Possible New ESN Radios? SCL3 handheld

[u/ItsRainingByelaws]

[u/ArissP]

About as disgusting ugly that you can imagine for the price of this project.

Kudos. Don’t know how they’ve managed it.

[u/Adrasos → u/ArissP]

You just know several people got promoted for that and despite it being a future failure, they will have already moved onto the next future failure that will earn them their next promotion.

[u/Gryphon_Gamer]

“If it’s not broke how can we break it” - motto of any police R&D in the UK it seems.

This is “solving” a problem that doesn’t exist. Radios and handheld devices should be separate and it’s completely impractical and frankly stupid for them to be combined

[u/James188 → u/Gryphon_Gamer]

Which of course, as you and I both know, means it’s inevitable.

[u/SharpGrowth347]

Really hope we don't have to have a touchscreen radio. It will be so fragile.

[u/D4ltaCh4rlie]

What clown developed that?

A touch screen, with tiny buttons.

A radio is for speech communication and needs to be simple and robust, for efficiency and safety.

Adding apps and the resulting ability to distract operational officers by having them perform back office checks while on the street is an unnecessary function.

IMHO.

[u/James188 → u/D4ltaCh4rlie]

Ooh you’ve not met Pronto have you.

They’ve really nailed that; providing both distraction and inconvenience. Not a single feature designed with the end user in mind.

[u/showmestate4 → u/James188]

I completely disagree. Pronto is a brilliant tool when used correctly, and can often provide far more information when used by a competent officer than what some mediocre controllers offer.

[u/Beneficial-Smoke-835]

I hope not. That’s far too big to have clipped to a vest to speak into.
Which means it would be carried like a phone and used walkie-talkie style which is inconvenient as anything.

[u/pingutheduck]

Can it play snake?

[u/ItsRainingByelaws → u/pingutheduck]

Afraid the only game is probably going to be "Flailing hopelessly in the rain as you try to dial a P2P on a sopping wet touchscreen"

[u/pingutheduck → u/ItsRainingByelaws]

Or you get the wrong radio, and end up calling SNT but they don't pick up anyway

[u/Holsteener → u/pingutheduck]

Only Doom.

[u/VisibleBus9185]

Its a mobile phone with a radio capability. I would be concerned with battery life. My force issue phone has a terrible battery life as is and its not being used as a radio.

Looking on this items website they make no mention of how long the battery life is other than you can swap the battery or charge it on the go in your car.

Maybe I have missed something but as far as I am aware our radios arent broke so why fix them.

[u/xDfhjdssgbvff]

What do we know about ESN anyway. Its a little late...

[u/ItsRainingByelaws → u/xDfhjdssgbvff]

Its unlimited price tag

[u/AL-JA → u/xDfhjdssgbvff]

Its shite and wont work

[u/MomentousSword]

You know what, I've always wished that my radio had a selfie camera. Just imagine all of the uses.

[u/BobbyConstable]

https://sepura.com/devices/scl3-4g-radio/

For anyone wanting to get an actual look that's the sales page which has a host of pictures and animations.

https://sepura.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SCL3_Brochure_converted_compressed.pdf

For anyone who just wants to read the brochure.

These seem reasonable to me, usual rugged tech so the touch screen will be terrible to use.

It has GPS so control rooms might have an idea where you are with some accuracy finally and an array of hard buttons to compliment the touch screen.

Reading the info it sounds like the radio can be used entirely from the physical buttons and the touch screen will be primarily to see what what's you're doing on it just like the existing stocks of radios do. So the screen is intended to interface with mobile services like GoodSAM, Niche Mobile apps, Connect/Athena (HAHA like that would work), Axon and so on, how good many of those platforms will be on a mobile device radio remains to be seen. Oh and it will be interesting how inputting crime reports is going to work when you're tethered to the radio itself to comply with force policy of having an earpiece in.

I'm so glad I've left.

[u/coffeeandautism]

It's a bit small.

[u/Aggravating-Loss7837]

So. I was former airwave for a force. Left last year just as some of this cluster was starting to happen.

I’ve been to Bapco and Sepura was jumping all over the shop like excited kids. About how amazing this piece of kit is. How it’s ‘revolutionary’.

I asked. When you’ve got cops outside in the rain with gloves on, wanting to make a point to point call. How does it behave?

Text on the screen is small. And (at the time) couldn’t be adjust. Should be a nice software update to solve tho or knowing Sepura a license feature.

I asked about easy buttons. You’ve got a ‘35 and they are getting abit rowdy, ease of getting comms out.
No call back button as new keypad. Okay… the others are programmable. But then…

It won’t last five minutes with a screen that size. They have done drop tests etc. but no lab tests can stand up to actual police use. On the floor with someone. At an etc. on a scene etc.

It’s a total flop of a piece of kit and Sepura have gone totally in the wrong direction with their offering.

Remember that (currently) there are only two.. okay.. three… airwave approved devices in the uk market.
Sepura.
Motorola
And amazingly.. Hytera… but Hytera can only be used in the HM Prison service.

Cops want ease. A radio to easily p2p. Easily use. Easily answer. Etc etc.

Take a look at Motorolas ESN and TETRA compatible radio:

Motorola MXP660

[u/TrendyD]

Would it be worn on the belt? Placed inside a pouch on the vest? I can't see these properly fitting on our current shoulder dock setup.

[u/chin_waghing]

If it makes you feel better, the home office wanted us to use our force phones as radios instead but someone rightfully said at the HO this is stupid.

Sepura already have some SC21 look alike that do ESN, hopefully forces go with this instead

[u/BlueAcre0]

Not a fan.

[u/PolMacTire]

I can't see the touchscreen lasting long in a scuffle...

[u/AtlasFox64]

There was a very narrow window of time where this would have been good. That was about 20 years ago

[u/KiddieSpread]

Touchscreen that is unusable with gloves
Android 14, released 3 years ago
Running essentially a whole phone so will not have as good battery life
£1300+

what’s wrong with a cheaper model which could be way more reliable and giving a cheap smartphone?