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Is there any real difference between Uniden Close Call RF Capture Technology and GRE Powerful Spectrum Sweeper other than the name? Is one better than the other? Do they use an frequency counter or just a band sweep? Trying to consider between a Uniden to a GRE.

Thanks!

The GRE PSR-400 mobile is a very "hot" receiver. But it has very little rejection. Rule one is -- "If a radio has an attunuator switch or button -- it might be a hot receiver -- but a cheaply constructed radio". And that includes the GRE PSR units. The PSR has great features -- but "limits" on every good feature. It's NOT user friendly. It's not easy to program a simple search limit. The GRE units have limited frequencys or channels that can be locked out. And why buy a unit from GRE -- when you can get better service and the same radio from a local Radio Shack -- down the street. It's very hard to set and change the "search limits" and is not that great in the close call mode. Buy another brand of scanner. MTM

I disagree. I love my PSR-500. It DOES have a steep learning curve, and I've no use for a few of the features, but the sensitivity is awesome on VHF, and the Spectrum Sweeper feature has enabled some finds I never would've known to look for, including Air Force OSI on 149 mhz, instead of the local AFB TRS.



Go to Search, select the low and high freqs for the limit search, save it, and search.



I've been able to do the firmware upgrades every time, never had a problem worthy of seeking service for it. The last radio I bought from the 'Shack' was such a large piece of crap I sold it for a hundred-dollar loss within six months- no help from the "Wanna buy a phone?" employees.

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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

My PSR-400 receives NOAA WX all over the lower 118 to 152 Mhz area. It's not "go to search, select the low and high limits for the limit search". Its "Go to search, toggle through the 5 or 6 pre-set search bands, then enter your own search limits". Any other scanner -- has a "search limit" button. Puch that one butoon -- once and enter. You need to puch buttons 8 times to set the search limits on a GRE-400 unit.

I haven't had the image problems you speak of- yet.

I noticed yesterday on my way back from the local (Crystal Mountain) ski area, that the Spectrum Sweeper was picking up VHF-hi stuff from miles away, i.e. WSP 154.680 on Grass Mountain from near Crystal River Ranch....But I did get two fish and wildlife wardens in the woods off 410 stalking a deer hunter on 151.310.

_________________
President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!
Bunnery definition for the under-fives

I gotta disagree with the GRE VS Radio Shack on one point. Buy the GRE unit instead. For (usually) around the same price or sometimes less, GRE throws an AC adpter and some sort of programming cable in the box with the scanner, whereas Radio Shack will charge you about $60 for the same thing.

In answer to you original question, luminox, I have both the Uniden and Radio Shack scanners and use both the Close Call & Signal Stalker options quite often. They do seem to have some different performance characteristics and depending on how you wanted to use them, which one may make a difference.

In my experience, the Close Call feature is exactly that - a near field search function that will find RF transmissions that are close by. The Signal Stalker is more sensitive and will pick up signals from further away, but that can sometimes be a bad thing. My Signal Stalker equipped PRO-97 often locks on local CAP or amateur repeaters that are miles away from my location. If you run the Signal Stalker radio with the attenuator on, it seems to behave about the same as the Close Close call radio. That way, when you get a hit, you know it's very near to you. And in some cases, that's exactly what I want. If I am near a particular facility or agency, I want to know what is being transmitted from that location, not from 4 or 5 miles around me.

Both the Close Call (Uniden) and Signal Stalker (GRE/Radio Shack) are simply very fast search functions. You can lock out frequencies and bands you do not want to search, but the Radio Shack unit only allows for a fixed number of locked out frequencies (50 I think). The Uniden radio allows nearly unlimited lockouts. Depending on the RF environment you are using the scanner in, you can get a lock on nearby transmitters fairly quickly when they start to key up.

Both work well and I think that both of these features have really opened up the door to finding new and active frequencies around us all. I've caught many interesting active frequencies with these features just driving around town.

Good luck!

- Chris

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Chris Parris
Federal Wavelengths columnist
The Spectrum Monitor Magazine
chrisparris@thefedfiles.com

I'll have to try out using the PRO-97's Signal Stalker with the ATT on. It has come in handy many times but sometimes misses the plain obvious.

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Mt Wave SAR member
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