scanSydney

This discussion has been happening on Radioreference for the last week - apparently confirmed by Mr Blanton as true


Grant

http://forums.radioreference.com/commun ... iness.html

Originally Posted by blantonl
Folks, this is not a joke, it is true. GRE Inc. has ceased manufacturing operations, closed it's office in Japan, and laid off numerous employeesin the United States. This means that distributors and dealers are going to no longer receive any stock or product, including Radio Shack.

GRE America is still up and running and will continue to provide warranty, technical support, and service for the next few years with it's staff in California. Additionally, GRE America will support the database updates to their EZ-Scan scanner lineup. They will also continue to distribute Alinco products.

That's what we know for now. As you can imagine this is a very disappointing development for our industry and hobby.

SAD!

Do GRE America also make the products, or only distribute?

Scotty wrote:Do GRE America also make the products, or only distribute?

GRE is really the design and development wing for scanner products. They collect data on what the market wants, beta test it, provide feedback to the Japanese R&D people who set about trying to put the wants into reality.

I remember when I was writing for the magazines, I tried to get a some products for review with a possibility of building the Australian market. They sent me a pre-amp and really could not have cared about anyone outside of the US. In fact they didn't even know that scanners were being used in Australia.

If you read the full post on RR (including my comment) you will see the great divide. There is obviously a Uniden camp and a GRE camp. I swear the GRE followers will do a Jonestown if GRE goes under. For the youngsters amongst us google Jonestown to see what I am talking about.

R

Jonestown ahahahahahaha that use to be one of my favourite sayings at work

I was sad to learn about the fate of GRE and i hope someone rescues it, as one of the posters on RR said i'd like to see someone like Icom pick it up. I've long liked their products and have used them for years.
As much as im starting to get used to the Uniden product and dont mind them,I dont want the scanner market to go solely to them. Both have their own quirks and features and both have a place.
cheers
Matt

GRE seemed to be be the only mob actively working on a trunked P25 Phase 2 scanner. Uniden don't appear interested, or at least have refuse to say publicly if they are in development. If GRE do fold it may well push back the release of a capable Phase 2 TDMA scanner.

Scotty wrote:GRE seemed to be be the only mob actively working on a trunked P25 Phase 2 scanner. Uniden don't appear interested, or at least have refuse to say publicly if they are in development. If GRE do fold it may well push back the release of a capable Phase 2 TDMA scanner.

I will admit straight away, that I do have an association with Uniden, but do not speak for the company. I know Uniden will not leak details of pending designs etc to the hobby, they wait until it is ready for marketing then do so. New designs and features are always being looked at, it is R&D costs amongst other factors that are investigated as well as market potential. All I will say is, never say never.

R

Hi all, and given the way that the P25 P2 systems are popping up in the states stuff like the 800 are needed to listen to them. having listened to a few systems over there in the last short while on a PSR500 makes it a challenge to listen to with choppy audio and the like. listening to them on my poor old Pro96 forget it
cheers all
Matt

We can only hope that the GRE engineers and designers get get snapped up by the likes of Uniden, Icom or AOR and their talents continue.

Mike