WS-1080 vs BCD-436HP in Los Angeles Day 1

[cherubim]

It usually occurs when it's connected to a larger, outdoor antenna. As Gcom pointed out, it's more of an issue with selectivity, than sensitivity.

Selectivity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selectivity_(electronic)

I get overload on the civil aircraft band when using just the stock whip antenna of my PSR-600. The problem with most GRE built scanners is the RF amplifier dynamic range. Selectivity isn't the issue because adjacent channel interference is non existent outside VHF-Hi (from my testing anyway).

 

[Gcom]

Yes of course , rf amps , oscillators , mixers, IF's ,all play various parts. With the air band GRE utilized a single filter which is shared by both the vhf air & vhf hi band . I was only agreeing that selectivity plays a part . Uniden uses dual filters one for each of those two bands which eliminates such problems as images on the air band .

 

[Marky102770]

436HP.vs whistler

Received the WS-1080 from Ham Station yesterday (Thanks Jeff for great service).
I will preface this by saying I never owned the PSR-800, so it is going to take me a while to get up to speed with the software.
That said, "You must be kidding me, some people think the PSR-800 (now the WS-1080) is better than the 436HP. Well we must be on a different planet. Because I sure don't. Granted it is only day 1 and I need to learn the radio. But already the screen is scratched. Had it out less than 4 hours, and the screen is scratched.
Then, sometimes the speaker would not come on when had the USB cable plugged into it to use it without the batteries. That seemed to resolve after a while, but have no idea why. Why did I use the USB cable after a couple of hours? Because I could watch the battery indicator going down as I used the scanner. I mean pretty fast.
To be fair, the P25 audio quality sounds a bit more natural on the WS-1080, but not by much. Whereas the P25 decode, in my opinion, is better on the 436HP. This seemed true both on the LAPD conventional P25 and ICIS P25 trunk system.
The big deal for me is the flexibility of the 436HP/536HP to do things on the fly. Maybe I am just used to the Favorite List/Sentinel program now, but I find that very flexible. With no keys to really do anything on the WS-1080, I feel lost.
Yes, the VHF was a bit better on the WS-1080, but not by much. And the 436HP has the nice big display. With the WS-1080, its pretty much the old smaller display. Maybe I am different, but besides hearing the channels and TGs, I like to see lots of information about them.
Again to be fair, I want to give it a couple of weeks with good comparisons between the WS-1080 and 436HP. But something tells me early on (kind of like when I met girls way back in the 1970s - now married 38 years) that the 436HP/536HP are going to continue to be my workhorse scanners.
In fact, I told Jeff at Ham Station to put me on the list for a 1095, but if it is basically the same as the 1080, I probably will forget it.
I realize that I am comparing the PSR-800 to the 436HP, and for me, at least on day 1, it is hands down the 436HP for me in Los Angeles in terms of on the fly flexibility to narrow down what I want to hear from literally thousands of stations. But I may change my mind after a week or two when I get used to EZ scan. Again, however, the inability to use third party software like Butel, ProScan, or Win-500 with the PSR-800/WS1080 is a big negative for me.
Steve AA6IO
Steve AA6IO

I know one thing about Uniden scanners they are very fragile, unlike the Uniden scanners, the GRE800's, they are durable and almost twice the weight. and the if the whistler is anything like the GRE 800, the they are very easy to use. the BCD432 are very difficult to learn. it is not as easy as they make it sound, if you are looking for great audio, and very easy to use, you can buy your police department's exact radio on eBay. Philadelphia PD just up graded their radios to the Motorola XTS5000 800 mhz. they are very expensive like 1000 to 1500 new but I got one for $600 refurbished and they are people on eBay that program them for a reasonable rate. unless u want to buy a program it yourself on the computer with a programing cable. but it is very hard to program it unlike any scanner, I found one guy on eBay i could trust to send my radio to for him to ad and remove channels. then I got the cable and he can remotely program it. but he will only program it where you can where you can list and disable the PPT when it comes to public safety. I can say one thing, It comes it loud and crystal clear. the downside is you can only program one trunk system and the conventional you can program at the same time and i believe you can program 256 conventional channels. good luck with your future purchase. .

 

[kb8rvp]

I noticed you said you had scratches the within the first 4 hours. The first thing I do with all of my scanners is to put a protective screen protector on right out of the box cut to fit... Glad you are starting to like the scanner more each day!

Mike

 

[ratboy]

I would guess that the "scratches" on the display are FROM the factory screen protector, which is very soft and easily scratched. I had mine scratched in a few minutes. Since I removed it, it still looks perfect.