoTRBO and is on 155.250 MHz, you cannot go on eBay and pick up a MotoTRBO unit and have it programmed for 155.250 and expect to listen to the PD unless you know the parameters that were used during system installation. If I am incorrect in my understanding, someone please correct me!

Dennis

I have the 92ad, currently it only allows D-Star on the ham bands. I was trying to experiment with a nexedge system and the radio would not allow me to select digital voice outside the ham band. I was trying for 15?.???, can't remember the exact freq. Hoping for a mod, that will let me try my experiment again.

jeff.
 
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