[TrunkCom] scanner recommendations?

Mon Feb 3 06:30:07 EST 2014

The IOS App has not yet been released for the radio as of yet. Not sure 
exactly when that is supposed to take place. As you stated, the app is 
supposed to give you the ability to see what is quote playing on the radio 
as well as control the radio from the app. I've been more of a GRE user, 
but, I don't think that there is really much of a learning curve with the 
newer scanner radios at all. You just have to change the way that you think 
about their set up. & forget how you've done things & thought of things 
before.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Steve Matzura" <number6 at noisynotes.com>
To: "Discussion of Monitoring Trunk Radio Systems" 
<trunkcom at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, February 02, 2014 09:58
Subject: Re: [TrunkCom] scanner recommendations?


> That's a question that can only be answered subjectively. For me,
> there was no curve at all. I couldn't wait for scanners like the
> BC245, the first digital trunker Uniden ever made, to drop the bank
> concept. The follow-up, the 246, went some way toward solving it, but
> it was a bad hybrid, wasting an entire bank on a trunk system even if
> that system only had four or five channels in it. The BCD996T and its
> portable sibling, the 396, dropped the bank memory model altogether,
> going to the much more efficient system model. When you think of a
> system as a variable-sized bank, the learning curve, as you put it, is
> flattened considerably. A system is nothing more than a collection of
> frequencies, some conventional, some trunked, which you can
> selectively lock in or out, and within each system, you can
> selectively lock specific frequencies or trunks in or out as well. The
> new BCD436 and 536 Home Patrol models add the Uniden "Home Patrol"
> feature, making it easy to get started listening simply by supplying a
> ZIP or Canadian postal code, rather than accepting some subset of
> national frequencies when you first turn the unit on. The rest of the
> machine works very similarly to the 996/396. The system memory model
> is the same.
>
> The initial setup was simple enough, once I got through the horrible
> gobble-dee-gook that is the manual. Some things, like the initial and
> Wi-Fi setup screens, are mentioned in two sentences with no
> accompanying graphics at all. As I said in my first message about this
> radio, if it weren't for my trusty faithful Optacon, I don't know if
> I'd've been as successful with it as quickly, but once I figured it
> out, I've been publishing the information just as fast and as widely
> as I can on how to do it without sighted assistance, which is
> definitely doable once one knows the deal. Like a friend of mine says,
> you have to get into the head of the person who designed the firmware
> so you can understand how things might work if and when it comes down
> for you to interact with it directly, as you must do with the initial
> startup/setup screen.
>
> Something that has truly confounded me is the missing portion of the
> PC software for setting up the Wi-Fi stuff on the computer instead of
> on the scanner, which indicates to me that such information is not
> stored on the MicroSD card, but in the radio's non-volatile memory
> only. Hopefully a firmware and software revision will remedy this
> clear oversight somewhere down the line, hopefully sooner rather than
> later.
>
> Of course, what I'm waiting and actively looking for is the iOS app,
> which seems not to have been released yet. Or if it has, I've not been
> able to find it in the App Store. If it does what I'm thinking,
> hoping, it does, it will give me access to the machine's display in
> real time, making it possible for me to tell what I'm hearing. As soon
> as it's available, or I find it, whichever comes first, I'll repolrt
> back.
>
> On Sun, 2 Feb 2014 04:01:25 -0500, you wrote:
>
>>For some reason, I favor the portable versions of scanners. I haven't had 
>>a tabletop scanner in years. What is the learning curve like when going 
>>from a traditional scanner with banks and channels to this newer type 
>>format?
>>
>>Sent from my iPhone
>>
>>> On Feb 2, 2014, at 3:23 AM, Steve Matzura <number6 at noisynotes.com> 
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> JAWS primary, because it's what I'm used to. Window-Eyes as secondary,
>>> which works better with some things than JAWS does. The BCDX36
>>> software works well with both.
>>>
>>> The 536 is the mobile (tabletop) version. The 436 is the pocket one,
>>> also without the Wi-Fi feature.
>>>
>>>> On Sat, 1 Feb 2014 14:38:36 -0500, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I forget, what are you using screenreader wise? Is this the portable or 
>>>> the tabletop version?
>>>>
>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>
>>>>> On Feb 1, 2014, at 11:32 AM, Steve Matzura <number6 at noisynotes.com> 
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I got mine earlier this week and, with a little help from my Optacon,
>>>>> got past the initial setup screen. Now I have to download the profile
>>>>> from the radio and see exactly what agencies it picked and how it
>>>>> arranged them. Then it's on to customization.
>>>>>
>>>>> Might try the iOS app later today.
>>>>>
>>>>>> On Sun, 15 Dec 2013 21:23:25 -0500, you wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>  Hi everyone, I am just wondering with regard to the newer scanners 
>>>>>> that are coming out soon.  I am wondering that if at some point I 
>>>>>> should get the portable or the desktop with the I Phone app?  It will 
>>>>>> be interesting to note what advantages and/or features will be the 
>>>>>> most accessible.  With regard to the desktop with the app will the 
>>>>>> app work with the cellular network with regard to monitoring/control? 
>>>>>> I know that the literature I read mentioned other wifi networks that 
>>>>>> it will work on.
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