What's wrong with the 436?
New Worst Scanner Pick?
- Thread starter ArkTex
- Start date
Eng74
Member
The first gen of the 436HP were lacking in the UHF area. The one that have been built the last couple of years have had that problem fixed. No need for foil over the batteries to help reception is needed. My 436HP is my go to radio now at home. Fire is on VHF, EMS UHF the next county over is P25 simulcast but there is only a single site so it works good no simulcast issues then.
r/woosh.
Radio Shack PRO-107; picked it up a few years ago at NEARfest in NH. Of course like a lot of stuff at ham radio flea markets, it came with no manual. Even after finding info online, I never could get it to work properly. Unloaded it several years later at another NEARfest. Hopefully, someone has put the PRO-107 out of our misery!
Radio Shack Pro-197... was the first digital scanner most of us got started on in my area when MOSWIN "came to town" I believe everyone who had one in my area are all dead now due to eeprom failures. They would slowly start losing their programming randomly, would reprogram and maybe be a week or a month until they lost it again, then finally they got to where they would no longer hold any memory.
Johnson Duoscan. I had one that spent more time in the shop waiting for parts than at home. This was during the parts shortage of 73-74. Good scanner when it worked. It apparently got zapped by a 50 watt low band radio from a block away. I heard this was a problem with them. Never was right after that. On low band it was the best I've had. It could pick up mobiles for about 30 miles on a southern engineered antenna.
I don't know that I can specifically name a particular "worst" scanner ever, but I kind of chuckle at the TRX-x and the Pro-197 mentions.
I have a TRX-2 at home that works just fine on the MPSCS system, smack dab in the middle of a simulcast tower county, it doesn't miss a single transmission. I have 3 WS-1080 (a-la GRE PSR-800's) in use between Macomb county and Washtenaw county, both simulcast counties. Work great. I have 2 Pro-197's in service, one works fantastic, one does not.
The difference for the 197's where one works, one does not? Antennas. I've combed the threads here, followed the insights of many well regarding folks here as SME's and put a ton of energy into the antenna systems that these radios all operate on. I guess I just chuckle when radios get dinged for the dreaded simulcast demon as being the worst ever.
I have a TRX-2 at home that works just fine on the MPSCS system, smack dab in the middle of a simulcast tower county, it doesn't miss a single transmission. I have 3 WS-1080 (a-la GRE PSR-800's) in use between Macomb county and Washtenaw county, both simulcast counties. Work great. I have 2 Pro-197's in service, one works fantastic, one does not.
The difference for the 197's where one works, one does not? Antennas. I've combed the threads here, followed the insights of many well regarding folks here as SME's and put a ton of energy into the antenna systems that these radios all operate on. I guess I just chuckle when radios get dinged for the dreaded simulcast demon as being the worst ever.
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2017
- Messages
- 201
Simulcast is a weird duck. I'm playing with my BCD325P2 which was awful on a Simulcast system here. I found that on my back patio I can lay it on its back on the fire pit and point it North and it works flawlessly. Stand it straight up and get the robot voice and chop.
I have a TRX-1 that didn't work in my town. When I moved out in the country I find that it works fine now. Location, Location, Location, orientation, antenna, etc.
Also if I use a paperclip for an antenna that works but then I lose range for grabbing analog stuff. I don't know what the worst scanner is but the best ones are the SDS100 and SDS200.
mooychild
Member
- Joined
- Nov 17, 2020
- Messages
- 14
For me it was the AOR DV-10. I've been using SDS100 and R30 for a long time.
I just had the sds100 repaired through a third party phone repair service due to cold solder issue. it only cost me 10 bucks
Before Repair:
AM was deaf from day one
RSSI values were not showing up
Vhf analog started lost transmissions (this was the last symptom)
No problem since the repair. The guy who fixed, told me there was no solder at least three parts on the jtag.
I just had the sds100 repaired through a third party phone repair service due to cold solder issue. it only cost me 10 bucks
Before Repair:
AM was deaf from day one
RSSI values were not showing up
Vhf analog started lost transmissions (this was the last symptom)
No problem since the repair. The guy who fixed, told me there was no solder at least three parts on the jtag.
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Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
The non-intuitive Unident programming software, the layout of the keypad, the "oops you pressed it and now it does NOTHING you want" knob, the "can't listen to it because it needs charging" scheme, and the general uselessness of it in terms of trying to find new talkgroups or listen to something you want....Want to listen to one single TGID? Find the talkgroup through 3 levels of choices yet? Good luck. Want to hunt for new stuff? Gotta lock out literally everything else first.
I've used this POS almost 15 minutes in the 7 months I've owned it.
I'm not the guy that has a scanner because I want to listen to the local police dispatch, and I don't use the database. If those two aren't applicable, then this radio is not for you.
Ever heard of favorites lists?
I would have to say any of the Uniden scanners is the 80's and 90's.
With the poor front ends they had back then, it was impossible to listen to UHF 450-512 range in a major metropolitan area.
This was before they had the tone squelch option.
A pager channel mixed with a business channel everytime they both were transmitting at the same time would make UHF unlistenable.
With the poor front ends they had back then, it was impossible to listen to UHF 450-512 range in a major metropolitan area.
This was before they had the tone squelch option.
A pager channel mixed with a business channel everytime they both were transmitting at the same time would make UHF unlistenable.
Maybe I should clarify the scanners are dead 😆
My 800xlt looks and works as good as they day got it.
The absolute worst scanner I ever owned was the old PRO2026 by Radio Shack. It was similar to the Uniden BC760XLT of the same era and most likely a private labeled version of it. For several reasons I really despised it since I had been spoiled by the 760. The 2026 was overloaded by intermod much more often than the 760, the programming was more complicated, and the reception was abysmal. It seemed that RS drained all the good features of the 760 and added all the bad things RS had.
Following close behind was the PRO9x series until the PRO95. I hated them with a passion unknown in prior centuries. I never understood the programming and the feature set was lacking. For whatever reason the PRO95 was a dynamic turn around for me and reignited my appreciation for RS scanners.
GRE and RS scanners were fine as far as I was concerned after that until the WS1080/TRX/PRO668 series came out, man I hated the line! I am sure part of it is raw numbers for me. By then I had been thoroughly indoctrinated into the Uniden cult and was so familiar with the operations of the Uniden line that the TRX etc. operations seemed like I was trying to run a maze backward with a blindfold and my wrist tied to my ankle (an actual nightmare I have had).
These days I am mostly using the x36/SDS as well as the 996/325 and 125 and have no problem doing what I need to do with them.
Following close behind was the PRO9x series until the PRO95. I hated them with a passion unknown in prior centuries. I never understood the programming and the feature set was lacking. For whatever reason the PRO95 was a dynamic turn around for me and reignited my appreciation for RS scanners.
GRE and RS scanners were fine as far as I was concerned after that until the WS1080/TRX/PRO668 series came out, man I hated the line! I am sure part of it is raw numbers for me. By then I had been thoroughly indoctrinated into the Uniden cult and was so familiar with the operations of the Uniden line that the TRX etc. operations seemed like I was trying to run a maze backward with a blindfold and my wrist tied to my ankle (an actual nightmare I have had).
These days I am mostly using the x36/SDS as well as the 996/325 and 125 and have no problem doing what I need to do with them.
racingfan360
Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2005
- Messages
- 1,158
+1 for this. I did know it was a gamble investing in one but still hugely underwhelming, especially given the price.
Wilrobnson
Rock or Something
Cool story. What's a favorite list? Something I can select and hit Scan? Oh wait, there's no such button. Want to listen to one talkgroup? Easy money! Turn the radio on, figure out which system it's on, then select the "department", then hit the chan/hold button and turn the knob until you find it.... Just make sure you don't tap that damn thing first, otherwise you're just fiddling with the volume. Don't stop to think at all during the process, because then you have to start all over. Will it hold? Who knows? Sometimes the "department" starts changing all on its own.
Save the ProVoice, which of course I had to pay extra for, any one of my TRX radios will run circles around this thing all day long. Thank God my workplace gave me a Harris portable to monitor/interop with the locals, otherwise I'd have to try all of this while driving.
/rant
I agree with the TRX-1 but with me it's more the physical radio itself than anything. Changing batteries was a nightmare with that case and the thing looked like a brick. It was hard to hold in one hand nevermind putting it in a jacket pocket. I returned mine (Pretty sure Amazon sent me a used one anyways) and got a 436hp instead. I'm much happier with it, although it has a weird shape to it as well. Kind of like a Subway foot long sub. It's a shame Whistler couldn't make something new rather than rehashing old GRE stuff
adsbgreenock
Member
I agree the TRX1 may be bad for simulcast and general use in the USA. I've had mine for a while now and it seems to handle itself among the common digital systems we have here in the UK. However, despite dealing with the big encryption thingy years before Stateside, we haven't really being dealing a lot with the systems you have (P25 etc)
I'm not sure I agree about your observations with EZSCAN being a saving grace for me it's quite the opposite, this software is the worst thing related to the TRX series scanner due to ita lack of functionality and manoeuvrability(copy and paste being up there at the top).
Drifting back on topic I would say the realistic pro 26 is in my view the worst from my scanner collection, volatile memory being a major P. I. T. A random reboots and loss of memories when needed most. I'm sure someone out there will have had worse though.
Regards