Nope. NOT getting the new digital scanner this year

[AZScanner]

OK... GRE, Uniden, enough.

Don't get me wrong, the new scanners are great. Love the features and the coverage. Computer control and a bazillion channels, great! But these $500-$600 radios are going to be the death of this hobby.

I know you guys have to make a living, but there really needs to be a stripped down version of these radios that can do P25 trunking or conventional for around $250-$300 street price. It doesn't have to have a zillion channels, GPS interfaces or all the other bells and whistles you guys are throwing in while trying to one-up each other. (Like... a multicolor LED? WTF?) Look at it like this: Right now, for the price of a BC396 or PSR500 I can get a brand new dual core HD widescreen laptop. HELLO! Guess what new toy Daddy's getting this Christmas? Ain't gonna be yet ANOTHER $500 digital scanner. I have 3 of those, and listening to Phoenix PD is still a crapshoot. Screw it. You listen. I'll be surfing YouTube on my living room sofa.

And that's the problem. If I can buy a full blown state of the art laptop computer (with Vista Ultimate on it, for cripes sakes) for LESS MONEY than a digital scanner, there's something wrong here. And don't tell me it's because of the price of radio components or licensing vocoders either, that's a bunch of baloney. There's far more components, chips, software and other "gotta have a license to use this" type of things in a computer than there is in a scanner, even a digital one.

Do this: Strip it down. It needs your typical ranges including 800 megs. It needs a vocoder and P25 trunking. Make it P25 only even, so that only a P25 unencrypted digital comm will break squelch on it. It doesn't have to search, only scan or hold. It doesn't need alpha tags or a computer port. It just needs to work on P25. Can it be done for $250-$300? I contend, based on the ever lowering price of consumer electronics, that it can. And would people buy it? I can't speak for anyone else but I know I would.

Ball's in your court guys.
-AZ

 

[kc8syo]

AZScanner I could'nt agree more.

 

[mjthomas59]

May not be what you are looking for... but if you are willing to buy "gently used" you can still pull those full feature scanners for 250-300.

HOw do i know this? because i own 3 of them and haven't paid more than 300 including shipping for any of them, and they were even in box with manuals and all original accessories. Pro-96 $295 on ebay, pro-2096 $300 on ebay and a 250d WITH digital card for i believe $225(+or- i can't remember exactly) from this website.

Don't get me wrong, i do believe that paying $600 for a scanner is crazy when you can buy a fullfunction laptop with all the goodies for less.... way less in fact. I picked up a toshiba with an 100gb harddrive, vista premium, 2gb ram, blah blah blah for 700 then i had over $250 in mail in rebates, plus i got a bunch of publishing software, a color printer, and a dual layer dvd burner thrown in for free.

Now how come the scanner manufacturers can't start doing that?

 

[n4voxgill]

computer chips sell in the millions. scanner chips a few thousand. add the in the license fee and you are way up over your price.

a new corvette and a KIA have the same basics. Fenders, doors, hoods, bodies, engines and so forth, so according to you the covette should sell for the same price. ain't gonna happen.

 

[Sac916]

computer chips sell in the millions. scanner chips a few thousand. add the in the license fee and you are way up over your price.

a new corvette and a KIA have the same basics. Fenders, doors, hoods, bodies, engines and so forth, so according to you the covette should sell for the same price. ain't gonna happen.

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition $400.
Windows Basic Edition $200

BC-996T $530
BCT-15 $230

Sony VAIO (laptop) VGN-AR590E $3,350
Gateway ML3109 (laptop) $450

Ipod 80GB $350
Ipod 30GB $250

Play Station 3 $500
Nintendo Wii $250

Most often you get what you pay for.
The biggest factor is simple supply and demand in addition to cost of production.

If you can't afford it. Save your money.
If it's too expensive for your taste, then wait.
For some, it's not an issue either way.

I can't afford a Ferrari, but I can afford a Mercedes. I drive a Nissan SUV.
I buy what I need and buy what I want within reason. I'm not going to yell
at Mercedes or Ferrari dealer about their prices.

PS
Sony actually loses money on each Play Station 3 they sell.
The offset is made by video game software and accessories and Sony's gazillion other high ticket products they sell.

I venture to guess that Uniden can't afford to do such a thing based on the fact that their inventory is not considered "high priced" and their scanner accessories are nearly non-existant.

 

[N4JNW]

The sad this is though, you pay $500 for a scanner, one should expect $500 performance.

My Pro-528 rivals my 396T in reception of VHF-Hi and UHF. That's no lie. I've thought, maybe it's just location, or antenna, or something else, but I've eliminated any possibilities. I've used the same antenna, with each scanner in the same place, in the same hand.

Now I'll admit and agree, the 396T is a pimp scanner, and I'll probably not be getting rid of it anytime soon, but $500.00 was a stretch for me.

If the above post is correct, in terms "You get what you pay for", then why is a $150.00 Triple Trunker scanning circles around a $500.00 scanner on the same bands?

Features you say? I'm sorry guys, the jig is up, I don't see $250.00 worth of features on the 396T that makes it any more special. P25 Digital isn't worth $250 extra dollars, and in all honesty, I could probably live without the dynamic memory and blue backlight. I'm guessing the "special blue backlight" is an extra $50.00?

 

[madnachos]

Assuming the license fees to use P25 are not that insane (only seen speculation on the fee...never seen any facts) the Pro96 should be a $250 scanner...IMO its not that great of a scanner, its only real nice feature is that it does P25 (only 500 usable chans is weak). My BCT15 for 1/2 the price outperforms it in every way and has a zillion more features. So, yea, I would totally agree that most of the $500 radios scanners are not worth the money. I firmly believe that a price point was set years ago at about $500 for a P25 scanner and Uniden and GRE/RS have just stuck with it. Just not enough competition to provide any incentive to lower the price I suppose.

"PS Sony actually loses money on each Play Station 3 they sell."

They sold one?

Sorry...could not resist ;-)

 

[N4JNW]

"PS Sony actually loses money on each Play Station 3 they sell."

They sold one?

Sorry...could not resist ;-)

I have played the PS3.. I must say, I still prefer the XBox 360...

 

[AZScanner]

Well these are all fine arguments both for and against, but you're missing my point. My point is that an entry level digital scanner is needed, for a number of reasons. They are:

1. Entry level scanner listeners that live in digital areas and just want to know what's going on.
2. Media and public safety who don't need nor care about anything other than "where's that fire truck going" or "what address did the police just send the K9 to?"
3. Here's mine ---> Intermediate to advanced users who use a scanner for one specific purpose. My BC796 has VHF to microwave in just about all flavors, plus PC control, alpha tagging, trunked search, chain search, etc, etc. Great. Grand. I don't use most of these features. What I use it for is to monitor Phoenix PD. That's it. I would LOVE to get a digital only knockaround little cheapie scanner to dedicate to this so I can free the 796 up for other things. Right now the 796 is overkill for this.

I'm not asking for champagne on a beer budget. I'm asking for beer when all there is to be had is champagne. Big difference - the former would be asking for something for nothing. The latter addresses a serious gap in the market that no one is serving. I think there's a truckload of money waiting to be made for the first one to jump on this. Yes? No? We all know the manufacturers all come in here for their market research, so let's tell them what we want! That was the idea behind this thread.

-AZ

 

[sirsmiley]

Windows Vista Ultimate Edition $400.
Windows Basic Edition $200

BC-996T $530
BCT-15 $230

Sony VAIO (laptop) VGN-AR590E $3,350
Gateway ML3109 (laptop) $450

Ipod 80GB $350
Ipod 30GB $250

Play Station 3 $500
Nintendo Wii $250

Most often you get what you pay for.
The biggest factor is simple supply and demand in addition to cost of production.

If you can't afford it. Save your money.
If it's too expensive for your taste, then wait.
For some, it's not an issue either way.

I can't afford a Ferrari, but I can afford a Mercedes. I drive a Nissan SUV.
I buy what I need and buy what I want within reason. I'm not going to yell
at Mercedes or Ferrari dealer about their prices.

PS
Sony actually loses money on each Play Station 3 they sell.
The offset is made by video game software and accessories and Sony's gazillion other high ticket products they sell.

I venture to guess that Uniden can't afford to do such a thing based on the fact that their inventory is not considered "high priced" and their scanner accessories are nearly non-existant.

Vista Home Premium is 120 dollars canadian, 110 US..i dont know where you get those prices,thats for full version , not upgrade.. http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22437&vpn=66I-00715&manufacture=Microsoft&promoid=1065

but yes, you see scanners are a niche market compared to millions of mass produced computers, and niche areas are always marked up, the less they make the more they gotta charge

 

[hoser147]

Just my 2cents but they know that there is a major change over of Radio Systems here and you arent goin to see anything low end till their market stabilizes and sales drop off. But then you got to look at what your gitn. Look at the prices of the scanners of the last ten years. All the different trunking and what not, you got one that dual trunks and then triple trunking, now P-25 and on and on. It would be nice to have features, but their making you buy a scanner that does all now,and they dont have the speed of the ones that just cover one spectrum...... Hoser147

 

[Dubbin]

AZ I see where you're coming from but do you know why they sell these radios for so much and add all the extra features? Its because of all the threads on here with people saying what they want in a scanner and that cost isn't an issue. Hell, look at the price of Unidens remote head, now thats ridicules...

 

[w0fg]

AZ I see where you're coming from but do you know why they sell these radios for so much and add all the extra features? Its because of all the threads on here with people saying what they want in a scanner and that cost isn't an issue. Hell, look at the price of Unidens remote head, now thats ridicules...

And as long as the manufacturers continue to cater to that geek market, the overall volume of sales will continue to decline. As others have pointed out, the scanner "mass market " (small as it may be) is to the non-enthusiasts. I've sold scanners since 1967, and 98% of them have been sold to folks who couldn't care less about the technicalities of trunking, P25 vs EDACS, etc. As was so correctly noted a couple of posts back, they just want to know where the ambulance or fire truck was headed when they heard the sirens go off. They don't want to have to learn about systems, talk groups, Motorola vs EDACS vs LTR or any of that s..t. They just want to know where the fire trucks are going. Until the manufacturers come up with a system that is as easy to comprehend as the original Electra Bearcat 8, the market will continue to shrink.

 

[trooperdude]

Until the manufacturers come up with a system that is as easy to comprehend as the original Electra Bearcat 8, the market will continue to shrink.

Today's modern systems are not as easy to comprehend as the Bearcat 8.

We will never go back to those days. Even cellphones are not as simple
as the first analog bag phones.

If the scanner manufacturers want to capture more market share, they need to
make a SIGNIFICANT investment in the user interface.

Ease of use is what sells.

As you said, nobody wants to have to be a system engineer to program a trunk
radio system.

 

[WA1CRZ]

one word:

YARDSALE

 

[AZScanner]

one word:

YARDSALE

One reply: NO.

A yard sale isn't the answer either. We need an entry level digital. How many $500 race scanners would Uniden or GRE be able to sell? I'm guessing not many.

Come on, this can't be that hard, can it? $300 is a good price point, even if the profit margin is smaller. I know that if such a scanner existed, I'd be tempted to buy 2 or even 3 for various purposes. And corporate customers would buy them by the dozen.

I'll get off the soapbox, but to Uniden and GRE: Think about it, will ya? It's a good idea!

-AZ

 

[Dubbin]

one word:

YARDSALE

I always thought it was Yard Sale :lol:

Anyway, I don't see how that would solve the problem.

 

[SkipSanders]

The only 'guestimate' we have on the licensing cost of having P25 in a scanner is the old Uniden scanners where it was a seperate, add on card. It cost $250. Figure $50 in electronics, $50 markup. License fee guestimate: $150.

Bear in mind that the licensing group really would prefer scanners DIDN'T have this capability, so they could 'sell' security without needing encryption, and that the fees they get from 'real' radios are going to be far, far more of their income. They have no incentive to lower the fees.

Unless you want a digital but NOT trunking scanner, you aren't likely to see one less than maybe $400.

 

[garys]

The only 'guestimate' we have on the licensing cost of having P25 in a scanner is the old Uniden scanners where it was a seperate, add on card. It cost $250. Figure $50 in electronics, $50 markup. License fee guestimate: $150.

Bear in mind that the licensing group really would prefer scanners DIDN'T have this capability, so they could 'sell' security without needing encryption, and that the fees they get from 'real' radios are going to be far, far more of their income. They have no incentive to lower the fees.

Unless you want a digital but NOT trunking scanner, you aren't likely to see one less than maybe $400.

Although Motorola and MA/Comm might agree with you, I don't think that DVSI is all that unhappy to sell the technology to Uniden, GRE, or even me if I wanted to pay the fee. I don't know about the specifics of your price breakdown, but $250.00 is the figure that I've heard bandied about for the IMBE technology. I don't think that Uniden or GRE are going to give the product away, so I'd say anything under about $500.00 isn't all that realistic.

Gary

 

[madnachos]

The only 'guestimate' we have on the licensing cost of having P25 in a scanner is the old Uniden scanners where it was a seperate, add on card. It cost $250. Figure $50 in electronics, $50 markup. License fee guestimate: $150.
.

I am not saying you are way off-base...but I would be real interested to see what the actual license fee is. I have a hard time believing that its $150 per unit in the qty that GRE and Uniden are producing. It could be..but like I said in my prior post, all I have seen are guesses for the fee.