Hi Ron,
What is the name of this software?
Thanks,
Marshall

On Aug 14, 2014, at 3:52 AM, Matthew Chao <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> Am considering buying this scanner.  Will the software work with 
> Window-Eyes 8.4?  Thanks.--Matt, N1IBB.
> 
> At 10:36 PM 8/13/2014, you wrote:
>> The developer of the PSR-500 application has updated his app to include the
>> new Whistler units. The software is pretty accessible with JAWS. I will be
>> happy to correspond with anyone who needs some tips as they begin to use the
>> software with their scanner.
>> 
>> 73,
>> 
>> Ron Miller
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: For blind ham radio operators [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>> On Behalf Of Jim Gammon
>> Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2014 1:23 PM
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: Re: accessible scanners
>> 
>> 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
>> 
>>> ----- 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
>> 
>>>      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?
>> 
>>> 73 Martin McCormick WB5AGZ
>> 
>>> 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