garikfox
Member
I think the LED is already a multicolor 
I just need a free firmware/update is all, NO pay here, I wont go for that.
I just need a free firmware/update is all, NO pay here, I wont go for that.
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UPMan's new avatar
- Thread starter MarkEagleUSA
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What's that got to do with a new scanner? He just said that there's a reason why he asks people to post their questions in a public forum as it can take time for him to answer - the original poster in that thread got an answer within 5 minutes, instead of a few days had he send UPMan a PM...
I think Uniden needs to get it's act together and come out with a scanner that blows the market away. They did this with the 396, GRE did it with the PSR series - now they need to do it again. The 396 is a great design both in terms of software and hardware, it would be a shame to re-design that from the ground up. Physically, there are a few tweaks that (I think) should be done;
1) Change "polarity" of the SMA so that industry-standard LMR antennas can be use (note: do NOT switch to BNC, stay SMA).
2) Make the case more durable. Granted, mine has put up with a year of man-handling just fine.
3) Have an easily removable belt clip, like a commercial radio, not an ungodly huge belt clip and cheap plastic belt part (mine broke within 2 weeks, and I'm told it isn't a warranty thing, and my local dealer says they cannot order just that piece).
4) LOUDER audio. I'm not expecting volume that of a Motorola, but come on - full-volume on my 396 is LESS than half volume on my Motorola Astro Saber.
As for changes that should be done to the software/firmware;
1) Support for Patching on both EDACS and Motorola systems. C'mon guys, memory is cheap - it isn't rocket science to support patch list announcements.
2) The ability to assign a talkgroup as Analog or Digital.
3) The ability to assign a conventional frequency as Analog, Digital or Mixed-Mode WITH NAC support.
4) The ability to program a System ID in the trunking data to ensure it doesn't pick up the wrong system.
5) Add an option to change the initial volume knob mode - IE, either "Click for volume" or "Click for channel".
6) The ability to decode P25 when in Close Call mode (this is VERY annoying).
7) Ability for Close-Call to both auto-store AND listen at the same time, not just selecting between either one.
Those are about all I can think of right now. Every single "software" suggestion can be done through firmware upgrades with minimal fuss. As for the hardware ones, as I said - I'm not COMPLAINING about the current setup, it would just be nice to have a couple of minor changes made.
These software options are not something I would be willing to pay for, nor should they be something Uniden should even dream of charging for. However, the following are features I would hand over $$ for in a second;
1) D-Star decoding
2) MotoTRBO decoding
3) iDEN decoding (there, I said it...)
4) ProVoice decoding (Yea yea, I know... Just throwing it out there)
5) NXDN decoding (it's gaining steam VERY quickly)
6) Signaling Package. In order to make this a pay-feature, the following would need to be enabled;
-Analog and Digital Trunking ID Display on Motorola and EDACS
-Conventional ANI (MDC, DTMF, FleetSync and G-Star)
-Aliasable ID lists on both trunking and conventional
-MDC/Trunking Call-Alert capabilities (IE, when a particular radio ID is paged, the scanner wakes up).
As for price points on the pay features, it would depend on the feature, but I don't think charging $50 for any of the above would be unreasonable. I think it would depend on any licensing fees that are required. Personally speaking, I value certain features over others. I would (seriously) be willing to drop $200 for JUST patch support, for example. Others might say $50 is too much for adding certain features, but they just don't need them. I don't personally care about ProVoice decoding (yet), so I wouldn't pay much more than $50 for it - but if I lived in an area that was all ProVoice, I'd drop a considerable amount on it.
I really do believe this "Paid Features" thing is the way Uniden is going to go. Look at commercial radio companies for example. Motorola makes a single radio architecture that is capable of a boat-load of features, but the customer only has access to the features encoded on the Flashcode they pay for. Where Motorola screwed up was putting every feature the radio is ever going to be capable of in each radio, regardless of what it is flashed for. This opened the door for people to hack the Flashcode - and as we now know, it is a piece of cake to enable flash features you haven't paid for. If Uniden wants to avoid that potential loss of business, they can create "custom" firmware files. IE, when you purchase a particular feature, it the firmware gets generated and sent to you - to have it only work on YOUR ESN, and ONLY the features you've paid for - thus ensuring you can't scam the system so to speak.
Those are my suggestions anyhow. Take them for what they're worth.
1) Change "polarity" of the SMA so that industry-standard LMR antennas can be use (note: do NOT switch to BNC, stay SMA).
2) Make the case more durable. Granted, mine has put up with a year of man-handling just fine.
3) Have an easily removable belt clip, like a commercial radio, not an ungodly huge belt clip and cheap plastic belt part (mine broke within 2 weeks, and I'm told it isn't a warranty thing, and my local dealer says they cannot order just that piece).
4) LOUDER audio. I'm not expecting volume that of a Motorola, but come on - full-volume on my 396 is LESS than half volume on my Motorola Astro Saber.
As for changes that should be done to the software/firmware;
1) Support for Patching on both EDACS and Motorola systems. C'mon guys, memory is cheap - it isn't rocket science to support patch list announcements.
2) The ability to assign a talkgroup as Analog or Digital.
3) The ability to assign a conventional frequency as Analog, Digital or Mixed-Mode WITH NAC support.
4) The ability to program a System ID in the trunking data to ensure it doesn't pick up the wrong system.
5) Add an option to change the initial volume knob mode - IE, either "Click for volume" or "Click for channel".
6) The ability to decode P25 when in Close Call mode (this is VERY annoying).
7) Ability for Close-Call to both auto-store AND listen at the same time, not just selecting between either one.
Those are about all I can think of right now. Every single "software" suggestion can be done through firmware upgrades with minimal fuss. As for the hardware ones, as I said - I'm not COMPLAINING about the current setup, it would just be nice to have a couple of minor changes made.
These software options are not something I would be willing to pay for, nor should they be something Uniden should even dream of charging for. However, the following are features I would hand over $$ for in a second;
1) D-Star decoding
2) MotoTRBO decoding
3) iDEN decoding (there, I said it...)
4) ProVoice decoding (Yea yea, I know... Just throwing it out there)
5) NXDN decoding (it's gaining steam VERY quickly)
6) Signaling Package. In order to make this a pay-feature, the following would need to be enabled;
-Analog and Digital Trunking ID Display on Motorola and EDACS
-Conventional ANI (MDC, DTMF, FleetSync and G-Star)
-Aliasable ID lists on both trunking and conventional
-MDC/Trunking Call-Alert capabilities (IE, when a particular radio ID is paged, the scanner wakes up).
As for price points on the pay features, it would depend on the feature, but I don't think charging $50 for any of the above would be unreasonable. I think it would depend on any licensing fees that are required. Personally speaking, I value certain features over others. I would (seriously) be willing to drop $200 for JUST patch support, for example. Others might say $50 is too much for adding certain features, but they just don't need them. I don't personally care about ProVoice decoding (yet), so I wouldn't pay much more than $50 for it - but if I lived in an area that was all ProVoice, I'd drop a considerable amount on it.
I really do believe this "Paid Features" thing is the way Uniden is going to go. Look at commercial radio companies for example. Motorola makes a single radio architecture that is capable of a boat-load of features, but the customer only has access to the features encoded on the Flashcode they pay for. Where Motorola screwed up was putting every feature the radio is ever going to be capable of in each radio, regardless of what it is flashed for. This opened the door for people to hack the Flashcode - and as we now know, it is a piece of cake to enable flash features you haven't paid for. If Uniden wants to avoid that potential loss of business, they can create "custom" firmware files. IE, when you purchase a particular feature, it the firmware gets generated and sent to you - to have it only work on YOUR ESN, and ONLY the features you've paid for - thus ensuring you can't scam the system so to speak.
Those are my suggestions anyhow. Take them for what they're worth.
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All current digital models can do this.
How so? Whenever I enable Close Call, and a P25 signal comes across all I hear is the digital "noise", it doesn't decode as P25 properly. Channel spacing on Close Call also is lacking - if I transmit on 147.1375 it shows up as 147.1400).
I've spoken to the dealer I got the scanner from, they told me more or less "that's just the way it is" - not exactly stellar customer support!
Edit: The reason it isn't decoding P25 isn't because of signal strength, it happens when I Close Call a known P25 transmitting tower, as well as when I use my own P25 transmitter right next to the radio.
Sounds like you have CTCSS/DCS Search turned on. Turn it off and P25 will be decoded.
So I can only have one or the other? IE, when I use Close Call mode, I have to pick between P25 decoding OR CTCSS/DCS detection? I hope that isn't true - if so, someone screwed up, as Close Call is pretty well useless without the ability to do both at the same time.
If you get a hit that is "interesting" or "persistent" enough to be of continued interest, you can save the frequency in a channel then conventionally scan it with CTCSS/DCS search turned on. For the ephemeral type of operation that Close Call is normally targetting, CTCSS/DCS search is really not a particularly useful function (but it inherits that setting as it is shared with the other search modes).
I can deal with that I suppose - at least I know it's not something I'm doing wrong! Still terrible design however. The whole idea of Close Call (at least as how I see it) is to capture frequencies you don't already have. In a major metro-area such as where I live, the same frequency can be used by hundreds of users, so it's nice to be able to decode the PL/CTCSS straight away as well.
OHIOSCAN
Member
Features that would be nice
If my $300 Yaesu VX-7R can have these features, Uniden should be able to.
Dual Watch
Water Resistance
Tougher Case
More Features
OLED Display
Larger Memory Pools, 2500+ TG's or Freqs should be the min amount for a system.
(With these Giant statewide systems 200/400 is way to small)
Easier Firmware upgrades
Move all buttons to the front, side buttons make single hand ops impossible.
Close Call and Priority that does not interrupt scan.
Wireless USB interface
396 Keepers
SMA
Blue Backlight
Form Factor, 396 is the perfect size
DMA
If my $300 Yaesu VX-7R can have these features, Uniden should be able to.
Dual Watch
Water Resistance
Tougher Case
More Features
OLED Display
Larger Memory Pools, 2500+ TG's or Freqs should be the min amount for a system.
(With these Giant statewide systems 200/400 is way to small)
Easier Firmware upgrades
Move all buttons to the front, side buttons make single hand ops impossible.
Close Call and Priority that does not interrupt scan.
Wireless USB interface
396 Keepers
SMA
Blue Backlight
Form Factor, 396 is the perfect size
DMA
AZScanner
Member
I dunno about some of the features on your list. I'm fairly certain that it's processing speed, not available memory that prevents Unidens from going more than 400TG's per system. It would take the scanner too long to peruse the list and go "Is this talkgroup locked out? No, OK is it part of the active scanlist? Yes, OK, is the data channel sending commands to it? Yes, OK change to that channel, is there voice activity? Yes...." and so on. You'd end up missing calls which is far more aggravating than not being able to program that 401st talkgroup. In order to be able to handle such huge lists as you suggest, the scanner would have to be designed with a multi-core processor to handle all those tasks in parallel rather than the linear fashion they do today. As for dual watch, isn't that accomplished with TWO receivers inside the unit? So we're already talking about a full blown scanner redesign here, which would certainly send many of the posters here who bought the 396 for it's firmware capabilities right over the edge of the nearest cliff.
Besides, if you think $500 is alot to pay for a scanner imagine how much it would cost to buy one with a multi core processor and two receivers inside.
"Hi honey, I needed a new scanner so I sold the car for it, hope you don't mind...."-AZ
Processing power is cheap. My Blackberry has a 614MHz processer in it, and costs $550 (non-contract price). So don't tell me a scanner that costs nearly the same can't have a better processer than whatever the 396 currently uses.
I agree however, that a 200 talkgroup limit in the 396 is just plain rediculous. Maybe the scanner is designed in a place where trunking isn't that big, but in any major metro area - forget about it. My local system has upwards of 300 talkgroups.
I wouldn't even care THAT much for the ability to scan all of them, but at LEAST give me the ability to alias/tag all of them, so that when in an ID SEARCH mode, I know who's talking.
I agree however, that a 200 talkgroup limit in the 396 is just plain rediculous. Maybe the scanner is designed in a place where trunking isn't that big, but in any major metro area - forget about it. My local system has upwards of 300 talkgroups.
I wouldn't even care THAT much for the ability to scan all of them, but at LEAST give me the ability to alias/tag all of them, so that when in an ID SEARCH mode, I know who's talking.
slicerwizard
Member
Damn, not this line of reasoning again...
My 4.77 MHz Toshiba T1000SE laptop can handle a system with a thousand talkgroups and ten thousand radio IDs and still keep up with a SmartZone 3600 bps control channel datastream. I'm fairly certain it doesn't have a multicore processor; more like a lowly 80C86. Compared to the (20 MHz?) 32 bit processor in a 396, it's a dinosaur.
What about also adding a simple sleep timer that powers off the radio at a set time? I have seen this in scanners int he past, but its a bit of a forgotten thing. But its a feature many would use, specially those who listen to their scanners at bed time....
Viper43
Member
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2005
- Messages
- 3,272
While your at it add a wake up timer and have it make your coffee too.....lol Oh wait, Upman already mentioned the last one once in another thread.....
V
I want an MP3 player!
hydrolocked
Member
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2007
- Messages
- 161
How about adding a separate weather receiver board (add another board, not just an add-on to the current software?) - so that the weather priority watch function does not interrupt the normal scanning (the pop-pop-pop as it checks the weather station). it might be worth another 30 bucks to buy a mobile that doesn't interrupt the current traffic to check the weather station.
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