Time For A New Scanner

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KF7OQQ

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I have a Pro-95 that has done great for me in the past but the rebanding here in utah is getting really close. I have tried to do all the homework that i can but to finish it i think a few opinion need to be heard on the subject. In my area there little to no digital that i can find . Motorola Trunking seems to be king along with conventional. I would like opinion's on a handheld unit that can get narrowbands FM so i can listen to the Wildland, BLM,Forest freqs. during fire season and one that will do Repeater to follow these transmission. Trunking is also needed. Rebandible too.

From my homework I have found that Uniden 246T will do this also the Uniden 330 will but for a little bit more money than i want to spend. It seems like one of the RS's will and the GRE's will too but the more i read Uniden's memory systems seems to be a better idea than the other's . I'm open to all makes/models that can do this for around $200.

I mostly listen to the trunked system and conventional of the local towns . I have a simular post in my local area but looking for opinion's from everyone.
I would like to hear the good, bad and ugly but keep it civil.
Thanks for all of your opinions.
Please excuse any bad spelling/grammar

P.S. I'm sorry that i have simular post in two different areas(in utah and here). Just trying to get local and everyone's opinion. If this is a major problem i will remove one of them. Thanks
 
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captclint

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delta_p

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I really like the capability and capacity of the BR330T for a non-digital scanner. Uniden site show a like new for $220.00 and I saw a used one the BR330T Yahoo group for $195.00, so they are out there. It's a really nice handheld scanner if you don't need digital.

PP
 

SIGG

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I'll have to put another vote in for the BC246T.

I recently upgraded to it and have been more than satisfied. The unit is very small and has all the memory you could ever need. As a warning, the interface does take a while to get used to, but in the end it's well worth it. Keep in mind that with the newer scanners, like the 246T, you'll probably want to get programming software to keep yourself from going crazy trying to input freqs manually. I chose the Butel software (www.butel.nl) and have been very pleased. The cost for this was around $40 but well worth it.
 

Zaratsu

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GRE PSR-300
$200

The unidens in this price-point do not have the object-oriented programming from what I understand. The PSR-300 is rebandable and of course is a trunking scanner. It is essentially a better, and rebandable Radio Shack Pro-97. Differences include: rebanding support, Signal strength meter, more sensitive signal sweeper, more sensitive tuning, better controls(vol/squelch), better display, expanded mil air and marine coverage, smaller tuning steps, comes with an AC adapter, and keypad lights up.

Compared to Unidens that I have owned or handled, it has much better sound, can be much louder (good in a car or loud enviroment). It is pretty substantial, but most Unidens are farily overbuilt. The belt clip on the GRE is for show only, and will need a case for any time on your belt.(mine just sits next to me or in my cupholder in the car) There is much better signal rejection in the GRE of bad signals as well. Scan speed is about the same, maybe a bit faster in the GRE except for a few bands (but with smaller tuning steps, it probably is MUCH faster) Speaker is CLEAR at all volumes.

Only downsides I can think of is that the volume control is touchy and has very little range in the "listen while being able to have a conversation or watch TV" mode, but is achiveable with a delicate touch. (translation: 90% of the vol knob travel is LOUD to WTF ARE YOU DEAF?) and the other 10% is normal listen range. And there isnt any software YET. Blutel is coming out with software in a few weeks.

GRE seems to attract a slightly more technical or experienced group than uniden and RS, so the majority of the GREs being sold right now are the Digital PSR-500. The PSR-500 is a whole generation ahead of the PRO-96 and even the 396t with the exception of object oriented file systems. For the $200 price range, you are getting something that is a half-step ahead of the comparable Uniden and Radio shack scanners. None of them are bad at all however.

SIGG said:
I'll have to put another vote in for the BC246T.

I recently upgraded to it and have been more than satisfied. The unit is very small and has all the memory you could ever need. As a warning, the interface does take a while to get used to, but in the end it's well worth it. Keep in mind that with the newer scanners, like the 246T, you'll probably want to get programming software to keep yourself from going crazy trying to input freqs manually. I chose the Butel software (www.butel.nl) and have been very pleased. The cost for this was around $40 but well worth it.
 

fireant

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Well speaking from having both the 246 and the 330 uniden scanners. The 330 is a far better radio hands down. I like the 246 but if you can get your hands on a 330 then you will not be unhappy. The only down side to the GRE scanners is you still have to buy all the extras where with the uniden they come included just another thing to think about you may get the GRE cheaper but by the time you add the extra the uniden would have been the better route.

Just my thoughts hope this helps you out some.

fireant
 

Zaratsu

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fireant said:
Well speaking from having both the 246 and the 330 uniden scanners. The 330 is a far better radio hands down. I like the 246 but if you can get your hands on a 330 then you will not be unhappy. The only down side to the GRE scanners is you still have to buy all the extras where with the uniden they come included just another thing to think about you may get the GRE cheaper but by the time you add the extra the uniden would have been the better route.

Just my thoughts hope this helps you out some.

fireant


The only thing you have to buy extra with the GRE is a set of NiCad AA batteries. Its the radio shack that doesnt come with the AC adaptor. I left the store with the PSR300, four good NiCads and 6% state tax for $226


which brings up another good point about the GRE. You CAN run AA disposable cells in it as well as NiCad rechargeables (not at the same time) If you plan on using it for prolonged periods off the charger, the GRE/RS allows you to switch to AA disposable and not have to run back to charge it like Unidens do.
 
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n2mdk

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DanTSX said:
The only thing you have to buy extra with the GRE is a set of NiCad AA batteries. Its the radio shack that doesnt come with the AC adaptor. I left the store with the PSR300, four good NiCads and 6% state tax for $226


which brings up another good point about the GRE. You CAN run AA disposable cells in it as well as NiCad rechargeables (not at the same time) If you plan on using it for prolonged periods off the charger, the GRE/RS allows you to switch to AA disposable and not have to run back to charge it like Unidens do.

The new Unidens use AA cells the BC246T only needs 2 the BR330 and BCD396T use 3. They no longer use rechargeable packs
 

VA3EHF

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radio scanner upgrade

I Am Upgrading To A Radio Shack Handheld Nascar Digital Radio Scanner
I Currently Own A Realistic Pro 2009 Analog Radio Scanner.
 

br0adband

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One thing I can say about having owned 2 246T scanners (currently with my second one in front of me):

Lemme see you tune a specific talkgroup on a GRE, or any Radio Shack branded ones. Can't, can you? Oh, you can, but only if there's actual traffic on that talkgroup and you happen to hit MAN or PSE before it disappears. It's one of the downsides to the GRE/RS lineup, always has been and the object oriented programming hasn't helped to improve the situation.

On the 246T, switch to the system and press Hold then spin the knob through the talkgroups to get to the one I want. No, it's not direct entry, that's simply never going to be an option on any scanner - that would require a lot more effort in terms of firmware programming and then require the user to memorize all the actual TGIDs so they could find the one they want.

But as things stand, monitoring a specific talkgroup on a trunked system is far easier on Unidens with DMA that it ever will be on GRE/RS models.

And yes, DonS did release an updated version of Win97 with support for the PSR-300, 400, and the Pro-164 I believe so he beat the competition to the punch.

As for batteries, I can run dry AA, alkaline AA, or NiMH on this 246T, as you can with any current Uniden. In fact, the 246T was the first Uniden ever (afaik) that didn't use the dreaded "battery pack" style of battery so many people have hated with a passion over the years. I get typically 10-14 hours of battery life off 2 fully charged 2300 mAh Duracell rechargeable batteries depending on backlight usage, volume, and actual activity on the bands. And that's from 2 batteries so, it does very well indeed.

There are people that will preach GRE/RS against Uniden products, and there are people that will preach Uniden against GRE/RS. I personally owned GRE made radios with the Radio Shack brand name on them for decades, and a Uniden "Bearcat" now and again.

While I do have fond memories of owning GRE/RS hardware (the Pro-43 will always hold a special place in my memories, still my fave scanner of all-time), the dynamic memory system in Uniden's current lineup - and it all started with the 246T - simply blows anything GRE has ever come up with clear out of the water.

I recently got the chance to play with a GRE PSR-500 for an evening and honestly, it's the same old same old. There are just too many limitations to what you can do and accomplish with the "Virtual Scanners" and other things. Who wants to turn off the scanner and reload and entirely different "system" so you can monitor something new? With the Unidens, and quick keys as well as group quick keys, you can easily narrow things down to precisely what you want to listen to without the need to "reboot" or do anything similar.

For the money, Unidens are pretty much impossible to beat, but it all depends on what the user wants and is looking for. The 246T is still available, the 330T is discontinued, and the 396 is still considered to be the king of the hill by many, but a lot are now also liking the PSR-500 from GRE. Personally, I don't see it meaning the 500's appeal. That multicolor alert LED could prove useful in some situations, but the memory management is still so far behind Uniden's DMA that... well... obviously I'm a Uniden fan now.

They finally got things right starting with the 246T, now we'll see where it leads.
 

n2mdk

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jeff3432 said:
I Am Upgrading To A Radio Shack Handheld Nascar Digital Radio Scanner
I Currently Own A Realistic Pro 2009 Analog Radio Scanner.

Radio Shack doesn't sell Digital scanner that has the preprogrammed NASCAR features. There are only Analog ones.
 

KF7OQQ

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Thanks for all the input. I'm always interested in hearing other peoples opinions so i can get the good and the bad not just the propoganda put out by the companies.
 

br0adband

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Well, it would help if you sat yourself down and wrote a Pros-Cons list of the scanner features you want. Just asking for opinions from everyone can't possibly be that useful unless we know specifically what it is you're looking for. Analog/Digital capability, massive amounts of available memory, the software used to control or program the scanner, antennas, etc. We as current owners or opinion holders could go at this for days if not weeks back and forth - define what you want and then people can better offer opinions that help.
 

KF7OQQ

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Here is the condenced version of my tread starter


aroylance said:
. . In my area there little to no digital that i can find . Motorola Trunking seems to be king along with conventional. I would like opinion's on a handheld unit that can get narrowbands FM so i can listen to the Wildland, BLM,Forest freqs. during fire season and one that will do Repeater to follow these transmission. Trunking is also needed. Rebandible too.

I mostly listen to the trunked system and conventional of the local towns .



I will clearify.

I'm looking for analog only, memory equal to or better that my PRO-95, programing with computer a plus, computer control not needed.


Thanks again to all that have responded.
 

VA3EHF

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jeff3432 said:
I Am Upgrading To A Radio Shack Handheld Nascar Digital Radio Scanner
I Currently Own A Realistic Pro 2009 Analog Radio Scanner.
it will stay off
 

slicerwizard

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br0adband said:
On the 246T, switch to the system and press Hold then spin the knob through the talkgroups to get to the one I want. No, it's not direct entry, that's simply never going to be an option on any scanner - that would require a lot more effort in terms of firmware programming
Huh. And all this time I've been doing Hold 16 Hold on my 396 to monitor talkgroup 16. And now I find out it can't be done...
 

br0adband

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Well, if that's the case then my apologies. I've never owned a 396, but I do own a 246T and was suddenly thinking "Ok, if they can do it on a 396, I should be able to do it on my 246T since it came first and was the basis for the 396 in the first place" and that's apparently not the case. I do know that to reach System Quick Keys on the 396 you press . then the number(s) of the system you want (i.e. .45 for system 45, .93 for system 93, etc) since it can have 100, and Hold + 1-0 to get to to the Group Quick Keys once a system is loaded, but the 246T only has 10 SQKs of course. Guess they chose a slightly different programming and access method for the 246T.

Yes, I can do "Direct Entry" but it doesn't apparently allow for direct access to a given talkgroup. If I punch in 40976 which is the TGID of a known talkgroup already programmed into my 246T while that system is active (it's the TGID of Clark County Fire Dept East Zone 1 Ch 1), and press Enter or the knob (Hold doesn't do anything, neither does . or any other key at that point), it'll ask to save the TGID even though it's already programmed into that system.

Kinda weird, so I guess it's something the 246T just can't or doesn't do unless I'm missing something, which is entirely possible. The whole "direct entry" thing kinda pisses me off anyway since GRE/RS scanners allow me to enter any given available frequency at any given time and monitor it, as well as being able to do direct searches from that frequency either higher or lower. Kinda wish Uniden models would do that, it's much easier to search on a GRE/RS unit without needing to define "custom" search ranges. I can set search limits complete on-the-fly on a GRE/RS unit in about 2 seconds most of the time and go from there.

Bleh... there will never be a perfect scanner... :p
 
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