Since my last article, I just thought some of you might be interested in this. My ebook has been written gradually since my previous article regarding the Icom IC-R3 and its expanded reception capabilities. It’s reasonably up to date.
(Still I live in hope that some DMR capable scanners will appear – although manufacturers have always been behind the times. For example, it’s been about 15 years now since the civil airband was extended to 137 MHz, yet some new scanners still end the bandstage at 136, annoying mainly since 8 1/3 KHz tuning steps normally cannot be used outside the 108 to 136 MHz bandstage).
With any luck a section on setting up a standalone DMR scanner may appear in the next addition. I know that if you have a PC and a scanner with a descriminator output you can decode this way using DMRDecode, but who wants to be tethered to a PC all the time? Another criticism is that we will always play second fiddle to our fellow scanner enthusiasts across the pond for one reason and one reason alone – notwithstanding the annoyance of the ECPA, when dealing with the USA market, scanner manufacturers listen to what their customers want.
When it comes to the UK and other countries, we have to pick up the crumbs from the USA’s plate. As an example, bandstages are nearly always matching US bandplans, and all to often on cheaper units you are stuck with annoying 5KHz tuning steps over much of the spectrum (I cannot think of any 5KHz spaced channels over here, and even 10HKz channeling is very rare).
When I owned my first scanner everything was very straightforward; there were no trunked systems and no digital radios. Still I laugh at those doom merchants who say the hobby is dead – try running a search every once in a while, be patient and see what turns up. Fisherman do not expect to get a bite ten seconds after casting after all! I feel those who never run a search are those who, in the stone age, would have sat around waiting for the hunters to return with the food.
Here is the URL: http://www.cotexfood-trading.com/radio/ .
Mainly its written from a UK perspective, though much if not most of the information other than bandplans would apply wherever you are.
Any questions, just drop me an email.
Cheers David, G7VDI.
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