PSR-500 and PSR-600 Pre Release (Continued 2)

[rdale]

It's released in 9 days, not 3 weeks...

 

[Stick0413]

Yep, all the info I have read and recieved from the people I ordered it from (Ham Station) is that it is being released in 9 days. I am number 10 in line and have been told that I am in good shape as far as their shipment goes. I wish I had one of those calenders with candy in it that I used to get at the start of December to count down to Christmas. :lol:

 

[Statevillian]

Clarification

You don't need a cheatsheet for the controls - as you can see in the menu it is VERY explanatory on the radio and every feature has a help associated with it in the radio. The cheatsheet reference was to remembering what all your scanlists are assigned to...

Yes, the menu makes it very easy for controls. "Cheat Sheets" for lack of a better word, may be necessary for the undocumented 'finds' that are not in the manual. Maybe I should have said "A thread for undocumented functions". From what I read, it looks like there is at least 1 found already. By comparison,the Pro 96 did not have the tables section defined in the manual.

 

[rdale]

What undocumented function was found?

 

[mancow]

I think it's maybe flexstep but I may be wrong.

 

[Statevillian]

Mancow is correct!

I think it's maybe flexstep but I may be wrong.

Yes, I was referring to the flexstep and below is the quote from the post about it at the Yahoo Group PSR-500......


"In PGM mode you can change common radio settings with pressing the
> F3 "GLOB" key. There is another menu for "super expert" settings
> which is accessed by pressing F-F3 "GLOB". The F (Func) key is
> generally an "amplifier" for what many keys normally do."

 

[offsite]

rc,

Following up on readability of alpha characters on the front panel:

The link below shows pics at the top and bottom of the page of the production and prototype front panels. The production is very dark gray (as you pointed out) and the prototype is mat finish silver.

Seeing these together, I think the unit I borrowed to eval this past weekend must have had the prototype front panel... so, reading the alpha characters likely will be easier than my experience would predict.

Since everyone probably will use s/w for programming anyway, about the only time the alpha keys will come into play might be to find objects using the alpha search function.

http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/PSR-500

Also, in rushing to document first impressions before the unit turned into a little black and silver pumpkin 1st thing Monday morning, I forgot to mention one plus that, for me at least, was primary: this unit has temporary object lockout!

This is the main reason I passed on the 396T after having the 996T (996 has it, 396 doesn't)

 

[rchalupajr]

offsite,

thank's for all the info. it's great you had the opportunity to "test drive" one of the new unit's. I can hardly wait for all who ordered to start posting their thoughts on these once they receive them and start using them.

 

[WayneH]

Yes, the menu makes it very easy for controls. "Cheat Sheets" for lack of a better word, may be necessary for the undocumented 'finds' that are not in the manual.

There's also a help option. By pressing Func-SEL it gives you a short description of what you have your cursor on when in the settings modes.

What's nice is you no longer need to remember all the FUNC-<#,MAN, etc> keystrokes to set the various values like with the PRO-96/2096. Everything is presented in a straight forward manner.

And mentioned in an above post, pressing FUNC and certain buttons acts as an amplifier meaning Func-down would page down versus step one place down, Func-right would place the cursor at the far right when editing, etc.

 

[DaveIN]

I think the help function is a great idea. Could have used that on the PRO-96 a few times.

 

[JASII]

GRE PSR-500/600 vs. Uniden BC396/996

Just for fun to pass the time until some of these are in our hands soon, what have you folks seen as some features that the Uniden BC396/996 have that the GRE PSR-500/600 will NOT have? So far, I have noticed:

-Fire Tone Out Capability

Now, I have to be honest with you guys here. I have a Uniden Bearcat 996 and I know the correct RF frequency AND local fire paging information for my fire department, BUT I have never tried this feature. I actually have other equipment for alerting capability. I have a Radio Shack weather radio for SAME, a Motorola Minitor for the fire department, and an L-Tronics Monitor/Paging Receiver http://www.ltronics.com/paging.htm for our local civil defense sirens. Since our area will be switching from an analog conventional VHF system to a digital trunked APCO P-25 system soon, they will also switch to a different VHF frequency for fire paging. I will have to re-configure the L-Tronics unit at that time. I guess I never really cared to tie up a $500 scanner just to monitor the fire frequency for pages, but it is nice that they included it. Anyway, are there any other features that you guys can think of that the 396 or 996 can do that the PSR-500/600 will not do.

Also, in this game of one upmanship, what does Uniden need to do to "step up their game"? Should they come out with a replacement to the 396/996 line by incorporating the additional features of the PSR-500/600 into the replacement for the 396/996? What are some other additional features that need to be added?

 

[WayneH]

Also, in this game of one upmanship, what does Uniden need to do to "step up their game"? Should they come out with a replacement to the 396/996 line by incorporating the additional features of the PSR-500/600 into the replacement for the 396/996? What are some other additional features that need to be added?

This is a better question for the Uniden forum.

Considering this is a sticky that will result in pages of posts I would like for everyone to talk specifically about the 500/600 to ease people who are new to the thread and have to read multiple pages.

 

[mancow]

I noticed the Hamstations' site says they will be shipping them on the 24th.

 

[KC9NEG]

I'm pretty sure Jeff's allowing time for the shipment to get from GRE in CA to him in IN.

Todd/Indy

 

[trido]

I'm pretty sure Jeff's allowing time for the shipment to get from GRE in CA to him in IN.

Todd/Indy

Todd, your right that is the time from GRE AMERICA in CALIF to Hamstation in INDIANA.

Again these dates are what GRE America hopes for I am sure much to do after plane gets here, customs etc.

 

[Statevillian]

I didn't see it in the manual. Question for those lucky enough to handle the unit already......Does the keypad light up like the Pro96?....

 

[detroit780]

Keypad

From the picture on the front page of the manual Yes the key pads lights up. That is if you have the final release PDF file of the manual available from the GRE web site.

I didn't see it in the manual. Question for those lucky enough to handle the unit already......Does the keypad light up like the Pro96?....

 

[KC9NEG]

Backlight can be configured for LCD plus keypad, or either, or off (stealth). It can also be set to flash (I don't recall if flash is configurable for certain object type rx or not).

Todd/Indy

 

[offsite]

I didn't see it in the manual. Question for those lucky enough to handle the unit already......Does the keypad light up like the Pro96?....

Yep! Very easy to read, and the back light dwell time is adjustable!

Also, has anyone else tried hitting up their local store for an overnight or weekend demo?

I'm guessing there are a lot of "sample" units available for that purpose in the stores already since this store received their unit last Wednesday.

I have no special relationship with this store... other than I've bought all my Uniden stuff from them over the years. In fact I got the impression they were not even going to carry the GRE because none of the sales guys even knew about it 'til about three weeks ago when I started bugging them about availability.

But, since I've really needed a digital unit for a while, now that I've actually seen the 500 (except for the prototype front panel) I'm definitely going to buy one (and likely the 600 too, for cloning efficiency), even though this is a major paradigm shift for me.

I really did try to hold off for a 396T replacement (with improved digital sound and temporary channel lockout), but new models usually aren't available 'til about six months after the "rumors" hit the forum... and nothing's showing up over there at all yet.

My guess is (and it's just a guess), once the Uniden PMs got wind of GRE's new approach, they may have had to rethink going forward with same old same old... I know I would have. And of course there's a pretty significant phase lag between a brand new concept and a deliverable unit.

Who really knows how this will all play out (most likely in the usual leap frog way), but for now the 500 looks like a no brainer (at least for me).

 

[JASII]

Uniden Vs. GRE

Just for fun to pass the time until some of these are in our hands soon, what have you folks seen as some features that the Uniden BC396/996 have that the GRE PSR-500/600 will NOT have? So far, I have noticed:

-Fire Tone Out Capability

Now, I have to be honest with you guys here. I have a Uniden Bearcat 996 and I know the correct RF frequency AND local fire paging information for my fire department, BUT I have never tried this feature. I actually have other equipment for alerting capability. I have a Radio Shack weather radio for SAME, a Motorola Minitor for the fire department, and an L-Tronics Monitor/Paging Receiver http://www.ltronics.com/paging.htm for our local civil defense sirens. Since our area will be switching from an analog conventional VHF system to a digital trunked APCO P-25 system soon, they will also switch to a different VHF frequency for fire paging. I will have to re-configure the L-Tronics unit at that time. I guess I never really cared to tie up a $500 scanner just to monitor the fire frequency for pages, but it is nice that they included it. Anyway, are there any other features that you guys can think of that the 396 or 996 can do that the PSR-500/600 will not do.

Also, in this game of one upmanship, what does Uniden need to do to "step up their game"? Should they come out with a replacement to the 396/996 line by incorporating the additional features of the PSR-500/600 into the replacement for the 396/996? What are some other additional features that need to be added?

I suspect that any number of us that already have the Uniden 396 and/or 996 may continue to keep them and use them because of some of the features that they have that the GREs don't have. In fact, in a mobile environment or at home having BOTH a GRE PSR-600 AND a Uniden Bearcat BCD996T would give some pretty decent monitoring capability. You could have quite a bit of flexibility using both units simultaneously.