Digital or Not

Hello SC Cousins,

I'm torn between a 996XT and BCT15X. Price being the factor.
oh and work and Christmas and new year taxes.

Anyway, Is there many people in the upstate SC who listen to digital systems? I have found one group that I would like to hear, Greenville Trans Med. I think Anderson has a few departments on digital.

However, I hear when and why the Helicopter is dispatched in Pickens County and don't find much interest in Greenville and Anderson county's just yet.

What will I miss out on in Pickens County if I go the cheaper route? I do ok with the SCHP on a Pro 2053, bunch of I-85 calls there, dispatched from Greenville and Anderson.

I'm thinking I'll be sorry later on if I don't get the 996XT. Maybe I'll use it when traveling or something. Just stopping in here and asking will hold me off another day. LOL

Pretty much all of Anderson Co's public safety agencies are digital, with the exception of SCHP and the local towns. Greenville City is all digital. Laurens Co EMS and SD are digital.

How long do you expect your investment to last? I think it's reasonable to say that most agencies currently using Palmetto 800 will be digital within 5 years. Whether Pickens Co joins in on that or not is hard to say - probably not.

I would tend toward the digital option if you can afford it.

I would say you are right, brian.

I did hear somewhere the new radios were really pricey for the agencies to make the change. Guess that didn't stop every county around here except the one I live in.

SCHP has been using Palmetto 800 for several years now so they may be next.

I do know the Sheriff's Department has a tough time getting out in some areas around here. If digital helps with reach and bad locations, they probably should switch.

thanks

DHS grant money handles the cost for P25 radios for most departments. It's what the state and fed governments recommend for public safety agencies as part of their interoperability plans. Radios can be pricey, but they can also be reasonable depending on what options are selected.

Palmetto 800 has had a requirement in place for several years now requiring all new radios added to the system to be capable of P25 standards. The rebanding process also helped push out quite a few of the older analog-only radios from the system.

Palmetto 800 is also now running a system called "Smart X" which is a linking system betweent the P25 system and the existing Smartzone network. This will allow for a smoother, gradual transition from Smartzone to P25 in the state over the next several years. How quickly that will happen is anyone's guess (I suspect it hinges on funding from the state), but it seems inevitable.

In addition to the cost of radios, the cost of service (per radio per month) for some agencies is too much to bear. Such is the case with Chester Co. SD, which switched back to VHF after being on Palmetto 800 for a while. Digital in and of itself isn't something that will help coverage - consider Anderson Co, though, where the P25 system is a network of 5 tower sites throughout the county, whereas the Smartzone system only has a single tower to cover the county. Pickens Co. may be hesitant to move to a new radio system without a build-out like that in Anderson to ensure good coverage, but the monthly service cost might be too high.

But, I still say it's better to obtain a digital scanner if your budget affords it as more and more agencies move that way. We may see the North Carolina VIPER system transition to digital quicker than Palmetto 800. Being on the NC border, that might be of interest to you.

look at it this way, with the way that agencies are changing radios systems what might not be digital today might be tomorrow. Why take the chance do with digital. Look at it another way you buy a non digital and a year or 2 they change. you just wasted a whole bunch on money on a non digital radio now you have to buy one. you just wasted even more money they of you bought a digital in the first place.

You could try a used BCD396T portable unit. I have seen more and more of these on ebay at decent prices. I would chance to say that the older digital Bearcats (996 and 396) will be germane for at least 10 years from now, as long as Uniden will support them with firmware upgrades.

So far, I have not had any problems with my 996, except when Aiken county rebanded - their signal strength dropped for about two weeks, now it seems to be better.

Even if you buy a 396, and do not have reception after say 2 years, you can still get your money out of it on ebay. Some one else elsewhere in the country will be able to use it.

Think of it as recycling - a good thing!

Thanks everybody. If I buy I should go all out. As with most purchases over 2 dollars I am tight. LOL

I'm gona sleep on it a few weeks and see how work holds up. I feel its in the plan tho. I'll have to get myself a Christmas gift. Just which hobby do I want to splurge on. Hmmmm

Digital is the way to go, you will eventually need it and might as well pruchase for the long term.

Even Abbeville, County is all digital now and Greenwood county has some diital coverage depending on the agency.