Oakland County MPSCS Question

[Ray_Air]

I was thinking of buying a new BCD996XT and was wondering how the MPSCS reception is from central Oakland county. The Holly, Romeo and Southfield tower should be in range. Is it worth it to buy a digital scanner in Oakland county since most of the county is trying to go Open Sky? Any satisfied monitors out there? I just use a 800Mhz 2.5db gain rubber duck or a Watson Super Gainer.

I know there are some 166 MHz freq's that are federal from Detroit that I can receive, also I think HVA is on the MPSCS.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[fnnm400]

Don't know about where you are located, but we have sold many unidens an had bad luck with them in the oakland county area. I would strongly suggest the GRE

Originally Posted by Ray_Air

I was thinking of buying a new BCD996XT and was wondering how the MPSCS reception is from central Oakland county. The Holly, Romeo and Southfield tower should be in range. Is it worth it to buy a digital scanner in Oakland county since most of the county is trying to go Open Sky? Any satisfied monitors out there? I just use a 800Mhz 2.5db gain rubber duck or a Watson Super Gainer.

I know there are some 166 MHz freq's that are federal from Detroit that I can receive, also I think HVA is on the MPSCS.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[bigbluemsp]

+1 to Garry's post. GRE decodes the MPSCS much much better then the Uniden's.

[Ray_Air]

Thanks. I will look into GRE scanners also. Boy I sure miss the days when MSP had those big low band whips on the side of the trunk. At the time I lived in the country and had a VHF/UHF scanner antenna with 6 foot horizontal low band elements up out 35' and I could really pull in MSP units from quite a ways along with some distant FD's on low band. Now, low band is dead here except when the skip starts up.

[w8jjr]

Yup
I agree
Got rid of my Unidens and went GRE for the MPSCS.
Really is the better for 800. Also my PRO197 works well
on the system.

[kb8rvp]

I picked up the BCD396XT from Communications Electronics in Ann Arbor and it works much better than the 396T and the 996T and I think they offer a 61 day trial. I work in Troy and live in Fenton and have been very happy with the reception and am thinking of picking up the BCD996XT too when it comes out to give it a try. From Troy I can pick up both the Southfield and Romeo towers just fine. I have owned the RS Pro-2096 and Pro-96, the GRE PSR500 and 600 as well as the RS Pro-106 and Pro-197. If you are looking for a handheld you may want to look at the RS Pro-106 as you can try it for 30 days and it is the same inside as the GRE PSR-500 and they go on sale every once in a while for $100 off.

Mike