Uniden's pityful search band provision

[Minus1]

Uniden's pityful custom search band provision is like something out of the 1980s.
10 search bands to cover about 700 MHz of spectrum is a pretty poor effort in my opinion.
Why not 100?
In newer models why not an amount only limited by memory capacity?

Now I am in the UK, so my perspective may be different as frequencies are generally much more widely available in the US, but even so, are 10 custom search bands really enough to allow users to find new frequencies?

Here in the UK, I estimate around 112 distinct bands between 25 and 470 MHz.
What on earth possesses Uniden to still think 10 is enough?
Sure 10 is easy from a keying perspective, but they found a way to provide more than 10 systems didn't they?

Even allowing multiple frequency ranges in one custom search band (as already happens with preset search bands) would be a good start.

What do people in the US think?

 

[phask]

Plenty enough for me - in actuality I rarely use it anymore, now 10 or 20 years ago was useful, but with nearly everything trunked - meh.

You need another category - who cares?

If I am doing a few. search - I set what I want and don't use the pre-program.

 

[MStep]

My 2 cents--- ten programmable search bands seems to be plenty. With the advent of sites like Radio Reference, the necessity to "ferret out" frequencies has pretty much been replaced with a plethora of information already available, admittedly by folks who have already done most of the searching over the years. While I still do occasional searching, I use those banks pretty much just for a quick sweep of the 2 meter or 440 ham bands. Sure, all other things being equal, 100 search banks would be nice, although I could probably think of other items I'd like the folks at Uniden to concentrate their efforts on.

 

[Gilligan]

I could easily use between 20-50... It's nice to have alpha-tagged custom searches for specific kinds of searches. For example, you may have up to ten segments with different steps in each of several bands. Perhaps you were searching for different kinds of business-band users, or aviation channels. Or maybe even ham radio repeater ranges. I could easily fill up to 50 searches and have them alpha-tagged, then I wouldn't have to overwrite the ones I use regularly when I need one for a special purpose.

 

[sparklehorse]

My 2 cents--- ten programmable search bands seems to be plenty. With the advent of sites like Radio Reference, the necessity to "ferret out" frequencies has pretty much been replaced with a plethora of information already available, admittedly by folks who have already done most of the searching over the years. While I still do occasional searching, I use those banks pretty much just for a quick sweep of the 2 meter or 440 ham bands. Sure, all other things being equal, 100 search banks would be nice, although I could probably think of other items I'd like the folks at Uniden to concentrate their efforts on.

+1



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[pb_lonny]

I spend A LOT of time searching the bands, more so than I do scanning and I find 10 search bands to be enough. These are how I have mine programmed.

70-80MHz
118-137MHz
137-148MHz
150-174MHz
400-420MHz
420-460MHz
462-512MHz
25-70MHz
806-956MHz
865-870MHz

 

[Voyager]

Using FLs, there is hardly any need for search bands. Just look at the Service Search FLs for the various services. ALL the channels fit in two FLs and they are broken down by each service. You also don't have issues with channel spacing or "between channel reception".

That said, here in the USA, you can cover everything with 8 search bands:
29-54 MHz FM
88-108 MHz FMB
108-136 MHz AM
136-174 MHz NFM
406-512 MHz NFM
700 MHz (forget the exact limits)
851-869 MHz NFM
902-956 MHz NFM

Granted, there are some FM users in there, but they are still received on NFM. There will always be some users who don't use the standard modulation.

I don't know how the UK's bands are laid out, but it must be more complex than on this side of the pond.

But, the Uniden America models are made for the USA and Canada, not UK.

All that said, I voted for unlimited because I simply like options.