Phase 2 question

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rrmccabe

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I have been playing with radio for well... maybe 35 years. Have had an amateur radio license for 30 now.

I have never owned a scanner so I am totally ignorant to most things scanner related.

I should have made this post a few days ago before making a purchase. I have a BCD996XT on order that should be here tomorrow or the next day. In retrospect I am wondering if I needed the P2.

Is there a way to know if I need this for my location? It's a fixed install so it wont be leaving the shack.

I am guessing P2 is relatively new technology that will be adopted as time goes on?

Rich
kd0zv
 

marksmith

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Anne Arundel County, MD
Looks to me like you are good for a while with a 996xt as I don't see any phase 2 systems in your state at present. However, for basically the same cost as a 996xt you can get a 996p2 which is the same radio with phase 2 capability. Then you would be set if phase 2 systems start popping up.

Since there are about a dozen phase 1 P25 systems in your state, any of them could easily upgrade to phase 2.

Mark
536/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/
396XT/PSR800/PRO668/PRO652
 

davefirelt

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Checking RR I don't see any phase 2 systems in Polk County at this time. There is an Edacs trunked system that RR says is used by many public safety in actually several states and your county but does not list Des Moines as being part of it. The system mentioned uses both analog and ( Pro Voice audio} Pro Voice can not be monitored by any scanner. That particular system is eventually going to be converted to P-25 however it does not say Phase 1 or Phase 2 and seems to be at least a year or 2 away.. You seem to be okay for now anyway.The 996XT is a great scanner in my opinion.Here is the link to your area.


Polk County, Iowa (IA) Scanner Frequencies and Radio Frequency Reference

Dave M.
 

rrmccabe

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Yea happens to me often Mark. Thanks :)

While I am here I might start getting my memories setup. I have seen Freescan online to program my scanner. Any better choices?

Rich
 

marksmith

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Anne Arundel County, MD
THE choice of software for the 996xt, 996p2, 396xt, 325p2 is Freescan.

The current version of Freescan is 2.17 which is not yet compatible with the 996p2.

If installing for 996xt or 996p2 you need to install version 2.17

For the 996p2 you then need to register for forum use and the 2.18 beta EXE file only is available for download. By replacing the 2.18 EXE file in the 2.17 directory, you can then utilize it for the 996p2.

I have most of the radios that Freescan supports and can use the same database to load the various radios. Great piece of software.

Mark
536/996P2/HP1e/HP2e/996XT/
396XT/PSR800/PRO668/PRO652
 

rrmccabe

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Ankeny, Iowa
OK have it downloaded now. I just checked tracking and the XT should be here Saturday so I will start adding frequencies to FreeScan and I will be ready when it gets here.

Adding picture of current radio shack.

Thanks for help everyone.
 

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