New Remote Head Kit For Uniden Scanners

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sat May 28, 2005 8:53 pm

Check out this new remote head kit for Uniden scanners. The install pictures are particularly good.

http://www.scannermaster.com/store/01-530958.html

007 · Post by **007** » Sat May 28, 2005 9:33 pm

$475...? Is it April 1st?

KE4NYVJR · Post by **KE4NYVJR** » Sat May 28, 2005 10:02 pm

I picked a kit up at Dayton last week. They had originally said the kit would not be available for a few more months, but the reps there told me they really worked hard to get it out by Dayton. I was really surprised to see it there and I could'nt resist getting one. I had been waiting over a year for it. I have an all-remote-head setup in my S-10, so I really needed it. The nice thing...this kit is compatible with both the 785D and 796D. Unlike the 780 kit, its only good for the 780.

I have already had some requests for pictures over on radioreffernce.com so I'll post a couple here as well when I take them.

va3wxm · Post by **va3wxm** » Sun May 29, 2005 4:48 am

$475 is a little steep but considering you get a NEW head, interface board and all hardware it's not unreasonable. It's a clean, professional set up for sure.

Wonder how they get all the control lines down to a single RJ45 plug?

So they actually have a working model now, eh? I remember a few years ago reading on strongsignals.net that this whole 780 remote-mounting project was nothing but vapourware.

gws · Post by **gws** » Sun May 29, 2005 4:51 am

Nice looking conversion but a bit outside my price zone.

apco25 · Post by **apco25** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:15 am

I hope that's suggested retail price!

Splat · Post by **Splat** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:29 am

You do NOT get a new control head. You get a circuit board to put into your control head that you take off the scanner. They give you the board and a back housing to put onto the control head. I looked into this a while back and there's no way in Hades I'm spending $475, which is the selling price. BTW, that price hasn't change since it first came out. I figured it would come down after they made back their initial investment but I guess they figure people are buying at thet price, might as well keep it. Who do they think they are, Motorola?!

bellersley · Post by **bellersley** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:49 am

It does look pretty nifty, but after spending close to $800 for the scanner, do you really want to spend another $475 (US I might add) for the remote kit? How difficult would it be to fabricate something using a DB25 or DB50 depending on the number of wires? I've remote-mouted a Maxtrac using exactly the same technique.

It does look VERY clean and professional though. One thing I just won't ever understand is people's obsession with mounting radios and heads or whatever on top of their dash. Nothing screams "Hey theif, I'm over here!" more than something like that.

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:55 am

A nice looking conversion. The pieces all look nicely made, and it looks like they put some work into the interface board that goes on both ends, but the price is outrageous!

For that price i could but a couple Spectra's off eBay with remote mount heads and put whatever i want into them. Not to mention that i would also have a radio that can transmit, rather than a fancy looking scanner.

Nice product, but they need to get real on the price for stuff like this.

I mean come on guys, the scanner costs almost as much as the remote head kit, who wants to put a grand into a scanner?

Splat · Post by **Splat** » Sun May 29, 2005 8:58 am

I think they did it more for LE muni's who have scanners in the patrol cars. When I first saw their product I thought about making my own but then sold the scanner as I really didnt' need it. You -could- do it. Just count up how many wires you need to run between the head and main unit. The only thing is possibly the display getting dimmer from a lengthy cable run. It could be done though. They mux'ed signals to keep the wire count down and made a nice little backing and front piece for the control head and the main unit. The muxing is what you're paying for. The R&D needed for it. Still I say $475 is whacked. I can see $250 MAX, but more than that is insane.

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sun May 29, 2005 10:37 am

Given that an ASTRO W7 head is $589 (or $946 for a W9), I don't feel that $475 for a digital scanner head is at all out of line. Heck, it's a lot less than the Motorola ASTRO head, which is fair, given that it ain't Motorola. I think they did their pricing homework and got it exactly right.

Tom in D.C. · Post by **Tom in D.C.** » Sun May 29, 2005 11:13 am

...what Icom is doing with their new digital radios:

IC2200H mobile radio: $229.00
UT-115 digital board: $229.00

Without the digital board the radio is nothing but a glorified 2100H, so it costs $458.00 to get on a new mode where at the moment there is no one to talk to.

At least with the Uniden scanners you can listen to P25 traffic as well as the analog stuff.

kb0nly · Post by **kb0nly** » Sun May 29, 2005 11:13 am

ASTROMODAT wrote:Given that an ASTRO W7 head is $589 (or $946 for a W9), I don't feel that $475 for a digital scanner head is at all out of line. Heck, it's a lot less than the Motorola ASTRO head, which is fair, given that it ain't Motorola. I think they did their pricing homework and got it exactly right.

But it does NOT come with the head. Just a couple plastic pieces and the interface boards to put all the signals on the Cat5 cable.

Not much to it for $475.

Splat · Post by **Splat** » Sun May 29, 2005 12:27 pm

The most expensive thing is pro'lly the rs232 chip on the board. IIRC, around $6/piece. I'd love to see what's on their board. You could pro'lly make a knockoff for $25.

Post by Pj » Sun May 29, 2005 3:52 pm

What I find really interesting, is that a little after the 780 came out, someone already came up with a remote head for the this scanner. In fact, I think someone here had a link to all the instructions, pictures on how to do it.

Either scannermaster (the place for the most expensive scanner options) bought the design, or they "stole" it.

Either way, its WAY to expensive to justify the cost considering th the lack of expensive materials and design work.

KE4NYVJR · Post by **KE4NYVJR** » Sun May 29, 2005 6:02 pm

Pj wrote:What I find really interesting, is that a little after the 780 came out, someone already came up with a remote head for the this scanner. In fact, I think someone here had a link to all the instructions, pictures on how to do it.

There was a guy on radioreffence.com that had done it with a DB-36 connector and was forced to solder wire wrap wire to each point on the boards. Made for a very difficult job. I started to design a similar interface, only I was using the ribbon connectors just like used in the unit.

Pj wrote:Either scannermaster (the place for the most expensive scanner options) bought the design, or they "stole" it.

Sorry, but thats far from correct. The SM version actually uses two PIC's to multiplex the signals and reduce the 32 control lines down to just a few. Thats why you can use a standard ethernet cable with it.

uman18 · Post by **uman18** » Tue May 31, 2005 11:14 pm

i primarly listen to VHF so i just got me a Motorola CDM1250 VHF remote mount radio for 350 on the e-pay plus i also use it for HAM. i was limted on space in my turck so my BC780XLT is now a base scanner. Its a good idea on the remote monunt for the 780 but damm too much. Before they were available i would check scanmaseter.com like everyday so i can order one right away. i figured it was going to go for about $150 or so but when i saw the price i almost took a dump in my pants.! thats when i looked for another option and i got my CDM>

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 3:39 am

I did the same thing. Most of what I care enough to listen to is UHF. Why spend >$500 on a scanner without a remote head when I could just throw a CDM1250 in there and have a lot more functionality. Now not only do I have my UHF tranceiever, but it can remote start my truck with QC-II or MDC.

va3wxm · Post by **va3wxm** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 4:35 am

nmfire10 wrote:Now not only do I have my UHF tranceiever, but it can remote start my truck with QC-II or MDC.

Okay now THAT'S /\/\oto sexy!

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 5:01 am

It's great! In the winter, my truck is in the parking garage at work which is about 5 minutes walk from the office. I send a call-alert to the truck from the console as I'm walking out the door and it's all nice and warm upon my arrival. It is WAY too far away to use the normal keyfob for the remote starter. I also use it on my duty night in the winter for EMS.

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 10:52 am

As far as "just throwing a CDM1250 in there and having a lot more functionality," keep in mind that these are DIGITAL IMBE scanners that we are discussing. Last time I checked, there is NO Motorola CDM radio that can handle IMBE. Since these heads are designed for IMBE scanners, legacy analog FM is interesting, but essentially irrelevant.

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 11:59 am

I "remoted" a Pro-2006 back in the early 90's. Worked great for years. It took a 2 "3-lead shielded wires" and a 25 pair line that I custom made by only using the pairs needed and wrapping them with tin-foil with the 2 shielded wires and then using shrink tubing to wrap it all up. The end result was a cable that was less than 1/2 inch around and was about 8 feet long.

I think that the CAT-5 way of doing things is much better as you don't have a bulky cable and can easily make shorter or longer cables.

I still have the remote setup, but have since turned the scanner back to it's normal state.

Pictures of the cable upon request. I didn't have a digital camera back then, so no pictures of the original setup.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:10 pm

Ah, however there is no IMBE Astro anything around here that I care about so it is the farthest thing from my mind. Unfortunatly, if you want a nice mobile scanner that has PL decode and an alpha display, you are stuck buying the Astro capability with it.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:17 pm

nmfire10 wrote:Ah, however there is no IMBE Astro anything around here that I care about so it is the farthest thing from my mind. Unfortunatly, if you want a nice mobile scanner that has PL decode and an alpha display, you are stuck buying the Astro capability with it.

Err, the BC780, BC785 (minus digital card), and quite a few others have alpha displays, PL/DPL decode, etc. without the P25 functions.

I'm likely going to be selling my BC780 here one of these days (switching to a PRO2096.)

apco25 · Post by **apco25** » Wed Jun 01, 2005 8:52 pm

Sometimes I swear ASTROMODAT lives in some far off future place where any type of RF emission other than digital p25 is so ancient its discussed on the History Channel!

There's still a lot of "legacy" analog FM out there and will be for YEARS.

Anyway, the remote head is slick, but the price point is a bit up there.

oldradioguy · Post by **oldradioguy** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 5:30 pm

$475......TOO MUCH.

Post by **alex** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 7:09 pm

Well, I think the price point is probably right on target for what it cost them to build the configurations, plus a little bit for them for finally doing it.

The market for that sort of product can't exist outside of certain circles of people - so I can't see them selling millions and millions of these to the point where it would drive the cost down where they can do a true quantity.

Regardles, I think it's a neat product, which has it's place, and will probably cost quite a bit for a while.

-Alex

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Thu Jun 02, 2005 8:01 pm

That price is insane if they're selling any more than a few dozen of these.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 11:57 am

tvsjr wrote:Err, the BC780, BC785 (minus digital card), and quite a few others have alpha displays, PL/DPL decode, etc. without the P25 functions.

I'm likely going to be selling my BC780 here one of these days (switching to a PRO2096.)

All of which are still too expensive to be worth it to me.

KE4NYVJR · Post by **KE4NYVJR** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 8:18 pm

alex wrote:Well, I think the price point is probably right on target for what it cost them to build the configurations, plus a little bit for them for finally doing it.

The market for that sort of product can't exist outside of certain circles of people - so I can't see them selling millions and millions of these to the point where it would drive the cost down where they can do a true quantity.

Regardles, I think it's a neat product, which has it's place, and will probably cost quite a bit for a while.

-Alex

When I bought my kit at Dayton they basically "justified" the price with the extensive development hours that went into it. I can honestly say I believe this remote kit is about as quality as its going to get. Very high quality PCB's. The metal caps (back of head and front of radio) are awsome, seamless and powder-coated.

The guy that sold me mine said they had about 20 kits with them and I was number 18 being sold and that was only about noon on friday. Looks like they sold well.

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Fri Jun 03, 2005 10:49 pm

Considering the quality, and the fact that no one else makes such a kit, I feel the price is extremely reasonable. It's a small price to pay if it saves a lot of room in the vehicle, and it makes for a very compact install. I imagine these guys will sell a ton of these things.

giguchan · Post by **giguchan** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 10:25 am

I like that AOR...
But i cant spend 5k for receiver/scanner
even if i had the crudentials.. to buy it...
wonder it IT'S remoteable..
Gig

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 2:12 pm

Will the AOR handle IMBE?

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:15 pm

nmfire10 wrote:
tvsjr wrote:Err, the BC780, BC785 (minus digital card), and quite a few others have alpha displays, PL/DPL decode, etc. without the P25 functions.

I'm likely going to be selling my BC780 here one of these days (switching to a PRO2096.)
All of which are still too expensive to be worth it to me.

Doesn't make your inaccurate statement any more accurate...

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:46 pm

If you want remote head capability, it isn't inaccurate. I forgot that in my previous statement.

A 780xlt with remote head: $1,049.95
A 785D with remote head: $804.95
A 796xlt with remote head: $1,089.95

My CDM1250 with remote head: ~$450.00

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 3:48 pm

When you need a helicopter, a car is worthless. Same thing for a CDM1250 when you need to receive IMBE. You keep missing the point.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:53 pm

nmfire10 wrote:If you want remote head capability, it isn't inaccurate. I forgot that in my previous statement.

A 780xlt with remote head: $1,049.95
A 785D with remote head: $804.95
A 796xlt with remote head: $1,089.95

My CDM1250 with remote head: ~$450.00

Oh, yeah, *now* you change the logic on us.

tvsjr · Post by **tvsjr** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:53 pm

ASTROMODAT wrote:You keep missing the point.

Pot, meet kettle.

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 5:58 pm

OK, here's the REAL solution: Get TWO new XTL-5000's, one for VHF and one for UHF. With a couple of W9's. Now you won't need that guy's $475 control head.

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 12:26 am

But you forgot 800 MHz...

Post by **akardam** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:09 am

Or Lowband, for that matter :P

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 6:22 am

Low band LTR Astro Trunking!! The wave of the future!

Post by **HumHead** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:33 am

Does anyone know how long of a remote cable the kit can use?

It does seem a little expensive for the convenience of a vehicle accessory, but if it could save a couple of hundred feet of antenna cable in a fixed installation, that might be another story.

My office currently has a 780 on the end of 300' of 9913, with a preamp at the antenna. That's a meaningful amount of money, and I'm still not happy with the performance.

If I could put the scanner at the antenna and remote the head, that might be worth something.

RESCUE161 · Post by **RESCUE161** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 11:21 am

There website says that they include 14 feet of black CAT5E, but that you can use at least 50 feet with no problems.

nmfire10 · Post by **nmfire10** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 2:50 pm

While I know nothing about the specs of this, I bet is reasonably close to the maximum distance for ethernet.

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 3:00 pm

And ehternet can easily support CAT 5 runs of many hundreds of feet. Sounds like their price of $475 is CHEAP, if you want to remote your receiver close to the antenna, as opposed to running hundreds of feet of 7/8ths inch hardline.

mr.syntrx · Post by **mr.syntrx** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 4:05 pm

They're using Cat 5E cable, but they're not running ethernet, so speculating on the possible distance based on how far you can go with ethernet is a bad idea.

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 5:53 pm

OK, call me a Bad Ass, but I'm sure you can go hundreds of feet. Besides, what's the fun of things if you can't speculate? Hell, I've made tons of money on real estate specualtion!

Post by **HumHead** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:06 pm

Well the Ethernet standard for data over UTP is 100 meters, which obviously includes some "fudge" room, so it should be fine, assuming that they are using something even remotely similar. The bigger question would be DC voltage loss on the power pair and damping / low pass filtering on the audio pair.

Of course, I could always open it up and balance the audio pair and get a mile or two out of it. Maybe even the data pair too...

ASTROMODAT · Post by **ASTROMODAT** » Sun Jun 05, 2005 8:59 pm

That $475 head is lookin' cheaper and cheaper by the minute!

New Remote Head Kit For Uniden Scanners

New Remote Head Kit For Uniden Scanners

And don't overlook...

what i did...