RadioBanter - View Single Post

October 30th 05, 01:48 AM

In article ,
says...
On Fri, 28 Oct 2005 10:46:52 -0700, George said
in rec.radio.scanner:

2. Selectable tuning steps instead of the default tuning step ranges
which may be off a few KC's from where you want to listen.

If the frequency is "a few KCs off", someone should notify the
licensee, because they're operating illegally. If it's 5 KHz off,
you're probably trying to receive the wrong frequency. A lot of PS
frequencies found on the internet were found by people who had their
scanners on the wrong frequency, and when you try to match that
frequency with a better scanner, you think that the transmitter is off
frequency. No, it's the knowledge of the person reporting the
frequency that was off. Most technicians know how to keep the
transmitters on frequency - it's what they were hired for.

5. Continuos frequency coverage! This is a very handy option. Even
though the Uniden BC796D has a few gaps, the range is sufficient for my
needs. The Icom IC-R20 covers everything from 100KHZ - 3Ghz, except
800Mhz cellular.

It covers 1.8 GHz cellular? Or did you just forget to mention that?
(Not that receiving it would do any good - there are NO analog
services in the "PCS" band.)

7. Good sensitivity, rejection to intermod

Not in any receiver ever made, if the intermod is external to the
scanner. If it's on the frequency you're receiving, you'll receive
it. GRE, Uniden or a Motorola G-strip (which was probably the
tightest receiver ever made - the thing had cavities for front end
filters).

You may mean a receiver that doesn't suffer much from front end
overload. Typical of Uniden, NOT typical of GRE. (You're almost
assured of overloading the front end of a GRE scanner if you put on an
external antenna, unless you don't live anywhere near any
transmitter.)

adjacent signal rejection

Also not with almost any scanner ever made. Most scanners have a
fixed IF bandwidth. It's difficult to be wide enough to not distort
on an 11 KHz channel and still not pick up adjacent channel
interference with 5 KHz channel spacing.

LOL. Al, Only in your universe are Uniden radios more resistant to
overload than most GRE built scanners. Uniden is FAMOUS for overloading.

In our universe, that is..

They have gotten better though, the BC8500 was hands down the worst
scanner I ever had. It was a total disaster, and was sent back right
away. They seemed to partially learn their lesson after that train
wreck, but their low end radios are pretty bad. Worse than most of the
GRE radios I've had here over the years..

And I've owned, and repaired a large number of scanners from both
manufacturers and most of the ones I buy, or keep, tend to be GRE, for
RF performance, if not for quality control issues, like non soldered
speaker leads, antennas, loose screws, loose BNC connectors, etc...

That's in my universe..

BDK