I picked up a PSR-500 about a week ago, thought I'd review it, there are things I absolutely love about this unit and other things that I think could be fixed with firmware updates. There are other things that are inherent in the unit that will have to wait for a new design...
Before folks get too excited, I do like this scanner overall, and all criticism is of the constructive type. I'm not bashing here. I do also realize that I've still in the middle of the learning curve - but at the same time, this is still a good time to write about the experiences that I'm having as it's fresh in my mind and it will also show where some confusion comes in for the new user. You know, the person that just plunked down $500?
To frame this review, I picked up this unit because I was having difficulty in monitoring the simulcast towers here in the new statewide system in Illinois, Starcom21, plus my most up-to-date scanner was the Pro-96 and that's not 700 MHz capable. Also for background, I've been monitoring since the early 70s (started as a young kid) and have had scanners since the Regency Touch K500. One of the reasons I went with the Pro-96 and also with the PSR-500 was the fact that I travel extensively and the virtual scanner feature was perfect for me (and it has worked perfectly). I also loved the fact that the PC/IF interface on the Pro-96 allowed me to use a third-party program to decode the CC, at least for 9600 baud systems. Since that was continued and expanded on the PSR-500, it was easy to make the choice to stay with GRE.
I was also excited about the use of softkeys - scanners have become poster children for user interface problems now that there's much more to listen to, more modes and more data to manage. I am not sure that GRE has hit a home run with this, but I see the potential and perhaps the issues can be changed in a future firmware load. By the way, I have background/professional experience in user interfaces; it's not my main function but I have been heavily involved in product design from time to time, specializing in user interfaces.
HARDWARE
So, let's take a look at the physical unit itself. It's a solid build, there's some cracking noises under gentle twisting (hey, no destructive testing here!), but nothing major. It has concentric volume and squelch knobs, which I honestly don't like - I have a Uniden model where mild use and an innocent drop made the knobs turn as one. Yes, it was fixed but it never worked quite the same way after I bent it back. Plus, there's really no need to save real estate space on the top of the radio, there's only the BNC antenna connector, headphone jack and the volume/squelch knob - there's plenty of space available there to have separate knobs. Honestly though, not a huge deal.
Much more of a big deal is the keypad. While it's backlit reasonably well (there is room for improvement with greater brightness), there are simply too many keys here. Let me be specific - the two columns of keys on the right-hand side are a pain. I'm used to big SCAN and MAN buttons, but here they're just 2 buttons out of 12; they're not even in special places (like lower right or upper right - something the brain can remember and the hand can find without the eyes being involved in reading the button labels).
Now, while I'll be up-front and say I'm sure no one will seriously try to program this radio by hand, I do have to point out the microscopic white silkscreening for the alpha characters (almost said alphanumeric!) and the delay, VS, and lock functions. Did I mention these are microscopic? I'm concerned they could rub off after a time; again, I realize most programming will be done by PC but they're not backlit either, and they can disappear against the silvery background of the faceplate in some lighting conditions - like the one I'm in right now as I write this. Now, if they don't rub off, great - but why they're white on a silvery-ish background eludes me. I looked at the user manual before I picked up this unit, it looks better in the manual than it does in person. A flat-black faceplate would have worked better, that would have provided high contrast to the white letters. In any case, the fact that this silkscreening is even needed is a symptom of some UI issues, I'll chat about that later. Same goes for the large number of buttons.
One note about the BNC jack - while the supplied duck fits nicely, other 3rd-party BNC plugs fit much more loosely - loose enough that I'm not entirely sure that the connection is good. I'd like the option of better connectors than BNC, but I can make do with BNC fine.
The LCD backlighting is fine, as usual, more backlighting would help in some situations. I do like the dedicated area for the signal strength bars and the T and G symbols. I do find the lack of battery status a bit disappointing. What I mean by status is what you'll get on any cell phone - 4-5 divisions, letting you know where your battery charge stands. On the PSR-500 you get nothing until you're going low.
One nice thing is that the LCD shows quite a few more characters as compared to the Pro-96. I was getting tired of programming in tags like BRHRJ F4 FGN and now I can take a much better shot at abbreviation or, more usually, spelling out the tag entirely. Yay! This is obviously good, but overall the LCD is too busy, I'll get into that later on.
I've toyed with the Alert LED, this could have some uses here and there. It is bright and is attention-getting, which may not be a good thing in some cases! So far, I'm happy for this feature to be on the radio - time will tell if it gets used.
I love the battery pack options on the PSR-500. This is something I first was exposed to on the Pro-96 and I'll have to have a compelling reason to go back. I have several "Brand U" handhelds that are no longer in service because the battery pack has expired and it's just not worth it to replace it. With the AA battery pack holder approach, as AA cell batteries get better, I get the benefits automatically, no need to buy a new custom pack. And while I'm not entirely pleased with a lack of a battery meter, I do applaud the fact I can tell the PSR-500 what kind of batteries I have installed so it can use the right settings for low battery detection.
There is a 9V power connector on the side - kudos for putting a diagram of the pins on the side of the unit, that's appreciated!
Battery life (on good 2650 mah NiMH batteries) is over 12 hours - still haven't found the limit yet. I'd wager that this will be less when doing a lot of monitoring of digital systems.
There is also the data port ("PC/IF" in GRE terms) on the opposite side. Now, I really wonder why this isn't a standard USB port. The chipsets are cheap as dirt and have been for quite a while now. My cell phone is charged and also communicates through a USB port. Even the slowest UBS transmission speed is 1.5 Mbits/s, which would seem to be plenty quick enough for any data needs here. USB can support up to 500 mA, not sure if that's enough to charge or operate the PSR-500 but if so, it would have been a good addition. As I mentioned early on, some things will have to wait for future generations... But USB connectivity would mean standard cables (no going into a panic if you lose your special USB dongle/PSR-500 adapter) and other flexibility going forward. I won't get into bluetooth applications, but suffice it to say that at least looking into providing bluetooth capabilities into the next generation of radios.
RF/DECODING
Moving on to RF, as others have noted, this radio is very sensitive. While that's great in many circumstances, it also makes the radio much more prone to intermod. So, this is a tradeoff. I am right now monitoring a very low power trunked system from 20 miles away; normally I can only marginally hear it with my Pro-96 with an external antenna, but on the Pro-96 it's coming through full quieting on the stock duck - very nice! There's another trunked system that I monitor that was next to unlistenable due to (analog) dropouts (bad simulcasting, I believe), the system is clear as a bell on the PSR-500. Not so nice is the IMD I'm now getting at my home, which is a quiet location RF-wise.
One other not-very-nice behavior RF-wise is the radio stopping on - and un-muting on - IMD when I have a PL/CTCSS assigned to it. This happens quite a bit, never had this happen on any other radio, Pro-96 and Uniden models included. I haven't seen this happen on DCS/DPL yet, but I don't have a lot of channels with DCS/DPL programmed in either. Perhaps a DSP fix would address this issue (yes, I've already loaded the new DSP code - and the CPU code also, and it's still happening).
Overall, I give a thumbs-up to the RF section, just be aware you need to be smart about using attenuation - which this radio has - so you can avoid IMD and desense and all of those wonderful things a DC-to-daylight scanner will have.
I won't confuse the RF section with the P25 decoding - they are different. Somewhat sadly, one of the main reasons I bought the PSR-500 was to be able to listen to the Starcom21 system that Motorola has installed for the state of Illinois. Non-simulcast towers come in perfectly on the Pro-96, but I was having trouble with simulcast systems (likely CPQSK). Well, the PSR-500 does do better, but by no means is it very good. One very good thing GRE has done is make advanced settings available to edit, and also makes uploading new firmware possible. Since I haven't worked to find the optimum firmware load for the DSP or made any edits to the settings yet, I won't complain too loudly (yet).
I will say this, however - it should work right , right out of the box. I've got the patience to adjust settings and upload new firmware, other people may not be as patient. I do welcome the fact that it hasn't ever passed through undecoded digital audio (motorboating).
[ Continued in next post... reached character limit! ]
Before folks get too excited, I do like this scanner overall, and all criticism is of the constructive type. I'm not bashing here. I do also realize that I've still in the middle of the learning curve - but at the same time, this is still a good time to write about the experiences that I'm having as it's fresh in my mind and it will also show where some confusion comes in for the new user. You know, the person that just plunked down $500?
To frame this review, I picked up this unit because I was having difficulty in monitoring the simulcast towers here in the new statewide system in Illinois, Starcom21, plus my most up-to-date scanner was the Pro-96 and that's not 700 MHz capable. Also for background, I've been monitoring since the early 70s (started as a young kid) and have had scanners since the Regency Touch K500. One of the reasons I went with the Pro-96 and also with the PSR-500 was the fact that I travel extensively and the virtual scanner feature was perfect for me (and it has worked perfectly). I also loved the fact that the PC/IF interface on the Pro-96 allowed me to use a third-party program to decode the CC, at least for 9600 baud systems. Since that was continued and expanded on the PSR-500, it was easy to make the choice to stay with GRE.
I was also excited about the use of softkeys - scanners have become poster children for user interface problems now that there's much more to listen to, more modes and more data to manage. I am not sure that GRE has hit a home run with this, but I see the potential and perhaps the issues can be changed in a future firmware load. By the way, I have background/professional experience in user interfaces; it's not my main function but I have been heavily involved in product design from time to time, specializing in user interfaces.
HARDWARE
So, let's take a look at the physical unit itself. It's a solid build, there's some cracking noises under gentle twisting (hey, no destructive testing here!), but nothing major. It has concentric volume and squelch knobs, which I honestly don't like - I have a Uniden model where mild use and an innocent drop made the knobs turn as one. Yes, it was fixed but it never worked quite the same way after I bent it back. Plus, there's really no need to save real estate space on the top of the radio, there's only the BNC antenna connector, headphone jack and the volume/squelch knob - there's plenty of space available there to have separate knobs. Honestly though, not a huge deal.
Much more of a big deal is the keypad. While it's backlit reasonably well (there is room for improvement with greater brightness), there are simply too many keys here. Let me be specific - the two columns of keys on the right-hand side are a pain. I'm used to big SCAN and MAN buttons, but here they're just 2 buttons out of 12; they're not even in special places (like lower right or upper right - something the brain can remember and the hand can find without the eyes being involved in reading the button labels).
Now, while I'll be up-front and say I'm sure no one will seriously try to program this radio by hand, I do have to point out the microscopic white silkscreening for the alpha characters (almost said alphanumeric!) and the delay, VS, and lock functions. Did I mention these are microscopic? I'm concerned they could rub off after a time; again, I realize most programming will be done by PC but they're not backlit either, and they can disappear against the silvery background of the faceplate in some lighting conditions - like the one I'm in right now as I write this. Now, if they don't rub off, great - but why they're white on a silvery-ish background eludes me. I looked at the user manual before I picked up this unit, it looks better in the manual than it does in person. A flat-black faceplate would have worked better, that would have provided high contrast to the white letters. In any case, the fact that this silkscreening is even needed is a symptom of some UI issues, I'll chat about that later. Same goes for the large number of buttons.
One note about the BNC jack - while the supplied duck fits nicely, other 3rd-party BNC plugs fit much more loosely - loose enough that I'm not entirely sure that the connection is good. I'd like the option of better connectors than BNC, but I can make do with BNC fine.
The LCD backlighting is fine, as usual, more backlighting would help in some situations. I do like the dedicated area for the signal strength bars and the T and G symbols. I do find the lack of battery status a bit disappointing. What I mean by status is what you'll get on any cell phone - 4-5 divisions, letting you know where your battery charge stands. On the PSR-500 you get nothing until you're going low.
One nice thing is that the LCD shows quite a few more characters as compared to the Pro-96. I was getting tired of programming in tags like BRHRJ F4 FGN and now I can take a much better shot at abbreviation or, more usually, spelling out the tag entirely. Yay! This is obviously good, but overall the LCD is too busy, I'll get into that later on.
I've toyed with the Alert LED, this could have some uses here and there. It is bright and is attention-getting, which may not be a good thing in some cases! So far, I'm happy for this feature to be on the radio - time will tell if it gets used.
I love the battery pack options on the PSR-500. This is something I first was exposed to on the Pro-96 and I'll have to have a compelling reason to go back. I have several "Brand U" handhelds that are no longer in service because the battery pack has expired and it's just not worth it to replace it. With the AA battery pack holder approach, as AA cell batteries get better, I get the benefits automatically, no need to buy a new custom pack. And while I'm not entirely pleased with a lack of a battery meter, I do applaud the fact I can tell the PSR-500 what kind of batteries I have installed so it can use the right settings for low battery detection.
There is a 9V power connector on the side - kudos for putting a diagram of the pins on the side of the unit, that's appreciated!
Battery life (on good 2650 mah NiMH batteries) is over 12 hours - still haven't found the limit yet. I'd wager that this will be less when doing a lot of monitoring of digital systems.
There is also the data port ("PC/IF" in GRE terms) on the opposite side. Now, I really wonder why this isn't a standard USB port. The chipsets are cheap as dirt and have been for quite a while now. My cell phone is charged and also communicates through a USB port. Even the slowest UBS transmission speed is 1.5 Mbits/s, which would seem to be plenty quick enough for any data needs here. USB can support up to 500 mA, not sure if that's enough to charge or operate the PSR-500 but if so, it would have been a good addition. As I mentioned early on, some things will have to wait for future generations... But USB connectivity would mean standard cables (no going into a panic if you lose your special USB dongle/PSR-500 adapter) and other flexibility going forward. I won't get into bluetooth applications, but suffice it to say that at least looking into providing bluetooth capabilities into the next generation of radios.
RF/DECODING
Moving on to RF, as others have noted, this radio is very sensitive. While that's great in many circumstances, it also makes the radio much more prone to intermod. So, this is a tradeoff. I am right now monitoring a very low power trunked system from 20 miles away; normally I can only marginally hear it with my Pro-96 with an external antenna, but on the Pro-96 it's coming through full quieting on the stock duck - very nice! There's another trunked system that I monitor that was next to unlistenable due to (analog) dropouts (bad simulcasting, I believe), the system is clear as a bell on the PSR-500. Not so nice is the IMD I'm now getting at my home, which is a quiet location RF-wise.
One other not-very-nice behavior RF-wise is the radio stopping on - and un-muting on - IMD when I have a PL/CTCSS assigned to it. This happens quite a bit, never had this happen on any other radio, Pro-96 and Uniden models included. I haven't seen this happen on DCS/DPL yet, but I don't have a lot of channels with DCS/DPL programmed in either. Perhaps a DSP fix would address this issue (yes, I've already loaded the new DSP code - and the CPU code also, and it's still happening).
Overall, I give a thumbs-up to the RF section, just be aware you need to be smart about using attenuation - which this radio has - so you can avoid IMD and desense and all of those wonderful things a DC-to-daylight scanner will have.
I won't confuse the RF section with the P25 decoding - they are different. Somewhat sadly, one of the main reasons I bought the PSR-500 was to be able to listen to the Starcom21 system that Motorola has installed for the state of Illinois. Non-simulcast towers come in perfectly on the Pro-96, but I was having trouble with simulcast systems (likely CPQSK). Well, the PSR-500 does do better, but by no means is it very good. One very good thing GRE has done is make advanced settings available to edit, and also makes uploading new firmware possible. Since I haven't worked to find the optimum firmware load for the DSP or made any edits to the settings yet, I won't complain too loudly (yet).
I will say this, however - it should work right , right out of the box. I've got the patience to adjust settings and upload new firmware, other people may not be as patient. I do welcome the fact that it hasn't ever passed through undecoded digital audio (motorboating).
[ Continued in next post... reached character limit! ]
