Pro-2052 without serial port...

[AubreyCTurnerJr]

I've been lurking on these forums for a while, and I've learned quite a bit. Anyhow, I've got an interesting one for the Radio Shack experts here.

I'd been contemplating putting together a webcasting setup for our local police/fire trunking system, and the recent sale on the Pro-2052 gave me the impetus to get started. I've got my icecast server and broadcaster set up and ready to go, and tested with output from my Pro-95.

So I went down the Radio Shack today to get the 2052, and they only had two left--the display model and one in a box. I bought the scanner and a serial cable, brought it home, plugged in the power, entered my local trunking frequencies and talkgroup ID's and had it working. So then I thought I'd go ahead and move it to the computer when I saw that it didn't have a serial port (!). Since I was planning to grab the talkgroup ID's via serial and put them into the icecast stream, this was a bit of a problem.

I double-checked the model number, just to be sure I wasn't accidentally given a unit that looked similar to the 2052. It said Pro-2052 on the front and had "Model 20-432" on the back. I took it back to Radio Shack and the lady there was just as confused as I was after comparing it to the display model. Despite having the same model number and SKU, the display model had a serial port and mine didn't. They gave me the display model in exchange, and it seems to work (at least the scanner part, I haven't tried the serial yet).

I did several searches on this site as well as Google (using terms like "pro-2052 serial" and "pro-2052 without serial") and didn't find anything.

Was there ever a version of the Pro-2052 that didn't have a DB9 serial port? Unfortunately, I didn't write down the date code of that unit. I do recall that it didn't appear to make sense to me, since I thought the sticker was supposed to have the month/year (like 08A99), but this one had an extra letter (something like 01XA7).

 

[ka3jjz]

The answer is really obvious - send it back, pronto! No, I've never heard of a 2052 with a missing serial port - it kinda sounds like someone needed a port for a defective 2052 and removed the jack. That's something I seriously doubt a RS salesperson would know how to do. Likely as not the one that you got was perhaps part of a display/refurbished unit.

73s Mike

 

[AubreyCTurnerJr]

I took it back and got the display model. It's working fine, and I've got it set up so that my icecast stream includes the talkgroup information.

I was just curious if anyone had seen anything like it before.

I forgot to mention this in my original post, but the Radio Shack information sticker was right in the spot where the serial port is supposed to be on that model. It appeared to me that this particular scanner was manufactured without the serial port, despite having the same model and SKU (i.e. it didn't appear to me that someone had removed the serial port and used the sticker to cover up; in fact, there was no hole in the case in that position).

 

[DaveIN]

The 2052 was a big seller. Maybe Rado shack decided many people didn't use the serial port and requested Uniden to drop it and reduce cost. I remember a price drop in the 2052, maybe it's related?

 

[loumaag]

Makes that second item listed on Features Page on the web site a little tough to implement though.

• Features:
  • Display backlight makes the scanner easy to read in low-light situations
  • Bi-directional RS-232 interface; optional software lets you program the scanner with your PC
  • Coverage: 29-54MHz, 108-136.975MHz, 137-174MHz, 179.75-215.75MHz, 216-225MHz, 225-400MHz
  • SAME and WX alert with icon