[Scanner] make your own scanner..

[Bill Smith]

A short "wish list" for a Scanner.

1) Volume increase on priority channels. It would be nice if your #1 most 
important channel would be a bit louder than the others to catch your ear.

2) Dynamic banks,  I know, a couple of Scanner's have had this.

3) Remote mount or data port for a remote auxiliary head.  The auxiliary 
head could be a different form factor than the original Scanner so it could 
have an internal Speaker, or the remote mount kit could accomplish the same 
thing.

3) Better display legibility, especially in high light 
conditions.  Uniden's lame Orange backlight is way behind the times.

4) Wide/narrow selectivity to accommodate 25 and 12.5 KHz channels 
spacing.  Murata IF filters are dirt cheap and it isn't that big a deal to 
build a switchable IF chain. I've been toying around with it in one of my 
760's although the uProc will not support it.

5) A little compression to compensate for the audio level differences in 
narrow and wide radio systems.


The above would add very little to production cost.  These others will be 
more involved

6) Smaller step sizes from the synthesizer to accommodate the current and 
possible future changes in channel spacing. Even my Yaesu VR-5000 won't do 
the new VHF freqs like 155.6475 MHz,


7) Improved RF performance. Not so much raw sensitivity, most Scanners are 
hot enough.  Better IM rejection, higher 3rd order Ip, for fewer desense 
problems.  This would involve better front ends and more expensive 
semiconductors.

8) Multiple and selectable Antenna inputs.  Some of the old Regency 
Scanner's had separate UHF or 800 inputs so it's not a new concept.

Hey, I can dream :-)  If you compare the performance of today's Scanners to 
state of the art top line Radios of 10-15 Years ago, the Scanners stand up 
quite favorably.  I must say that all the whining about the 780, or even 
it's in development successor, not doing every digital or trunking format 
ever conceived is rather amusing.   Remember people, it's a consumer 
product and it's features are driven by financial not technical constraints.