Would you purchase Pro 668 again?

blackbelter · Jun 21, 2015

I would like to know the general consensus on the above question. I realize that liquidation prices were a major motivator however my sincere hope is to determine the chief reasons one would buy this unit as oppose to other P25 / phase 2 capable scanners again.
Thanks in advance,

sfatony · Jun 21, 2015

Bocablackbelt said:
I would like to know the general consensus on the above question. I realize that liquidation prices were a major motivator however my sincere hope is to determine the chief reasons one would buy this unit as oppose to other P25 / phase 2 capable scanners again.
Thanks in advance,

Definitely! At first it was questionable whether this scanner was worth the price I paid. I paid $250 a few months ago. It was a bit of a learning curve at first. Just got to get familiar with programming software and it has been by far one of the easiest scanners to program right up there with HP-1. At first I was not impressed with the reception of the scanner. I was missing a lot of transmissions compared to my HP-1 and BC796D. But it takes some tweaking with how you set up your playlists. After several weeks of fine tuning the scanner I am really impressed with the PRO-668. I keep visiting my local RS store hoping I could get a killer deal on another PRO-668 like many others here have!

DJ11DLN · Jun 21, 2015

Yes.

Price was a motivator, I won't lie about it...but I've been extremely pleased with the radio and its performance. Since I already had a Pro-18 I was familiar with the programming quirks and the tricks to getting the proper drivers loaded. I live and primarily move around in a rural area, so the front-end overload that these radios are subject to is seldom a problem for me, while the extra sensitivity is usually an asset rather than a liability. I'm pleased with P25 p.1 decode quality (no p.2 here yet, nor have I had an opportunity to take it where there is any since getting it) and audio as well, though I still think the old GRE 500 series has it shaded in these areas.

Is it perfect? No (but then what is?). Is it acceptable to me? Certainly. Are there things I wish were different? Sure. Would lack of these differences be enough to cause me to not buy it, given price parity for comparable models? Definitely not. And as my system moves towards p.2 in a few years, I'll be keeping these issues in mind.

whisper16 · Jun 21, 2015

Pro668

I would not buy this scanner again. In my particular case it just does not perform well. After a month of changing every possible setting on the scanner, and trying different antennas I still can not get decent reception of a local Phase 2 system. The reason I bought the scanner in the first place.

Audio on analog conventional frequencies in my opinion is awful. Reminds me of listening to an old transistor radio. Lack of a real volume knob has turned out to be another drawback for me. I'm a little hard of hearing so I'm constantly adjusting the volume depending on surroundings.

Programming was a little hard at first, but once you get the hang of it it's not bad.

This is just my experience. I'm not trying to trash the scanner. For other folks in other locations I'm sure it's great.

Time to put it up for sale!

jnewell · Jun 21, 2015

DJ11DLN said:
Price was a motivator, I won't lie about it...but I've been extremely pleased with the radio and its performance. Since I already had a Pro-18 I was familiar with the programming quirks and the tricks to getting the proper drivers loaded. I live and primarily move around in a rural area, so the front-end overload that these radios are subject to is seldom a problem for me, while the extra sensitivity is usually an asset rather than a liability. I'm pleased with P25 p.1 decode quality (no p.2 here yet, nor have I had an opportunity to take it where there is any since getting it) and audio as well, though I still think the old GRE 500 series has it shaded in these areas.

Is it perfect? No (but then what is?). Is it acceptable to me? Certainly. Are there things I wish were different? Sure. Would lack of these differences be enough to cause me to not buy it, given price parity for comparable models? Definitely not. And as my system moves towards p.2 in a few years, I'll be keeping these issues in mind.

Agree, and would give it more than just "acceptable" - it's very good receiver.

Blackswan73 · Jun 21, 2015

Well price wasn't a factor when I purchased my first 668, in fact, I paid about $350 for it. I liked it so much, my next purchase one month later, was for the 1080. With my third purchase last month I have to say price was a factor, since I purchased that one for $206 shipped. If I had to to it over again, I would not purchase the 1080, because I found the few extra features I purchased it for, mainly the conventional freq menu, I rarely use. The 668 is more than adequate.

brucedicks · Jun 22, 2015

I bought it because of the price, but love it. It took a good 2 weeks to get use to the software and some of the features and I am still learning it, but it is a good scanner.

dcr_inc · Jun 22, 2015

I would buy again...or shall say I already did.. I have (1) each PSR800,WS1080 and a PRO668.. Can't beat it for P25 P1 or P2..

Like it much better than any of the Uniden radios even if they both program differently..

Ghost4658 · Jun 22, 2015

No.
I have Radio Shack, GRE, and Uniden for me is much better scanners.
668 and 996XT side by side on same antenna 996 much better scanner for me on VHF all the way to P25.
got the 668 just to try one $300 shot!

jnewell · Jun 22, 2015

brucedicks said:
I bought it because of the price, but love it. It took a good 2 weeks to get use to the software and some of the features and I am still learning it, but it is a good scanner.

Agree, but I don't think the software is any harder than Win500 or ProScan. (YMMV)

flippz · Jun 22, 2015

No way ever

This has been the worse scanner experience I have ever had! I would not recommend this scanner to my worst enemy if they owed me money. Two months of owning this brick it still misses 30% of transmissions no matter how it's set. From what I can tell my 106 gets about 99% of the transmissions even with the crappy antenna that came with the 668
Scott Ross

garysauctions · Jun 22, 2015

I own two of them ..... going forward I do not think I would buy another one.

As it is I plan on getting rid of one of them and keeping one ( the one that misbehaves at times )

Since acquiring the 668's I have acquired a PRO-652 and for me it performs better with local Fire and Police than the 668. Even the 651 seemed to sound better.

Sure the 668 does Phase II - but around here everything is Phase I or analog.

By the time Phase II gets here I feel confident there will be newer and better units available.

Let me add that people complain that the 668 is not sensitive enough .... I would argue just the opposite that at times it may be too sensitive.

nyscan · Jun 22, 2015

dcr_inc said:
I would buy again...or shall say I already did.. I have (1) each PSR800,WS1080 and a PRO668.. Can't beat it for P25 P1 or P2..

Do you find any performance differences among those three?

tronman54 · Jun 24, 2015

A BIG FAT- NO!

The Pro 668 is JUNK here in Harford County Maryland. I miss 50% if not more of the calls on
P25 Phase II.

I can pick up VHF LOW - GOOD / VHF HIGH - GOOD / UHF - GOOD all conventional freq.
But when it comes to P25 Phase II system it's real bad.

The software to make this thing run right is JUNK also.
I can get the radio to light up when it gets a call, I get 5 bars in signal strength, the T blinks for Trunking,
at the bottom I get VC/CC #'s but NO SOUND. WHY???

The radio is back in the box. I have to calm down before I can start to play with it again.
I VOTE - NO!

W8WCA · Jun 24, 2015

Without a doubt - YES

I had a PRO107 so understood the iScan like software.

Yes it took me a good bit of reading to get a grip on things like PlayList vs PlaySets
Not to mention vScanner Folders

That said when I had a BCD396XT - I spent a LOT of time trying to understand it's setup (Coming from just plain old Scan Banks)

K2KOH · Jun 24, 2015

My main portable is my BCD436, but I like keeping my 668 with me when puttering around the area.

RayAir · Jun 24, 2015

It does a good job on P25. It has good sensitivity.

I wish it had a key pad though. Disc tap built in a big plus.

I paid $200 for it. It is well worth $200.

ILL-099 · Jun 24, 2015

The PRO-668 is a very good scanner,yes i would buy more but already have four.I dont miss any calls on any system.For those of you missing calls i would suggest getting a good antenna.

WeBeCinYa · Jun 24, 2015

YES I would buy again. Once you take the time to figure it out, and master the programming, it works great. As I have said before, this scanner is not a "turn on and listen" scanner, it takes an understanding of how the software and playlists work.
I think part of the misconception is the whole "enter your zip code" to program mentality. I did this and had so many channels that I didn't need scanned, resulting in what I thought was slower performance.
I would be willing to bet that the ones with "missing transmissions" issues are having the same issue I did initially. Go in a delete items you don't care to hear, it will pick up a lot better.

willtorres918 · Jun 24, 2015

If you would've asked me a month ago the answer would've been, HECK NO!! It has become a great scanner for me since I've learned how to deal with its little quirks and how to program it. I only have P1 systems in my area and no P2 systems to test it on, so I can't speak on that. For me it works great on P1. I got mine for about $220, I would definitely buy another for around $200.

Would you purchase Pro 668 again?

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