Dual watch to scanning FRS radio

[PACNWComms]

Still use Windows XP and 7 for many of my radio programming needs. At work it is Windows10 and XP as there is everything from old HT-750's to APX8000's in use. At home and for hobby use, GMRS for example, I still use DOS and Windows XP. But then I am programming Maxtracs to a Harris XG-100P Unity in that case. For GMRS, it is usually a Motorola mobile, FRS might be an old Talkabout, and a Realistic scanner from the 1990's, like I suggested for the use case in this thread. 

[WRFP399]

On 12/20/2021 at 12:49 AM, gman1971 said:

@MichaelLAX

Still using WinXP?

 

@OP

Personally, I would get a used Vertex Standard/Motorola EVX-S24 for FRS. Its 2W on FM (also capable of DMR if you ever want to go that route), so its max power would be legal. And then, like its been already stated, I would pick a decent scanner for everything else...

Dual band, tri band, quad band CCRs are just that, all garbage CCR; and radio range will suck in FRS due to limited power and piss poor receivers... 

G.

I have been looking to grab up a pair EVX-S24 radios. I like the form factor. 

[gman1971]

S24 looks like a pretty decent radio. It has direct conversion Rodinia chip on it AFAIK.

I'll spew more Motorola propaganda here... but if the SL7550 could be made to do FM, then that would've been, IMO, the best FRS radio. Wish Motorola would've actually done something with the potential that radio had... oh well... 

 

G.

[Citizen]

On 12/20/2021 at 7:53 PM, gman1971 said:

I was referring to Windows 10... I love XP...  Vista was a blunder of its time. but compared to Win10... its a success... nothing comes close to how much the management idiots at M$$ destroyed a perfectly good workflow, that worked great for nearly 30 years...  Win7 is the end of the line for me. I still run XP on a lot of my older machines.

I too loved XP.  Vista was a total disappointment.  But you know what was worse than Vista?  Yep, you guessed it....Windows 8.  I still have 1 machine with XP, and I hated to stop using it (it was a real work-horse), but after many years of use, the plastic shell began cracking with age, so the screen hinge failed, and also the battery tray clips broke and so wouldn't hold a battery in place.

Windows 7 was pretty good.  It was the last MS OS before MS tried to look like Apple.  I started using W7 because of a forced upgrade, as my company upgraded all their PCs (later, they skipped W8, thankfully, and went strait to W10). 

I got use to W10, but now am worried about being forced to go to W11 someday.  I used to be a Microsoft fan, but lately every time they "upgrade" something, other things begin to not work right.  Still, won't touch Apple products, but that's another story.

...

[gman1971]

56 minutes ago, Citizen said:

I too loved XP.  Vista was a total disappointment.  But you know what was worse than Vista?  Yep, you guessed it....Windows 8.  I still have 1 machine with XP, and I hated to stop using it (it was a real work-horse), but after many years of use, the plastic shell began cracking with age, so the screen hinge failed, and also the battery tray clips broke and so wouldn't hold a battery in place.

Windows 7 was pretty good.  It was the last MS OS before MS tried to look like Apple.  I started using W7 because of a forced upgrade, as my company upgraded all their PCs (later, they skipped W8, thankfully, and went strait to W10). 

I got use to W10, but now am worried about being forced to go to W11 someday.  I used to be a Microsoft fan, but lately every time they "upgrade" something, other things begin to not work right.  Still, won't touch Apple products, but that's another story.

...

Absolutely, Win8 was a debacle of its own proportions.... but I can't stand Win10 either. In fact, nothing that came after Win7 is worth using IMO, certainly not with the insane EULA you are forced to sign when you start using it, pretty much consenting to M$$ owning everything in your Machine, etc, spying on you, listening to what you say... etc... so... no... thank.... you. Looks like I'll be holding out in Win7 for the foreseable future... and then probably more... XP is still perfectly usable, but for my application the 3.2 GB memory limitation is what prevented me from using it today. so I went Win7 b/c of the 64-bit... and b/c it was almost like XP without the Vista cruft... If I could chose what OS to use today, I would go with Win2k, I think it was the fastest, most productive and most stable OS M$$ ever developed... XP added a lot of cruft on top of Win2k... 

 

G.

[MichaelLAX]

3 hours ago, Citizen said:

It was the last MS OS before MS tried to look like Apple...

I guess you are not old enough to remember that the whole point of Windows was to look like Apple... the Macintosh! 

[PACNWComms]

I still have an Amiga 2000 that looks a lot like and old Apple Macintosh desktop screen wise. Too bad it does not program radio, or I would use it more often. Nothing I own my self requires Windows 10 to program, (only at work) so I have topped out at Windows 7 for radio programming computers. XP works great with older software to log what is scanned by my old Uniden BCT15, and BCTools.  

[MacJack]

11 hours ago, Citizen said:

I too loved XP.  Vista was a total disappointment.  But you know what was worse than Vista?  Yep, you guessed it....Windows 8.  I still have 1 machine with XP, and I hated to stop using it (it was a real work-horse), but after many years of use, the plastic shell began cracking with age, so the screen hinge failed, and also the battery tray clips broke and so wouldn't hold a battery in place.

Windows 7 was pretty good.  It was the last MS OS before MS tried to look like Apple.  I started using W7 because of a forced upgrade, as my company upgraded all their PCs (later, they skipped W8, thankfully, and went strait to W10). 

I got use to W10, but now am worried about being forced to go to W11 someday.  I used to be a Microsoft fan, but lately every time they "upgrade" something, other things begin to not work right.  Still, won't touch Apple products, but that's another story.

...

Citizen like your Windows comments... I make my money in MS OS as it so bad....  I gave all my girls in college Mac's so they would have all software work with the OS... plus they could call Apple and not me...  I can do so much with my Mac OS and make $$$$ on Windows OS... I have the best of both worlds...   O I still have a XP PC off the grid to do my radio programing.... I use a USB Flash Drive to load download programs from my Mac to XP pc as well as other files...  Thanks for affirming my OS for radio programing.  

[gman1971]

19 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

I guess you are not old enough to remember that the whole point of Windows was to look like Apple... the Macintosh! 

So true... but looking in retrospect now it feels as if paths diverged quickly tho... especially in a PC market dominated by MS-DOS... I think the ability to "upgrade" and the large swath of videogames available were, IMO, what really made the PC thrive during the early stages over the more polished Macintosh, to the point Apple almost went extinct... 

G.

[MichaelLAX]

5 hours ago, gman1971 said:

So true... but looking in retrospect now it feels as if paths diverged quickly tho... especially in a PC market dominated by MS-DOS... I think the ability to "upgrade" and the large swath of videogames available were, IMO, what really made the PC thrive during the early stages over the more polished Macintosh, to the point Apple almost went extinct... 

G.

While your opinion ("I think...") is both factually and historically correct, all that changed when Apple purchased NEXT in 1997 to use its software to develop Mac's OS X and at the same time brought back Steve Jobs (the owner of NEXT), who immediately streamlined the Macintosh product offerings, ended the Macintosh "clone" program for 3rd party companies, developed and released the original "iMac" and fast tracked the development of OS X.

And in 2006, Jobs moved the Macintosh to the Intel platform, which for the first time, allowed the Macintosh to natively run Windows in the Mac Bootcamp environment (and/or the Mac continued to be able to run Windows virtually within the available virtual programs such as VMWare, Parallels, etc.).

My comment earlier was in response to @Citizen's comment:

Quote

I got use to W10, but now am worried about being forced to go to W11 someday.  I used to be a Microsoft fan, but lately every time they "upgrade" something, other things begin to not work right.  Still, won't touch Apple products, but that's another story.

... and his hesitancy to touch Apple products, which might be a pejorative way to say that Apple products are inferior.  

If that is what he is saying, my opinion is that I strongly disagree!

[AdmiralCochrane]

Many people fear what they do not understand.

[MichaelLAX]

3 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

Many people fear what they do not understand.

Apple software?!? 

Like it or not, Microsoft missed the boat with their Microsoft Zune* and never sufficiently recovered from the 21st Century transition to portable devices.

It is now an iOS or Android world: and in my case, since I am iOS with my iPhones (since the 3G), it makes sense to stay compatible with a Macintosh.

*A sneak peak of the never released Microsoft zunePhone

[wayoverthere]

40 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

Apple software?!? 

Like it or not, Microsoft missed the boat with their Microsoft Zune* and never sufficiently recovered from the 21st Century transition to portable devices.

It is now an iOS or Android world: and in my case, since I am iOS with my iPhones (since the 3G), it makes sense to stay compatible with a Macintosh.

*A sneak peak of the never released Microsoft zunePhone

And Creative didn't seem to bother trying to compete with the ipods after the Zen, did they?

Didn't Samsung do a Galaxy media player for a minute too?

[MichaelLAX]

6 hours ago, wayoverthere said:

And Creative didn't seem to bother trying to compete with the ipods after the Zen, did they?

Didn't Samsung do a Galaxy media player for a minute too?

I am not sure:

I purchased a cheapie MP3 player at Fry's electronics to play with and hated it!

Then the iPod was released in late 2001, I purchased one in early 2002 and never looked back!

I purchased the Griffin FM transmitter accessory to be able to play my iPod through my car's FM radio and I would "digitize" content from the internet on my Mac (Sirius satellite radio, Air America, etc.), add it to my iPod and then have "day-old" content to play in my car as well.

My first iPod with a video screen is being observed by Nipper, if you look closely at (and/or click on) my Avatar! 

[wayoverthere]

20 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

I am not sure:

I purchased a cheapie MP3 player at Fry's electronics to play with and hated it!

Then the iPod was released in late 2001, I purchased one in early 2002 and never looked back!

I purchased the Griffin FM transmitter accessory to be able to play my iPod through my car's FM radio and I would "digitize" content from the internet on my Mac (Sirius satellite radio, Air America, etc.), add it to my iPod and then have "day-old" content to play in my car as well.

My first iPod with a video screen is being observed by Nipper, if you look closely at (and/or click on) my Avatar! 

The zen was pretty equivalent to the hd-based ipods of the early 2000's minus the need to use itunes, slide bar instead of the circle, and a replaceable battery.

[OffRoaderX]

Whoever can actually explain how any of this applies to Dual watch to scanning FRS radio, wins. 

[MichaelLAX]

6 hours ago, OffRoaderX said:

Whoever can actually explain how any of this applies to Dual watch to scanning FRS radio, wins. 

I'd argue that the whole topic is somewhat circularly impossible to begin with: an FRS radio (i.e., one that does not require a GMRS license) that scans and has dual watch!?!

But at the risk of being punished by the topic police, those of us tried to describe how certain GMRS radios that meet his needs existed (since no one to date has found any example of a scanning FRS radio that has dual watch)!

Continuing the impossible logic of using a GMRS radio as an FRS radio with dual watch that scans, ultimately leads to programming software to deal with the ancillary issues of dual watch FRS radios that scan: changing to narrow band, limiting channels 1-7 and 15-22 to 2 watts, etc. because the OP added: 

Quote

That’s what I’m looking for in a 2 watt version, at just turned 5 he doesn’t and won’t ID as required by the GMRS service. Scanning would be ideally limited to a set of configured frequencies (ham radio most likely)

Someone should do a YouTube video on narrow vs. wide band, but I digress... 

And whenever programming software comes up there are invariably those radios that can be programmed ONLY with Windows in a world that includes Macs, linux and other non-Windows platforms.

So invariably a discussion of running Windows on non-PC platforms comes up.

Now I will admit that perhaps, and I am admitting only a slight possibility that this discussion gets a bit off topic when describing the historical difference between Windows and Mac OS and their parent companies moves into portable devices that use Android vs iOS.

But somebody even did a YouTube video that discusses the possibility of using an Android or iOS device to program their HT without the need for a computer:

Perhaps a UV-5R is about as much a dual watch FRS scanning radio as it is a GMRS radio; and here is a non-computer required device to program it!!

Just another option to consider... 

[DeoVindice]

37 minutes ago, MichaelLAX said:

And whenever programming software comes up there are invariably those radios that can be programmed ONLY with Windows in a world that includes Macs, linux and other non-Windows platforms.

Virtual machine. Learn it, love it, program radios with it. FTDI converters work perfectly with VMs. I ditched Windows over privacy concerns and now use Linux as my primary operating system, with Windows XP running as a VM for programming.

[gman1971]

14 hours ago, AdmiralCochrane said:

Many people fear what they do not understand.

 

...Or fear what they've worked on for a very long time...  what it has become... and what lies ahead...

 

G.

[gman1971]

11 hours ago, MichaelLAX said:

Apple software?!? 

Like it or not, Microsoft missed the boat with their Microsoft Zune* and never sufficiently recovered from the 21st Century transition to portable devices.

It is now an iOS or Android world: and in my case, since I am iOS with my iPhones (since the 3G), it makes sense to stay compatible with a Macintosh.

*A sneak peak of the never released Microsoft zunePhone

Yep, they (M$$) were so laser focused on the PC market that it would seem they could't think "outside the box"...

Apple learnt a lot from their almost demise... and Google pretty much figured out that it was information what really mattered, regardless of the platform/hardware/software... 

I was never a big fan of Apple, but as of lately it seems like they are way better than Google at giving your personal information away... as in: you privacy seems to be valued more at/by Apple than on the "Spy me harder, daddy Google" phones...

 

@OffRoaderX C'mon!! we are having a good conversation that doesn't involve trashing CCRs, for once!! 

 

G.

[gman1971]

Wireless programming is already available on the APX/XPR/SL radios, via Bluetooth and/or via WiFi... 

G.

[Citizen]

On 12/27/2021 at 12:46 PM, MichaelLAX said:

I guess you are not old enough to remember that the whole point of Windows was to look like Apple... the Macintosh! 

Oh yes, I'm aware of Windows birth being a market chase of the Mac.  No disagreement there.  But I'm also old enough to remember the Mac OS was borne of (or at least is a flat out rip-off of) Xerox.

 

On 12/28/2021 at 12:59 PM, MichaelLAX said:

... and his hesitancy to touch Apple products, which might be a pejorative way to say that Apple products are inferior.  

If that is what he is saying, my opinion is that I strongly disagree!

No, not disparaging Apple products at all as far as quality.  I'm sorry you got that impression, so no need to strongly disagree.  Apple products are reliable and popular.

 

On 12/28/2021 at 7:26 PM, AdmiralCochrane said:

Many people fear what they do not understand.

Oh, I assure you, I do not fear Apple products. 

...

I'm sorry my remark about personally not touching Apple products offended anyone.  I was hoping to NOT go into a discussion of Apple, as it digresses.  But if necessary, and to my own demise I'm sure, we can move discussion to another thread and recount the geopolitical cavorting of Apple.  It won't be pretty, and I don't want to go there, but so be it...if we must.

...

[MichaelLAX]

On 12/27/2021 at 10:46 AM, MichaelLAX said:

I guess you are not old enough to remember that the whole point of Windows was to look like Apple... the Macintosh! 

 

4 hours ago, Citizen said:

Oh yes, I'm aware of Windows birth being a market chase of the Mac.  No disagreement there.  But I'm also old enough to remember the Mac OS was borne of (or at least is a flat out rip-off of) Xerox.

It is a common myth that Apple stole the Macintosh (and its earlier financial failure, the LISA) from Xerox.  The media has continued to perpetrate this myth.

In three or four sentences of history: Xerox was the dominant "copy machine" company in the world and in the early 1970s they worried about "the paperless office of the future."

So they hired top engineers at its Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) to design the technologies of the future.

But by the late 70s, it became clear to Xerox that the "paperful office" was not going away and they had no appetite to exploit ANY of the technologies that were developed at PARC.

At this point entered Steve Jobs, who, in return for an investment in the still private Apple Computers, allowed Jobs and a select few of Apple's engineers to see the family jewels over two trips.

It is estimated that Xerox' purchase of Apple stock would be would be worth $1.2 billion back in 2018 (and Apple stock has at least tripled since 2018).

Not a bad return on investment for a company that got "flat out rip(ped) off! 

[AdmiralCochrane]

Citizen, my comment was not intended to point toward either side.  People on both sides of the Apple/Microsoft lines are generally ignorant of the opposite mode. On smart phone applications I find all to be equally foul. 

[n4gix]

There is one, and only one reason why I work exclusively with a Windows operating system. None of the professional software I use will run on anything other than a Windows PC.