parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (02/17/85)
x Regency MX-4000 Scanner Exists! The first synthesized scanner to cover the 800 MHz fre- quency band is now available. I had a chance to try the new Regency MX-4000 at Erickson's Communications (Chicago) today. I'd have bought one instantly, but the $530 discount price is way out of line for this radio! Even the salesman cringed at the price, admit- ting it wasn't worth that kind of money. Unlike the MX-7000, which has been advertised for about a year and hasn't yet been seen in public, the MX-4000 is more than a balsa wood and foam prototype. My first impressions may be summed up in one word: 'peculiar'. This 20 channel scanner covers the conventional bands, including the commercial aircraft band, plus the new allocations at 800 MHz. Too bad the coverage is not continuous, like the MX-5000, which affords coverage of military aircraft in the 200 - 400 MHz range, as well as the little monitored 72 MHz band. MX-4000 users may select between AM or FM modes on a channel-by-channel basis. Scanning speed seems to meet the specifica- tions: 15 ch/sec. This is a welcome change over the MX-5000, that has a scanning speed several times slower than published specifications. (The spec sheets for the new HX-1000 and MX-5000 contain untruths.) The speaker is on the bottom of the plastic case, which rests at an angle, due to a plastic foot on the bottom of the cabinet. This small scanner looks like a table radio, is billed as a mobile radio, but contains NiCd batteries! It's not shaped like a walkie-talkie, so don't plan on wearing it your belt. The instruction manual, written in Japan, is scanty at best. For $530, you don't even get a schematic. An errata sheet is included, but doesn't fill in all the holes. The instruction sheet shows 2 antenna jacks on the back of the scanner. It looks like the manufac- turer cheapened the design at the last minute and plug- ged up the hole where the SO239 was supposed to go, leaving only a single Motorola-type jack. There is an odd slide switch on the front panel which doesn't appear in the pictures on Regency's sales literature. Apparently, this switch offsets the displayed frequency by 12.5 kHz, but the manual doesn't elucidate this. The rather large LCD display is crisp, and contains several indicators. The 120 milliwatts of audio falls far short of what a mobile scanner requires. The scan- ner has to be operated with its slide volume control at the highest setting. Even then, it's difficult to hear well in all but the most quiet of rooms. The MX-4000 contains another feature which no other Regency unit has: in addition to the ability to lock out channels from the scan list in the conventional manner, the user can set the scanner to scan between channels A and B, where A <= B, and A and B are between 1 and 20 inclusive. This is an odd way of implementing scanning in "banks". Instead of fixed banks of 10 channels, as in the Bearcat scanners, one essentially can choose his own logical bank. I'm eager for someone, myself excluded, to buy one and rave about it. If the price dropped by $230 or so, I'd be more tempted. -- =============================================================================== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414
parnass@ihu1h.UUCP (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (02/18/85)
EGE, Inc, of Woodbridge, VA has the MX-4000 in stock now for $399. (Phone (800)336-4799 for order information.) The HX2000, a walkie-talkie shaped version of the MX-4000, minus 30 - 50 MHz coverage, is expected by March. EGE quotes a discount price of $359 for the HX2000. > Regency MX-4000 Scanner Exists! > > > The first synthesized scanner to cover the 800 MHz fre- > quency band is now available. I had a chance to try > the new Regency MX-4000 at Erickson's Communications > (Chicago) today. I'd have bought one instantly, but > the $530 discount price is way out of line for this > radio! -- =============================================================================== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihu1h!parnass - (312)979-5414