User Receiver Opinions, Vol 2

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Introduction This page is devoted to the opinions of radio monitoring hobbyists around the world who have graciously taken the time to write up their thoughts and send them to me to be listed here for your use. Thanks for everyone's contributions, and strong signals!

Gary Saffer	gary.saffer@channel1.com	Advanced User	RELM HS200	September 15, 1997

[Editor's note : The author of this note has had extensive experience with a wide variety of receivers including the Bearcat II, III, IV, 5, 12, 4-6, Thin Scan, 101, 100, 210, 250, 300, 200xlt, 560xlt, 760xlt, the Regency ACT series, Whamo, Touch, K100, K500, HX series, MX3000, M-100, M-400, Turbo Scan, Z45, Z60, Fanon-Courier M8HLU, Fox BMP 10-60, various Cobra scanners and a PRO-2005]

I have an HS-200, and I can't say enough good about it. My review follows.

You will note that there are a couple of things about the radio that I wish were different, but overall it is a great radio. If it had TT capabilities, it would be *almost* perfect. I've lived with a RELM HS-200 for several months, and thought I would share some of my observations, since this seems there seems to be a bit of interest in reviews of the radio.

The Relm is the best handheld scanner that I have ever owned, and I have owned lots of them over the past 20 years. This includes HX 1000/1200/1500 radios, two BC 200XLTs, and numerous crystal handhelds. In addition to a very sensitive and selective receiver, it has lots of user friendly features.

The radio has 200 channels in 10 banks of 20 channels. The display is fairly large, and relatively easy to read. Programming is pretty easy, even without the manual. The scanner is fairly small in size, but has keys that are easy to see and use, with good spacing between them. Despite it's small size, the scanner has a solid feel, not cheap or toy like. The top controls are easy to use, and their are three of them, volume, squelch, and channel. The channel selector can be used to stop scanning, step to a channel, and program in the CTCSS or DCTCSS. This is useful if you know a particular tone frequency, but don't have the manual with the conversion chart. The radio has pretty good volume for a portable, and can drive an ear phone or external speaker quite easily.

External power and speaker jacks are on the side so you can lay the radio down, or stand it up to use it without a cord getting in the way. The radio uses regular AA batteries or NiCads and can be recharged while it is running. Battery life seems good, again, as a subjective measure. It will also work from a cigarette lighter cord. To my ear sensitivity and selectivity are excellent. The stock rubber duck works well, and seems to be pretty rugged. Add an external antenna either in a car or at home, and the range is terrific.

There are a few of things that I don't like about the radio, some minor, some more important. Here they are:

1. You can't turn off the damned beep. Come on RELM, this is silly.
2. There is no way to put the display light on for more than three seconds. Again, a silly oversight.
3. The delay, following long established Regency/RELM practice, is all or nothing, not selectable by channel. In a radio of this type, this is almost inexcusable. No, it is inexcusable. After all, every other scanner manufacturer has this feature, why has Regency/RELM never done it?
4. No trunk following. Okay, who knew Uniden was going to do that? Maybe RELM will license the technology for future versions. That's if Uniden will sell it.
5. Perhaps the most annoying. No way to search for CTCSS or DCTCSS. You can search for frequency, but you can't search for tone. That makes no sense, especially when you consider that it is harder to find tone information than it is to find frequency information.
6. Display could be bigger.
7. Computer programming would be nice. And while we are at it, an Alpha display would be nice. At my advanced age, it's tough to remember almost 200 frequency assignments.
8. The channel selector knob tends to fall off, and should have a set screw instead of pressure fit. {Late note, they have a new one that fixes the problem, and will ship it out to you if you call customer service, 1-800-422-6281)
9. The power and earphone jacks are on the side. Not the worst place, but putting them on the top would be better.

Things I liked about the R10:

Ease of use. Simple to program and set. Manual is easy to understand.

All modes - FM, WFM, AM, USB, LSB, CW

Wide band recieve (0.5Mhz-1.3Ghz) Don't know about the ones in they sell in the US but ones in Canada have NO GAPS. Most other scanners I've seen here are cell blocked. STOP THE LEGISLATION NOW!!!

LOTS of memories (1000). Although 100 are shared with auto-write from scan and another 100 for frequencies to skip features. So you really only get 800 true memories.

Selectivity and sensitivity (Triple superhet!) - I picked up Radio Australia on shortwave with a 10 foot wire antenna. Almost zero intermod in the fairly large city I live in - Vancouver BC.

Uses standard AA Ni-Cads. So I don't have to shell out $100 for an extra battery pack or $30 for an AA cell case. Or buy any charging stands. I like the tiny switch they have inside the battery compartment to disable charging when using alkaline batteries.

Small size compared to other scanners (Although my 51R with the small battery pack is still smaller and seems to fit in my hand better)

Separate jacks for headphone and CI-V computer control. I can use both without building different adaptors.

Setting CI-V baud rate, address, etc very easy to do (no DIP switches)

Reasonably rugged construction. But my 51R with it's metal heatsink backing still feels more sturdy although it's heavier.

Display contrast adjustment. But it only has four settings. Would like to have much finer control.

Real volume and squelch knobs plus the dial. I'm not that big of a fan of up/down pushbuttons.

Things I don't like about the R10:

I'm sure you heard it many times before - scanning speed is mondo SLOW.

Only one VFO. When I'm searching, I prefer to keep temporary frequencies on the VFO memory instead of a channel memory. The 51R has two VFO's per band = 4 VFO's which I find very handy.

Also, if you want to manually tune from a memory channel, you must first copy it to your one and only VFO.

There is no 'downward scan' button. To scan downwards, you have to push 'scan' and then twist the dial CCW to tell it to change direction.

Poor audio. Got the good ol' transistor radio hi-fi sound. I find the audio on other radios much more natural and fuller sounding.

I find the backlighting kinda dim. Only good for when it's really dark.

Also, it's awkward to turn on the back lighting. You have to choose the set option, scroll through all the various options until you get to the backlight one, and then finally toggle it on. Try doing that in the dark! (But you can set it so the backlighting comes on everytime you press a key. Waste of battery in the daytime though). They should have made a button.

The 2nd function button is like a Shift key - must be pressed at the same time another button is. Instead of toggling or latching on for a few seconds like on a calculator. Close to impossible one hand operation.

No battery condition monitor. 51R gives readout in volts. Or at least a bargraph would be nice.

No CTCSS nor DTMF decode functions built in.

No LED for indicating squelch open (to make it easier to connect to a computer using hardware squelch detection)

Cannot scan multiple banks at a time. No bank skip feature. Must scan all banks or only one.

The tuning step size on the VFO is not independant from the ones you store in the memory channels. ie- selecting a memory channel also changes the VFO step size to whatever is stored in that memory channel.

There is no 'scan continue' function. The radio does not remember what kind of scan you were last doing. If I'm scanning a particualar bank or between scan edges and I stop it for a bit, when I start again, it defaults to back to full bank/range scan. I have to reselect bank or range scanning again every time. It forgets where I left off so I have to start scanning from the begging of the bank or range again.

The rubber covers for the jacks are very flimsy. The one for the headphone jack isn't even attached to the radio. It's just got a loop that goes around the antenna BNC connector. I'm sure I'm going to lose it while changing antennas sometime.

The new model 2046 compared to the 760 is much faster 50 ch/sec vs. about 20 for the 760. The sensitivity on both units is pretty good. There is still a problem with intermod in highly populated areas, but with the search features and speed of the radio make it a much easier radio to live with even though this radio doesn't have CTCSS capability.

Another nice bonus is that this unit is currently on sale for around $170 regularly $230. I have no affiliation with Uniden or Radio Shack-I'm just a fellow monitor of the airwaves.

Happy monitoring!!!

PRO-2032
Nice radio, my wife took it for her use after I did the 800 mod. She uses it a lot and I have no comments other than she likes it better than my other scanners.

BC9000
The radio that is beside my recliner, I like the alphanumeric display and the hit counter. I use this information to determine active freqs to program into my other computers. I do not like the audio in this radio, the sound is distorted and I probably should have had it repaired while under warrenty. The off/on indicators are very hard to read, they are LEDs on the various buttons, I have difficulty seeing if they are on or off.

BC200XLT
This seems like a workhorse of a portable. It is a little to heavy to carry around. I do not like the earphone jack, it is not a standard 1/8 inch plug. I have used the 2 9 manual reset a lot on this radio, I carry it in my car and reprogram it often. The keypad has a nice feel and is an easy radio to learn.

Use "white out" to mark the indicator grooves on the volume and squelch control knobs. Just wipe off the excess real fast before it dries.

Wish GRE would get rid of the AC cord and go to the "wall wart" power used by Uniden on the BC890XLT (and probably other Uniden base units). It is in the way when using 12V power. I run both my scanners off a 12V 31AH gel cell, so I won't miss anything if the power goes out in bad weather. Plus, if I plug in anything else around my computer, I will be calling the fire department or sitting in the dark... ;-} Also, I guess the radio runs cooler off DC than AC and may just last longer?

Wish there was a mobile mount for the 2041so this unit could be used in the car. It is much smaller than my BC890XLT, yet there is an optional mobile mount available for the 890 from UNIDEN.

The PRO-2041 and the PRO-64 are currently available for $200, down from $300. The 2041 is marked as clearance...any idea why they would discontinue this radio? It has only been out a few months.

ScanCat Gold ($100 + $30 cable) and Radio Manager for Windows ($40 + $8 cable) both will program these two scanners.

Seems like a good idea to use an external speaker for most any base scanner, since their speakers point up and sorta back. Or they can be run thru a desktop stereo system, if one is nearby. Use a mono to stereo adapter when doing this, or listening on headphones, or running thru the car stereo using a casstette tape adapter output. This makes the sound come out of both sides, instead of just one.

I thought it is of little matter now cause I was about to upgrade to much better. If the PRO-34 was in the reviewers minds as a so-so reciever, just think of what a glorious scanner I was about to purchase. If the public concensus and reviews are good I would surly be happy. Based on popular sentiment, hoopla, reviews, ect., I first bought a BC235XLT TrunkTracker(later returned with a problem) and exchanged for a BC3000XLT which was defective and exchanged for a good BC3000XLT.

A month later the 235 Trunktracker was purchased again. The knobs on the 3000/235 are stiffer (not lending itself to one finger operation as in the PRO-34) I now have a verying aggrivatingly loud squelch tail, especially when used with a head set. And the SCAN and HOLD buttons laid out by the knobs on the top of the unit as in the PRO-34 are now gone. Sighhh!!!!

The days of sitting on the patio in the evenings with my favorite radio in one hand and my favorite can of beer in the other are now gone. The new radios appear to need two handed operation. One to hold the radio and one to manipulate the stiff knobs and punching of the very small buttons, all of which are mixed in with the general population of all the other tiny little buttons accidently hittable.

The BC3000XLT has a nifty feature were you can impliment a button operation lockout. Yeh I know all radios have this but this one locks out every single little button. I noticed this lovely feature after programing the 3000 then setting lockout. When I turned it on later it started scanning and landed on an interesting conversation between a cop, a naked drunk (with a small dog dresed up in a clown suit) and the dispatcher. I went to hit the hold button and it did not work because of the new feature thing I mentioned before. I was locked out.

Sitting in the darkness of my patio in a rather inconspicous manner is for naught because of the overly loud squelch tail thing (like flat chalk on a chalk board). The BC3000XLT has 320 milly whatevers to power the speaker into oblivion but its not as loud as the 180 milly zinggers the 235 has. All of which is not as loud or as clear as the old technology PRO-34. Go figure????

Can't even sit the 235 down on the picnic table cause the bottom plastic seam was molded so poorly it causes the scanner to rock and fall.

There you have it. I hope I diden't loose anybody with all the technical talk. I now look foward to my next purchase.

First Impression
Upon opening the box and taking out the radio, I found an all black case, with a white buttons, three black knobs, and a three inch by 1/2 inch display window in the upper left hand corner. The rear panel has power, external speaker and tape out jacks, BNC antenna connector, a DB-9 computer connector, and a slide switch that locks the frequency programming out. On the bottom of the scanner is rather cheap looking plastic bale for setting the scanner at an angle. The radio also has four feet on the bottom if you want to set it flat. Packed with the radio are a wall wart power supply, adjustable mounting bracket with hardware, DC cord, BNC swivel antenna, twenty eight page manual, and perhaps most importantly, the MSPCKIT programming software. The radio does NOT come with the with a serial cable, but any standard 9 pin to 9 pin cable should work.

Using The Radio
Upon turning the radio on, I noticed that the key pad is backlit with a greenish sort of light. The display is back lit the same way. There is no provision for turning this off. Since the radio is very similar to the HS-200 in function, I took a whack at programming a few channels in without reading the manual. Programming from the radio is easy, and is exactly the same as the HS-200. The display characters are perhaps a bit too thin, but no worse than any other LCD display.

My next task was to try out the MSPCKIT software. The owner's manual says that Windows 95 is required, but the label on the disk says that you can use it with either Win95 or Win3.x. I installed it on my computer with no problem, running under Win95. I spent over an hour writing frequencies, tones and Alpha tags (RELM calls them Labels) into the program. The program has three windows. The first is the scanner\group window. This is where you program in the channels for the scanner. Group is a bit confusing, since it appears the same as Scanner, but you can't load data into the scanner from Group. You have to cut and paste information from Group to Scanner. I guess that you can use Group as a database of sorts, but it's not very practical. At least it doesn't seem that way. The second window has a list of every frequency that the scanner will receive, and if you don't want to type frequencies in, you can pick them from this list. You can break this list down into different bands, for example only displaying 400-520, or 806-960MHZ. The third window has all of the CTCSS and DCS tones that the scanner will accept. This actually comes in handy if you can't remember the exact tone for a particular user. By using View, you can show or hide the frequency and tone lists. You can also choose to show the Group list, if you have one. The program has other functions, such as Read from Scanner, Write from Scanner, and a simple, but comprehensive Help file.

Writing to the scanner is easy, turn the scanner on, put it in manual mode, and click on "Write to Scanner". It takes a minute or so to load, but when I tried it all frequencies, tones and "Labels" loaded correctly. Finally, I printed out my set up. The program prints out each bank separately, with four banks to a page. This is rather hand, since you can cut each bank out and have a handy little reference booklet for you scanner. You can save multiple "personalities" in the program, so if you plan to travel, you can set up a different list and down load it into the scanner when you go. Then, when you return, you can reload your home list into the scanner. Very handy.

The Alpha Display
This is a neat feature, at least I think so. The display is capable of seven characters, including spaces. The Alpha display will do all 26 capital letters, 13 lower case letters, numbers 0-9, and a number of special characters such as ? / _ - *, and so on. I found that using all Caps makes the display more readable, and at some point will probably edit my file. Also, more use will probably allow me to be more creative in coming up with tags. Alpha tagging is also available without the MSPCKIT software, but it's an 8 step process for each CHARACTER, and is probably too cumbersome for most people to use.

Performance
I have not bench tested this radio on a service monitor, but by listening to it, it certainly seems to be at least as sensitive as my HS-200. I can hear VHF public safety repeaters as far as 75 miles away, and UHF repeaters 20-30 miles away. This is using a Channel Master scanner antenna, mounted on my house. Local 800 repeaters seem to work fine as well. Now that the Mass State Police have moved most of their operations to 800. On low band, I was able to hear a New Hampshire State Police frequency without difficulty.

Controls and Features
The three main control knobs are made of a soft rubber. They are also pretty large, and the combination makes for a good "feel" when using the controls. The controls on the left are on/off volume, and squelch arranged as concentric knobs. These both have white index lines on them, making them easy to use. The knob on the left controls channel selection in the manual mode, and also can be used to put the scanner into manual mode. In programming mode, this knob is used to select the CTCSS or DCS tone. The other controls are the key pad and buttons for Manual, Scan, Tone, Display, Priority, Channel Lock out, weather, Delay, and Search controls buttons. All of these are the same shape and it might be easy to confuse them in the dark. Like the control knobs, these too are made of a soft rubber compound, and so have a good feel.

After programming in all of my I set the radio to scanning. The display works well, keeping in mind that the lower case letters don't display that well. By using the Display button, I could toggle between the frequency and alpha labels quite easily. The radio also emits distinct beep tones for each key pushed. For example, turning the tone off causes the radio to emit a low pitched "boop" sound. Turning it back on, and you hear a higher pitched "beep". The radio has a nice sound to it, even with a bottom mounted speaker. The specifications say that the radio has 2.0 watts audio output, and it sounds that loud. At maximum volume there is some distortion, but in all but the noisiest environments, maximum volume will be too much. I haven't used an external speaker as of yet, but I think that in mobile applications, a quality speaker will result in good sound.

Over all, I think that the MS-200 is a great scanner, and a worthy addition to anyone's listening post. I will be installing this radio in my car and will give a further review on mobile use at a later date.

Over all, there are a few things that I didn't like, but they are minor.

1. I wish that the beep could be shut off.
2. A dimmer would be nice for the display illumination
3. For a few cents more, they could have made the bale under the radio of metal. I am guessing that the plastic one is going to have a short life span.
4. For mobile use, The Scan, Manual, Tone, and Priority buttons should have been bigger.
5. I still don't like the delay set up, but just about every RELM or Regency that I have owned have had the same arrangement. Uniden/Bearcat has a better set up, there may be patent issues.

Installation was a breeze. All I had to do was drill a couple of holes in the MS bracket to line it up with my existing pedestal mount. Power, antenna, and speaker connections are the same as with the 760. Audio into an 8 ohm 4 watt external speaker is crisp, and is more than loud enough for my environment. Sensitivity, if anything is a bit better than the 760. In fact, mobile reception is just about as good as was the base reception. I am using an Antenna Specialist MONr 53 mounted on my trunk. My car is a newer American made sedan, so ignition or other electronic noise was not a problem.

The Display
This is probably the only thing that I really wish they had put a bit more money into, even if it added a bit more to the cost. LCD displays seem to have a much narrower viewing angle than do LEDs. Also, at least to my eyes, they are not as bright as LEDs. For mobile use, IMHO, LEDs are the the way to go. I use two different types of mobile two way radios in work environments. One radio is a Motorola Spectra with an LED display, the other is a GE with an LCD display. At night I have great difficulty in seeing the GE display, but the Motorola is easy to see from any angle. Part of the problem with the GE, and the MS-200 is that they are both back lit with a Greenish sort of light. The 760XLT uses an Orange filter over the light bulb and is much easier to see. At the least, RELM should change future production to a brighter LED display. During the day the MS-200 display is fine, at night, it can be tough to read at a quick glance. The bracket on the MS-200 can be adjusted for tilt, and fortunately the pedestal mount that I have the radio on can be adjusted for tilt and swivel. As a result I was able to get the radio adjusted to a pretty good viewing angle.

Other than the display, I really find the MS-200 a joy to use mobile. Even using the keyboard to make minor changes to the Alpha display is not a big deal. In fact, the manual makes it seem much more difficult than it really is. I still wouldn't want to program all 200 channels this way, but for making minor adjustments to the display it is okay.

In a nut shell it is simply wonderful. The absolute best scanner I have ever had in 20 years of scanning.

They should get rid of global "DELAY" though. The sound is loud and clear which is good for us aging old hippies with hearing loss. Also this unit has no squelch tail to speak of. Sensitivity and selectivity are the best I have seen. Beats the "triple superheterodyne" units all to heck.

I borrowed a friends AOR 8000 and I didn't have enough fingers, patience, or know-how to operate it. It was the kind of unit you use the manual more then the unit itself. It did not sound as good either.

I tried an ICOM R10 in the store for two hours and same thing. I wanted a Yupiteru 9000 but I am not into bank robbery just to own one.

No matter the HS200 is damn near perfect. The unit is tightly built and nicely lighted.I have not noticed ANY distortion or unwanted signals yet. Cincinnati is pretty hilly and reception can get a little flakey at times but this unit handles it well. Can't say enough about RELM's fine handheld.

As a "tracker" of trunked radio systems, the radio works beautifully. My experience, so far, is limited to a single system in Mexico which appears to use a Motorola Type I network. This meant I had to do some extra work to figure things out, but the second preset fleet map, which features size code S-4 (one fleet, 16 subfleets, and 512 ID's per block) seems to have done the trick, and I'm happily documenting talk-group users.

The PRO-90's sensitivity and, probably most importantly, its selectivity in the 800-MHz range is excellent. Cellular telephone images don't intrude at all. Other features, like the ability to create "scan lists" of selected talk groups add to the overall functionality, and the lack of a squelch tail while in trunk mode is a real relief!

As a conventional scanner, the radio works pretty well. The sensitivity and selectivity are impressive, although I am picking up some cell images down in the VHF-lo range. I like having 300 memory channels to play with, and the speed of the memory and frequency-step search is great. In fact, the radio's so fast that the service-search modes for preset police/air/emergency frequencies come pretty close to being practical substitutes for memory-channel scans.

Things I don't like include the audio quality (I'm spoiled by the AR8000, PRO-26, and even the ICOM IC-R1 in this regard), the inability to use conventional AA alkaline cells, and Uniden's characteristic, annoying "squelch tail."

The speaker output is somewhat low-powered and high-pitched, which combine to make the squelch tail more irritating to me than that of other, fuller-toned radios. I'm getting ready to e-mail either Tandy or Uniden to see if there's something they can do about this perennial problem (I seem to recall reading something about a modification in which a resistor can be added to the circuitry of some Uniden radios, which will bring them up to the squelch-tail performance of GRE-made scanners).

The shrink-wrapped AA nicad battery pack is a bit of an annoyance to someone like myself who enjoys plugging his handheld scanners into an AC power source and using them as base stations. The owner's manual says the PRO-90 contains circuitry that will keep the batteries from overcharging -- a feature that's long overdue for companies like Uniden who insist on selling us battery packs. We'll see how well this works over time; I've already purchased a spare battery pack to use while traveling if my practice of keeping the radio plugged into an AC outlet kills the battery outright or shortens its power-storage life. (On a side note, I once owned a PRO-35 [the Radio Shack version of the BC100XLT] which had two power-input jacks--one for the battery pack and one which could go directly to the radio. An arrangement like this would really be nice on the PRO-90!)

Anyway, these are my first impressions of the PRO-90. I plan to see which of the local, conventional trunked systems rely on Motorola and put the radio to the test with these, as well. Maybe some day we'll see a PRO-91 that not only skips the Ericsson noises but identifies and tracks that system's talk groups!

It is a very sensitive scanner. I live 60 miles from New York city so I regularly listen to the NY city FD. I put in all their freqs and they came in loud and clear. So just to try out the scanner, I put in NYPD freqs (something I never hear at home) and wow all of them came in very clear. All 470 - 473MHz frequencies.

I am very happy with the scanner and it is now in my Jeep. I got it to replace my BC760XLT. I'll tell you that the MS200 makes the BC760XLT look like a handheld with no antenna. I hear things I never heard in my jeep before. It's like a whole new world. The best feature for me is the DCS/CTCSS. I listen to a lot of public safety and it comes in very handy.

The MS200 has a few bad points. First, it does overload with intermod in the city but not real bad. I was able to turn the squelch up and quiet it down. Second the DCS/CTCSS has a short opening after a transmission that lets in any noise or other station, but then it starts scanning again.

Overall I think its one of the best scanners out of the 15 I own.

Copyright © 2001 by Richard J. Wells