BCD396T on DTRS

[greenthumb]

Does anybody have a BCD396T that they are using on the DTRS? How well does it work vs. the Pro-96? Does it display the P-25 WACN, tower number, and system ID like the Pro-96?

Has anyone tried to see if it will do 700 MHz trunking on the Auraria Campus site?

Thanks!

 

[jimmnn]

Does anybody have a BCD396T that they are using on the DTRS? How well does it work vs. the Pro-96? Does it display the P-25 WACN, tower number, and system ID like the Pro-96?

Yes it does display and yes similiar reception to the Pro-96 but like the 96 much better

Has anyone tried to see if it will do 700 MHz trunking on the Auraria Campus site?

Thanks!

Yes it does but little to no activity on the 700mhz control sites, so far at least.

Jim<

 

[greenthumb]

Good deal - thanks, Jim!

 

[scanman310]

Seems the sensitivity on the 96 is MUCH better than the 396. Ease of use on the 96 is much better. I sold my 96 to offset the cost of the 396... I kinda regret it now after fumbling with the 396 now for a about three weeks. Don't get me wrong, the 396 is a cool scanner but I sure do miss my 96!

 

[eyes00only]

Seems the sensitivity on the 96 is MUCH better than the 396. Ease of use on the 96 is much better. I sold my 96 to offset the cost of the 396... I kinda regret it now after fumbling with the 396 now for a about three weeks. Don't get me wrong, the 396 is a cool scanner but I sure do miss my 96!

Bottom line ; GRE beats Uniden. Too bad GRE hasn't come up with a unit to compete with the 396.

Jerry

 

[scanlist]

I was able to tryout the 396 and this radio is not ready for primetime.

It is not user friendly by any stretch of the imagination. Programming this radio by computer is practically mandatory unless you have a lot of time on your hands.

As mentioned in other threads the radio insists upon staying on the first CC encountered and does not like to rescan for others programmed in a system so you get a radio that goes out of range of a CC and it goes brain dead. Not good for roaming around areas with multiple sites.

Digital audio AGC is awful. You still get blasted out by CSP dispatchers and microphone chewers. GRE beats the pants off of Uniden's poor attempt at this.

There is a good side to this radio with the dynamic memory layout similiar to it's little brother the 246T. Lot's of room with 6000 memory locations.

I am holding off on any radio upgrades till we see what GRE/RadioShack offers as an alternative. Hopefully GRE will take care of the "hang time" issue that dogs the PRO-96 and 2096 on P25 systems that use transmission trunking like Colorado uses on their next generation scanners.

Phil.

 

[rckydenver]

Had mine since mid Aug, and what Phil said above was hitting the nail on the head and Scanman..I first re-intialized my 396 and programed the Freqs. that I wanted. Like Phil said you will have to use the computer to program the radio make it alot eaiser, i had i really hard time the first day. I've got only one CC program for the digital, the digital does start out loud and then adjust to a lower level. I've got the Pro-96 and that still my primilary scanner followed by the 396...yeah the 396 has the cool blue light and tone out features (which i still have to figure out) tryied the Close Call feature and nothing yet, of course that just in my neighborhood, The radio itself work great when i brought to work one day, and that was inside a metal building, where my Pro-96 was alittle weak(this could be a antenna issue). Plus there other features the 396 has which are nice..to sum this up i'm using the Pro-96 first and the 396...Now i have figure out why my Arc 396 program not coming up..Read in groups yahoo that there a new version..

 

[greenthumb]

Okay - thanks, guys. This is helpful! I was considering purchasing a 396 because it will do 700 MHz trunking, but it sounds like the core feature of P-25 trunking isn't quite there yet - so I think i'll hold off and maybe they will fix the bugs. I would imagine that another benefit of the 96/2096 is Pro96Com

 

[jeffreyinberthoud]

396 or pro96

So it sounds like a catch 22 but here is the stupper question

I cant go and buy one and a year latter justify the other so........................


how long before the rebanding and everything is on 700?????

 

[k0pwo]

There is a bill in congress right now. I don't know the bill number and such, but its purpose is to once again force tv stations to move their station freqs off of the 24 mhz of 700mhz that the fcc wants for public safety. This bill is once again introduced to force the tv station off the 700mhz portion by late 2009. So this contradicts the current fcc ruling that was to force them off sometime in 2007. So who knows when you might see 700mhz light up with cops and firefighters.

That information came from the latest issue of radio resource magazine that I receive each month.

Dave

 

[greenthumb]

Some NPSPAC regions do not have any TV stations in the 700 MHz band, so as I recall, these regions can go ahead and begin using the band for public safety voice and data. I think that Colorado was one of those regions. The reason that 700 MHz vacating is such a big issue is because most of the stations that are on the air are in highly populated regions (east coast and west coast) that are in the greatest need of the bandwidth.

...and back to the BCD396T - how does it sound with analog systems vs. the Pro-96? Another attraction to this radio is that it decodes multiple the system IDs in use at a SmartZone OmniLink site as well as the SmartZone or SmartZone OmniLink cell/subsystem ID.

 

[scanlist]

...and back to the BCD396T - how does it sound with analog systems vs. the Pro-96?

PRO-96 sounds way better all around. The 396 has a dinky internal speaker that sucks.

Reports out there are that the 396 sounds decent with an external amplified speaker.

Before I forget Uniden insists upon using regular FM mode vs Narrow FM on EDACS systems. So for EDACS use the PRO-96 sounds better in this regard. However the 396 has I-call tracking ability on Moto analog and EDACS systems so this is yet another one of those unfortunate trade-offs.

Another attraction to this radio is that it decodes multiple the system IDs in use at a SmartZone OmniLink site as well as the SmartZone or SmartZone OmniLink cell/subsystem ID.

Now if the 396 would start rescanning after loss of signal on CC's properly this would be great.

how long before the rebanding and everything is on 700?????

At least 2 years on rebanding. The entire state DTRS system has to move down to the lower portion of 800 MHz along with Lakewood and Westminster systems. Only a portion of the Denver EDACS systems have to be moved.

Everything will not be moving to 700 MHz with the state system. At this point in time the state DTRS will have dual band 800/700 sites. There has been no indication of the state going 700 exclusive in the near future.

If one allready has a digital scanner hang on to it and wait until something significant, such as your neighborhood public safety, starts using the 700 MHz side of the sites before burning through yet another $500+.

Unless you really have a need to hear the Cherry Creek School district that is simulcast on 800 only sites.

Phil.