On Fri, 24 Oct 2003 16:30:14 -0400, "Rod"
wrote:

Anyone interested in sharing their opinion on the Opto Xplorer either via
email or to the group? Interested in this unit more so then the x10/11 and
was looking for input as to what people thought.. This looks to be a
valuable "rf" tool in more aspects then one and was curious if anyone had
any experience with one.

Regards,
Rod




Here's a review I did of this product:

For the advanced radio hobbyist or communications professional, this
device can be very useful. It does not replace your scanner, rather it
is used to gather information, and to tell you what is going on in
your immediate area. You need to be close to the source of the
transmission to get a reading, but once you have the information, you
can program it into your scanner and listen from a distance.

You can be looking right at somebody talking into a microphone, but
unless you know the frequency (or at least the frequency range) that
he is operating on, a scanner alone would be useless in picking up the
call. With the Xplorer, you immediately hear what is being said, and
the display gives you the frequency and signaling information (ctcss,
dpl, ltr trunking, and dtmf).

For those who do not have a thorough technical knowledge of radio
communications operating principles and spectrum utilization,
purchasing one will probably lead to frustration and buyer remorse.

Two questions, you receive a signal on 822.15 MHz. Do you know that
this frequency is only used as a repeater input, and that the actual
frequency to program into your scanner is 867.15 MHz? You're near a
police station, and the Xplorer locks onto the dispatch channel on
920.7 MHz. Do you know that police would not be operating on 920.7
MHz, and that what you are hearing is most likely the second harmonic
of 460.35 MHz? If you did not know the answers to these questions, and
most scanner owners would not, then it would probabaly not be to your
advantage to add this rather expensive tool to your monitoring system.

I ordered mine in May 2002, and after a three month backorder, I
finally received it. I opted to buy a new unit because of the features
recently added, and the price being reduced. It can pick up a 40 watt
mobile from blocks away, but it does not do well with low power
devices (cordless phones, fast food headsets). I have found a few fast
food places it will pick up. All are on the same freq and tone,
457.5125, 71.9. One was a Taco Bell, another a Wendy's, others I
didn't stick around long enough to identify. This equipment must have
a significantly higher output power than the rest. Oh well, I'm a lot
more interested in operations like event security at sports arenas,
and the Xplorer does a fantastic job at identifying these hard to find
frequencies.

If I had the purchase to do over again, I would have gone with a
Digital Scout. I'm very disappointed that auto store will only store
the frequency. PL, DPL and DTMF are only kept when you manually store
them. Since it can sometimes take quite a while before anyone
transmits, to hang around and stare at this little black box in your
hand is simply not practical. Leaving it in the car or briefcase, and
reviewing the stored information later, is the way to do it. And in
this repect, the Xplorer is little better than a storage frequency
counter. I am also not pleased with the lousy battery life, and the
fact that the program to download information from the device does not
work.