I've had my BC780 up and running since around noon today. Regretfully, I haven't been able to devote a ton of time to it today, but have been able to spend enough time, both base and mobile, to offer a few "first impressions". I would like to point out that all of my comments are subject to change, but so far...-- The radio was fairly easy to program straight out of the box. I had a 7-frequency EDACS system and a bank full of conventional frequencies going in minimal time. I have yet to look at much of the manual.
-- Programming is fairly easy, however it can be time consuming with all the alpha characters, ID lists, CTCSS and such. Off the top of my head, I am not aware of any way that Uniden could have made the programming much easier, therefore I am pleased. As much as the radio does, we need to expect that it will take longer to program. The programming software will be welcomed in my shack!
-- Audio quality is good. I have not used the radio in a noisy environment as of yet, but so far it is fine. I used an external speaker in the vehicle and did not have to turn the volume up more than 25% or so.
-- The display is very bright and clear. The dimmer is a must when using the radio in the vehicle at night. In the hour or so of evening driving I did with the radio, I found that it was quite easy to just glance over and read the display easily. The backlit buttons and knobs make vehicle operation quite simple. No more turning on the dome light or flashlight to see the buttons of the Pro-2067!
-- I like the "screen mask" mode when using the radio mobile. The manual states that this feature is advantagous for public safety uses. It does make the display look "cleaner" when giving a quick glance. I did notice one thing about Screen Mask that I suspect is a quirk that I can't imagine Uniden did intentionally (I am not calling it a bug!). In EDACS mode, with Screen Mask ON, much of the screen data goes away, including the "E" for EDACS. That is fine, but the "L" and "M" appear instead. The radio is still in EDACS mode, but for some reason the L and M appear. Greg or Richard, any comments on this?
-- My first impression of the I-CALL feature for EDACS systems is GREAT! In search mode it brings up the radio ID's of each I-CALL transmission. You can also program in individual radio ID's into the scan list or enter a couple of bottons to have any I-CALL or radio ID show up in the ID list scanning. I-CALL can be turned on or off and we can even set the radio to receive ONLY I-call transmissions, although I have not done this as of yet.
-- I have not done anything with Motorola systems yet as I live in an area that is mostly EDACS and conventional. I do plan to try the 780 on the Mall of America and Northwest Airlines Moto systems very soon.
-- I am extrememly pleased with EDACS performance, thus far. As near as I can tell, it has done a good job of capturing all transmissions. I did a short side-by-side with a BC245 and found that they each did equally well.
-- I have read questions on other boards about the ability of the radio to show the alpha ID of a talkgroup when in search mode. The answer is yes. When in search mode, the radio will still pull the alpha ID from the entry in the ID list and display it.
-- I am unable to comment on intermod and such as of yet. I have not taken the radio into a hostile environment. I can tell you that when hooked up to a high external antenna I have not had a problem.
-- I have not done anything with CTCSS or DCS search, nor with weather alert.
That is about all I have at the moment. In summary, so far I am VERY PLEASED with the BC780 (thank goodness, as I have a second one coming in a week or so!). Time will tell what we find in the future, but at this point it looks (in my opinion) that we have a solid winner on our hands!
I am quite interested in the opinions of others!
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