PSR-500 and PSR-600 Pre Release

[windigofer]

What is the red mark next to the Weather button, is that like a skywarn mark?

Yup, that'd be the famous "tornado eye" Skywarn logo :3 (Speaking of which, the fact you can have multiple frequencies in a Skywarn bank is just plain nifty IMHO. We do have multiple severe weather nets locally, so this would be perfect)

 

[rckydenver]

Yup, that'd be the famous "tornado eye" Skywarn logo :3 (Speaking of which, the fact you can have multiple frequencies in a Skywarn bank is just plain nifty IMHO. We do have multiple severe weather nets locally, so this would be perfect)

That what i thought, but was'nt sure. Thanks for info; I maybe looking for a base model in my future..

 

[rckydenver]

Couple of questions i was wondering about, first one is does this have the repeater find when your in the spectrum sweeper? And second one is on the digital side of conversation if it encrypted will the ENC be displayed on the screen? Thanks in advance.

 

[SCPD]

Audio Quality: Sounds as good as the Pro-96 which I think everyone agrees has great audio quality. I do not have a 396 to compare to.

V-Scanners and memory: The V-Scanners work like the Pro-96 in that they store the radio's working memory (settings, frequencies etc) to a separate area of internal memory. The new radio's main memory is no longer banks / channels, but "objects". The Scan lists is how you group the objects for scanning and you toggle them on/off with the traditional method of pressing the number keys during scanning. So the arrow keys do not page through the V-Scanners. The V-Scanner function is in a separate menu much like the Pro-96.

 

[intrepid97]

Will these scanners TRUNK the 700 range?

 

[KD4YGG]

Although not listed in the preliminary specifications, GRE did confirm that it will cover 700Mhz and will trunktrack in that band.

 

[intrepid97]

That is good to hear for us here in Illinois,The Starcom system has two towers in my area on 700 and one on 800,So this will give the Unidens some competition.

 

[safetyobc]

700 MHz trunking is also needed for Arkansas AWIN which uses a mix of 700 and 800 in some areas.

As well as Louisiana's LATIE system.

 

[scannerfreak]

700 MHz trunking is also needed for Arkansas AWIN which uses a mix of 700 and 800 in some areas.

As well as Louisiana's LATIE system.

SAFE-T will soon use it as well.. I am happy to hear GRE plans to be competitive in the market and they have been and are listening to their end users

 

[iMONITOR]

Black looks much better than the silver. I wish they would have gone back to separate volume and squelch controls, rather than doubling them up.

 

[trainman111]

Lets see how long it takes for Uniden to come out with a new scanner to comapare to this one. Especially one with 700 Mhz trunking. That's not a big deal for me, but I'm sure it is for many other people. I can't wait to see the price tag on one of these.

 

[windigofer]

SAFE-T will soon use it as well.. I am happy to hear GRE plans to be competitive in the market and they have been and are listening to their end users

Yup, that's been another reason I've been watching this one--the likelihood that SAFE-T will be moving to the 700MHz band (SAFE-T is *the* big APCO-25 trunked system in my neck of the woods, at least till the planned Louisville Metrosafe APCO-25 system gets out of the demonstration phase and they get funding to build the thing).

 

[Stick0413]

Lets see how long it takes for Uniden to come out with a new scanner to comapare to this one. Especially one with 700 Mhz trunking. That's not a big deal for me, but I'm sure it is for many other people. I can't wait to see the price tag on one of these.

They already have one (well 2) with 700 trunking the 396 and 996

 

[windigofer]

Lets see how long it takes for Uniden to come out with a new scanner to comapare to this one. Especially one with 700 Mhz trunking. That's not a big deal for me, but I'm sure it is for many other people. I can't wait to see the price tag on one of these.

Reportedly the price tag will actually be around the Pro-96 range--around $400-500, which ain't bad at all considering the featureset...

(And as a minor aside, talked to a nice fellow at GRE America today on how there is a lot of positive buzz re the PRS-500 and PRS-600 (I'd called their 800 number to confirm things and ask if they knew if/when beta testing would open up on this), and the rep seemed quite pleased on how things were going. I also pointed them to the RadioReference forums re the buzz the radio was generating, so when their main rep gets back from Dayton Hamvention we might well get someone official here on the forums to give suggestions to :3)

 

[windigofer]

Audio Quality: Sounds as good as the Pro-96 which I think everyone agrees has great audio quality. I do not have a 396 to compare to.

V-Scanners and memory: The V-Scanners work like the Pro-96 in that they store the radio's working memory (settings, frequencies etc) to a separate area of internal memory. The new radio's main memory is no longer banks / channels, but "objects". The Scan lists is how you group the objects for scanning and you toggle them on/off with the traditional method of pressing the number keys during scanning. So the arrow keys do not page through the V-Scanners. The V-Scanner function is in a separate menu much like the Pro-96.

If the audio quality is comparable to the Pro-96, that is a Good Thing as far as I'm concerned (my major complaint with the Uniden radios is that they just don't sound as good, and at least the earlier APCO-25 capable radios required a fair amount more fiddling to pick up APCO-25 decently; haven't gotten the chance to play with a '396, alas)

The news re V-Scanners *is* good to hear, seriously; the way it sounds, you can also "right-size" V-Scanner objects to include only the freqs you want without dead space, yes? (This is a Good Thing to me because, among other things, I might *want* only about 400 channels for (for instance) my local scanning, a smaller V-Scanner object for trunked system exploration (with lots of room for talkgroups), a big V-Scanner object for airshows (which might include over 500 channels, if things like local ATC are added in as well as most major performers at something like the big airshow at Wright-Patterson AFB), a small one for listening to Bristol local authorities and a big one for NASCAR racedays, etc. If this is in fact how the new V-Scanner lineup works, this will be Nice, Very Nice Indeed--no more wasted space! :3)

 

[trainman111]

They already have one (well 2) with 700 trunking the 396 and 996

Oh okay. I didn't think they did 700 trunking, but I stand corrected!

Reportedly the price tag will actually be around the Pro-96 range--around $400-500, which ain't bad at all considering the featureset...

That's not a bad price range at all! I think I might have to invest in one of these.

 

[mikey60]

I also pointed them to the RadioReference forums re the buzz the radio was generating, so when their main rep gets back from Dayton Hamvention we might well get someone official here on the forums to give suggestions to :3)

I'm sure that there have been GRE representitives present on these forums for quite some time. Unlike Upman, they just haven't made themselves known.

I too would be interested in Beta testing one of these radios, if for nothing else to make sure I can get Pro96Com to work with them (assuming the control channel data streaming is present has has previously been reported.).

If the other information about the data channel streaming is true (i.e. all control channel data stream formats are available on the PC/IF port), then I guess I'm going to have a lot of work ahead of me getting Pro96Com to track those systems as well as the 9600 systems it tracks now.

Mike

 

[windigofer]

I'm sure that there have been GRE representitives present on these forums for quite some time. Unlike Upman, they just haven't made themselves known.

I too would be interested in Beta testing one of these radios, if for nothing else to make sure I can get Pro96Com to work with them (assuming the control channel data streaming is present has has previously been reported.).

If the other information about the data channel streaming is true (i.e. all control channel data stream formats are available on the PC/IF port), then I guess I'm going to have a lot of work ahead of me getting Pro96Com to track those systems as well as the 9600 systems it tracks now.

Mike

If the data channel streaming is true as well, this opens up some nice possibilities for things--one thing I'd really like to see (along with PRO96COM, or more properly, PSR500COM, reading trunking data) is interfaces between the PSR-500 and other trunklogging/trunktracking softwares (Unitrunker comes to mind, but the Win32 ports of Trunker do as well). It is a fairly standard USB-to-serial cable (with the duplex serial connector on one end, the USB-to-serial electronics in the middle, the USB end on the other end) and it does read as a standard COM port with appropriate drivers, so it should be possible.

One thing that I've not yet seen outside the Uniden world (and which would be quite doable if the rumours re computer control are true) would be the possibility of using a pocket computer (like a PalmPilot/Treo or a Windows Mobile device) to control or program the scanner. (I'm actually a little bit surprised that we've not yet seen Windows Mobile programs to program the Pro-92 or Pro-2067, as they actually send programming info in the clear; I do know that Pro-95 and above tend to be tricker as the data is encrypted. Of course, if GRE is willing to work with developers, that would be cool too...)

And truthfully, one COULD do a program for receiving data (like Pro96Com) fairly expeditiously on Windows Mobile in particular, as GCC compilers for Windows Mobile devices do exist as do serial-to-device adapters for use with GPS devices and such (and it uses the same COMx format for serial devices)...

 

[hill]

Will these new radio do trunking in the 380Mhz Federal land mobile band? This area is quickly replacing t the 406Mhz for Federal/Military trunking. If it includes this band I most likely would purchase one.

 

[madnachos]

Sorry if I missed this somewhere else...has any pricing information been released for these?