Proposal for the Uniden Scanner European Users Discussion (USEUD)

[iz0kvz]

Hi All,
I'm Tony, an Italian Amateur Radio Operator, my callsign is IZ0KVZ and I want to propose to create a forum section dedicated to all European users.
I'm interested in short waves' listening and I bought a UBCD-3600xlt scanner on last november. It was very difficult to me to start operating well with my device also because it was defective. The Italian distributor, to whom my thanks go, replace it promptly but I think the manual is mainly oriented to users that can count on a database.
Now, I tried to open a communication channel with the European distributor to understand if is possible to improve the firmware, in particular the DMR decoder that is not so effective.
Unfortunately I've had a terrible experience with the - so called - European distributor for Uniden products and I decided to propose this initiative.

I saw that the American community is full of interesting posts and all members are doing a great job to help who needs advices, technical infos, etc. So, why don't we make a similar experience?

I can give my personal experience and my availability to do tests.
The aim is to improve the devices available in Europe and involve the European distributor that, in my experience, provides support only occasionally and makes communication very difficult (I can provide privately different examples of terrible mail communications).
I hope others find this initiative useful.
So let's start guys!

 

[G7HID]

Good idea Tony...

Mike

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Uniden America Corporation setup their own forum & Yahoogroups for their products and area users.
http://www.homepatrol.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&func=listcat&Itemid=39

Maybe Uniden Europe can do the same too.

 

[G7HID]

I don't think Uniden Europe exists...
The 3600 is made for and marketed by: https://www.avera.eu/
A Dutch distribution company..

Mike

 

[MtnBiker2005]

Uniden Europe Liaison Office
http://www.uniden.co.jp/english/company/group.html

 

[G7HID]

For the product UBCD3600XLT any communicatio to Uniden Europe has so far gone unanswered - The same for Uniden US any request has met the strange answer of 'not our product'....
Avera claim responsibility for the product, but are purely a distribution outfit and contact Uniden for any technical questions. Even the single firmware upgrade is not done through Uniden but by downloading a firmware file from an Avera site..

Mike

 

[iz0kvz]

Hi, first of all thank You very much indeed for partecipating to this discussion.

I report my experience; I contacted several times Avera Distribution during last months and I have to say they are a little confused on their role because they continue to change version at every email.
in an email they wrote: "Answering sales questions from users is not our task." and "We are not a support line for end-users." After I asked for a contact that can support me, the same representative wrote "Uniden contact in Europe for UBCD3600XLT is the company Avera-Distributing".

I found an oppositional and sarcastic tone in several mails and hasty answers, sometimes not applicable to my answers. I can provide the text of emails.

Just to do an example: I asked if is possible to restore the original firmware (v. 1.00.01) on the 3600 after the upgrade to the v. 1.02.00. The answer was: "Yes it s possible" and "...if you ever want to go back ( which we can not imagine) we can provide that old version".

I sent them back other 4 emails asking clearly for the bin file of v.1.00.01 (to make some comparative test) and they began to beat around the bush... I' still waiting for the file after 10 days.

I don't think Uniden central knows about this way of treating customers; they should know!

 

[G7HID]

Any Uniden representatives are welcome to contribute in any way ?

Mike

 

[mikewazowski]

I saw that the American community is full of interesting posts and all members are doing a great job to help who needs advices, technical infos, etc. So, why don't we make a similar experience?

By no means is this an American community. Members from all over are welcome to participate.

Feel free to post your European technical issues here.

 

[iz0kvz]

By no means is this an American community. Members from all over are welcome to participate.

Feel free to post your European technical issues here.

Thank You Mike for Your availability.
The problem is not the community, in which I have always found kind and helpful people; the main issue is the absence of an official single point of contact who can help 3600 users.
For example, if I need a firmware version or if I want to report a bug or a "nice to have" I have not a customer care representative that helps me.

I want to be clear: I absolutely do not want to make controversy, but the answers I received from Avera Distributing - when I received them - are unacceptable and show that the company does not care about customers and does not intend to improve the product taking into account the point of user's view. On the other hand, when I wrote to Uniden USA this was their answer:
"We apologize for the inconvenience. Unfortunately we are the american support and don’t have any documentation on this particular model. We aren’t sure who the appropriate support team for Europe is, but we would recommend contacting Australian support. You can find more information about our various contact regions here:
http://www.uniden.com/about-uniden/locations
Thank you for Choosing Uniden!"

In add, the Italian distributor - a very kind person - depends on the European distributor for his answers.
I paid for a scanner 440 € (that is about 540 US $) and I have not any type of support... I find this shameful.
Sorry for the long post.

 

[mikewazowski]

Thank You Mike for Your availability.

The problem is not the community, in which I have always found kind and helpful people; the main issue is the absence of an official single point of contact who can help 3600 users.

I understand but keep in mind that this is not an official Uniden Tech Support forum. Uniden North America customers are lucky enough to have a Uniden representative who hangs out here.

Even if I created a separate forum for European users, you would still need to find a European representative from Uniden.

Right now your best bet is to post your issues here and try to convince Uniden to have a European representative monitor the forum. UPMan might be able to reach out to his counterparts for help. If that happens, we might look at a Euro forum just so the rep doesn't have to look at NA issues.

 

[dave3825]

I don't think Uniden Europe exists...
The 3600 is made for and marketed by: https://www.avera.eu/
A Dutch distribution company..

Mike

Their website says that they import, export and distribute. Nowhere does it say they manufacture anything.

 

[G7HID]

Their website says that they import, export and distribute. Nowhere does it say they manufacture anything.

That's the point, they have no technical or service support capability.. They have purchased a scanner model from Uniden but are unable to supprt it themselves and we have to rely on them dealing with Uniden support..
For instance when informed there was a problem receiving Simplex DMR - the reply from Avera was 'could I explain what I meant by Simplex ?'... confidence in the support went to zero....

Mike

 

[iz0kvz]

UBCD3600xlt - Poor sensitivity

Hi all,
have anyone noticed the poor sensitivity of the 3600 (or 436 for US users)?

I compared the signal of a UHF repeater (431.275 MHz): on Kenwood TH-D74E S=9 on both bands (on manual the declared sensitivity of those bands is 0.2 µV and 0.36 µV 12 dB SINAD) and on the Uniden scanner only two bars of signal (declare sensitivity 0.3 µV 12 dB SINAD).

Has anyone a comparison info to understand the signal strength interpretation (number of bars to S)?

Thank You guys.

 

[G7HID]

Have not taken measurements, but compared to a number of other radios and scanners the 3600 is deaf at UHF..

Mike

 

[jonwienke]

No. There is no standard calibration for the bars on a signal strength display, so comparing bar displays between brands is meaningless. And the bar display is not precisely calibrated. It's only intended to give you a general idea of signal strength.

 

[jonwienke]

Have not taken measurements, but compared to a number of other radios and scanners the 3600 is deaf at UHF.

Not really. Older units generate UHF noise from the battery compartment because of a missing capacitor. The noise interferes with UHF reception, especially when using the factory antenna. If you use an aftermarket BNC antenna, the effect of the interference is reduced because the adapter moves the antenna away from the noise source. Installing the capacitor eliminates the noise. There is a huge thread about this in the tech support forum. Uniden fixed the problem about 2 years ago, all newer units have the capacitor installed.

 

[G7HID]

Not really. Older units generate UHF noise from the battery compartment because of a missing capacitor. The noise interferes with UHF reception, especially when using the factory antenna. If you use an aftermarket BNC antenna, the effect of the interference is reduced because the adapter moves the antenna away from the noise source. Installing the capacitor eliminates the noise. There is a huge thread about this in the tech support forum. Uniden fixed the problem about 2 years ago, all newer units have the capacitor installed.

All 3600's made for Avera are less than 18 months old...

Mike

 

[jonwienke]

Are you basing that statement off the serial number?

I've tested several dozen 436s in the course of installing GPS modules inside them (and installing C1 if it is missing), and have not noted any UHF deafness after the battery compartment noise issue has been fixed.

 

[Ubbe]

The antenna are made for the US frequencies that might not be optimum for european monitoring.
Look at UPmans measurements of other antennas performance relative to the stock one.
Measuring Relative Antenna Receive Performance - Massively Uninformed
One can see that the stock antenna seems to be tuned to 175Mhz and 415MHz.

/Ubbe