PSR-500 Quick Review after 1 week

[kikito]

I do know that I'm still on the learning curve with this unit, but learning curves don't *have* to be high - good UI design makes the complicated easy to understand and access.

Although that might be true, it's also true that the newest scanners from both Uniden and GRE have completely departed from what we ALL have been used to for a decade or more. So there's other factors other than just UI design in play. Some people are still getting used to Uniden's DMA and that's been out for at least 2 years. There's a lot hard habits to break when dealing with these new scanners and new technology i.e. Uniden's DMA, GRE Object-oriented scheme, etc. There's also many stubborn souls out there that have gone as far as wanting the old scheme of banks brought back! LOL!

Now, it would have been a bit more straightforward to have a selection on the backlight screen menu (the one with on, keypress, ignore, stealth) of signal. Perhaps there's a patent involved that had to be worked around, and actually that's really the only acceptable reason for making this more complicated than it could have been. Understand me, I like the flexibility of being able to pick and choose which objects get the LCD backlight lit up, but in reality, it's probably going to be each and every one of them.

Although I agree that it might be a more complicated than it could be, I still like it better than the similar feature in the current Unidens. The backlight on the BCD396T turns off in the middle of a transmission and sometimes it doesn't come on again when there's a pause in the transmission. On the PSR-500, the light stays on until the transmission ends and comes back on if it starts again. You also have the choice of having ONLY the display light turn on while leaving the keypad off.

I'm going to guess that patents might also be the reason why there's no "negative delay" on this radio. I did like this feature on the Uniden side as I monitor a lot of channels that are 99% routine and let's face it, filler. To have the radio continue scanning after 5 or 10 seconds on these channels is a great thing.

I'm all for more features and if they can give us negative delays, that might be nice although I don't have a "burning" desire for it. That said, I don't think Uniden offers negative delays anymore, at least not on the BCD396T and if I remember right and worse yet, the delays are now set on a per-system basis. What's more, the PSR-500 not only let's you set the delays on a per-object basis but also gives you a very wide range of selection: 0 to 20 seconds.

Now, coupled with this feature is the need to have a big MAN button which is easy to find and mash for those 1% of transmissions that are of interest, unfortunately this radio lacks that (but it does have a big SEL button which would work fine for this).

I would also like a bigger Pause button. I suggested in another thread that maybe they should make the SEL button work as a toggle PSE button while scanning. Press it once to pause, press again to continue.

Don't get me started on the differences between PSE and MAN - oh, I know there are differences but really there should only be one MAN button.

As you already pointed out, the MAN and PSE buttons have different uses. And I sure hope they don't change them from how they are right now. We now have a very anticipated trunking feature many of us have been waiting for and that is the Multi-Site trunking in STAT mode. When I press MAN during a talkgroup transmission, the radio from there on will continually look for that particular talkgroup across ALL the control channels programmed. That way if and when a talkgroup switches sites, the radio will find it again.

When you use PSE, the scanner only monitors the current site the talkgroup is on and you can then resume scanning by pressing the bigger up or down arrows on the 5-way button.

Same for L/OUT - I love TLO but why two buttons? TLO could be a momentary press and permanent LO could be pressing the button for (for example) more than 1.5 seconds.

I'm not sure what two buttons you're referring to, there's only one physical L/OUT button. Unless you're talking about having to press FUNC + L/OUT for the secondary function of the button. The FUNC button on this radio is "latching", so no need to hold it down when you need to use it. The default settings behave as follows: pressing L/OUT is temporary lockout and pressing FUNC + L/OUT is permanent lockout. And as you may know, you can reverse those functions through the GLOB menu. I think is just as quick and more "fool-proof" the way it is now than having to hold the button for a preset amount of time. Which at times you might let go too soon or hold it down too long and end up doing the opposite of what you actually wanted.

I also would think most people are not going to use the permanent lockout that often that it becomes such an inconvenience in it's current state. Otherwise, I'd reconsider what I have programmed into the radio. I personally only use the permanent lockout on talkgroups I'm not interested in and mainly because I also use the Wildcard TG. Those I locked out, have stayed permanently locked out since the day I got the radio.

There's also soft key lockouts for when you're doing frequency searches and TG wildcards (FrL/O and TGL/O respectively), which are access differently for a reason. You can either lockout found frequencies and talkgroups using the softkey lockout (usually F1) or you can lockout the whole particular search or wildcard using the physical lockout button, which those of us that have many different searches and wildcards mapped to one scanlist find it very handy to temporarily lock out some of those at times.

(Speaking of patents, many can simply be worked around if people think creatively. While it's the goal of patent writers to make them as broad and general as possible, there are usually (legal) ways around the patent. Failing that, patents can be licensed. Of course, if your biggest competitor is the patent holder, it gets more interesting, but then cross-licensing may come into play. Bottom line - not all is lost when you run into a patent.)

Although I agree with all that, there's one factor nowadays that many times trumps almost everything, including creativity and that's called: money-hungry scamming lawyers!

I also really like the fact that other CC types (e.g., 3600 baud) also send data to the PC/IF port as well. Programs (OK, just Pro96Com that I know of) that read the data coming off of the PC/IF port can perhaps be updated to "understand" that the PSR-500 can be sending information on several different trunk systems, not just the one that was possible on the Pro-96.

There's also UniTrunker that works with the PSR-500 quite nicely and for the rest of the trunking types. I believe Mike V. did confirmed that he will add the rest of the trunking flavors eventually to his Pro96Com program.

Also, there might need to be some adjustments as the data flow obviously stops when the radio tunes to a voice channel - as it stands now, Pro96Com stops displaying all data after a few seconds of data loss. Perhaps freezing this data for a longer period of time might be helpful? In any case, I'm eating up this capability and am very much looking forward to new versions of the data-reading programs being released.

I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about that. The radio needs to leave the control channel to tune the voice transmission, no way around it. Unless the radio had 2 receivers built-in, which we know it doesn't, I can't think of a reliable way around that at this time. "Caching" might work but at what cost in memory and CPU power, if at all possible, with the radio's current hardware configuration? And what about when you have really long or stuck transmissions? How much caching can or should the radio continue to do before eventually going into a loop and locking up?. If you've seen how much and how fast data is being sent out on the control channel when you look at the data dump screen, it's easy to see that cached info can become very unreliable and "stale" real quick. Not to mention when I enable that option, even my decent Pentium PC gets a run for it's money in CPU cycles. We lose quite a bit of info at times even with the radio permanently tuned to the control channel, due to interference and other factors.

As it stands right now, Pro96Com works quite nicely using a second Uniden scanner or even the PSR-500 for the voice comms, BTW.

While I haven't used it very much yet, I also see promise in the radio control feature. Perhaps Pro96com will allow my Pro-96 to monitor the CC and control my PSR-500 in the future.

And like mentioned above and confirmed by Mike, it already does that.

Speaking of CC monitoring, I'm a bit disappointed in the Multi-site feature. I had thought that the PSR-500 was actually going to get the neighbor list from the CC and then sample the neighbors from time to time. That is, enter in a System ID (or WACN?) and let the scanner do all the work and get all of the up-to-date data from the definitive source - the system itself. This approach would eliminate data entry errors, and while some data entry would still have to be done (unless the radio could be made to seek out all CCs and find a suitable one with the right Sys ID), it would be minimized.

I might not understand yet what you're suggesting for the feature, but like I said earlier, I love the Multi-Site feature and it works very good according to the mode selected. In STAT mode, it analyzes each and all the CCs you have programmed. Which I would think it'll eliminate the need for the more complex suggestion you gave above. And like I mentioned above, it goes as far as seeking a paused TG across all the sites programmed. In ROAM mode, you even get to pick the signal strengths the radio would use to seek the best reception CC programmed.

I would, however say that the ability to tag tower names to site IDs would be invaluable for troubleshooting and just general system awareness.

As it is right now, we at least have the option ("Trunking CH#" under expert GLOB settings) to alternately show the CC the radio is locked on while on a VC.

Now, this last thing is a bit of a stretch (it's a 24-bit field!) - but perhaps the Unit ID could be displayed on the radio when listening to APCO25 trunked systems.

I would absolutely love to have feature.

Overall, I really like this radio, but I think it can be made an outstanding radio with some updates. I've invested both the purchase price (not insignificant) and the time writing up my impressions, I do have some hopes for some return on that investment.

Thanks for your detailed and objective personal impressions. Hopefully soon you'll start reading everybody else's responses and you'll find that many of your concerns are already addressed.

 

[JT-112]

Thanks to everyone who replied, I really appreciate the time people have taken to read what I've written and also for replying as well!

I've had more time to spend with the radio, and even made a fairly lengthy trip today with it solely to check the Multi-Site feature on a large statewide system. I've already made 4 trips prior to today but today was the first time I concentrated on watching how Multi-Site works in practice.

So, let's revisit some of the topics now that I've had time to read the comments that people have made...

As an aside, I noted some "Hey, it's better than Brand U" thought processes in some of the replies, and that tends to miss the point. The point is not just to match or be somewhat better than the competition, but to really put some thought into how to make it the best, or to solve the problem such that it's no longer a problem at all. If people are still learning Uniden's DMA after 2 years, what does that tell you? Was it really a problem that needed to be solved, if so, was it solved correctly?

Regarding the battery meter (or lack thereof) - let me make this a bit more clear, it should be just like the battery meters on cell phones. Not just a low warning, but a quantitative display of battery life remaining (number of bars), with feedback telling the user that it's charging - or not. Simple and easy to understand. As it stands today, if I haven't used my PSR-500 for a while and it's not plugged in, I have to guess what the battery state is. I don't want to guess, the radio should TELL ME what the battery state is, heck, it knows, right? I'm not talking about 4.9586723 Volts. I'm talking 1-4 bars. Just give me a rough idea - just like the signal strength meter. Gosh, I sure hope some committee someplace didn't decide not to have a battery meter because they thought it would be confused with the signal strength meter (don't laugh, I've seen very similar mistakes make before).

Regarding the radio un-muting on IM even with a CTCSS programmed - while I congratulate those of you who haven't yet seen this, I can assure you it has happened to me several times, and I saw others complain about this behavior in this very forum. It is something that should be addressed. I will say that each time that it has happened, I've been experiencing wideband intermod - likely TV IMD, which means that the entire audio spectrum has hash in it. I would think an algorithm change could address this in the DSP; I haven't seen the issue with DCS at all, nor would I really expect to see it with any sort of IM; but then again, I don't think any of the analog channels in the area that I was monitoring while in the IM area had DCS, so I suppose I can't confirm that. What I CAN confirm is that I've never had any other CTCSS-capable scanner EVER un-mute on IM before, so this is a step backwards for the PSR-500.

P25 CPQSK - sigh - I will say that this radio works BETTER than the others I have, but it doesn't work all that great. I do very much hope that GRE-san is continuing to work on CPQSK reception. I can point GRE-san to locations where the PSR-500 is essentially deaf, even just a mile or so from the transmitting tower (this is not an intermod case before anyone goes down that road). Yes, I know CPQSK is "difficult" but I want to see the effort made. In the meantime, I'm going to see if I can't apply some RF filtering before the radio and a 800-MHz specific antenna to see if that will help. I've seen suggestions of using beams, that of course may get some play in the home but not so much while mobile. So, please, GRE-san see what you can do here - because if I can't hear something, this unit is worthless and all of the other great things about this radio become moot. This is actually issue #1; if GRE can get make a firmware fix that makes CPQSK decode 100%, that would be a very formidable competitive advantage compared to Uniden.

Pro96Com - while I had downloaded a version right when I got the PSR-500, apparently there are newer versions out which allow control, I'll be looking for those... Also, I think people misunderstood something I was looking for - let me restate: it would be nice if Pro96Com would freeze the screen display for 5-10 seconds after the last data came in on from the radio, that's all. As it stands now, the display blanks out a second or two after is loses the data stream.

Also regarding Pro96Com, I think I figured out that the tower/site information is transmitted less often than the dwell time on the CC for the radio, so this would make multiple system operation certainly a lot harder, but I'd bet that there's some creative way of doing this, one idea would be to key off of VCs, as those would generally be unique in any given monitoring area. Not a perfect solution, but perhaps something that could be investigated further.

(By the way, can people tell that I give requirements to developers all day long yet? I'm used to hearing "it can't be done" right up to the point when I show them another way... Sometimes people are so hard working that they don't spend the 5-10 minutes to figure out another way, which is sad.)

Multi-Site: as I mentioned, I made a trip to see how this worked, and while it does work as advertised, there are limitations which handicap it's usefulness. It's interesting to see that the manual even mentions that some people will not find the feature all that useful... In any case, as others have mentioned, this feature is handcuffed by the limit of 32 CCs. Some people might read that number and think "Jeez, he's being unreasonable" but there are a possible 40-50 CCs for the main system I want to listen to just in my immediate surroundings, so that puts a damper on this feature from the get-go.

The other limitation is that I don't get an indication of the site with this feature, nor can I tag a CC with a tower name. The only way I could confirm this feature was working today was to press TSYS and then Analyze and look at the CC frequency.

Again, this radio appears to be powerful enough to pluck the neighbor list out of the CC stream and sample those neighbor CCs when the current CC falls below the threshold... and I should be given the option of tagging a description to the site ID of the current CC so it's displayed on the radio, and the numeric ID displayed if no associated text is programmed.

This means that the radio would AUTOMATICALLY switch from one CC to the neighboring CC without ever knowing what the neighboring CC is - which is how cellular works, and I'd figure this is how APCO25 works as well, but I'd think they have system ID/WACN enabled as well, plus they need a boot-up list of CCs as well. Having this automatic CC selection and switching system means that one could travel the entire coverage area of a statewide APCO25 system and be assured of being handed off to an operating CC with the best signal strength. Today, I have to hope I've entered in every CC for the entire trip correctly... ouch.

Again, I do like the radio, it's good; I give it a B, it has the opportunity to get to an A with firmware, and perhaps even an A+, but I'm a tough grader, it would have to decode 100% CPQSK and fix the display quirks before I could give out a grade that high. I would NOT say that the replies I've gotten have addressed my concerns, unfortunately - a lot of them miss the point and try to tell me to be happy with what I have, and that's not the right idea. As I said before, the LCD is fixed and I don't think there are any bars within the battery icon so that can't be fixed if so. Since I'm on the topic of LCDs, I do find it almost inexcusable for GRE to have put in the same display into the mobile unit - it's too small for that application. Oh well.

Sixtytwo

 

[mikey60]

Pro96Com - while I had downloaded a version right when I got the PSR-500, apparently there are newer versions out which allow control, I'll be looking for those... Also, I think people misunderstood something I was looking for - let me restate: it would be nice if Pro96Com would freeze the screen display for 5-10 seconds after the last data came in on from the radio, that's all. As it stands now, the display blanks out a second or two after is loses the data stream.

Also regarding Pro96Com, I think I figured out that the tower/site information is transmitted less often than the dwell time on the CC for the radio, so this would make multiple system operation certainly a lot harder, but I'd bet that there's some creative way of doing this, one idea would be to key off of VCs, as those would generally be unique in any given monitoring area. Not a perfect solution, but perhaps something that could be investigated further.

Sixtytwo

If you have the version of Pro96Com that will decode the data from the PSR-500, then you also have the version that will control a PSR-500. They are one in the same.

Part of the issue with the display, is that there are no specific messages transmitted at the end of a transmission on the control channel. Therefore the only option available to determine the end of a transmission is a timeout when the update messages stop for a particular talkgroup/frequency. If I have the data stay there longer, then it's not a very realistic representation of what's happening on the site during normal operation.

The idea of looking at voice channels sounds interesting, but even with the neighbor data, there's not a sure-fire way to know which site you're on at that point. The dwell time is definately an issue there, and the amount of coding needed to work in a multi-site mode like that is beyond what I'm prepared to do at the moment.

Right now my priority on Pro96Com is to add support for Motorola 3600 systems, although between work and PSREdit, there hasn't been much time to work on Pro96Com at this point.

Mike

 

[kikito]

As an aside, I noted some "Hey, it's better than Brand U" thought processes in some of the replies, and that tends to miss the point. The point is not just to match or be somewhat better than the competition, but to really put some thought into how to make it the best, or to solve the problem such that it's no longer a problem at all.

I personally brought up the "U brand" because you mentioned it first in your reviews. And you do it again later in this same post! GRE has outdone themselves and Uniden in many ways and things. GRE came out with long-awaited features we never had before. Just like Uniden did when they came out with their current line of scanners. Not sure what "earth-shaking" features and improvements you're expecting but there's no other realistic way to put it than to say that both brands have features, advantages and problems that the other doesn't have.

If people are still learning Uniden's DMA after 2 years, what does that tell you? Was it really a problem that needed to be solved, if so, was it solved correctly?

That tells me many things and many are not any specific brand's fault. Among them is that some people don't like change and some might not have the aptitude to deal with certain things. And that's OK, we all have things we "just don't get". When a product is so bad, unbearable to deal with and the majority of the users don't like it, it fails. That hasn't been the case with Uniden or GRE so far.

Regarding the battery meter (or lack thereof) - let me make this a bit more clear, it should be just like the battery meters on cell phones. Not just a low warning, but a quantitative display of battery life remaining (number of bars), with feedback telling the user that it's charging - or not.

OK, fair enough. I would personally file that under the "nice to have but not really a necessity" category, like signal strength meters on scanners, most, if not all, are not accurate enough anyway. Not to mention, a constant battery meter would be one more thing to clutter up the display and distract from the more useful info, but that's just my opinion.

As it stands today, if I haven't used my PSR-500 for a while and it's not plugged in, I have to guess what the battery state is. I don't want to guess, the radio should TELL ME what the battery state is, heck, it knows, right? I'm not talking about 4.9586723 Volts.

It does TELL YOU, just not in the way you would like. I personally like to see a more accurate number (which we already have) rather than a rough picture. It'll help me decide if to change the battery before leaving the house or not. A "rough" image might show that it's at half but it might be at the low end of half and in about 5 minutes goes to a quarter and there goes the battery while I'm out and about. It happens to me with my cellphone. Again, another one of those personal opinions and preference (on my part).

Regarding the radio un-muting on IM even with a CTCSS programmed - while I congratulate those of you who haven't yet seen this, I can assure you it has happened to me several times, and I saw others complain about this behavior in this very forum. It is something that should be addressed.

I've seen people mention that it has a really bad squelch tail in some frequencies after some transmissions end, even with a tone programmed. I've seen that myself with CTCSS while others report that it only happens to them with DCS. Yet others report it only happens on UHF while others like me have it happen on VHF. But most of what I've seen has to do with squelch tail and not what you're describing. So whatever it's happening, it might be related with what you're seeing and it doesn't show yet a definitive common denominator that I've heard. There's reports that certain NAC codes don't open squelch appropriately and they might be working on a fix. So who knows, they might tweak something to improve the tones and codes decoding in general later in the future.

P25 CPQSK - sigh - I will say that this radio works BETTER than the others I have, but it doesn't work all that great. This is actually issue #1; if GRE can get make a firmware fix that makes CPQSK decode 100%, that would be a very formidable competitive advantage compared to Uniden.

Well, if the manufacturers, engineers and techs of the real radios and systems that you're listening to haven't figure it out yet and the users are having similar problems. What makes you think the scanner manufacturers will "fix" it first or better and even 100% on top of that? In fact, as you may know they (FCC, Public Safety, Nextel, etc.) are working on a very similar multi-billion dollar problem (aka multi-path, interference, etc.) and they're trying to fix it by moving and separating Public Safety users from Nextel and cellphone bands (aka re-banding). If it was as easy as tweaking firmware on their radios, why would they go with the much more expensive and complex solution? This might be one of those things we can all sit together and wait and hope the problems will be solved. It might or might not happen. It might be solved with rebanding or with the systems or with the scanner manufacturers or all or neither, who knows.... Either way you'll have to stand in a long line!

(By the way, can people tell that I give requirements to developers all day long yet? I'm used to hearing "it can't be done" right up to the point when I show them another way...

And there's nothing wrong with that. It all depends on what's being suggested and if its within the realm of possibilities. That is, like the CQPSK problem and expecting scanner manufacturers to fix it 100% when many of the users of the same systems are having similar problems and are nowhere near 100% reliability.

Multi-Site: as I mentioned, I made a trip to see how this worked, and while it does work as advertised, there are limitations which handicap it's usefulness. It's interesting to see that the manual even mentions that some people will not find the feature all that useful... In any case, as others have mentioned, this feature is handcuffed by the limit of 32 CCs. Some people might read that number and think "Jeez, he's being unreasonable" but there are a possible 40-50 CCs for the main system I want to listen to just in my immediate surroundings, so that puts a damper on this feature from the get-go.

So what system is this? Is this a true P25 system or a Mot 2 with P25 voice? And are you programming all the frequencies or just the control channels? Just curious.....
And it's obvious that not every one will find the Multi-Site feature useful. Not every system is "multi-site", some only have one site and/or one control channel used at a time. Why would you need the feature in that case?

The other limitation is that I don't get an indication of the site with this feature, nor can I tag a CC with a tower name. The only way I could confirm this feature was working today was to press TSYS and then Analyze and look at the CC frequency.

You didn't see, try or like the feature I mentioned earlier ("Trunking CH#" under expert GLOB settings) that will show you the CC frequency when there's a voice transmission? Or are you talking about seeing each CC the scanner is scrolling through while scanning? The latter would be kind of impractical since the scanner moves so fast between sites that it's kind of hard to see what's what.

Having this automatic CC selection and switching system means that one could travel the entire coverage area of a statewide APCO25 system and be assured of being handed off to an operating CC with the best signal strength. Today, I have to hope I've entered in every CC for the entire trip correctly... ouch.

Seems to me you're complicating things more than they need to be. Control channels don't change that often that new ones will pop up all the time and you won't know about it. And for many systems you don't want to stick only to the strongest signal since different sites might and will carry different traffic, so you could lose substantial traffic staying on only one CC. I guess it all depends on the system type. And about the "uncertainty" of not knowing if you have all the CCs programmed, remember the good old days before trunked systems and it was even harder to know if you had every conventional frequency you wanted programmed? At least now it's MUCH easier to do a search and find a control channel that once programmed it will use all the currently available frequencies for the system.

A feature like what you're suggesting "might" be handy when visiting new areas and states you've never been to. But it's all a moot point when you consider most people will be likely to load the scanner with a file from a local person since you'll also want alpha-tags for what you're monitoring and with that the rest of the stuff will come with the file like the frequencies used. If GRE wants to implement something like that I will certainly won't discourage them or complain about it, I'm just trying to stay on a practical point of view.

I would NOT say that the replies I've gotten have addressed my concerns, unfortunately - a lot of them miss the point and try to tell me to be happy with what I have, and that's not the right idea.

It seems you had many misconceptions and things you didn't know about the radio and how it worked that WERE addressed and you didn't bring up again. And you have all the right in the world to want and wait for what you're asking. Just don't be waiting forever to be happy like some people wait for the fastest, cheapest computer and continually wait instead of enjoying what we have now. Soon time will run out and I'm not talking about the warranty! :lol:

Since I'm on the topic of LCDs, I do find it almost inexcusable for GRE to have put in the same display into the mobile unit - it's too small for that application. Oh well.

A big HOWEVER, is that the GRE screens are a lot brighter, easier to read, especially from all different and wide angles unlike other radios out there that still exhibit qualities from decade old LCD screens with a very narrow angle of discernible view.

 

[kikito]

The other limitation is that I don't get an indication of the site with this feature, nor can I tag a CC with a tower name. The only way I could confirm this feature was working today was to press TSYS and then Analyze and look at the CC frequency.

You didn't see, try or like the feature I mentioned earlier ("Trunking CH#" under expert GLOB settings) that will show you the CC frequency when there's a voice transmission? Or are you talking about seeing each CC the scanner is scrolling through while scanning? The latter would be kind of impractical since the scanner moves so fast between sites that it's kind of hard to see what's what.

EDIT: I just noticed I was naming the wrong option for seeing the current control channel frequency the scanner is locked on when scanning. The correct option is called: "ShowCCInfo" and is at the end of the regular GLOB settings. I guess you haven't tried it yet either way.... :roll:

 

[JT-112]

Sorry, been travelling... posting on/reading this site doesn't pay the bills so I'm not on here every day!

Kikito, do you listen to any large, multi-site trunking systems? If you don't, you probably won't follow my points about roaming as well as you could otherwise. You know, walk a mile in my shoes and all that.

Yes, I am/was familiar with that option, no, it doesn't do what I'm asking for. I did not ask to see a CC frequency. That's pretty useless, as you point out. No, I'm looking for a site ID or the ability to tag a site ID with a string - and have that displayed.

The comment about me having misconceptions is off-base. I knew what I was getting into; however, I may have bought into the marketing hype that GRE put out about putting in a lot of thought into this radio, while the radio is good, I find it to be a collection of features travelling inside a case and not something people should be overly proud of. Great start? Absolutely! Still work to do? Damn betcha.

 

[kikito]

Sorry, been travelling... posting on/reading this site doesn't pay the bills so I'm not on here every day!

Yep, just like most of us have jobs and other hobbies. Many of the places I travel to frequently (business/pleasure), don't even have a dial-up connection....

Kikito, do you listen to any large, multi-site trunking systems? If you don't, you probably won't follow my points about roaming as well as you could otherwise. You know, walk a mile in my shoes and all that.

Yes I do daily: http://www.radioreference.com/apps/db/?sid=2447 And it's been online and in use since around 2003.

I think the PSR-500 is about one of the best handhelds out there for monitoring such systems, actually. And it's my opinion that some of what you're suggesting for Multi-Site features (i.e. checking Neighbor list, etc.) is almost too complex and unreliable in order to accomplish something I would call "trivial" for lack of a better term. Plus it's a moot point when the radio will cycle through all the CCs programmed in STAT mode or just switch to a better reception CC in ROAM mode. The control channels don't change often, if at all. So once you have it programmed with the possible CCs in your area or even region, you don't need the scanner to spend the extra time checking "neighbor lists" and such.

But that's just my opinion just like you have yours. If GRE wants and can implement such a feature without it being detrimental to the wonderfully fast scanning that we have currently, then is fine by me I guess.

Yes, I am/was familiar with that option, no, it doesn't do what I'm asking for. I did not ask to see a CC frequency. That's pretty useless, as you point out. No, I'm looking for a site ID or the ability to tag a site ID with a string - and have that displayed.

I was referring to seeing the CC freqs as the scanner would scan them would be too difficult and possibly useless. The feature I mentioned is far from "useless" and does exactly what you mentioned you were doing manually without all the extra steps to get the same thing. That's the only reason I mentioned the feature. I know what you mean about tagging the Site and it sounds just like what you can do with the Unidens.

I know by memory at least a dozen control channels in my immediate area. Being able to see that frequency and the slot it occupies (i.e.CC06-154.6625) is kind of handy when needed/wanted.

The comment about me having misconceptions is off-base.

I didn't intended to be off-base but sorry if it came out wrong. I just felt I needed to respond to your review and not let it go "uncontested" after seeing several inaccuracies and judgements I didn't think were quite correct.

I knew what I was getting into; however, I may have bought into the marketing hype that GRE put out about putting in a lot of thought into this radio, while the radio is good, I find it to be a collection of features travelling inside a case and not something people should be overly proud of.

And if that's your opinion that's fine, you're entitled to it. And many people have opposite opinions. All along I've been trying to offer knowledge, tips, hints and facts about the radio and it's operation. And I very much did and still do for other radios and brands. If that's being "overly proud", then that's fine too.

 

[mtindor]

My comments after four hours of having my hands on them can be found in my signature. Why not here? It's too preliminary and it has some language that may not be appropriate on RR Once I own it for a week or two I'll give some of my thoughts.

Quick Review: Compared to a BCD396T/996T, the GRE PSR-500 is garbage.

Mike

 

[kikito]

Quick Review: Compared to a BCD396T/996T, the GRE PSR-500 is garbage.

Mike

If that's how you feel in just an initial "review" of four hours, you should definitely sell it and get on with your life and your Unidens. That way you won't waste your time and everybody else's on the GRE forums complaining about this radio not being a Uniden.

 

[mtindor]

If that's how you feel in just an initial "review" of four hours, you should definitely sell it and get on with your life and your Unidens. That way you won't waste your time and everybody else's on the GRE forums complaining about this radio not being a Uniden.

I could have compared it to a PRO-96/2096, but I have never used one to compare. This isn'ta GRE bashing thread, and I'm not bashing. But I didn't know that people reviewing items are only supposed to post positive reviews. I sort of thought RR was like Fox News... fair and balanced ?

You obviously take it personally, and that's not something I can do anything about. I have a PRO-90 - by any stretch of the imagination the scanner doesn't do much these days. But if you were to make it a point to tell me that it was junk, I certainly wouldn't take it personally. Try to separate the scanner from yourself a little bit. It's not always personal, in fact it never is with me.

Besides, my review may become more favorable over time anyway (it already has).

Mike

 

[mancow]

The 500's receiver is phenomenal when compared to the 396. It hears things the 396 never will. That's the thing that impresses me the most about it.

 

[kikito]

This isn'ta GRE bashing thread, and I'm not bashing. But I didn't know that people reviewing items are only supposed to post positive reviews. I sort of thought RR was like Fox News... fair and balanced ?

Go ahead and post to a Ford Trucks forum a similar comment: "Compared to the Chevy Silverado, the Ford F-150 is garbage" and see what kind of responses you get. If you get any replies from anybody that still believes at that point you're not "trolling", they're not going to be along the lines of: "thank you, come again!". What did you expect? :roll:

You obviously take it personally, and that's not something I can do anything about.

LOL, I'm not taking it personally. Are you? I thought these forums were for discussing specific things about this hobby and the radios. I don't think that jumping into conclusions that something is "garbage" within just a few hours of using it, counts as a very reliable or enlightening discussion.

Try to separate the scanner from yourself a little bit. It's not always personal, in fact it never is with me.

You know, I keep trying to tell the same to the Sports and Politics fanatics but they just won't listen!

Besides, my review may become more favorable over time anyway (it already has).

Well maybe you should've waited a little longer before posting conclusive comments....

 

[mtindor]

Well maybe you should've waited a little longer before posting conclusive comments....

Perhaps, but on the other side of the coin I think that people who haven't used a PSR-500 but are thinking about it should be aware of what they may encounter as far as frustration when they first start to pull it out of the box. For new scanner users, there isn't as much of a shock factor. But for a Uniden person used to the latest digital stuff from Uniden, everything is completely different.

Trust me, I don't "troll" forums just looking for things to nitpick about and cause controversy. I'm not out to lambast you GRE fanatics -- after all, I'm apparently becoming one of "you."

M

 

[k9xyz]

My thoughts

Given the range of this scanner I am very pleased to once again have a great handheld reciever that does everthing this great scanner does.

The PSR 500 takes me back............way back.(I'm almost 50 now) I remember when I was a kid and my first bearcat scanner with the red leds......I was thrilled.

Then came the first programable scanner no more crystals and even 20 or 30 channels....oh man!! Then a programable handheld. You get the picture.

Of course now we are in the times of the digital revolution. I own the 396, 996 and 2 pro 96's amoung many others. The first digitals that came out also took me back to that time but I have not been really pleased with the recievers on any of them. The pro 96 is ok but it is very feature poor and lacks any menus and not customizable at all.( yes I know GRE makes them) I like the 396's size but it is not a great performer at all and so on.

Along comes the psr 500. This is one awesome scanner. Never has a handheld scanner come anywhere near this thing. Yes it takes scanning to a whole new level, and yes it has a learning curve......READ THE MANUAL or don't bother getting one.

I am extremley impressed with the 500. It is obvious that the developers of this scanner not only listened to hobbyists but are themselves scanner enthusiasts.

This scanner is untouched on the market PERIOD. The menus are fantastic, this thing can be customized beyond belief. It will take some time and patience to learn the 500 but it is well worth it. Also try win500 or psredit, both fantastic to use with this scanner.

Is the 500 perfect?, of course not but then nothing is. What it is though is one awesome piece of electronic equipment that has once again taken at least this one scanner hobbyist back in time while at the same time taken our hobby to the next step in the future.

I will not pick the scanner apart and complain about it in a nit picking way.

If you want the best digital scanner currently made....then get one. Is it worth 500 bucks....oh yea and then some. Put it this way radio shack should lower the price of the pro 96 to 199 bucks same goes for the 396 because why on earth would you buy one of those for the same money you can get this gem for?????

NO! I dont work for GRE.

GRE keep up the awesome work............
73

 

[kikito]

Perhaps, but on the other side of the coin I think that people who haven't used a PSR-500 but are thinking about it should be aware of what they may encounter as far as frustration when they first start to pull it out of the box.

I don't see anything much different than when Uniden first came out with their latest scanners. It was a departure from anything we knew or used before and many people were frustrated and confused about the new memory system and not knowing how to use or what to expect from all the new features Uniden introduced. The common factors I saw through it all:

-- People that wouldn't read or search the manual or the archives
-- Operator Error.
-- Too high/unrealistic expectations.
-- Stubborn people not wanting change.
-- People giving up too early/not giving it a chance.
-- People trolling and brand specific haters.

Sounds exactly like the stage we're in right now with the new GRE radios. Sometimes it might seem that I or others are taking something personal but really, it's more of a mild frustration with people's attitude. Especially when many people (not me unfortunately) have put in a lot of their time and efforts beta testing such products. Others like me put in time and effort trying to help and explain the radio and it's features to people. But sometimes there's a rash of irrational complains which in the end can be attributed to one or more things from the list above.

But for a Uniden person used to the latest digital stuff from Uniden, everything is completely different.

And I think that's key here. It happens both ways and with all brands and all kinds of gadgets.

Trust me, I don't "troll" forums just looking for things to nitpick about and cause controversy.

Thanks for clarifying that, good to know.

 

[kikito]

If you want the best digital scanner currently made....then get one. Is it worth 500 bucks....oh yea and then some.

You know, it's interesting that just earlier today I was cleaning my file cabinet and found a receipt for one of my first "high-end" scanners in the early 90's: an AOR AR1000XLT. It was around $400 and it didn't do a fraction of what scanners of the same price range do today. Amazing.....

 

[detroit780]

Pricing

Wasn't the other companies first 3600 baud digital scanner around $750 with the digital card installed? It didn't do half of what this one does.

Let's see the old Radio Shack (GRE) Pro-2006 was $400 about 10 or 12 years ago. So considering what you are now getting I'd say this radio is a much better deal. Once inflation is factored in the radio is actually cheaper than 12 years ago.

Just added a PSR-600 to keep my PSR-500 company on long cold winter nights. Even the 2 radios is still about 1/3 the price of a Motorola HT for APCO-25 trunked 800MHz. Then add a programming cable and software (Much more than the $35 packages available for these radios) and you're broke. Unless you want to go used in which case you'll still get both GRE's for that price. That's a fact and you can scan much more than 16 channels at a time.

As far as programming manually it's much easier than most I've used.

Just my opinion based on 30 some years of playing radio. But like the other's it is an opinion. I have friends that love Fords, love Chevy's and love MOPARS's. None of them are wrong. Well maybe a few (My opinion kicking in)

You know, it's interesting that just earlier today I was cleaning my file cabinet and found a receipt for one of my first "high-end" scanners in the early 90's: an AOR AR1000XLT. It was around $400 and it didn't do a fraction of what scanners of the same price range do today. Amazing.....

 

[pratzert]

I don't like the fact that the 500 does not have any backlighting of the keypad.

When I travel with my scanner, I am often in a car at night and want to fiddle with the search mode or other things.
( Riding as a passanger, not while driving.)

Without backlighting, this is impossible without some other light source.

I hope that this is something that GRE will add in the future releases of their Handheld scanners.

Tim

 

[captaincraig44]

I don't like the fact that the 500 does not have any backlighting of the keypad.

Tim

You must have it set to LCD only. Hit Prog-GLOB then scroll to light area and select BOTH.

 

[DonS]

I don't like the fact that the 500 does not have any backlighting of the keypad.

PGM GLOB "Light Area: Both"