Analog or digital scanner

[redneckcellphone]

I'm looking to pick up a bct15 do to the price but it's a analog scanner. I do know that the local police are on 800 with enc which is also why I'm thinking of buying the 15. Is their anything besides police and fire worth listening to for me to spend the extra money and go digital?


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[morrisr3nd]

You might want to check out this thread. Looks like P25 could already be in your area.

New P25 System, LA City

[redneckcellphone]

I live in Orange County and every surrounding police agency near Huntington Beach is all p25 with encryption.


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[markclark]

Nearly every other public agency in Orange County is P25 Digital, so you will need digital scanner to listen to those. Fire is still analog. CHP is the only large law enforcement agency not digital and in the clear.

[jrholm]

The Orange County Red channel is P25 but in the clear too. A good channel to listen to and pursuits will be patched to it.

[markclark]

And 151.085 Mhz is analog and broadcasts most of the Red traffic.

[pepsima1]

Incorrect. OC access is used when the Countywide Cell is out of range usually up in the peaks and valley of Ortega Highway or in fringe areas of the County...

I have never heard the RED channel patched to OC Access. Usually only ORCO Fire Talkgroups like 5E

[pepsima1]

Originally Posted by redneckcellphone

I live in Orange County and every surrounding police agency near Huntington Beach is all p25 with encryption.


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Well this is a tough decision. If you really want to buy a digital trunked radio scanner then I would either buy the Radio Shack PRO 106 if you can find them. GRE has haulted production of these radios for right now. They closed down their production facility. Thats what is said, but who really knows.

But for a base radio I would buy the GRE PRS 600. The digital modulation is awesome. It blows Uniden away. I have had the BCD 396/996XT models which they are great, but not excellent on the digital side.

But if you are not really in a hurry I am pretty sure that Uniden/GRE will probably come out with some really nice new models this year. Lets keep our fingers crossed, but no guarantiees..... Good Luck!!!

[markclark]

pepsima1:

It's nice to know what you've never heard, but I know what I hear frequently -- especially when the same broadcast is heard on two radios simultaneously, one tuned to 151.085Mhz, and the other tuned to the Orange County Red channel.

I monitor both channels at all times my radios are turned on, which is several hours per day. Perhaps your location prevents you from receiving the high band broadcast.

[RadioDaze]

Originally Posted by markclark

...I hear frequently -- especially when the same broadcast is heard on two radios simultaneously, one tuned to 151.085Mhz, and the other tuned to the Orange County Red channel.

This is very interesting. I've listened to Access, but only when I've known a working fire to be on it. I've got to leave a radio on and check it out. I'd love to be able to hear Red on the VX-150 I leave in the car all the time.

[markclark]

There is also a slight time delay, by a few seconds, in the cross-band broadcasts. Also, 39.46 Mhz is heard in the clear for CHP and intercity coordination.

[oracavon]

Well, I'm listening to police activity on the Red channel right now, but 151.085 is silent. So you can't rely on hearing Red channel activity on 151.085. I am hearing the activity on 39.46, but that freq is carrying only Orange County Communications' side of the transmissions, not the field units. Kind of disappointing. It would be nice to have an analog version of Red.

[scottyhetzel]

Originally Posted by pepsima1

Incorrect. OC access is used when the Countywide Cell is out of range usually up in the peaks and valley of Ortega Highway or in fringe areas of the County...

I have never heard the RED channel patched to OC Access. Usually only ORCO Fire Talkgroups like 5E

Wrong...I hear this freq. in my desert.... I hear all sig alerts and other info..

[oracavon]

One more observation - I just now heard a general police broadcast by OCC on Red channel that was not repeated on either 151.085 or 39.46. So apparently some things are repeated on those frequencies and other things are not.

[oracavon]

Originally Posted by redneckcellphone

I live in Orange County and every surrounding police agency near Huntington Beach is all p25 with encryption.

You should be able to pick up Long Beach PD from there. They have 4 dispatch channels and one primary tac channel, all analog and in the clear with a lot of activity.

[redneckcellphone]

That's what I have been listening to on my wouxun until I dropped the radio into some water and now the speaker has low audio.


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[Code20Photog]

My last scanner, which still works mind you, gave me 20 years of service. (I needed to go digital because of LAPD for work)

It's not about buying a scanner for *now* but for how long you think you're going to have it. I wouldn't buy a non-digital scanner now, period. Too many agencies will go digital within the next few years, and at some point, you're then going to have to buy *another* scanner. I over-bought, I have a 396XT that cost me $625, but I'm hoping that the initial cost will work itself out over the years by not having to purchase another $600 scanner in the near future.

[oracavon]

I would have to agree. I wouldn't buy a new analog scanner today. A lot of agencies in LA County are now digital, and I expect that more will go digital in the future. Fortunately, most of them are not encrypted, so there is a lot you can listen to. I have no trouble picking them up in OC with an outdoor antenna, and some I can even get with an indoor antenna.

If you don't want to spend the money on a digital scanner now (most new ones are just under $500 these days), then you could get a used analog scanner to save some money until you are ready for a digital one.

[Exsmokey]

There are additional features on the new digital scanners that are needed now and will be needed in the future. One is the ability to tune the 6.25 kHz channel spacing in the 700 MHz band. The older models won't even cover 700 MHz and the CHP is/has switching/switched to 700 MHz extenders.

On the PSR-500/600 scanners, and equivalent Radio Shack models, there is the capability to program audio boost channel by channel. If you listen to narrowband channels they will come in at a lower volume than the old wide band signals (25 kHz spacing) and when you turn up the volume to compensate then receive the 25 kHz signal of the CHP on VHF-Low it will blast you out of the room. I have the CHP programmed with no audio boost and everything else with it, allowing me to hear everything without touching the volume dial.

I'm not sure if the newer Unidens have the same features, but most likely so. The newer digitals are capable of using the NAC's or Network Access Code, which is the equivalent of the CTCSS and DCS tone feature found on older analog models and not found on any of the even older analog models.

As another poster indicated and to put it into my own words, you need to buy a scanner that is the most "future proof" as possible. In other words, buy the most current model that has the greatest number of technologies that will be used in the future. Otherwise you purchase more scanners in the long run and will offset any savings you may incur by buying less expensive models. It is better to over buy than to under buy.

The newer models have some other bells and whistles that may not seem important now, but are ones I find quite useful. One is the ability to program each channel to display custom color settings on a LED when the radio receives. If you aren't looking at the face of the display due to distance, driving the car, etc. the LED lights up with a color that can indicate to you what type of frequency is being received. I have mine set up with red for fire, blue for law enforcement, green for natural resource agencies, etc. Now, I don't think I would want a scanner without this feature.

The newer models also have banks or lists that have a variable number of channels per bank, not some fixed value like banks of 20 channels each. One channel can be programmed into multiple banks as well. This saves memory and combined with the greater memory capacities of the radio you can listen to a lot more at any one time. The additional memory capacity of the new scanners is large enough that you can store a lot of other files in the radio itself that can be used for purposes such as when you travel and want to load the scanner with programs that cover other areas. This way you don't have to use a laptop to reload your scanner several times as you take a long road trip or fly to other areas you might frequently visit. I have files written so that I can travel from northern California to southeast Arizona and though Nevada without relying on a laptop to enter files for all these areas. I've become practiced enough to be able to do this while driving with nearly no distraction.