hackinstack
Member
- Joined
- Sep 29, 2008
- Messages
- 33
Be forewarned, this is going to be a rant...
I recently purchased a BCD996XT from Universal Radio. I was really excited when I read through all the features and it seemed like a safe decision -- I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!!
This thing is about as useful as a boat anchor. The interface to the front panel is so confusing, non-intuitive and downright infuriating that I have almost thrown it through the window a couple times. It took me almost an hour just to figure out how to simply enter a frequency I wanted to listen to. (not *programming* a Freq, just punching in one to listen to) I spent 7hrs last night (straight) trying to figure out how to do a few simple things and accomplished about a 3rd of what I wanted... it is so bad, it effectively *requires* you to have a PC connected to do anything. Nonsense, even for a base scanner...
For $500 this thing is a complete rip-off. The documentation from Uniden is a JOKE! Its not available in PDF (except crappy screen grabs of their "wiki"), their site is SLOW - 20 to 30 seconds per page transition, and even the "easy" guides I have found make absolutely no sense at all from a "how do I perform XYZ" -- you almost have to read through and understand *every* single button and feature in the entire 1000 page manual to THEN be able to do what you want. Uniden has seemingly relied completely on the hobbyist community to supplement its horrible, horrible design.
The worst part is that Universal Radio has a 15% restocking fee, so this will be a $75 mistake. Some hobby...
This will be my once and final Uniden purchase. If anybody wants to still ignore my warnings but has been looking at this unit, PM me if you are interested in buying it off my hands.
I recently purchased a BCD996XT from Universal Radio. I was really excited when I read through all the features and it seemed like a safe decision -- I COULD NOT HAVE BEEN MORE WRONG!!
This thing is about as useful as a boat anchor. The interface to the front panel is so confusing, non-intuitive and downright infuriating that I have almost thrown it through the window a couple times. It took me almost an hour just to figure out how to simply enter a frequency I wanted to listen to. (not *programming* a Freq, just punching in one to listen to) I spent 7hrs last night (straight) trying to figure out how to do a few simple things and accomplished about a 3rd of what I wanted... it is so bad, it effectively *requires* you to have a PC connected to do anything. Nonsense, even for a base scanner...
For $500 this thing is a complete rip-off. The documentation from Uniden is a JOKE! Its not available in PDF (except crappy screen grabs of their "wiki"), their site is SLOW - 20 to 30 seconds per page transition, and even the "easy" guides I have found make absolutely no sense at all from a "how do I perform XYZ" -- you almost have to read through and understand *every* single button and feature in the entire 1000 page manual to THEN be able to do what you want. Uniden has seemingly relied completely on the hobbyist community to supplement its horrible, horrible design.
The worst part is that Universal Radio has a 15% restocking fee, so this will be a $75 mistake. Some hobby...
This will be my once and final Uniden purchase. If anybody wants to still ignore my warnings but has been looking at this unit, PM me if you are interested in buying it off my hands.