kb7ado
"Hey Whistler, how about an increase in scan speed the next time you do a firmware update?"
It not just a change to a couple of lines of code to change speed......
to change a channel on a modern scanner(minimally)....
get channel info from memory
send frequency/bandwidth info to RF section (VFO, IF)
send modulation info to Audio recovery section
wait for RF section to stabilize/settle
Check for channel activity
If active, enable audio (unmute), When signal drops, mute, Check for delay setting(s)
IF not active, go to next channel
repeat
Trunking adds another layer to this......
each of these steps requires a finite time to accomplish, things can not be rushed
usually the manufacturer has already optimized the times because a faster scan is a selling point.......
$.02
Agree -- scanners are trying to do so much more these days. It takes time to process the wide variety of types.
Back in the day it was just conventional analog.... easy (looking back of course).
Then trunking - Motorola, EDACS, LTR, etc.
Then mixed mode (analog and/or digital on the same frequencies).
Then fully digital systems.
And now even mode different digital modes - P25 Phase1 and Phase 2, DMR, NXDN, not to mention other signals/digital modes that the scanners don't handle (paging, etc.).
The more you try to scan, the variety of those systems, and use of "auto" settings are going to slow things down. In search modes, if makes sense to "auto" detect things. However, as much as is possible, you definitely want to limit the use of "auto" settings for things that are stable and known.
And, as new capabilities get added, you rarely see anything in this processing being "removed" to compensate/make room for new things.
It takes time for the scanner to "prepare" (initialize) for each of those different modes before actually doing it.
Think of it this way: if I know a foreign visitor is coming but you don't tell me what language they'll be speaking when they arrive (or I fail to prepare), it's going to take me alot longer to communicate with them than if you tell me in advance they'll be speaking say - French when they arrive so I can either learn the language in advance or as least have an interpreter on hand to quickly bridge the divide....
EDIT: Thinking about all of this - I wonder if there is a way (in the future?) for the scanner companies to allow users to enable/disable various types to speed things up (i.e. tell the scanner "hey, I'm only going to use you to listen to NXDN", etc.... If it would significantly increase the scan/processing speed perhaps there is a chance they would. However, there would probably have to be a large audience/call for that kind of feature (which is unlikely since everybody tends to want everything all the time).