PSR-500 and PSR-600 Pre Release

[windigofer]

A perusal of this thread will show Don's response...

And for those not willing to look back, Don's response may be summarised as "I'd like to write a program for this, and hopefully I'll get enough time to do so" (Don has a kidlet now, as I understand it, and family stuff is taking up a lot of his time).

In the meantime, Butel has also announced a program for the PSR-500 (so if Don doesn't get enough free time to write a program, then there'll be at least one other option out there).

If one is feeling adventurous, one could always get the specifics on how the data streams work for programming the scanner from GRE and write your own... (The main reason there aren't a lot of alternatives is due to the data stream for programming data being encrypted in most of the newer GRE kit. We'll see if the PSR-500 also has this or if it uses cleartext like the Pro-92 did.)

On a pure curiosity viewpoint, I do have to wonder how widely available the specs are for the data stream on these radios. (Don, Butel folks, any observations?) Also, the PSR-500 will supposedly have more functionality than previous GRE kit (as far as being able to send data back and forth to a PC) so there may be changes to the protocol that need to be dealt with.

(Myself, I'm very curious about this because I think there could be some *very* interesting possibilities with interfacing with RadioReference's databases--at least based on my understanding on how bank objects will work with this radio.)

 

[windigofer]

http://www.polandbymail.com/get_item_250300_nesting-doll-matryoshka-7pcs.htm

Thanks for the visual example there :3 (Yes, I'm all too much of a visual thinker at times )

 

[rdale]

GRE has held the protocal as proprietary (at least for the last few runs of scanners.)

 

[chankel]

PSR-500/600 at 380-400 MHz?

Someone may have already asked and answered this question, but is there any information regarding whether or not the PSR-500 and -600 will follow the 9600 CC military 380-400 MHz TRS?

The BCD-996T is supposed to be able to, but apparently the PRO-96/2096 can't do so.

I think it would be a major disappointment with all of the other features promised for the PSR-500/600 not to be able to handle 380-400 MHz 9600 CC trunking.

 

[DaveIN]

380 and 700MHz trunking on the PSR-500/600 have been mentioned.

 

[walter900]

Soooooo...... What's the deal.... Will GRE finaly have a I-CALL feature now during trunking, or same ol' s*&^ as before!! ....Yes.... It's black!!!

I also would have loved to have seen those trunking activity indicators like the uniden 245 has. I think it's a neat feature... Having the ability to look at all of the trunking activity on all of the different frequencies at one glance. I think the 396 still offers this feature?

The Signal strength meter is great to have for trying out differant antennas.

 

[loumaag]

...I think the 396 still offers this feature?

It does, but you cannot use CCh mode and have the activity display at the same time.

 

[RoninJoliet]

I thought i read where the July-2007 issue of Popular Communications would have a article and pictures on the new GRE scanners, its on the news stand here and maybe im blind but did not see a word mentioned in the book anywhere .....

 

[DonS]

I thought i read where the July-2007 issue of Popular Communications would have a article and pictures on the new GRE scanners, its on the news stand here and maybe im blind but did not see a word mentioned in the book anywhere .....

Looks like it's in the August 2007 issue:
http://www.popular-communications.com/Aug%2007%20PC%20Highlights.html

 

[n4jri]

What I saw earlier in the thread was that the magazines would hit the stands in July.

73/Allen (N4JRI)

 

[SCPD]

Been pretty busy here so have not posted in a bit… Just caught up on the thread.

From my time playing with a prototype… As has been said before, it will do 380 and 700 Trunking and you can set the trunking table to 12.5, or even in Tune mode in the 380s you can enter on a 12.5kHz boundary.

As far as I can tell, the V-Scanners work like the Pro-96. You can have multiple complete setups in the radio and recall them at will. So you don’t need to carry a laptop with you. You can not live-Scan a V-Scanner.. You transfer the V-Scanner to the radio’s main memory and you have a whole new radio setup

Objects… An “object” is a trunking system, talkgroup, conventional channel, search range, sweeper range…. Each takes up one object. So if you enter a trunking system and attach 350 talkgroups (TG) to it, that will take up 351 Objects (out of 1800 in main memory). The objects just reside in memory in free-form, and you can then scan them or listen to them in manual mode in any combination that you like within 20 scan lists. Lets say in the above 351 object example 100 TGs are fire, 100 TGs are police, 100 TGs are public service, and 50 TGs are miscellaneous. You could make scanlist (SL) 1 just fire, SL2 just police, SL3 police and fire, SL4 public service and Misc, SL5 just Misc. You still have only used 351 objects. So in this setup you will have 1449 objects of memory free and 15 more unused scanlists.

You can save main memory to a V-Scanner for maybe a particular area or listening preference. Then you can build a new 1800 object setup for a different area. When you change areas, it is about a 10 second procedure to load a V-Scanner’s setup into main memory.

Am still busy so I can not spend a ton of time answering questions, but I hope the above helps with some of the speculation My guess is the radio may hit the FCC site pretty soon based on the availability date.

 

[SCPD]

One more item I learned about..

As far as the talkgroup count limit per system... GRE tells me that even if you have programmed one trunking system and 1799 talkgroups (sounds like a very worst-case example to me, hehe) the radio will handle the trunking with only about a 1/100 second delay when trunking to a talkgroup. So I think there is realistically no talkgroup count limit per system.

Wow!

 

[fmon]

Wow!

Wow wow!!!

Thanks for the update.

 

[DaveIN]

Now that is really cool! Can't wait to try that.

One more item I learned about..

As far as the talkgroup count limit per system... GRE tells me that even if you have programmed one trunking system and 1799 talkgroups (sounds like a very worst-case example to me, hehe) the radio will handle the trunking with only about a 1/100 second delay when trunking to a talkgroup. So I think there is realistically no talkgroup count limit per system.

Wow!

 

[cowboymike1971]

RE: new GRE

Handheld looks very cool. I hate the small display on the base! why do they think we want to squint?

 

[Bluedmax]

When available ... tell how to get one. My scanners are pretty quiet now. Maybe one of you Pro-96 owner members well sell me yours and get this new model ... email me if you have a 96 I'am in Canada and really don't have many scanner stores ... :-( tcs@sasktel.net

 

[Quint6]

will the PSR 600 have the multi color LED light too , like the PSR 500 has ?

 

[safetyobc]

It says it does in the Wiki specs http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/PSR-600

Also if you look at the artist rendered pic http://wiki.radioreference.com/index.php/Image:PSR-600.jpg you will see what looks like an LED under the LCD just to the right of the "F3" button.

 

[scanlist]

Something not mentioned yet and a potential issue down the road is more EDACS operators looking at ESK as an option on their systems.

Having the ability of setting an EDACS control control channel offset similar to how unitrunker and the ESK version of etrunker handle these systems would be of benefit to persons in areas that are currently using ESK or in the future as may be the case in Denver when they get their simulcast system operational sometime in late 2008 to early 2009.

 

[NYRHKY94]

FYI - The image that GRE has on their web site for the PSR-600 shows the LED light is now right above the 5-way selector key. See image below.

http://www.greamerica.com/scanners.html