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Introduction These News Archive pages provide access to news items posted on our site when a different page design was being used. Available Archives: 2001 News Archive 2000 News Archive 1999 News Archive 1998 News Archive

December 1999

31 BC780XLT News Flash An update from the CEI web site about discontinued Uniden models: The BC760XLT has been discontinued and is sold out at the factory. Contact your CEI account executive to make your reservation for the upgraded BC780XLT Trunktracker II scanner scheduled for July, 2000. As of December 18, 1999, Communications Electronics and Uniden will discontinue the following models once quantities are sold. Please inform your customers, if they want to purchase the following products, only limited quantities are available for first come, first served ordering. The BC3000XLT (359 units for sale), BC9000XLT (460 units for sale) and Uniden BCT12 (866 units for sale). Some of you might have heard about the sweeping changes recently announced by the FCC in regards to amateur radio licensing which will take effect on April 15, 2000. For more information, stop by the ARRL web site or take a look at the full FCC report (99-412). For all you MVT-9000 owners, I've updated my Owner's Guide for this radio to add a section for the missing Key Lock function (thanks Todd!) as well as add a section for the new Mk II's descrambler function HTML version Text version 30 Uniden BC278CLT Review John from Advanced Specialties Electronics says that a Uniden rep informed him that the upcoming BC780XLT mobile TrunkTracker will have CB frequency coverage Time for some more RD500 slobbering! Here's a picture I took of the back panel. Talk about your serious radios! Craig Sires passes along a link to a Denver newspaper article on Jefferson County's intention to upgrade their communications to an 800 MHz digital system in light of the problems they had during the Columbine High School incident. They also mention the ability to block listening of their activities from scanner users 29 Having thoroughly gone over the RD500's manual and using for several hours, I specified all the info I could on my RD500 page Bill Crocker was kind enough to pass along a link to the Ramsey Open Discussion Board which is in response to the recent raid by the FBI. While some of it is a testament to this sobering and frightening situation, many of the postings are as useful as the drivel found on USENET Gary Saffer has recently updated his Eastern Mass. Scanner Guide which is an excellent reference for those in this part of the US! 28 Santa just stopped by...better late than never...in the form of Jonathan at Javiation with a Fairhaven RD500! Jonathan was also kind enough to throw in some scanning books including The UK Scanning Directory, Scanners 4: Scanning Into The Future, and Scanning Secrets. Thanks Jonathan! 27 John Phillips of Advanced Specialties Electronics writes: We just got in the first shipment of Alinco's new DJ-V5TDCH "clear ice blue" 5W dual band 2M/440 radio!! Compact size, 76-999Mhz rx, AM/NFM/WFM, CTCSS enc/dec 200 Alpha channels, Computer programmable w/opt software. Really looks cool!!, Can be seen in the "What's New" section of our website. Our price delivered is $259.99 (thru 12/99). Radio includes both a regular 5W battery, charger & a "Clear ice blue" 2W 'AA" battery shell. We also have just a few left new Relm HS-200 200ch scanners @ $179.99 delivered!! Alinco DJ-X10 @ $319.99 delivered & Yaesu VX-5R's @ $325 delivered, prices good thru 12/99 or while supplies last. As may have heard, some small vendors dealing in radio-related devices have been raided by the FBI 22 The Jan '00 Monitoring Times is upon us and I picked out the following highlites: No more Larry Magne HF radio review column New Tracking the Trunks column New Bright Ideas column Grove will be issuing a year's worth of MT on CD-ROM supposedly starting with 1999 Review of TalkPCR for the IC-PCR1000 Review of new Sony FRS radios Review of RadioShack PRO-92 Review of Stridsberg Mulitcoupler WiNRADiO announces two new radios - the WR1550e ($550) and WR1550i ($500)) - similar to the current WR1500 receivers but with improved dynamic range Phil Smalley was kind enough to pass along info on adding a discriminator tap to the PRO-91. Thanks Phil! Thanks to John Porter of Electronic Intelligence Ltd. for his submission of an article to the User Accessories Opinion page! 21 Dr. Jack Nilsson, N8NDL, President of Nil-Jon Antennas, Inc. writes: I am excited to announce the growth and expansion of Nil-Jon Antennas into a Two-Division entity. The Corporate Headquarters President's Web Site is now www.Nil-JonAntennas.net, which (soon to be fully operational) links to both the Consumer Division (www.nil-jonant.com) and the new and exciting Commercial Division headed by Mr. Paul Bransztet at www.nil-jonantennas.com. Thanks to Mike Burgess for passing along the modification for adding a discriminator tap to the BC245XLT! 20 As posted by Ken Ascher, WB8LIT, of CEI on USENET: The Bearcat 780XLT is currently scheduled for distribution to our Uniden dealers starting in June or July, 2000. The specifications are subject to change. There is no Uniden Bearcat 905 or Bearcat 9500 scanner currently on the Uniden schedule for the year 2000 or beyond. However, the Bearcat 3000XLT, Bearcat 9000XLT and BCT12 will be discontinued once remaining quantities are gone. If you want one of these models, visit your Uniden dealer and get one soon. There are less than 1,000 units remaining for these three scanners. John Porter was kind enough to pass along this link to EF Johnson's page about cellular security/privacy TalkPCR v2.0 User Antenna Opinions 16 Thanks to Dan Rollman at Scanner Stuff Strong Signals has received a copy of their Scanner Programming System for review! Tony Scardapane was kind enough to send in an update for the TRX-100XLT programming software from the IDA web site: We have up dated version of PC control software of TRX-100XLT. Besides editing function of 1,000 memory channels, 10 search pairs, spectrum display, this PC control software is able to edit 15 extra factory preset search pairs and the band planning of auto-mode increment/receiving mode selection. By programming from a PC, TRX-100XLT can have total 25 search limits, " 10 search pairs programmable from key pads plus 15 more search pairs programmable from PC". These extra 15 search pairs can be selected by simply pressing ESY/TURBO key. Press UP arrow key or DOWN arrow key to select search pair number 01 through 15. The multi-function dial can also be used for the selection of these extra search pairs. PRNewswire ran the following story about Connecticut and their new Motorola ASTRO 800 system. User Antenna Opinions AR8200 tip Interesting product 14 Here's an interesting product which will have FCC data supplied to it by PerCon Corp PC Week picks up on the GSM cell phone decryption story 11 Scanner Programming System 10 Courtesy of John, KB2VOJ, who got the following off of USENET, we have "info" regarding the upcoming Uniden BC780XLT base/mobile TrunkTracker: OK, the scuttlebut that I heard is: Multi Trunking (Mot, GE, LTR) User Selectable Squelch Tail between 0-9 sec Menu Driven 50 Chararcter Alpa Tags Backlight Display Computer Controllable/Programmable Backlight Keypad This is what I remember being told by a guy claiming to have a source at Uniden. He also stated that the 9500 isn't dead, but has been rebadged as the 905, a replacement for the 895. UPDATE: A "high level source" has confirmed that while the BC780 will be an "incredible" radio, most of the above couldn't be farther from the truth As promised, the Strong Signals shack now has a PRO-2052 courtesy of Glenn at Scanners Unlimited! UPDATE: I've updated the PRO-2052 page with specs from the Owner's Manual Hanno of TELCOM GmbH has passed along another link from yesterday's posting about cracking the GSM phone encryption. This is a paper on the subject giving all the gory details for those interested 9 Clark Rennie posted a link on SCAN-L to this article which is from the LA Times. Nothing like ignorance in action...on both the part of the police and this reporter As promised, Glenn Cohen from Scanners Unlimited provides some details on GRE's software for the PRO-92 in today's News Flash! Hanno of TELCOM GmbH was kind enough to remind me of the recent story regarding the recent hacking of GSM cell phone encryption. If you're interesting in finding out more, follow this link to a story by wired.com User Receiver Opinion submission 8 Glenn Cohen from Scanners Unlimited says that they have just received all 9 volumes of Police Call but even better yet, the new version of Police Call on CD-ROM has also shown up! 7 Glenn Cohen from Scanners Unlimited writes to inform us that he has received his first shipment of the new RadioShack PRO-2052! Thanks to Glenn, the Strong Signals shack should have a test unit by this Friday! Glenn has also been playing with the PRO-92 software and says that it allows you to alter the delay used on trunked systems when scanning resumes after stopping on an ID. As he plays with it more, expect to see more details here! 6 Thanks to Ed Walsh for this month's My Story submission! 4 Several of you have been kind enough to send me e-mail that you have received from RadioShack technical support regarding your problems with the PRO-92. Well, it seems as though RadioShack is already turning a deaf ear as they are sending out a form letter to anyone who mentions 'problem' and 'PRO-92' in the same sentence. Jack Anderson has posted this letter on his PRO-92 site so stop by there if you're interested in a good read As you might have already heard, Glenn Cohen of Scanners Unlimited will be receiving his first shipment of the new PRO-2052 early next week. He has graciously offered to send one by this way for review so stay tuned. Glenn is also testing a beta version of the PRO-92 interface software and hopes to report back on it next week as well. With that said, I can't believe we'll be seeing this software from RadioShack anytime soon? Jim Sutton, N2OPS, reminded me of all the hot skip activity going on lately which has been a topic on several of the scanner-related mailing lists. I'm not really aware of any lists devoted to skip (I'm sure many of you out there will let me know of my lack of knowledge in this area!) but Jim thought some form of cohesive resource would be nice to collect and share such information for everyone's benefit. So who knows of such a resource, or is willing to start one if none exists? 2 Pozilla WinScan review Glenn Montenero, KJ6QB, who lives out in California said that he stopped into his local Radio Shack today and they were just unloading new PRO-2052s off the pallets! While happy with its Motorola/EDACS TrunkTracking abilities thus far, Glenn says he is disappointed that there is no rear panel external speaker. Only a low output headphone jack on the front panel. Thanks for the news Glenn! PRESS RELEASE: Joe Carr's Loop Antenna Handbook Thanks to Fred Osterman at Universal Radio Strong Signals has a copy of Joe's latest book for review!

November 1999

29 Today's Jeff Goldman Report is on his newly-acquired Grove Active Duck. Jeff says this one is a must-have for wide band receivers with HF coverage as the results are outstanding on MW and SW! It's like being able to remedy one of the weak points of many HF-capable handhelds. Jeff was able to get an AM broadcast station 170 miles away weakly during the day on a Yupi While not quite as good as the ANT-8 4' whip, it manages to come close using only a 7" footprint (4" very thin and flexible antenna which can't be removed, 3" for BNC and hardware). Jeff did mention that its impact on VHF-lo was negligible. Gain below 20 MHz is 15dB ±3dB while gain from 20-60 MHz is is 10dB This active antenna runs off of a 12 volt pseudo-AA alkaline battery that Radio Shack sells for $2 as #23-279 (pkg of 2). The Active Duck supposedly runs 8-12 hours using this single cell Strong Signals latest radio: Regency M400 26 It seems Greg Knox, Mr. Motorola TrunkTracking, has some info regarding upcoming APCO 25 digital scanners? 24 Strong Signals latest radio: SC200 Strong Signals latest accessory: Vectronics HF/VHF amplifier with antenna 23 Grove announces Active Duck in latest MT Metro West is now selling the Mini-Max 500 Smart Rapid Charger for NiMH battery packs. It costs $55 and allows 4 hour fast charging which is followed by a trickle charge to keep your pack topped off! They are also offering a package deal for $80 which combines this charger with a 1800(?) mAh NiMH pack which can be used in the BC220/230/235/245/245XLTs and SportCats! There's also a Mini-Max 300 Charger for $55 Uniden-type NiCd battery packs Baygen has a new radio! The Global FPR2S GSW combines shortwave coverage from 5.8 - 18 MHz as well as the standard AM/FM broadcast bands. The usual wind-up power generator is augmented by the included solar charger or optional AC adapter Interesting to note that Sony has prohibited Grove from selling their SW radios on-line!? 22 Hanno Vogels, DG8JZ, writes from Germany to let everyone know about their new PMR-446 radio service PMR web site 18 The latest radio to arrive here at the Strong Signals shack is a SC150 SportCat modified with a PC interface thanks to Bill Garrett at Race-Scan Communications! 17 User Receiver Opinion! 16 Scanner Tip James Coburn scanner links page 13 PerCon SPECTRUM review 12 Today's Jeff Goldman report: Dave Raley of Frequency Fan Club expects PC software for the new SC200 in about a month. This custom software will emulate the cloning mode of the radio thereby allowing the PC to (hopefully) upload and download frequency, alpha-tags and PL/DPL code info UPDATE: Adam Goldman from Pozilla Software wrote in to "confess" that it is they who are working on this software, called WinScan Sport! Its expected release date is Dec 1. Pozilla is also responsible for the upcoming Police Call on CD-ROM which Adam says should be shipping to retailers next week! Thanks for the great updates Adam! Dave McCormick was kind enough to send us some pictures of the new PRO-92 leather case: Case front Case rear BC245, PRO-92 & PRO-94 PRO-92 w/case, front PRO-92 w/case, rear Here's an article on how the city of Baltimore is "celebrating" over their new Motorola digital communications system For those of us in the Raleigh/Durham, NC area, we have a new monitoring target in the new Raleigh Entertainment and Sport Arena. Marshall Sherard, KE4ZNR, has managed to come by the freqs used on their VERY LOW powered repeater site which supposedly uses DCS squelch codes: 451.1875 Security 451.3625 Building Operations 452.0625 Food Service 452.1375 Game Operations 452.6375 Media 452.5625 Medical 456.3625 Merchandise 456.4875 Parking 456.7125 HouseKeeping 457.0625 Facility Systems 457.4875 Box Office 457.6375 Event Staff 11 SMA antenna review posted James Smith posted this link on the SCAN-L list which pertains to the new digital trunked system going up in Philidelphia. Also mentioned is our hobby and what effects this new system will have on it It seems that Robert Cummings has come up with a solution for his fading PRO-2004 EL display! Stop by his site to check out his handiwork! 2000 edition of Passport To World Band Radio released Found this article on Y2K and 911 centers over at the Ziff-Davis site. I wonder how apparent such effects will be to those of us monitoring our local public safety agencies? 10 News Flash Thanks to Glenn at Scanners Unlimited, Strong Signals has taken delivery of its very own PRO-92 despite other dealers who are denying that this radio has been released to the public! 9 Strong Signals takes delivery of it's very own PRO-92! 8 I see inside the back cover of the December PopComm a C.Crane ad announcing e 25th anniversary of Sangean which is being heralded by the release of a silver colored ATS-909 ($260) and CCRadio ($165) Also in this edition are reviews of the IC-R75 and PROBE ver.5 Trunked Radio Forum 7 Thanks to Michael A. we have a scanner modification for the BC245XLT which increases the charging current for anyone using the higher-capacity, third party, NiMH battery packs! User Receiver Opinion Maycom Company web site. 3 Scanning Tips page My Story submissions Dan Browning's TalkPCR review 5 Jeff Goldman says that Radio Shack is advertising the PRO-92 PC link with software for $69.99. It will supposedly be available Nov 25 Browsing around the egghead.com site, I found something interesting. As some of you have pointed out, as well as noticing myself, the Maycom AR-108 looks nearly identical to some of the amateur radios sold by Radio Shack as well as some FRS radios made by Cherokee Well, if you've seen any of these radios, take a look at the Smith Corona Digital Voice Recoroder. Receivers, transceivers and now recorders. I wonder what else they can make out of this magical contraption? Here's an interesting article about the FCC pushing for digital radio 4 Scanners Unlimited has just received first shipment of new PRO-92s 3 Mika and Pete from Bandercom write to inform us of their latest modified model, and this time their attention is on the UBC3000XLT! For those of you speed demons out there, this latest mod might be just what you crave Bandercom has managed to increase the actual scan rate to 200 chan/sec! The search rate has been pumped up to 200 step/sec and 550 step/sec in turbo mode! And they claim that these changes do not overdrive the VCO so no worry about missing weak signals Pricing is expected to be $369 and the AMPS modification for 30 kHz steps is included in this. Might just be time to start saving for an early Chrismas present, huh? Yupiteru's Plant & Engineering Center 2 High level source at Uniden says they don't expect the Multi-Track delay of the BC245XLT to be "fixed" until Feb of 2000 Brian J. Cathcart, KE4PMJ, has posted a message to the SCAN-L list stating that Delta Airlines has recently revoked scanner priveleges for their flying customers! 1 As reported earlier, Norm Schrein (Betty Bearcat) took part in updating the Frequency Guide for the new Uniden SC200 but when Jeff Goldman received his SC200, he was surprised it came with the old guide. Norm surmises this is being done to get rid of the old guides Jeff also mentions that the SmartScanner feature of the new SC200 will not only download the frequency info for your area, it will also program the alpha-tags as well!

October 1999

23 New Strong Signals Trunking Board 22 PRO-94 News Flash! 20 PRO-92 Quick Survey Jeff has just gotten off the phone with a "hush hush", high level source at RadioShack who says the PRO-94 has just been entered in the computer system so that it can be Gift Expressed for next day delivery ($20 extra). The radio has just passed the last quality control inspections and is supposedly available in three of the Tandy warehouses. I would guess that means they'll be hitting the trucks and making their way to dealers soon! Thanks for the update guys! Some interesting details are starting to trickle forth from the radio dealer Bandercom who are well known for their modified MVT-9000 M models Seems they have been working on a computer interface for the MVT-9000 MkII! The initial prototype will be similar in operation to the PROgramit interface which "simulates" pressing of the keys via software. This will allow programming of the unit as well as limited control. I've also been told that it has the ability to read the display but I don't know any particulars yet. Bandercom says they will also be making the software spec available for free for those who wish to roll their own software! Initial pricing has been suggested in the $600-$650 range which will be a MVT-9000 MkII with the 2.4 or 3.4 M modifications as well as this new computer interface Jeff Goldman talked to Norm Schrein of National Communications who mentioned that the Uniden SC200 was in production and it should hit the shelves in 30 days or less! Norm also had a part in updating the frequency guide for the SC200 as well Jeff also decided to pick up an SC180 to play with it and noticed the "hidden" CTCSS, DCS and Data skip icons on the LCD. While they aren't used on the SC180, they should be put into use on the SC200 Jeff talked with Mike Raley, owner of Frequency Fan Club, who said that the SC180 has some pretty severe audio limiting via the earphone jack. Even when they perform the mod to remove this limiting, Mike thinks the audio still needs a boost to be effective at the race track. It does seem awfully short sighted to limit the audio on a scanner which Uniden markets primarily for race track users where ambient noise is overpowering! APCO Project 25 digital radio system AR8200 User Opinion 19 My upcoming nuptials are being honored in the latest edition of the Scanner Dweeb Lithium-Ion battery controller 18 Received BC278CLT from Lee Electronics New Photo page 17 PRO-92 First Impressions Found on the CEI web site: The BC9500XLT base unit has been dropped from the production schedule as many of the features have now been incorporated into the BC780XLT scheduled for March, 2000. 15 Received PRO-92 from Scanners Unlimited Strong Signals shack with PRO-92 PRO-92 Press Release 14 Glenn Cohen submits details on use of his PRO-92 PRO-92 User's Manual New AR8600 image New AOR UK web site address 13 PRO-92 News Flash PRO-92 User Manual photos posted New AOR AR8200 software Shack pictures update 10 October SPECTRUM is shipping and marks 5th anniversary of this product Chuck Pergrim describes updated Geo_db 2000: This new version will contain the latest Census Tiger data. It will support many new features, such as multiple maps, overview maps , drawing tools, navigation tools, database and file import, and many more features. It will be a 32-Bit application. The system will also support overlay files. Overlays can range from Airports, Military bases, Boundary Files and virtually anything that can be mapped. Geo_db will include some overlays. A series of overlay CDROMS will be available soon. This mapping engine is also the heart of the mapping display for our upcoming ACARS & Aviation Band Receiver Decoder. It will ship 4th Qtr 99. New Computer International web address AR8200 User Opinion DJ-X10 User Opinion Swedish Icom web site J-pole antenna tip IC-R2/Q7 tip 7 Radio Shack Trunking Scanner News Flash! Airlines Ban Cell Phones -- But Why? Chat on This: Do Cell Phones and Airlines Mix? Poll: Do Cell Phones and Airplanes Mix? 6 Glenn Cohen from Scanners Unlimited writes in with some PRO-92 news! GRE of Japan shipped a large quantity of 92s to Tandy (most likely on Monday). Bad news is that they were shipped by boat (you've heard about the slow boat from China?) so they are not due into Los Angeles until the 20th. Then they must go through Customs and get put on trucks to ship to the warehouses in Fort Worth, Texas. From there they will be boxed with manuals, etc and shipped to dealers. So it does indeed look like they will not hit stores until the first or second week of November. SC180 has arrived, Picture #1, Picture #2 VR-500 review update 5 Grove winter catalog now available 3 NPR Invisible Worlds 2 VR-500 review VX-5Rs now shipping with 865-869 MHz which was blocked on previous runs 1 Bill Cheek News Flash J-Pole antenna tip! Service Merchandise has SC180 and BC278CLT in stock

September 1999

28 AOR AR8600! Javiation receives first shipment of VR-500s Scanner World now carrying IC-R2 WiNRADiO releases trunking software. 25 The little birdies are chirping...seems AOR is hard at work on a new radio! Could there be an AR8600 in the near future? VR-500 User Opinions VR-500 web site Uniden SC180 info: Reciever: Triple conversion Banks: Total 10, 10 channels each WX: 10 programmed channels Search Bands: 12 pre-programmed search bands, NFM or AM Scan Rate: 100 channels/sec Search Rate: 100 steps/sec normal, 300 steps/sec turbo Scan delay: 2 seconds Audio output: 180mw into 8 ohms, 32mw nominal into 32 ohm stereo headphones Antenna: rubber, included Size: 2-1/2"w x 1-3/4"d x 11-3/4" h with antenna Weight: 11.4 ounces Power: 4.8V DC Battery: BP-180 rechargeable Note: It also has a VFO tunning knob! September U.S. Scanner Online Scanner Modifications And Antennas Looks as though ARINC will be expanding its communication abilities to handle more than just airline communications! 20 Lentini receives first VR-500s Improved Tiger Scan EF Johnson and Motorola and importation of illegal two-way radios 17 Juns receives first VR-500s 16 Race Day Audio Upcoming VR-500 Home-brewed emergency power Mapping FCC tower locations New WiNRADiO plug-ins Massachusetts v2.0 Scanner Guide 2 New Scanner Tips BC60XLT User Opinion 14 Best Buy in Ohio receives shipment of new Uniden SC180s 8 Watched the film 8mm with Nicholas Cage and was pleased to see a Sony ICF-SC1 for several seconds! 20 new Dealer Surveys R2 User Opinion Scanner Tip 3 New RadioShack.com catalog delivered RadioShack.com VX-5R User Opinion Mega Scanner udpates

August 1999

31 Police Call on CD-ROM 30 Mega Scanner updates 29 New Mega Scanner page FCC surveillance mandates Taking some pictures for publication, I discovered that you just don't have any idea of how much stuff you have until you put it into one pile! Photo #1, Photo #2, and Photo #3 28 Pocket PRO radio holder from Cutting Edge Enterprises 800-206-0115 OptoCom page! BC244CLT, BC248CLT, and BC278CLT pages Identifying military aircraft My Story 27 PRO-92 page and mailing list! New Tiger Scan coming Secret Cell Towers 25 Yaesu VX-5R arrives PRO-92, PRO-94 and PRO-2052 pages added ChromaSOUND Audio DSP 24 Blast From The Past Review! PRO-92, PRO-94 & PRO-2052 My Story! Antenna design and applications 20 Police Call CD-ROM! Yaesu announces availability of VR-500 in US by mid-September Curt Chambers has been investigating the availability of the VR-500 from dealers in Japan. The standard VR-500 they sell omits coverage from 380-382 and 810-835 MHz while selling for $368. The VR-500S removes these blocks and sells for $394. The VR-500SS is a VR-500S with a speech descrambler and sells for $527 SmartScanner 1-900 phone server is up and operational Local Radio Shacks start to receive new 2000 catalog RS Scanner 200 lineup Antenna-mountable, micro-mag light invention received from Robert Edwards 18 Upcoming PRO-92 MVT-9000 MK II review WinScan received 1600 mAh NiMh BP-180 battery pack received Smart cell phone holder 13 Word has arrived from a VERY reliable source that Police Call will be appearing on CD-ROM this Fall! It is a reality and will be with us soon. Seems Altai of Europe may market the new Maycom AR-108 as the COMMTEL COM308 AOR releases new firmware for SDU-5500 11 Scanners Unlimited taking orders for PRO-92, PRO-94 and PRO-2052 Scanner Tip Error #8 added to BC245XLT FAQ 10 MVT-9000 Mk II arrives Yaesu VR-500 arrives Lee Electronics announces 1600 mAh NiMh BP-180 battery pack Electra is planning woven nylon case with belt clip for their Tiger Scan Four new WinRADiO plug-ins 8 News Flash on upcoming RS scanners News Flash on VR-500 7 Handheld Antenna Review updated Strong Signals Bandplan page News Flash with first VR-500 details Radio Shack PRO-92 received FCC certification yesterday Advanced Specialties Electronics writes about 3 new multi trunk scanners to appear in new Radio Shack 200 catalog: The model #'s are 20-522, 20-524, & 20-432. The 20-524 will be the first available in quantity in time for the November/December holiday season, with the others following after. They can scan multiple trunked systems/types (Moto-GE Ericsson & LTR business systems). The 20-524 has a large ALPHA-NUMERIC Display which supports naming frequencies, systems & ID codes. The 20-522 is to have a "clone" feature to another 522. The last to arrive in stores will be the 20-432 which is to be just like the 524 but will include an RS-232 interface. Radio shack is also working on a trunk system guide book. The year 2000 catalog should hit within the next 2-4 weeks, but it looks like only one of these scanners will be widely available before next year. Radio Manager Press Release Passenger's Cell Phone Reportedly Causes Aircraft To Stray Off Course A cellular phone that a passenger neglected to turn off - despite a requirement that all passengers disengage the devices - reportedly caused a China Air flight headed from Chengdu to Beijing to veer 30 degrees off course. The pilot became aware of the situation on approach to landing, corrected the heading and landed the aircraft without incident. The passenger will serve a 7-day jail term for violating civil aviation regulations. 5 Jeff Goldman has learned from an "anonymous" dealer that their Uniden distributor will no longer be carrying the BC3000XLT after March of next year. Can you learn to say BC3500XLT within the next few months? CEI is taking advance orders for the BC278CLT, BC780XLT, BC9500XLT, SC180B, and SC200 Radio H.F. newsletter 3 Stridsberg Engineering has 3 new items Annual inquiry sheet from Hollins Radio Data known for their famous Police Call Plus mentions that the CD-ROM version will coming "Any time now!" New MH-C888 drop-in charger LiNRADiO??? 2 BC245XLT review! Monthly site usage report

July 1999

29 BC245XLT null modem connection 27 Cell phone schlep 26 PerCon adds ham callsign and aircraft registration databases to DataFinder DataFinder UK user mods his BC245XLT interesting audio product Rohde & Schwarz EB200 mobile receiver 24 Word is that Radio Shack will introduce the PRO-92 this fall Dealer Surveys updated IC-9000L image "The Adventures of Scanner Dweeb" 23 Free AR3000A PC software Bandercom writes to inform us that Icom has updated their IC-R9000 to be the IC-R9000L due to changing the CRT to an LCD Ericsson radio system disputes PRO-2066 User Opinion Scanner tip 22 BC245XLT Quick Surveys #13 & #14 Cell phone user gets jail time Bandercom expect MVT-9000 Mk IIs first week of August and Yaesu VR-500 to arrive mid to end of August IDA Inc. Another link to the UK RIAT German airport freqs 19 Newly rebadged Commtel radios Royal International Air Tattoo Scanner Tips 16 Pozilla Software press release 15 What appears to be first commercial BC245 on the net used by local newspaper to monitor their EDACS public safety system Trunkind ID conversion web page 14 Frequency Fan Club. carries 1500 mAh NiMH battery pack ($32) and leather case ($25) for BC245XLT. Purchased BC245XLTs from them will come with the mod which removes current limiting in earphone PC Magazine telecommunications article My Story 12 Excel trunking ID conversion spreadsheet DAT2 Communications has leather cases for AR1000 Series, HS100/200, BC50XLT, BC70XLT, BC120XLT/BC220/BC230/BC235/BC245, BC3000XLT, BC60/80XLT, and BC100XLT/200XLT Informative FCC web resources New marine radio services New scanner webring 7 BC245XLT arrives at Strong Signals! Javiation receives first shipment of new MVT-9000 Mk II WinRadio to support trunking and ACARS 6 Word from several sources say the BC245XLT can be controlled with BC895XLT software Scan*Star Deluxe tracks Motorola, EDACS and LTR systems using OptoCom 3 BC245XLT and BC245XLT Owner's Guide Details pages added Rich Barnett has posted on the BC245XLT Board that the Uniden SmartScanner server will hopefully be operational mid to late next week! 2 Received faxed copy of BC245XLT Operating Guide from Scanners Unlimited Word from the Ham Station with initial details on BC245 due to their first shipment arrival Scanners Unlimited expects 12 BC245XLTs tomorrow 1 Uniden shipped NO...as in NONE...BC245s to their distributors yesterday. BUT, one distributor in the area drove to Uniden and picked up their shipment of BC245s themselves! Radio dealers getting their BC245s from this distributor should be shipped today and arrive tomorrow. Explains why ADS will be getting some of their order tomorrow That means most radio dealers won't be getting any BC245s this week the Ham Station receives special overnight BC245XLT shipnight Word is that WinRADiO's "Trunking Suite" is in final Beta test and will be officially released very soon

June 1999

30 BC245XLT Message Board added 17 new Dealer Surveys User Antenna Opinion User Accessory Opinion 28 Javiation posts new MVT-9000 II page AOL and cell phone broadcasts 27 Hanno of submits VR-500 First Impressions! Digital secrecy Handheld Antenna Review update 26 Uniden posts SmartScanner software on their web site Wired Digital article on web broadcast of cell calls 25 Pryme antennas arrive from Premier technical scanning mailing list Raleigh, NC, Wake County 800 MHz trunked system comes alive for Special Olympics. See Trunking IDs page updates Radio Shacks in Canada no longer carrying scanners? Digital GSM cell phone signals cracked 24 Premier RD-8 antenna user opinion Trunking IDs updated for Wilmington 21 Found on USENET Anybody know of any MOD's for the new bc245xlt? From Glenn Cohen of Scanners Unlimited Scanners Unlimited: I just talked to the director of Public Relations at Uniden in Ft. Worth and she said that the warehouse is expecting a shipment of BC245XLT's by the end of June. They then have to be prepared for shipping by doing such things as adding the owner's manuals. Therefore, she expects dealers to begin receiving them by mid-July. Maycom AR-108 First Impressions Lee Malone of Lee Electronics says he expects shipment of BC245XLT in the last week of June Article on integrating EAS and NWR 18 BC245XLT countdown! Word from Grove is that the BC245 is expected in about 2 weeks the Ham Station expects BC245s around July 1 Premier offers several Pryme antennas for review Monitoring inmarsat signals PRO-2036 User Opinion! MVT-7100 User Opinion 16 Word from Australia that Uniden is working to replace BC760XLT but will supposedly have no TrunkTracking Scanner Outlet takes delivery of new BC244CLT X windows GUIE for IC-PCR1000 MVT-7100 Owner's Guide 15 Yaesu FT-90R First Impressions! Lee Electronics submits picture of new Uniden BC244CLT My Story page updated 14 Canadian restrictions on future digital scanners Mobile communications devices 11 Opto has new frequency counter/decoder Opto posts OptoCom BitBanger & ComCounter upgrades Co-ax page updated 9 VisualRadio 3 review copy arrives Discriminator tap for IC-PCR100 53 Radio Surveys added Flight Explorer 8 7 Dealer Surveys added Very interesting device for only $2700 7 Trunked radio systems in the UK Yaesu Japan VR-500 update The VR-500 will be brought to the European market around this fall. The brochure on this receiver is now under preparation and will be provided through our distributors all over the world as soon as it is available. 6 ASE has stock of new BC244CLT. New "night stand" scanner with 30 channels, 30-512 MHz, AM/FM radio and alarm clock Seems Ten-Tec is considering adding synchronous detection to their TX-320. Might see it by Christmas 4 E-Trax review Jonathan confirms end of the line for the COM216 Yaesu America updates their VR-500 page

May 1999

29 Signal Intelligence writes of upcoming Scan*Star release: [We] plan to release versions of Scan*Star Deluxe and Scan*Star Industrial that support EDACS trunk tracking in early June. The OptoCom with BitBanger will be required for this support. The software is being tested now. This upgrade will be available to existing Deluxe and Industrial customers as an Internet upgrade (no fee). We also plan to release Motorola support using the control channel sometime this summer. Emergency Alert Reporting System (EARS) 25 Yaesu FT-90 has arrived News Flash on BC245XLT New AOR/Uniden radio dealer 22 Tiger Scan First Impressions 15 entries added to Dealer Surveys PerCon Corp adds Spectrum/Canada database to their new DataFinder Site. the Ham Station has shipped new Yaesu FT-90 John T Wards says HR514 is still stuck in the Senate Hanno Vogels, DG8JZ, story from China CFLG Yahoo club 21 Advanced Specialties Electronics writes with some "juicy" product news. Yaesu has released a fax with details on the upcoming VR-500. It will have 1000 channels, 8 character alpha-tags and wide band 0.5 - 1299.95 MHz coverage. Expected delivery is mid-summer '99! 20 Lowell Ester, a faithful Strong Signals reader and EMT, submits a link to the Firehouse.com website which details his experience with the rescue of baby Jessy in Kansas last week Appears that the Commtel COM216 has been discontinued Trunking IDs page updated for Wilmington area of NC 19 Today's good news comes from Ed Dial who visited Strong Signals last week when we ran the link to Advanced Digital Systems' BC245XLT web page. Ed followed the link and subsequently decided to order a 245 from ADS. Imagine his surprise when he found out he was their first 245 order placed and would receive his 245 for free! E! story on Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman phone conversation indictment SETI project screen saver! 18 the Ham Station played with VR-500 at Dayton. Did not notice PL but it does use SSB, 2 AAs, BNC antenna and is size of the VX-5R Posted Robert's Scanner Page with many projects and electronics services 17 Word from Dayton is that Optoelectroncis has added a frequency counter to the OptoCom called the ComCounter which is used to Reaction Tune that receiver and can also be queried via software Word that Electra will be introducing a UHF Tiger Scan TELCOM says Yaesu/Standard VR-500 is selling in Japan and is expected in Europe in the next month or two. No word on US version yet. ETRUNK & MTRUNK and SE Trunked Radio Information pages update Dan Browning, KD4LYP, sets up IC-PCR100 page 15 Commtel COM225 review posted 1st Strong Signals News Wire e-mail newsletter sent out Terry submits Microsoft Excel Worksheet for PRO-64 and 2041 (337K) 14 ARRL newsletter with word of new Texas antenna bill Results posted for Quick Surveys #3, #5, #7 & #9 13 Results posted for Quick Surveys #4, #8, #11 & #12 11 N2MCA Shack pictures updated 2 User Receiver Opinions added BC245XLT Quick Survey added 10 Advanced Digital Systems is pricing the BC245XLT at $225 plus $14.50 for second-day shipping Greg Knox indicates taht the TrunkTracker II scanners will be able to monitor 1 conventional, 1 Motorola and 1 EDACS system simultaneously! 8 Press Releases page added with details on the OptoCom BitBanger and Probe v5.0! Bandercom writes about hearing of a Yupuiteru MVT-9000Mk II in Japan which includes voice inversion feature. 7 the Ham Station writes that the Uniden wholesalers have entered the BC245XLT in their inventory computers and price it at $229.95 retail with an expecte ship of July 1 6 John Ward posts on BC245XLT flyer: I received a full color flyer from Uniden today on the BC245XLT. It doesn't have much info at all, but I noticed something interesting on the display. In addition to the frequency/talkgroup info, bank number, and all the other things you'd expect to find the display also includes WX (weather), CTCSS and DCS indicators. Now, this could be a generic display panel used in many radios, or a generic photo stripped into this brochure, or it may be that the radio will include these features. We can only hope, I suppose. to which Rich Barnett responds: That flyer mistakenly included the Sportcat SC-200 display on the BC-245. The 245 will not have alpha or CTCSS, but it will do just about everything else. The radio is PC programmable, controllable and cloneable. PerCon announces new Spectrum/Aviaiton: Spectrum/Aviation contains the latest data from numerous Federal Aviation Administration databases. The CD-ROM includes records for FAA maintained transmitters including Air Traffic Control, Navigation, Directional, Tower, Ground, Approach and Departure. Spectrum/Aviation will begin shipping in mid-May For more details, see their dedicated web page. Chuck also says that the May '99 release of Spectrum is now shipping! Thanks for the update Chuck! Scanners Unlimited writes about new AR8200 case: They are about what I expected, i.e. real leather, open windows (no plastic covering the openings) for the keyboard, display, left side buttons, and right side computer interface and charger jack. They have a leather belt loop on the back with 2 heavy duty snaps to hold the loop on or to unsnap it. The loop is big enough to fit a duty belt. The radio will fit in the case with and without its own belt clip. I think that for $24.95 it is a good value. Lindsay Blanton's digital signals page updated with latest ETRUNK (v3.7) 3 Electra Tiger Scan has arrived! Chat Room added Feedback Form page added New Quick Survey added for 1998 Radio Of The Year 1 Strong Signals News Wire added New and improved Quick Surveys page Antonio Gomez Nieto in this month's My Story User Opinions Receiver page updated Latest AR8200 v1.16 software

April 1999

29 Details on new Yaesu/Standard VR-500 handheld receiver: 100 kHz - 1300 MHz, AM/FM/WFM/SSB/CW, 1141 channels, looks like VX-5R Reader report on new Electra Tiger Scan Scanners Unlimited stocking new AR8200 leather case Scanners Unlimited expects 1st shipment of 'bug-free' VX-5Rs Javiation updates AR8200 product info page 27 Durham Radio to receive first TRX-100XLTs and AR16Us shortly 24 News Flash 23 Details on new Alinco DJ-V5 & DJ-195T 22 PerCon announces new Spectrum monthly udated, annual subscription iCOM announces indefinite extension to free Spectrum offer with purchase of IC-PCR1000 Word on new version of ETRUNK Durham Radio will carry new AR16U SDU-5500 Spectrum Display User Opinion RE2000Alpha User Opinion! 21 80 Radio Suveys posted 10 Dealer Surveys posted 20 ScanCat announces support for AOR AR16B Nevada Communications has received updated TRX-100XLT manuals Radio station in Rochester, NY in trouble for rebroadcasting audio from scanner during police chase Oregon considering bill to make nearly all radio monitoring illegal 19 TRX-100XLT First Impressions Swatch cancels advertising satellite launch 16 News Flash Busted Scanners Talk with Dave Lovell of new Electra and ordered new Tiger Scan 15 Electra Tiger Scan Word on new Yaesu FT-90 and FT-2600 ham radios 14 News Flash Trident TRX-100XLT arrives Grove has received first shipment of new ICF-SW07s 13 WiNRADiO releases v3.10 beta software with XRS and announces upcoming support for SmartNet and MPT1327 trunking systems Grove Spring/Summer '99 Catalog is out 12 News Flash! PerCon ships April Spectrum with support for R10, PCR1000 & SC1PC 9 ET Docket 98-76 summary page 8 Details on FCC's ET Docket 98-76 scanner restrictions Swatch satellite broadcasting on 2 meters protest begins Atlantic Ham Radio to move and become Radioworld 5 AR8000DX review Universal Radio's catalog received Amazon.com now has auctions which includes radio equipment New scanner tip 3 This month's What's Your Story? 2 Bill Cheek and Keith Knipschild arrested by federal agents?! Read the News Flash

March 1999

31 Strong Signals Editorial 30 the Ham Station informs us of some BC245XLT news: Looks like retail on the BC245 is set at 230.00 plus UPS. WOW! Sounds like a great scanner at a lower price than I would have thought. I have 200 on order. I am taking names and will ship in the order in which they are received. Jeff Pryor also writes about upcoming Uniden radios: AES has the 245XLT listed on their site for $230. It also seems that the 245 will use the same rechargable batteries as the 235, as there was a line for the Batt/235/245 on the price list. Also, they list some of the other upcoming scanners, including: BC244CLT 30 CH SCANNER/WX 99.95 BC245XLT 300CH POCKET/TRUNKING 229.95 BP180 EXTRA BATT;BC235/245XLT 16.95 LC120 CASE;120/230/235/245XLT 19.95 BC248CLT 50 CH SCANNER/WX ALERT 109.95 BC278CLT 100CH SCN/SAME WX ALERT 189.95 29 Maycom AR-108 now in house 27 New Quick Surveys page The eBay cell-capapble radio fiasco continues 24 Rich Barnett writes to pass along some more details on the upcoming BC245XLT: "The 245 will have improved audio and a railroad service search that, upon reception of a signal, will alternately flash the frequency and the American Association of Railroads channel number for that frequency. It's a great feature for rail buffs (all other previously implemented service searches will remain as well). The scanner has also been modified so that you can set the radio where the display backlighting will light for five seconds whenever the squelch opens." 11 Dealer Surveys posted In regards to my posting the other day about ebaY cracking down on the sale of cell-capable radios, Larry Wiland wrote to tell me that he got a nasty-gram fom ebaY because he posted a bid on an AR950 (which has cell but was made long before the cell ban). The e-mail from ebaY stated that the radio auction had been terminated by ebaY since it was an "illegal" item. And now we know the rest of the story...thanks to Larry! AR8200 Scanner Tip AR8200 control software opinion Word from A. Van Walbek is that Cary, NC PD is moving up to massive MDT intergration 23 Uniden's BC245XLT web page! the Ham Station reports on feedback he received from a Uniden wholesaler meeting down in Texas. Seems the upcoming BC245XLT TrunkTracker II will allow 100 trunking IDs per bank which is an improvement over the current BC235XLT's 50. No word on pricing yet (supposedly $500 suggested retail) and there seems to be conflicting details on whether or not it will make the Dayton Hamvention in mid-May Here's a USA today story that mentions speedtrap.com which I point out because the quick description mentions the listing of police scanner frequencies used in speed enforcement Rumor is that ebaY is cracking down on the sale of cellular-capable scanner sales on its auction site, but I see no listing for such restrictions in their 'Questionable Items' listing. Time will tell! 22 OptoCom review posted 18 Strong Signals has just received word from Bandercom that new MVT-9000 M2 and M3 models are now shipping. 10.8 MHz intermodulation interference has been reduced by 70 - 95% (with a subsequent decrease in the number of birdies) while scan/search speed has been increased 42%! Expect their web page to be updated soon with this announcement Bob Pyle of LP Communications writes to inform us that the Listening Post database includes not only the "usual" FCC records", but 7000 aviation and 4000 federal entries as well. Scheduled for release in May will be version 2.0 of their control program which will add support for most popular AOR, iCOM and WinRADio models as well as the BC895! Be sure not to miss the March '99 issue of US Scanner News Online! I recently ran across a shareware program called WinScan which is a frequency database written for Windows 3.1, 95, 98 & NT Charles Williams supports anit-HR514 cause with Microsoft Access database This morning I happened to stumble across a link to the FCC Mass Media database of USA and Canadian AM/FM radio stations 15 Strong Signals has been selected as a "cool site" in Netscape's Open Directory project Scanners Unlimited informs us of two new items One is that AOR USA will shortly have real thick leather carrying cases for the AR8200. The price will be $ 24.95. Also, this week, we should have in stock the March 1999, Percon Spectrum CD ROM's from Percon. Price is $29.95 Passed along by an anonymous reader, here's a link to the Reuters' article "Journalist Admits Eavesdropping" Submitted by Craig Sires is an article on a SportCat, cell images and the law enforcement officials who exploited their combination 11 AR16B First Impressions posted Chuck Pergrim, president of PerCon writes: Just to let you know that the new March Spectrum 1999 is now shipping. This version includes enhanced support for creating MCH files for the ICOM IC-PCR100/1000. Also, it can create ICF files for the IC-R2/10 cloning/download program. Support is included for creating SONY ICF-SC1PC memory files. This should save a lot of keyboard entries for SONY and ICOM owners. Reading yesterday's post for lightning protection prompted Eric Richards to pass along a great link on this very subject! Aaron Ceraldi Scanner Information Archive Here's the latest word from Yaesu regarding the VX-5R PL snafus: We have corrected the initial problem with the scanner not stopping on a frequency with CTCSS decode enabled. All VX5R's at the dealers should be the new versions. We are currently waiting for information from Yaesu Japan about the slow decode times. We will update these units as needed at no cost for parts, labor or shipping when the fix is available. I'd suspect that we will have the information within 2 weeks. Best Regards, Mike Krueger - N6MIK, Yaesu Technical Support 10 AOR's newest micro has arrived at the Strong Signals shack Giovanni Benenati donates helpful AR8200 AM Tuning Tip For a look at custom-designed RF filters, stop by Microwave Filter Company Somehow I came across this lightning protection FAQ on the Oakland server For a list of "vintage manuals" covering a large selection of radio gear, be sure to stop by W7FG's site 9 Dave Zantow, N9EWO, writes to inform us of new Radio Shack amateur transceivers coming soon! The HTX-200 2-meter (Cat no. 19-1102) due in late April and the HTX-400 70-cm (Cat no. 19-1104) due in late June. Here are some first specs to think about: Size: 3 3/8 x 2 1/4 x 1 1/32 30 memories 300 mW RF output using 2 AAs 2 W using 9 volt DC CTCSS encode/decode standard Rotary volume/squelch controls Rubberized cabinet SMA Antenna Connector Extended receive (HTX-200=138-174, HTX-400=420-470) Lentini Communications expects their shipment of AR16Bs to arrive today From Sheldon Harvey of the Canadian International DX club, we have a few new links to explore: AR5000 control software AOR UK Service Bulletins Sun-Mate wind-up/solar powered radios Sun-Mate solar batter charger For those interested in the future of automotive electronics, EE Times ran an article on automakers upgrading cars to 42 volt battery systems 8 Matt Hilger has kindly passed along a link to Wholesale Direct Car Audio who has recently started to carry Uniden's BC895XLT. He has a few in stock and expects more later this week. Price is $220 shipped via UPS. Thanks Matt! Joe Cardani has created the E-Trax Information Page for the OptoCom EDACS software. It's still under construction but will have a FAQ, listings of EDACS systems in the US and Canada, a mailing list and much more as time goes by! Pete Mahy, G4NIS, has just updated the TalkPCR program for the IC-PCR1000 to version 7.0 Beta 6 Advanced Specialties Electronics passes along details on first shipment of AR16Bs which I summarized here: The unit comes packed in a plain brown box filled w/foam "peanuts". Mixed in the 'nuts you will find the AR-16, two AA NiMi batteries (loose), a Maha external slow charger, antenna & strap. You must remove the batteries from the radio and place them in the charger each time you need a charge. There is NO mention of the inversion de-scamble mode in the manual. I called AOR & they were unaware of this and looked in their "Japanese manual" & it seems that the American booklet has been left blank at this chapter (pgs 19 & 20). He claimed the radio does do it & told me how over the phone. I turned on the inversion mode in the display & stepped thru the various settings, and it seemed to have no effect on the incoming signal. (I would assume a "normal" signal would change its sound characteristics when stepping thru the inversion settings, but there was NO audible difference). There also does not seem to be any way to "quickly" tune frequencies. Going from say, 18 MHz to 27 MHz is a real pain rotating the dial in kHz. Dave Zantow has put a picture of the upcoming Sony ICF-SW07 on his pages! Thanks Dave! This morning I installed the Javiation AR8000 DX PCB in my AR8000, courtesy of Jonathan at Javiation. My Story page update Tom Wiggins was kind enough to pass along a link to an article on insecure cordless phones 5 Optoelectronics is now selling what they call "Scanblaster" packs Jeff Goldman reports on a prototype he has seen for an upcoming Sony SW receiver. While it was labeled the SW2000, Jeff says it will be marketed as the ICF-SW07 and seems to be quite similar to the current ICF-SW100 which it may replace It seems its most endearing feature will be a replaceable EEPROM which holds the most popular stations and their frequencies. Word is that Sony plans to make new EEPROMs available every year with the latest and greatest station info! We'll hopefully get to see this new model here in the US in about a month. Thanks Jeff! 4 Seems Grove is now offering refurbished Unidens; specifically, the BC60XLT, BC100XLTs (yes, that's right!), BC220XLTs and SC150s Advanced Specialties Electronics reports that he hopes to have AR16B in soon 3 Scanners Unlimited writes to say that he expects his shipment of AR16Bs tomorrow H.R. 514 makes headlines: Congress After Digital Wireless Eavesdroppers Watkins-Johnson Puts Itself Up For Sale 2 The AOR AR16B lives! Jeff from the Ham Station reports that AOR USA has shipped them their first batch

February 1999

27 5 additions to the Dealer Survey Bill Owen from Optoelectronics writes: The latest model OS535 board does have a Data Slicer on it. For high speed data the Op amp would need to be replaced with a plain old LF358 though. I believe the slicer output is on DSR like Optocom. There is also a spot to mount a G/Wiz board! Never been tested however as far as I know but should work. If you've purchased an OS535 lately and it has the "white square outline for the G/Wiz board", you've got one of the latest and greatest per the above Scott Halligan informs us that ScanStar/TrakkStar for the OptoCom, version 7.30 is now available Joe Kantola has "created a mailing list specifically announcing clearances, sales, and special bargains for high-tech equipment (scanners, radios, etc...)." If you want to learn more, visit the list's dedicated web page 2 new entries on the Mods page 26 41 additions to the Radio Survey 25 Buying A Used Shortwave Receiver review 23 For those in the RTP area of North Carolina, WRAL has posted a story about Wake County renting a Nextel system since the current $35 million proposal for a new 800 MHz radio system has been shot down by the county commissioner 22 Ronald Reams, WA4MJF, posted the following on USENET: Vienna Man Sentenced For Fraud A 67-year-old owner of a now-defunct government electronics equipment contractor in Vienna has been sentenced to four months in jail and four months of home detention for conspiring to submit false invoices to the Drug Enforcement Administration in 1995. Richard Fleet Robinson, who owned Electronic Equipment Bank, also was ordered by Judge Leonie M. Brinkema to pay $52,100 in fines and restitution. Robinson pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiracy to submit false invoices to DEA in August 1995. The sentencing occurred Friday. Robinson conspired with Robert Burchell, a telecommunications specialist at DEA's Northern Virginia headquarters, federal authorities said in documents filed in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. Robinson was indicted on charges he submitted two bogus invoices totaling $50,000 to DEA for batteries used in DEA radios when, in fact, no such batteries were delivered, court documents state. After Robinson received payment for the nonexistent batteries and kept an estimated $12,000 for his efforts, authorities said in the court documents, Burchell instructed him to pay the rest of the money to third parties. Authorities said the third party payments actually were for Burchell's personal benefit. In October, Burchell was sentenced to 4 years in prison. 21 IC-PCR100 First Impressions Word from Scott Halligan is that Scan*Star has just released TrakkStar v7.28 for the OptoCom with reported improvements to its trunk tracking abilities with regard to timings and Type I ID display Just learned that Radio Manager has added support for the OptoCom Hugh McCully has authored a pockte-sized reference for the VX-1R and hopes to have one done for the VX-5R by the end of this month. For more details, stop by his web page For all of you electronics hackers, Tigger also passed along a link to the POPTRONIX site 19 Dave Zantow, N9EWO, writes to tell us that his local Radio Shack has just received a shipment of the new S.A.M.E. weather radios 17 Eric Richards has added another web page to his site to help the ANTI-HR514 cause. It contains a list of the Communications Subcommittee members and their addresses, web pages and e-mail contacts where available. Thanks Eric! I see that ELKEL has a web page up for the upcoming IC-R75 Those Italians sure know how to put out a radio catalog! 16 Strong Signals has two new pages: Computer Control Scanning FAQ and Radio Modifications 15 My Story addition 13 Tobi from Germany writes with some extraordinary hidden functions for the WS1000/WS2000! Advanced Specialties Electronics has new 30-1200 MHz Spider antenna 6 new entries to the Dealer Survey page Scanner Tips updates 12 Received Commtel COM225 and AR8000DX board US Scanner News online 9 In regards to H.R. 514, Larry Van Horn of MT posted a juicy tidbit on the SCAN-L and SCANNER mailing lists: "The telcom person on Wilson's staff admitted to me this morning that it is their intent to deny the media and civilians access to digital police/fire trunking systems via scanners because in his words, "the media listening to police comms have interferred with law enforcement and gotten people killed." 8 Congress is at it again! Check out today's News Flash! NC FCC database Javiation updates for iCOM IC-PCR100 & IC-R75, GRE PSR-244, and Commtel COM225 & COM306 7 12 new entries for Dealer Survey BC235XLT User Opinion LCD protection tip 5 New GRE-made COM225 4 GRE has replaced the Commtel 206 with the new entry level 50-channel COM306 and introduced a new top-of-the-line base model COM225 which Jonathan says is similar to the 2035/2042 but has 500 channels and a couple of new features! Also, GRE is still making the COM205 which is an exact clone of the revered PRO-2006 but Jonathan says that this model is on the way out since it has been superseded by the newer COM225. Bandercom can now add a discriminator output to MVT-9000 Mr. NiCd web page and new IQ-9000 Charger/Conditioner Scanner Tip

January 1999

31 17 entries added to the Dealer Survey 30 Hanno from TELCOM writes that Kenwood has written dealers to officially revoke the specs for the TH-D7 in packet mode since they do not meet the specifications for DAMA controlled digipeaters. Supposedly, Kenwood is offering D7 buyers their money back. In other news, TELCOM has some specs up for the newly introduced IC-T81 quad-band transceiver Jeff from the the Ham Station states that he has gotten in 15 VX-5Rs from Yaesu which no longer have the CTCSS scanning bug 29 Pete Mahy, author of TalkPCR, has come across a problem when using his program that all users should be made aware of. Please stop by the TalkPCR site for more details Bill & Kenny from Optoelectronics says that they have a control program for their new OptoCom which runs on a Palm Pilot. They also plan to distribute the source code for those wishing to experiment on their own! For further info, contact Kenny Pete Peltola of Bandercom says that they are experiencing "severe shipping delays". Consider paying for UPS shipping to sidestep these delays for now Word has it that Yaesu and Standard have combined their sales forces but are still distinct companies and that neither has bought out the other I've also been forgetting to mention that Radio Shack appears to be closing out their 20-014 ground plane for under $10 27 Tim, our anonymous Radio Shack "informant" writes: Two new WR-SAME weather radios (county and warning specific) will be coming out from Midland (74-200) and Radio Shack in April or May. The biggest feature will be that now you can pick the type of warnings and watches you want to alarm. 26 VX-1R User Receiver Opinion 25 Bryce Lee passes along some interesting news, especially for our Canadian readers: Norham in Toronto, Atlantic Ham Radio and Texpro of Burlington are merging under one banner effective sometime this coming March. Texpro and Atlantic will disappear. Texpro will leave Burlington; the building is available for lease presently and the HF antennas formerly mounted above the building have been removed. Norham, then being much larger will also be moving to much a larger location; many of us are waiting a moving sale promised late May of this year. The new location will also offer ample free parking, one of the problems the current location is lacking. PRO-2042 User Receiver Opinion For those of us in the RTP, NC area, James Kakalec, KF4WXH, passes along trunking id 3536 which is used on the Durham system for the "Selective Enforcement Team" which appears to be some form of SWAT team 24 FT-50RD review! More Dealer Survey submissions! 23 Nick Marchesani passes along today's User Receiver Opinion! More Dealer Survey submissions! 22 Optoelectronics introduces the Mini SCOUT ($249) which has been available over in Europe since last summer (it's a SCOUT minus the memories, hit counters, backlight, beeper and vibrator but can still Reaction Tune). They're also running a limited time special on the Xplorer ($699) as well as specials on the 3000A+ ($299) and Scout ($349) frequency counters and the OS456 Lite ($99) board Word is that Yaesu America has received the parts necessary to fix the CTCSS scan bug in early units. If you feel your VX-5R suffers from this malady, contact Yaesu America Dan Wells (no relation ;-) has put up a VX-5R modification page Dealer Survey page added Radio Survey Feedback updates 20 James Coburn posted this warning for VX-5R owners looking to modify their new radios: A friend of mine at YAESU has told me that there is a solder pad combination which will LOCK the radio into 6M 2M and 70cm MODE the radio will not come out of this mode even if the solder pad combination is removed. The radio will have to go back to YAESU and you will probably be charged to put it back into normal mode. BE CAREFUL!!! Thanks to Ken Windyka for his permission to post his opinion on the latest Grove FCC CD-ROM database! MVT-9000 M3 User Opinion! 18 I finally got around to ordering and receiving '99 WRTH and Passport editions. I was pleased to see WRTH broaden the radios it reviewed as well as providing much more detail on them. The following represent the WRTH awards: Sony ICF-SW30 - Best Portable Receiver Yupiteru MVT-9000 - Best Handheld Scanner iCOM IC-PCR1000 - Best PC Radio JRC NRD-545 - Best Semi-Professional Receiver I was not thrilled that Passport covered none of the PC radios from iCOM, Ten-Tec, or WinRADiO. I think they should seriously reconsider this for next year's edition Thanks to James Coburn for his opinions on the Maha MH-C204F quick charger! Thanks to Gary Saffer for his opinions on a refurbished BC235XLT! Ben Saladino, KC5IRJ, has recently released version 3.900j of Radio Manager with support for the AR8200 Dave McCormick was kind enough to pass along a link to the SLICER download page Version 3.0 Beta of FreeTracker has been released for the BC895XLT 13 For those of you using TalkPCR, the current version (B5.1) is due to expire tomorrow. Pete Mahy has recently posted B6.0 so be sure to stop his TalkPCR page to download it. Thanks for a great program Pete! 12 Just received word that the EDACS software, by AMComm, for the OptoCom is now ready and should be shipping within the next couple of days! Jeff from the Ham Station says it's official! All VX-5s which need to have the CTCSS bug fixed must be returned to Yaesu in California! The fix can not be done by the dealers and turnaround time is expected to be 2 weeks. As mentioned yesterday, Yaesu expects parts in Friday...so those who want their radio fixed promptly should gallop to the post office ASAP Chuck D'Antonio recently ordered an OptoCom and learned from Optoelectronics that they are almost caught up with filling their back orders for these new radios Courtesy of Fred Osterman at Universal Radio are three new books: Buying A Used Shortwave Receiver (4th ed.), Shortwave Receivers Past & Present (3rd ed.), and Discover DXing! (2nd ed.) It seems Goran Vlaski has come back to life! The author of the freeware program for the IC-Q7 and IC-R2 has recently posted on USENET that he has fixed the Beta release expiration dates on both programs and they are once again ready for use. Go to my Software page to find links for download 11 Hot off the "newswire" per Jeff Goldman per Alex Lentini per John at Yaesu...Yaesu Japan has allegedly fixed the CTCSS scanning bug on the VX-5R! En route, and due to show up by week's end, are the instructions detailing the "fix". No word whether it is hardware, software or some combo thereof. Also not known is whether dealers will be able to fix units in house or have to ship back to Yaesu CES report w/BC245XLT Jeff Goldman received a copy of Uniden's BC245XLT brochure and reports on its details. Looking at the LCD display, he is able to see that it is a custom display made up of unique indicators as well as a dot-matrix portion for frequency, and alpha-tag display. Also visible are indicators for CTCSS, DCS, Greek letter Alpha, and attenuator We're not sure if any or all of these will be used on the upcoming BC245XLT or if Uniden is simply planning ahead for future radios I've just been informed from a reliable source that the LCD mentioned above is not from the BC245XLT but from another model and erroneously shown in the brochure Jeff Goldman reports that the AOR has released v1.14 of the AR8200 software Jonathan from Javiation reports that he has a limited number of AR8200 service manuals in stock Dave Zantow, reports that he has recently uploaded his review of the new Yaesu VX-5R to his web page Alex Lentini of Lentini Communications who has returned from CES. He has Uniden brochures describing: SC180 - new SportCat, still 100 channels BC278CLT - base model, 100 channels, 5 banks, 800 MHz, AM/FM radio w/20 presets BC248CLT - similar to BC278XLT but no 800 MHz BC244CLT - similar to BC278XLT but no 800 MHz StormTracker - appears to be a new & improved BCT-12 with weather alert, pre-programmed for all 50 states & Canada We start the week, and today, off right with this great review of the new VX-5R by R.L. Caron, K4GP! The latest ARRL online letter details the account of a ham who helped police thanks to his ability to monitor police radio traffic! 10 Just posted...review of the Ventenna VT-27 stealthy base antenna Thanks to Dennis Allen, WA5LXS for today's Scanner Tip Mark Kuziv, founder of the Central Florida Listener's Group (CFLG), submitted his entry for My Story 8 Stop by the CEI website to read up on the latest Uniden announcements at CES. Includes details on the BC245XLT, which were pretty well known, as well as next fall's SC200 alpha-numeric scanner. Looks like all those little birdies were right all along... There's also news on Uniden's new CBs and seven-band radar detectors Emergency Survival Communications review 7 John Phillips from Advanced Specialties (800-926-9426) says that their VX-5Rs are selling well at $345 and they have stock of the optional alkaline battery case and drop-in charger Mike Curtis was kind enough to donate his recent experience with tracking trunked radio systems using Trunker and Hamcomm My Story update Scanner Tips addition Stephen Waits writes: I wanted to let you know that I'm starting to maintain a "wish list" for the next Uniden Handheld TrunkTracker. Realizing Uniden will probably ignore everything on the list, of course. I'm doing it anyway! If you wish to post anything about this in your news, just ask people to e-mail me with their ideas and wishes. A web page is soon to follow, but for now e-mail is fine. 6 Chris from Lentini Communications says that they have received the VX-5Rs and that they are "flying off the shelf" at $349.95 Clay Schneider reports what he believes to be a Y2K-related bug with the R2 software from Goran Vlaski who has been unavailable for help. Seems the R2 software stopped working just after the new year commenced. Clay said he was able to roll his computer clock back to 98 along with the date stamp on some Windows INI files to make it work. Thanks for the details Clay! 5 Thanks to Cliff Buttschardt, K7RR, who pointed out that PC Magazine has a review of the iCOM IC-PCR1000, Sony ICF-SC1PC and Ten-Tec RX-320 radios in their Jan 19 issue! I hopped over to their web site and found these reviews online Overall, a well written article with just a few inaccuracies. I'm sure it will impress the "PC-types" and get some of them very interested in this type of receiver I've just learned about the Yahoo! clubs and there's a section dedicated to Amateur Radio and Scanning. Whether you're into ham, packet, Heathkits, DX or scanners, there's probably a group for you. If not, how about setting up your own for a specific topic or geographic area? Brian J. Cathcart has uncovered a URL which talks about the new air-ground phone system Stridsberg multicoupler opinion 4 Chuck Pergrim of PerCon informs us that the Jan '99 Spectrums and 1st Qtr '99 Professional Version CD-ROMs are now shipping!

Copyright © 2001 by Richard J. Wells