Give me your opinion please? Icom or Uniden ?

[Hooterville]

My wife is going to purchase me a new scanner after Christmas and I can't decide between the Unblocked Icom IC-R20 or the Uniden BCD396T.

In my rural area most of the law enforcement, Highway Patrol ETC is on an encrypted system and the nearest trucked system is about 30 miles away.

Which receiver do you think I would be better with?

Thanks

 

[hoser147]

What state and county are you wanting to monitor?

 

[Hooterville]

I'm in Levy County Florida but can get signals from Alachua county here also.

 

[n2mdk]

The encrypted system you can simply forget about nothing will let you listen to it. The unblocked IC-R20 isn't going to let to listen to anything a blocked one will, it's a portable wideband receiver so if your interested in shortwave and don't care about trunked systems then that's what you want. If your interested in the VHF-UHF-800MHz area then go with the BCD396T.
It would help to know exactly where you live, State, County, Local.

 

[Hooterville]

It would help to know exactly where you live, State, County, Local.

State = Florida

County = Levy

Local = Out in the woods

 

[WA1CRZ]

Play it safe and have her get you both scanners!

 

[Hooterville]

Maybe I can get her to throw in a 996 also.

 

[LEH]

... and I can't decide between the Unblocked Icom IC-R20 or the Uniden BCD396T.

Which receiver do you think I would be better with?

Thanks

One thing to keep in mind on the IC-R20. It is an excellant radio, but it will not track trunked systems. Looking at the map, you're area only has a couple and one is incapable of being scanned as you said. Another issue with the R20 you are talking about is this

"UNBLOCKED - Export or FCC approved government use only!" Took this from an ad for the R20 radio. Universal has a similar caveat.

If you want a wide band receiver that can do SW, AM, FM and such, go with the R20, but unless you qualify for the government use, don't expect the unblocked version from a vendor in the states.