[MilCom] New Scanner

[Larry Van Horn]

I also had a detailed discussion with the players involved at the time and I 
assure you it was a engineering issue. Some sales weasel may have wanted to 
let the cell phone images in, but it was never a feature of their 
advertising at the time since it was illegal to monitor cell or cordless 
telephone calls. So that wouldn't make it into advertising.

The problem those scanners had was that a well engineered triple conversion 
scanner should never have these issues in the first place. And it wasn't 
just cell phones images. Other things that tore up the 225-400 MHz band 
including TV products, fm broadcast products and 800 MHz PS traffic.

Since it is pretty moot to beat this long dead horse and since this is way 
off topic for this list, this will be the last of it on this list or this 
thread. DH or anyone else wishing to discuss this can take it private and 
off list.

73 de LVH

Larry Van Horn, N5FPW
Founding Father of Milcom/Fedcom/Trunkcom
Assistant/Technical Editor Monitoring Times
MT First Look/Help Desk/Milcom Columnist
Blog Address: http://mt-milcom.blogspot.com/
Personal Radio Blog: http://monitor-post.blogspot.com/

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Declared Hostile" <Declared_Hostile at marktwain.net>
To: "Larry Van Horn" <n5fpw at brmemc.net>; <milcom at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, October 29, 2007 6:28 AM
Subject: Re: [MilCom] New Scanner


> Larry Van Horn wrote:
>>> BTW as I understand Uniden specifically left those radios wide open as 
>>> far as intermod goes to allow for image reception as a way to get around 
>>> the cellular ban.
>>
>> Absolutely not true my friend. It was an engineering issue that they 
>> quote "tried to fix in the 3000/9000 scanners after they pulled the 
>> 2500/8500 scanner following the horrible reviews." They still didn't fix 
>> the issues in the 3000/9000 models even thought they said they did. A 
>> great comparable set of triple conversion scanners of that era were the 
>> RS (GRE) Pro-2004/5/6 desk/mobiles and Pro-43 HH which didn't need traps 
>> to block the cell images from 800 MHz. I still own all four, they are 
>> still working fine and doing the job.
>>
>> Sorry DH, I won't own  a 2500/8500/3000/9000 today even if you gave to 
>> me. IMHO a total waste of energy to power compared to other triple 
>> conversions of that day.
>>
>> 73 de LVH
>
> Here is an excerpt from an article about the BC-9000 I came across years 
> ago.  Info from Dave Rodriguez (Uniden Corp) & Jeff Zeman:
>
> "The Uniden Sales Dept specifically requested that cellular images be
>  included in the BC9000XLT (since it's legal to do that). The front
>  end was left wide open to allow this in the 360-385MHz range."
>
> The full article:
>
> Uniden Bearcat BC9000XLT Tricks
>      * Info from Dave Rodriguez (Uniden Corp) & Jeff Zeman
>        (73252,3645).
>        Additional info from Bob Parnass (Monitoring Times)
>        File written by SYSOP*Jeff Goldman WA1UDB.
>  By holding down the 2, 9 & DLY keys as you turn the 9000XLT on, you
>  enter a sort of Test Mode. To do a "keycheck test" you can hit any
>  key or turn the VFO knob either direction and the alpha display will
>  tell you what key you're touching or which direction you're turning
>  the VFO knob.
>  At this point, if you momentarily hit LOCK (to the right of the VFO
>  knob) and one other button various things will happen:
>     LOCK & C - REPLACES ALL MEMORIES w/1300MHz and alpha-tags channels
>                1-250 with CH 00-249 in the display. Again, will
>                effectively wipe out your memories!
>     LOCK & D - Checksum and Firmware Version Number (v.09 in ALL 9000s
>                to date)
>     LOCK & E - LCD Display Test
>  LOCK & PROG - Runs a short, continously-repeating Demo Program
>                incorporated specifically for showing at the Jan 1995
>                CES in Las Vegas.
>                It also sounds attention tones as the message scrolls
>                on the display! (Note that the word "scanner" is
>                spelled "Scaner" in the demo program; it was too late
>                to change this booboo that originated in Japan.)
>  The last three tricks will NOT wipe out memory. Only LOCK/C will do
>  that.
>                           *Additional notes*
>  There are more tricks, but they're currently being translated from
>  Japanese. One of these has something to do with using the CTCSS
>  button to change "Decord" from High to Low. No info yet on this.
>  The Uniden Sales Dept specifically requested that cellular images be
>  included in the BC9000XLT (since it's legal to do that). The front
>  end was left wide open to allow this in the 360-385MHz range.
>  No reason available on why the FM filtering is narrower (ie less
>  HiFi) than on the BC8500XLT. It was done in Japan without
>  explanation.
>  The audio amp doesn't shut off as in the BC8500XLT during quiet
>  periods. There was an improvement in the circuit, but this means a
>  bit of hiss when no transmissions are coming through.
>  All BC9000XLTs (whether built in 1994 - serial numbers 45+ - or in
>  1995 - serial numbers 55+) have firmware version 0.09. And all have
>  AM mode available on any frequency the scanner is capable of.
>  The BC9000XLT is capable of having an alpha tag attached to any
>  channel, but 250 tags is the limit. (This was verified by doing the
>  LOCK/C trick. The scanner loads 250 tags and shows a memory full
>  warning if you try to enter additional tags.)
>               *A tip from Bob Parnass (Monitoring Times)*
>  You can use the SND button during a Search as a sort of Radio Shack-
>  type MON button, transferring a freq to any bank you'd like to become
>  your "Monitor" bank. With RS scanners, you have to go through extra
>  steps to transfer the memories from Monitor channels to permanent
>  channels.
>
>
> -- 
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