What would you like to see in the next generation digital scanner's?

[KI6ABZ]

1. Recording and playback from an SD card. Tag the recording with freq, tag, time, tg.
2. USB connectivity. Forget the level converter/programming cable. Just put a mini-B jack on the back (or side or whatever.) Include a usb sound chip along with it for direct recording and PC audio playback. PC recording should be independent of the volume control.
3. DSTARS, MOTOTRBO (this might not be legal... is this considered encryption?)
4. Dual receive might be nice, but I just get annoyed when I hear 2 signals at once on my Kenwood HT...
5. Better battery handling. Do NOT go to LiPo, since that raises the cost, but include a peak charger so rechargables don't get fried.
6. For portables: a drop-in charging station with PC interface, speaker, and antenna jack. I should be able to drop it in the charger and COMPLETELY run the radio on the PC... it should be completely hands-off while it's in the dock. A similar dock for the car, with a speaker jack & line out would be nice for drivers. One portable unit could then do the job of 2 or 3 different scanners.
7. Broadcast reception: pick up AM/FM/HD radio and digital TV audio streams.
8. Adjustable step size and arbitrary frequency assignment. Not everybody uses the "standard" channel slots, especially in the Ham bands. (My oldest scanner can't even be tuned to some of the repeaters I listen to or to FRS/GMRS channels because of its fixed step size.)

None of these are expensive in terms of hardware... radio tuners are dirt cheap, as are USB sound chips. Aside from the MOTO mode, the most expensive component would probably be the MPEG recorder or the DTV receiver.

The other thing I want to see is a feature to automatically download newly saved channels to the computer and push those channels out to my other radios without a ton of manual processing... but to do that, the industry would have to develop a common control language for updating scanners, receivers, and transceivers.

 

[hfxChris]

6. For portables: a drop-in charging station with PC interface, speaker, and antenna jack. I should be able to drop it in the charger and COMPLETELY run the radio on the PC... it should be completely hands-off while it's in the dock. A similar dock for the car, with a speaker jack & line out would be nice for drivers. One portable unit could then do the job of 2 or 3 different scanners.

Now this, I like!

 

[prc117f]

AES/DES and Type-1 Encryption decryption capability via a a few keystrokes

 

[N_Jay]

AES/DES and Type-1 Encryption decryption capability via a a few keystrokes

Why should it take any keystrokes?

If it has the power to break the key, then it should be able to tell when to use it.:twisted:

How about a self programming scanner that spends 50% of its time scanning the band, analysing what is found and offering the user easy options to include or not include those systems in the scan list.

Maybe a second receiver could do this in the background.

 

[mm]

Encryption would be a waste of engineering time and money, there's no way you are going to get any keys anyway.

I would rather see a better track tuned receiver pre-selector along with some higher intercept point pre-amps for each band instead of the single wide band pre-amps that the present receivers use.

 

[prc117f]

#1 Roofing filters would be nice.
#2 Software defined radio tech using FPGA
#3 +40dbm IP3, 110db dynamic range
#4 spectrum monitor
#5 10.5Mhz IF output
#6 Digital preselector
#7 2Ghz per second scanning speed
#8 ability to alert and show any changes to a wide band of spectrum (ie set it to build a baseline for a 50mhz slice of spectrum and notify you when anything new pops up) you can define the paramaters to trigger the alert.
#9 digital IF filters that you can define.

Keep it under 600 dollars.

something like this sort of.

 

[Tim-in-TX]

Personally, I would like to see more remote heads offered on more models. On newer cars, dashboard real estate is getting more and more cluttered as they cram more and more pretty toys in it. A remote head would allow for a larger variety of placement options where solid unit installs would be impossible. Uniden has had them for years.




(could I have used the word "more" more?)

 

[idontknow82]

Scanners that decrypt this encryption foolishness!

 

[K6PCW]

Another vote for remote heads - small ones!

Couldn't agree more. Modern automobile dashboards and consoles are a challenge for equipment mounting these days, particularly with center consoles full of stuff that prevent radio mounting with any degree of aesthetic, concealability, or safety from crash and airbag hazards. We all know that DIN mounting ain't exactly easy (or possible) on certain car models.

It'd be wonderful to see some remote heads designed for discrete mounting, similar in size to what the amateur radio manufacturers are producing (Icom, Yaesu, Kenwood, etc.).

Or, alternatively, a hand-held control head that contains a display and functionality controls, with the rest of the radio (the receiver's guts) in a smaller box that can be concealed underneath a seat, or tucked up in the foot well area, or in the trunk, etc.

There is indeed a demand for this stuff, and we consumers would certainly spend the $$$ if the product(s) were available and suitable. Just don't give us half-assed crappy "solutions" that we've seen in the past.

 

[prc117f]

Scanners that decrypt this encryption foolishness!

I had to throw it in before someone else does.

 

[coldbricks]

Wifi, or at least LAN capability. Imagine it, download and install newly found database information without even using your computer!

 

[gmclam]

Wifi, or at least LAN capability. Imagine it, download and install newly found database information without even using your computer!

A much better approach is to just use a memory card slot. Then You can have as many profiles programmed as you have memory cards. No need to "connect" or reprogram when a new profile is needed; just plug in a new memory card. Yes V-folders or equivalent works great; but just extend that onto a memory card.

Now that memory is far less expensive than ever, I'd like to see some sort of "transmission logging". Keep track of when the last signal was received, per channel, with its associated CT/DC/NAC value. For example, I could get a log such as:
001 154.190 162.2 07-01-2009 12:34
002 154.190 131.8 07-01-2009 13:45
003 154.190 123.0 07-01-2009 14:56

A new reception of the same frequency and tone value would/could overwrite the prior.

 

[N9NRA]

My wish list for the next-generation scanner, one, a SD card slot for ease of programming (`specially good for me since i travel somewhat and might want to have several different freq lists set up), what i`ll call "true dualwatch" (like on my HAM HT, that way i can hear and monitor two channels at once), a priority mode that dosen`t "break into" the channel i`m currently listening to every two seconds to do the "lookback" thingy, and as someone else said, WIFI or a LAN function for updating/remote programming ease. N9NRA