haha, oh, of course, I do consider my self as such...but not for the reasons
you may think lol.
73
Colin, V A6BKX
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Anthony Vece" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 4:06 PM
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: accessible scanners
> Technology begins in the USA.
> It certainly doesn't get any better in Canada.
> And, as long as we are neighbors, consider yourselves privileged.
>
> 73 DE Anthony W2AJV
>
>
> Sent from my Verizon iPhone 5s!
>
>> On Aug 13, 2014, at 5:04 PM, Colin McDonald <[log in to unmask]>
>> wrote=
> :
>>=20
>> perhaps it has something to do with Japans laws against distracted
>> driving=
> =20
>> which, I believe, have been in place for a number of years...though
>> perhap=
> s=20
>> not so long as speech chips have been in radios...
>> Also, don't forget the market in Japan...1 in 400 people in the country
>> ar=
> e=20
>> licensed amateurs which is a huge amount for a small country...so
>> putting=20=
>
>> these kinds of devices into radios probably helps sell them.
>> Why do the chinese designers add speech to their handhelds? Another
>> great=
> =20
>> question.
>> I wonder if there is a cultural aspect to this where it doesn't occur to
>> t=
> he=20
>> designers to not put accessibility because to not put it in, would
>> mean=20=
>
>> ignoring a piece of the market and what business would do such a thing?
>> O=
> h,=20
>> right, american businesses who are more worried about getting a product
>> to=
> =20
>> market for the cheapest cost and certain aspects of the consumer market
>> be=
> =20
>> damned hi hi.
>> I am more apt to believe there is a strong cultural mind set responsible
>> f=
> or=20
>> this though.
>> Take smoking in public in Japan for instance. Smoking is permitted
>> indoor=
> s,=20
>> but not on the public street. This insures that businesses don't lose=20
>> customers, and that no one is offended or injured from smokers on the
>> very=
> =20
>> very crowded and busy public streets. However, businesses where smoking
>> i=
> s=20
>> permitted are required to have very good ventelation and air
>> circulation=20=
>
>> systems in place...much like casino's in Los Vegas. The mind set here is
>> t=
> o=20
>> not punish a business that might lose customers and therefore revenue=20
>> because of a few people who dislike the smell of cigarettes, and also,
>> to=20=
>
>> insure that the vast majority of people are not burnt or otherwise=20
>> inconvenienced or offended while on the public street. It's far more=20
>> logical to me than the north american, european and australian mind set
>> of=
> ,=20
>> lets push all the smokers out on to the side walk where everyone has to
>> wa=
> lk=20
>> by them and come into contact with them even if they are not going to=20
>> frequent an establishment.
>> To me, public responsibility would be to allow people to make a choice
>> abo=
> ut=20
>> going inside an establishment that allows smoking to go on in their=20
>> business, rather than forcing the general public to endure smokers on
>> the=20=
>
>> public street where you have no real choice but to encounter them
>> regularl=
> y=20
>> and in groups.
>> Each business should have the right to determine weather they allow
>> smokin=
> g,=20
>> and those who don't wish to allow it, can accomidate the portion of
>> the=20=
>
>> market that dislikes smoking or the smell etc.
>> But we westerners do tend to think about things backwards and not always
>> i=
> n=20
>> the best interest of the public or the majority, but rather in the
>> best=20=
>
>> interest of a few who have the loudest voice or the most money to
>> lobby.=20=
>
>> Nivadda doesn't have smoking laws because they know very well it
>> doesn't=20=
>
>> help anyone, but rather harms local business and the economy at large.=20
>> Require proper ventelation and circulation like the japanese and it no=20
>> longer poses a health risk to workers and other patrons.
>> But, like many things in history, the powers that be get something in
>> thei=
> r=20
>> teeth and will not let go or approach it logically after a certain=20
>> point...the communist witch hunts of the 70's in US government spring
>> to=20=
>
>> mind as a good example.
>> Anyway, to tie this back to ham radio, I suspect the asian business
>> mind=20=
>
>> uses logic over impatients much of the time and thus tends to have
>> rather=20=
>
>> supperior products more often than not. Kenwood, Icom, and Yaesu are
>> prim=
> e=20
>> examples of high quality, logical and attentive engineering...to build=20
>> something right, and insure it's high quality before slamming it on to
>> the=
> =20
>> market to try and recoop as much as they can before the next newest
>> thing.=
> =20
>> Probably why kenwood tends to be a bit slower on releasing new radio
>> model=
> s=20
>> compared to some others.
>>=20
>> sorry for the rant lol
>>=20
>> 73
>> Colin, V A6BKX
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]>
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 1:51 PM
>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>=20
>>> Colin, I think you should definitely email your great thoughts to
>>> Sheri.=20=
>
>>> I
>>> do not have an I-Phone or android, but would possibly get one if more
>>> devices could link to them that would react to commands from such
>>> devices=
> .
>>> I have always wondered how and what inspired Kenwood to adopt the
>>> policy=20=
>
>>> of
>>> making speech output available in their radios when other companies
>>> do=20=
>
>>> not.
>>> I have tried to find out the answer to this but have not been
>>> successful.=
>
>>> Jim WA6EKS
>>> ----Original Message-----=20
>>> From: Colin McDonald
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 12:07 PM
>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>>=20
>>> Hopefully this new whistler company implements IPhone/android access
>>> via=
> =20
>>> an
>>> app into their newest scanners as well...this, in itself, is in very
>>> larg=
> e
>>> demand from the general consumer bass, and it also has the added
>>> benefit=20=
>
>>> of
>>> making the radio accessible to those using voiceover or the android
>>> equivalent.
>>> You get IPhone app access with the cheapest 2 cent electronic gizmo
>>> stuff=
>
>>> out of china these days, why can't they put it into a 500 dollar piece
>>> of=
>
>>> modern technology as well?
>>> However, I know, not all of us are going to have a smart phone, or be
>>> abl=
> e
>>> to afford one, so building in intigrated accessibility is still the best
>>> answer...except that intigrated technology like a speech chip only
>>> really=
>
>>> applies to a very small percentage of the general consumer market,
>>> and=20=
>
>>> even
>>> if you add in those very few sited people who might use speech feedback,
>>> your still looking at a tiny market...whereas, IPhone access would
>>> appeal=
>
>>> and apply to a massive portion of the over all consumer market and
>>> make=20=
>
>>> the
>>> radios competetive with everything else out there that uses some kind of
>>> interconnectivity with our mobile devices.
>>> In my experience, about 8 out of ten people have either an IPhone or
>>> android...adding bluetooth to a scanner has already been done, and
>>> it's=20=
>
>>> just
>>> one more step to develop the apps to communicate to and from the
>>> scanner=20=
>
>>> so
>>> one can monitor and program the unit from the smart phone...along
>>> with=20=
>
>>> audio
>>> of course.
>>> And it must be intigrated, not some expensive optional add on...having
>>> bluetooth connectivity for audio and data from the scanner would make
>>> the=
> m
>>> far more apealing to drivers as well who can use a bluetooth device to
>>> listen to their scanner and possibly display channel or group
>>> information=
>
>>> where it can be seen instead of having to look down at the unit while
>>> driving.
>>> Anyway, perhaps I should email my thoughts to this sherry person too.
>>>=20
>>> 73
>>> Colin, V A6BKX
>>> --------------------------------------------------
>>> From: "Jim Gammon" <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 11:23 AM
>>> To: <[log in to unmask]>
>>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>>=20
>>>> Martin and all interested. I posted some emails to the list
>>>> about Whistler Group making their new trunked scanners
>>>> accessible. This is important because Whistler bought the GRE
>>>> America PSR scanners when GRE went out of business. Currently,
>>>> Whistler has introduced a scanner very similar to the PSR500
>>>> handheld scanner but the speaker is below the keypad rather then
>>>> above it. In any case, Whistler has plans to introduce new
>>>> scanners which is why I approached them about adding a series of
>>>> beeps at the very least, or at best, adding a plug like Kenwood
>>>> has in their rigs so people can buy speech boards to make their
>>>> scanners way more accessible. I talked to a lady named Sheri
>>>> Nolan in customer service who told me to write up my ideas and
>>>> send them to her then she in turn, would forward them to the
>>>> company engineers in Ma. They are responsible for designing the
>>>> new scanners. That's obviously where the universal design, or
>>>> access needs to be introduced, from the ground up. In my first
>>>> email to her, I had put some questions that I originally had
>>>> posed to GRE America about their PSR500. I didn't expect
>>>> answers, just thought they might like to see some of the problems
>>>> I was facing with that scanner. What did they do? They wrote me
>>>> back with information from the manual that was supposed to answer
>>>> my questions. This included remarks like, just go to the menus
>>>> and scroll through them until you get to the one you need. Of
>>>> course I'm para-phrasing, but clearly, the engineers did not get
>>>> what I was trying to explain. After getting that email from
>>>> Sheri, I wrote back suggesting that the engineers take their
>>>> handheld scanner and just put some tape over the display and see
>>>> if they can figure out some work-arounds so they can use it
>>>> without seeing the display. She thought that was a good idea and
>>>> sent it on to them. So far, I haven't heard back. I hope that
>>>> those of you who are interested would also give input to the
>>>> Whistler Group by writing email to Sheri Nolan who's email
>>>> [log in to unmask] I recommend trying to keep focused
>>>> particularly on accessibility issues for their scanners and
>>>> emphasize that there are many people with low or no vision who
>>>> would really appreciate it if they would incorporate speech
>>>> output or at least a series of different beeps in their up-coming
>>>> scanners. I for one, would like a handheld scanner with onboard
>>>> accessibility where you don't have to drag a laptop around in
>>>> order to achieve some degree of access. 73, Jim WA6EKS
>>>>=20
>>>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>>>> From: "Martin G. McCormick" <[log in to unmask]
>>>>> To: [log in to unmask]
>>>>> Date sent: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 09:14:28 -0500
>>>>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>>>>=20
>>>>> Another useful feature is when one can communicate with
>>>>> a scanner or transceiver via serial interface. I have two Uniden
>>>>> scanners. One is now eleven years old and has a rather turse
>>>>> command set that one can access via a terminal program much the
>>>>> way you can access one of the old telephone dial-up modems. All
>>>>> the characters must be upper case and all the replies are also
>>>>> in upper case but you can read the display, setup trunking
>>>>> systems, etc. The only problem is that the Motorola SmartZone
>>>>> trunking is now unusable since the new rebanded frequency plans
>>>>> can not be fed in to the scanner as a flash upgrade since the
>>>>> bc780 does not have that capability.
>>>>> It is, however, accessible since the command set and
>>>>> responses are all plain ASCII text.
>>>>> That sort of access is much appreciated. I also have
>>>>> another Uniden which was made around 2008. It does P25 and the
>>>>> new rebanded Motorola trunking just fine.
>>>>> It also has an ASCII command set and is potentially
>>>>> totally accessible but one needs to either be running one of the
>>>>> Windows programs that talk to your scanner or you must be
>>>>> willing to write your own communications program in C or perl. I
>>>>> am a Linux user so that is kind of par for the course.
>>>>> For the BCD996 and the BCD396, the commands and
>>>>> responses are still ASCII but they use CSV or Comma-Separated
>>>>> Variable strings. These are sometimes hugely long lines of text
>>>>> in which each field is separated from it's neighbors by a , so a
>>>>> string for input or output might look like
>>>>> 1,01453500,1,,,3,2,7,K5SRC Stillwater Repeater,14,0,9
>>>>> That is not a valid entry anywhere, but it is an example
>>>>> of what a CSV string looks like. You see them all the time in
>>>>> business applications that may be used with spread sheets and
>>>>> tables.
>>>>> One of my next home projects is to take the C program I
>>>>> wrote for the BCD996 and try to re-do it in perl as I may get it
>>>>> to do more than it presently does.
>>>>> I would sure like to see more radios that have some sort
>>>>> of electronic input and output like the Kenwoods and several
>>>>> others. To me, that is almost as good as having speech boards in
>>>>> the radio which, of course, is the holy grail but may not have
>>>>> as much mass appeal as being able to interface with a serial
>>>>> port on a computer or maybe a web interface.
>>>>> Let's hope that this period of totally inaccessible
>>>>> technology is ending and we just might be able to really use
>>>>> some of this stuff again.
>>>>> I remember the first truly inaccessible piece of amateur
>>>>> radio gear I encountered. It was in the mid seventies and was a
>>>>> two-meter transceiver that had an Up and Down button pair for
>>>>> frequency, no direct entry and no way to get to a known state
>>>>> except for that stupid little LED display. If you could even get
>>>>> it to start at 144.000 MHZ, do you really want to count in 5 KHZ
>>>>> steps up to say, 147.925 and hope there were no key bounces or
>>>>> missed presses?
>>>>> The guy in the store said, I don't think there is any
>>>>> way you can use that and he was absolutely right. Don't you just
>>>>> hate that?
>>>>=20
>>>>> 73 Martin McCormick WB5AGZ
>>>>=20
>>>>> Jim Gammon writes:
>>>>>> John, I have been corresponding with the Whistler group
>>>> regarding
>>>>>> there
>>>>>> trunked scanners. Thought you would like to read the latest.
>>>> Jim=20
|
