Will the next generation police scanner be open sourced?

While we play cat and mouse with the Phantom Pro668 firmware update, could an open source scanner be the next big thing?

First of all, I am not a hardware guy (although I am not afraid of a soldering iron), and I am not certainly a programmer. I do however have a pretty good understanding on how things work.

While putting together a BCD396 size scanner is probably out of the question, a home patrol size scanner may just be feasible.  Now that 3d printers are accessible to just about anyone, we  have the ability to create some awesome things.

Now for the parts.  Starting out with processing, the Raspberry Pi (2nd gen) seems like a good choice.  Small and powerful.  Drop a 128 gig SD card in there and you have plenty of space for recording.  There are already small touch screens made for the pi.  One of those with a nice 3d printed case could make a nice size radio.  Unlike the home patrol, it could be made to to sit horizontal or vertical.  The only thing I am not sure about is the battery.   I don't know how long 4 AA batteries would power this.  Another option would be a smartphone lithium battery or even an option to run either one.

The existing sdr dongles could be used, however ideally, one could be manufactured with a smaller footprint, with the antenna easily wired to an external bnc connector.   I would engineer it with 2 dongles for optimal trunk tracking or dual receive.  Taking the dongles one step farther, I would like to see some optimized for say VHF to 900mhz, and maybe one optimized for short wave.  We could actually create a wide coverage receiver with very good sensitivity.

Finally the software and operating system.  Sdr sharp although works, is not the easiest thing to use.  A user friendly version of that with loadable modules is what I envision.   Load up only the modules you need (dmr, provoice etc).  Some sort of slimmed down Linux would be the OS of choice.

Finally, with the built in ethernet adapter,  you have a scanner ready to stream, or run twotonedetect.  In reality,  if you need a streaming scanner only, build it without a screen and manage it remotely.

These are just some basic ideas off the top of my head.  The possibilities are endless for a project like this.  Something like this may someday be a real home brew or kickstarter project.

PRO668 DMR....really?

So our new Pro668 hacker is now claiming to incorporate DMR decoding in his pending custom firmware.   I shouldn't even be wasting time following this train wreck, but I just can't help myself.

If this guy actually pulls this off, you are going to see Pro668 and whistler 1080 prices skyrocket.

Right now I am still calling this bullsh*t until he offers proof. 

Firmware updates

So Uniden  released a firmware update to the 536 scanner.  Fixes included bypassing the clock reset,  faster scanning and improved P25 decoding.   I tested it briefly and yes it does appear to be an improvement.  The 436 version will probably be out in the next week or two.

They also included the first analyze features.  They work but really don't do a whole lot.  The trunk system logging is what I have been waiting for and hopefully that will be next.  Despite the updates, I am still angry at Uniden for the way they have handled things.

On the Pro668 front, there is a guy who first caused a whole forum uproar stating he was able to flash the 1080 firmware into the Pro668.  After 2 days and messing around, we could not reproduce his success and the consensus was that he was full of shit. 

Now he claims to be rewriting the firmware and it going to release it and make the 1080 & 668 a "super scanner".  This is going to go either very bad, or we are moving into uncharted waters, since no one has ever done anything like this before.  The last time was back when Bill Cheek released his books, if any of you remember those days.  No matter which way it goes,  it is going to be an interesting couple weeks ahead.

What scanner to buy?

I get this question all the time, Which scanner do you recommend?  I used to say Uniden because they have always worked the best for me.    Then the BCDx36 line came out.

Everything was great the first few months.  Yes the 536 had the headphone issue, requiring me to send the unit back, however they extended the warranty from 1 year to 3, so they made up for it.

After that, weeks turned into months, which now had turned into over a year. the story has changed.

1) None of the extended features have been delivered
2) The WiFi works up to a point and only an incomplete IOS version of the software is out.
3) Both scanners have the clock issue, requiring you to reset the clock every time you power it on.
(as of 4/6 still no firmware patch to bypass the clock reset, and it has been over a month now)
4) No other bugs have been fixed.

At this point I feel I own $1200 worth of crap.  Since there appears to be serious quality control issues now, i would not buy any BCDx36 scanner until they address any of these issues.  I "think" you would be ok with the Home Patrol 2, since that is 90% based on an existing unit and 6 months later nothing serious has shown up.  I am a bit skeptical about the new "P" series like (Based on the XT scanners).   They may be fine, however I would suggest waiting a while to see.

If you need at TDMA capable scanner right now.  I would suggest a Pro-668.  You can still get they pretty cheap if you look around.  Anything under $250 is still a great deal for a TDMA capable scanner.    You can always sell it later on for most of what you paid, and then get a Uniden later on, assuming they work out the issues.

For mobile, it becomes less clear.  The HP-2 may be the way to go (especially if you need GPS).  The Whistler mobile should be out soon, however that will go for top dollar at first and I would not go that route until I see some reviews on it.

Finally, I think this clock issue is worse than we all think.  When the headphone issue turned up last year, within weeks they had a plan to fix it.  nearly 2 months later, not a word from Uniden which leads be to believe that this is going to be a giant recall of every x36 radio out there.  It took just over a year for this issue to surface on both my radio's, so those saying they bought a later radio means nothing.  See what happens when you hit 14 months.  

Pro-668 Update and Uniden needs to get a clue

So now I am 2 plus weeks with the Pro-668.  Now that the honeymoon period and ended and reality has set in, I can say that my opinion has not changed much.   There is some tweaking that you can do, and there are some really good posts on radio reference (in the GRE and RS forums) on what to adjust.

The TDMA issue I posted about, turns out the be a specific channel on the NJICS system coming off Montana Mountain.  After some testing, I determined that any TDMA traffic coming over on 773.03125, will not decode on either the Pro-668, or the Uniden BCDx36 radio's.  Normal P25 traffic will however decode.  Since I don't have a real TMDA radio, I can't tell if this is something with the scanner's themselves, or if that tower is having an issue.    We don't have a whole lot of TDMA radio's in this area, so this may very well be an issue and is just going un-noticed for a while.  I am also interested to see if this is isolated to my tower, or if this is a wide spread issue.

After getting a break with the iPhone Siren App release, The BCDx36 owners are once again screaming.  This time the internal clock batteries appear to be failing.  I never had a problem until I plugged that damn WiFi dongle in mine.  I made it through 2 months of minus temperatures, and I put the dongle in 1 time and the clock is all screwed up.   I have a feeling you may be seeing another recall.  Nice Going!