PRO-83 FCC Type Accepted
- Thread starter robwilson
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Wow - an "interesting" scanner... 200 channels, no trunk, no alpha. But it does have "Signal Stalker" so it looks like they'll beat Uniden's search feature (they appear to do the same thing.) It has a special "Skywarn" feature that just jumps to channel 200, expecting you to have your local Skywarn freq in there. Who is this being marketed towards?
And why didn't anyone know about this til today ;> ?
- Rob
And why didn't anyone know about this til today ;> ?
- Rob
Good question. For anybody serious about scanning, this radio is useless. I think that they are trying to capitalize on this new gizmo of having an on board frequency counter. Even the manual shows up the limitations:
Besides what you already pointed about trunking and alpha tags being cut, they also lop'd frequencies. It pretty much mirrors the Pro-95 except you lose the 216 - 225MHz band along with 1240 - 1300MHz.
BY GOD ITS GOT A PROGRAMMING CABLE!!!
DonS
Member
rdale said:
crayon said:
Well, it is a Uniden scanner.
Pro-95
Member
Hey! Are you saying I'm handicapped!crayon said:
:lol:
lol. Ya made me double check my post .. hehe.
scanfan03
Member
I think the thing is kind of ugly looking. The display looks a little big to not have text tags. I hope the BC 246's Close Call works better than the Pro-83's Signal Catcher or whatever its called. When you live in a big city the Pro-83's Signal Catcher is useless.
scanfan03
Member
scanfan03 said:
Make that all Signal Stalker.
Why is it useless? Wouldn't you lockout ones as they come in? It doesn't have a wide range...
scanfan03 said:
Seeing as how the 83 is made by Uniden, I would expect them to act identical. How do you know what they will act like in the first place? Do you have one? ANY frequency counter is going to be affected by multiple signals, and that tends to frequently be the case in a city. It's typical for a signal to have to be 10 times stronger than the rest before a frequency counter will register it. Frequency counters just can't magically know what you want them to pick up. That's a common misconception with many people.
Joe M.
scanfan03
Member
rdale said:
You can choose a band for it to search, but if i choose UHF, I've got to lockout all of the HFD and HPD freqs (I live in Houston) and more. If i don't know what band someone is in, the thing will be going crazy because of all of the RF in the area. i'll have to see. I'm still going to buy a BC 246 when they come out.
scanfan03
Member
Voyager said:
Did you read the manuel? It said that if you are in a high RF area, it might not give you the right frequency. It said especially if you are by a lot of pager towers, which I am by like 5. Like I said I'm still gonna buy the BC246. I've never owned a frequency counter before. How well would an Optocom work in a high RF area?
scanfan03 said:
And that is different from any other frequency counter HOW? I'll give you the answer: It's NO DIFFERENT :!:
An Optocom is not a frequency counter - it's a receiver. But, an Optoelectronics Scout (regular or digital) or Cub will work exactly the same way. I speak from experience having a unit for many years. The absense of the same disclaimer is irrelevant since someone buying a frequency counter is expected to know what they are buying and how it will work.
It's obvious that you have never owned a frequency counter before. I've owned several (and still do) starting with a Heathkit unit. (circa 1980-ish)
Now, re-read what I said above (twice now). ANY frequency counter is going to act like that, so you can't blame Uniden for not having a 'magic box' that tells you what frequency you want to know while ignoring the ones you don't. Again, it's typical for the signal to have to be 10 times stronger than any other signal around before it will register on a counter. If they are allowing you to select bands, that may help, or it may just tell it to ignore the out of band signals (not register them) even though they will still block detection of in-band signals.
With any luck, rather than simply not registering the out of band signals, the unit will have bandpas filters that will truly not see the out of band signals (meaning that an in-band signal would have to be 10 times stronger than any other IN-BAND signal only, as opposed to any other signal in the spectrum), but that can easily get expensive and I bet will not be the case. Maybe UPM can comment.
Their disclaimer is something that is new for counters ONLY because this unit is marketed to consumers who likely do not know what a frequency counter is, let alone how it works. (read: who don't understand what I'm trying to explain to you)
Joe M.
Read UPMan's early report here - http://radioreference.com/modules.p...le=viewtopic&p=61086&highlight=#61086
Doesn't sound that bad.
- Rob
Doesn't sound that bad.
- Rob
scanfan03
Member
I guess it would be just like any other frequency counter. That report looks really promiseing.
rdale said:
I don't know if you said that in reference to my comment, but that article doesn't address the 'band' issues - does it ignore OOB hits, does it employ bandpass filters to remove OOB frequencies, or is it incorrect that you can select certain bands?
In reference to the article, in Malls, you are shielding the 'outside world' signals by being in the building, so that helps a lot. At a hamfest, nearly all on-site signals are going to be 10 dB higher than off-site signals, so you are only dealing with multiple on-site signals. The smaller the hamfest, the better chance for captures. On the road, you are going to get hits from nearby trucks. I see exactly the same results on my Scout 40. The only difference I see is that I get Cellular, and Cellular hits are likely going to be blocked on the 246. If not from hitting, certainly from receiving there. I really suspect the result is going to be very similar to a Scout or Cub, only with signal reception on top of it - more like an Xplorer, although the Xplorer doesn't really count frequencies - it is best described as sweeping the spectrum - searching it pretty fast, but receiving not only the strongest signals, but any signal that is in the near field. Maybe that's how the 246 operates, but again, that's a question for UPM.
(Does it count, or does it sweep? and How does the band selection work [if it has that]?)Joe M.
It employs bandpass filters. It counts.
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