Buckhead, Atlanta Scanner Advice & Help

[ATLEars]

I am new to all of this and looking for Scanner Advice... I am hoping to find a scanner that will pick up Fulton County Police/Fire, Grady EMS, and GA State Police from my listening location in Atlanta (346 E Paces Ferry Rd NE, Atlanta, GA). I usually scramble to my computer to listen online, but have noticed I have no control over what I pick up… I end up hearing about a call in South Fulton County, not the 5 fire trucks or 3 police cars that just went by to the call down the street. I am looking for a scanner that will allow me to pick up things close to where I am located, but also be able to pick up the “big call” at locations further away… Ideally I want spend around $100-$250, but if it takes $500 for something that does what I want then I would rather spend the $500 for something that works well. Thanks for your recommendations

[b7spectra]

You will need a scanner that does P25 (Atlanta, DeKalb, Cobb). Are you looking for a portable or mobile/base? Everyone has their opinions on which one, so I would say just get the one that will fit your budget.

[MTS2000des]

Uniden BC-396/396XT/996/996XT
Radio Shack Pro-96/Pro-106 and mobile versions thereof
GRE PSR500/600 (GRE makes the above RadioShack units for RS)

Just about all metro Atlanta counties (Cobb, DeKalb, City of Atlanta, Gwinnett and Forsyth) use 800MHz digital trunking systems. Fulton county, Rockdale, Fayette and city of Douglasville currently use analog 800MHz Motorola trunking systems. There are a couple of counties who encrypt most of their talkgroups (Walton and Gwinnett, except Gwinnet FD and Hall county, fire now unencrypted) that cannot be monitored on any scanner.
MARTA uses a mixed mode (analog and digital) 800 trunking system, MARTA police are digital, the train and buses use analog.

Newton county and Henry county both use proprietary MA/Com trunking systems that no scanners can monitor (Newton uses OpenSky and Henry uses ProVoice)

Other metro counties still use conventional analog for public safety include Douglas, Cherokee, Paulding, Bartow, Polk, Dawson and Coweta to name a few.

GSP in troop C uses the Atlanta digital 800 system and their old VHF conventional.

You will spend an average of $350-500 for one of the digital scanners above. When they are on sale, I've seen the Pro106 as low as $299. Performance of reception will vary greatly on digital scanners, an external antenna may help improve the situation. This is due to the way the digital signals are sent over the air from multiple transmission sites that wreaks havoc with the receiver in consumer scanners. YMMV, but this is the long and the short of it.

RadioReference has an extensive database of frequencies and talkgroups on all of the metro area radio systems that is fairly up to date.

[ATLEars]

Thank you for your detailed recommendation and clear explanation of the surrounding departments. I will keep you posted on what I buy. Since all seem relatively competitive on the price, I plan to do more research on features and explore my personal preference on functionality. I should be making a decision in the near future and may monitor radio shack for holiday sales. Thank you

[ATLEars]

Would the RADIO SHACK PRO-2096 DIGITAL TRUNKING SCANNER work well in my area? It is priced much lower than the other scanners mentioned above and iyet it's an APCO-25.

[N8IAA]

Originally Posted by ATLEars

Would the RADIO SHACK PRO-2096 DIGITAL TRUNKING SCANNER work well in my area? It is priced much lower than the other scanners mentioned above and iyet it's an APCO-25.

True, it is cheaper than the others mentioned in the above posts. But, it is not in their league Works great on analog trunked systems, but lets a lot of digital noise through on P-25. Just the nature of the radio. The 106/197 have firmware upgrades that will mute the noise. The newer Unidens are the same. Big difference when listening to Atlanta, Gwinnett, etc.. Heed the advice of Mike and mts2000des.
Larry

[ATLEars]

Thank you!

[b7spectra]

I used to use the Pro-96, but on the P25 it had a bad problem of "motor-boating" inbetween calls. The difference between the RS Pro-96 and the 396XT is like a comparing a $10 hooker to a $500 escort.

[ATLEars]

Roger that. So the 346xt is the unit i should buy? Even though the price b/n the pro-96 and 346xt is comparable.

[rmiller818]

Originally Posted by ATLEars

Roger that. So the 346xt is the unit i should buy? Even though the price b/n the pro-96 and 346xt is comparable.

The 346XT is not digital, the 396XT is. And I wouldn't compare the 396XT and the Pro-96, the 396xt would win hands down. Compare the 396XT and the GRE PSR-500/RS Pro-106 for a fair comparison.