Radio shack pro 668 update

[dkf435]

Which ever way you look at the situation Radio Shack will loose sales and Whistler will be making fewer radios with no difference to the name being stamped on them and the firmware loaded. I am looking for 2 handhelds and possible 2 mobiles this year with extended digital modes and I am leaning towards just doing the Unidens.

David


List of radios being used and sometimes multiples of each. Note Whistler models have yet to be added and may never be.

 

[zzdiesel]

Which ever way you look at the situation Radio Shack will loose sales and Whistler will be making fewer radios with no difference to the name being stamped on them and the firmware loaded. I am looking for 2 handhelds and possible 2 mobiles this year with extended digital modes and I am leaning towards just doing the Unidens.

David


List of radios being used and sometimes multiples of each. Note Whistler models have yet to be added and may never be.

And myself as well on buying Unidens.

 

[Nasby]

Typical Stupid answer!!!! As I said before, from now on buy a Whistler Brand Scanner, not a Radio Shack Rebadge!!! That way you'll get Whistler's support for all upgrades!!! Not the above stupid answers!!!!! Whistler should support the Pro-668. They openly admitted they made it for Radio Shack!! They should support it!!!!!!! Period!!!!!!!!!!!

I'll bet you have a PRO-668.

 

[SCPD]

seriously?

Which ever way you look at the situation Radio Shack will loose sales and Whistler will be making fewer radios with no difference to the name being stamped on them and the firmware loaded. I am looking for 2 handhelds and possible 2 mobiles this year with extended digital modes and I am leaning towards just doing the Unidens.

David


List of radios being used and sometimes multiples of each. Note Whistler models have yet to be added and may never be.

From your list of radios,looks like you'd buy Uniden anyway............
Uniden displays are too hard to read,and the 400MHZ band is very weak,dont think the grass is greaner.Just dont get the Radio shack scanners,Whistler is a better Radio!And Easy scan is alot better than Uniden's Sentinel that requires spyware infested Microsoft.NET framework
to run.Radio shack should just carry WHISTLER scanners,the rebranded stuff should be retired!

 

[wbswetnam]

... the PRO668 is just about WORTHLESS.

Oh c'mon! Get real! It's a terrific scanner and when my state (Arkansas) goes to P25 phase 2 on the statewide AWIN network as announced later this year, I'm ready to go.

Arkansas is absolutely LOADED with DMR, and NXDN to some extent too. Yeah it would be great if Whistler were to play Santa Claus and gift me and all others with Pro-668s a DMR firmware upgrade, but that's not how the business world works. Let me tell you, it just ain't gonna happen!

You've never studied anything about contract law, have you?

 

[DJ11DLN]

RS was on the ropes when the Pro-668 hit the market. This was no secret. If you paid full retail for a Pro-668, well, I feel bad for you, but again you must have been either living under a rock or an incurable optimist. I expect that most of us bought our 668's at a deep discount, as I did. For $125 I got a digital trunking scanner at least as good as the PSR-800 at its zenith. And because that radio had no serious bugs or issues (other than LSM) and supported p.2, that was "good enough." I always viewed future support as something that would be nice to have, but probably wasn't likely, considering the RS corporate health situation. Whistler does not build radios or develop updates for free; they are in business to make a profit. We cannot expect them to pick up the slack here. RS must get to work and make it happen, and I imagine that would not only involve monetary compensation for the updates, but also back payment for ??? many RS-branded products Whistler built but never got paid for.

I would also make the point that when most of us got our Pro-668's (and WS-1080/WS-1095's, and for that matter 436/536hp's), there had been zip, zero, nada talk of any of these radios ever supporting DMR, TRBO, NXDN, or anything else besides P25.

 

[NC1]

Since both were made by the same company, they should be supported and backed by the company. Yes, I know they were sold by 2 different companies, but they DID make money on production of the RS branded scanner. They did not get all the retail profit, but they certainly did not walk away with $0 from their agreement with RS, you can bet it all on that.

Their agreement between each other was between them. They are separate entities, but it's still the same baby no matter how you want to view it - that's an undeniable fact. I don't care if you pre-ordered it at $600 or got it at a garage sale for $20, what you paid is totally irrelevant and inconsequential for the issue.

For those who like to argue legalities, then yes, you are correct that there is no contractual obligation. That position however is the ground one will take when there may be a quasi-moral obligation through default, but for some reason will point to the contract and state they don't have to. Well, that is their choice to make and will have to deal with the consequences.

It would be more of a moral code or standard of ethics that is being broken than anything else. I think by not providing the service for the pro-668 buyers, they will be losing some good standing and respect of many in the scanning hobby.

Their opportunity to stand above the crowd is riding off into the sunset. They spend many thousands of dollars to both gain and keep customers each year, but they must also know that once you tick someone off and lose their business, it's almost impossible to ever gain them back. If they are smart, they will look at supporting the Pro-668 as both a good Public Relations and Advertising move.

Time will tell, but I think I already know what they are currently thinking.

 

[DonS]

Does anybody remember a few years ago, when GRE would release PSR-500/600 updates and the same update for the PRO-106/197 (same radio) wouldn't come out until months later?

That happened because GRE was contractually prohibited from releasing updates for RadioShack-branded radios unless those updates had been approved by RadioShack.

I'd give odds that the same situation exists today with the Whistler-produced, RadioShack-branded scanners.

 

[buddrousa]

Thanks Don for the update

 

[NC1]

GRE was contractually prohibited from releasing updates for RadioShack-branded radios unless those updates had been approved by RadioShack.

I'd give odds that the same situation exists today with the Whistler-produced, RadioShack-branded scanners.

It is my belief that if that were the case, then they would have immediately made that fact known.
They did not, so I would take that excuse off the table. Reason would dictate that they would state right away if the applicable clause in the agreement were present that barred their participation.

We can safely assume that they are not being prevented as evidenced by their replies that do not exclude the update entirely, contrarily they do give the apparent insinuation that it may be possible and is at their sole discretion.

In short - they don't want to.

 

[mule1075]

It is my belief that if that were the case, then they would have immediately made that fact known.
They did not, so I would take that excuse off the table. Reason would dictate that they would state right away if the applicable clause in the agreement were present that barred their participation.

We can safely assume that they are not being prevented as evidenced by their replies that do not exclude the update entirely, contrarily they do give the apparent insinuation that it may be possible and is at their sole discretion.

In short - they don't want to.

Umm the guy who's post you quoted and replied to would know better than any of us.A search of the forums will give you an idea why.

Sent from my Z750C using Tapatalk

 

[NC1]

Umm the guy who's post you quoted and replied to would know better than any of us.A search of the forums will give you an idea why.

Sent from my Z750C using Tapatalk

I must have misinterpreted when he wrote "I'd give odds that the same situation exists today".

Most people would interpret that as an educated guess based on a previous experience, while also giving the impression that it may not be the case at all which is basically a disclaimer stating he is not giving actual known fact.

I still maintain the opinion that they would have made the exclusionary clause known immediately and answered the question with complete certainty.

Until we get a solid yes or no from the company itself, this remains officially unanswered.

 

[buddrousa]

DonS is the firmware man for the GRE,WHISTLER,RADIO SHACK scanners. Don may have just answered the question the best he could considering his position.

 

[wbswetnam]

One thing that no one has pointed out yet - if you just cannot afford a new scanner which is DMR capable, and you're just dying to access it, the Pro-668 is one of the few scanners which has a native discriminator output via the headphone jack. Ok, you already have the Pro-668, and you most likely have a computer otherwise you wouldn't be pecking away at a keyboard to post comments to this forum. You only lack two things: one is an audio patch cord to connect the headphone jack to the microphone input jack to your computer. If you look in your electronics junk drawer / box you'll probably find three of them. The other is DSD+, available at DSDPlus – Digital Decoder which does not need a rocket scientist to set up. There are plenty of instructional videos on YouTube on how to set it up. Taaa-daaa! You have DMR / NXDN / Provoice right now, albeit indirectly, with your Pro-668.

 

[NC1]

DonS is the firmware man for the GRE,WHISTLER,RADIO SHACK scanners. Don may have just answered the question the best he could considering his position.

That is an acceptable answer given that he is not a 1st party to the contract. No problem there. I'm not laying blame or making accusations in relation to the post. All I was referring to was the fact that it is a good educated guess, but not a final official answer.

Yes, I have a somewhat basic working knowledge of who is who here, which is why I only pointed to the fact that a contract issue would have been quoted by someone in an official capacity. For them to come to the table pointing out a preemptive clause in the contract, by somebody in corporate, would have happened already; otherwise why would there be such a delay in a straight answer?

I'm just looking at this from a logical point of view and taking into account human behavior appropriate at the time. To produce a contract issue now does not fit a normal business pattern. Not looking for a pissing contest, only pointing out that there is an unspoken reason they have not given a firm answer.

 

[TES]

. . .I'm just looking at this from a logical point of view . . .

Darn—and here I thought you were a know-it-all.

 

[buddrousa]

I am sure he knows what the contract says but you will not accept anything anybody else says. They have answered people here by say in writing they are not allowed all up dates and warranties are to come from Radio Shack that I got in writing over a year ago after the filling.

 

[RaleighGuy]

Does anybody remember a few years ago, when GRE would release PSR-500/600 updates and the same update for the PRO-106/197 (same radio) wouldn't come out until months later?

That happened because GRE was contractually prohibited from releasing updates for RadioShack-branded radios unless those updates had been approved by RadioShack.

I'd give odds that the same situation exists today with the Whistler-produced, RadioShack-branded scanners.

Thanks for the input DonS, I appreciate all you do for the hobby!

 

[darunimal]

Here you go, rif: http://forums.radioreference.com/gr...made-scanner-firmware-update.html#post2297211

 

[dkf435]

Well from here on out, with the PRO-668 and Whistler 1080 being essentially the name with similar list prices, WHY WOULD ANYBODY BUY A NEW RADIO SHACK SCANNER unless it was heavily discounted and the flip flopping of the 30/ 1 year warranty question plus the dim viability outlook of Radio Shack.

The PRO-668 will be close to dead, better to defect them out and return to the vendor.

If it is not too late Radio Shack should deny further shipments or payments.

No more Radio Shack purchases here, Whistler questionable and Uniden as last resort.

David