Worth getting a PII scanner?

Hi,

I live in Green Brook and the only digital scanner I have is a PRO-106. Am I missing a lot of P25 Phase II communications not having a Phase II scanner?

Tnx,

Mike

If there are any agencies you want to hear on the NJICS, such as Elizabeth PD/FD, Newark Fire, etc. then you'll need a Phase 2 scanner. Presumably more agencies will continue to migrate onto NJICS. If you read the NJICS thread you'll see a lot of people have been having a hard time receiving this system as many scanners don't always handle Phase 2 that well.

How does Phase 2 audio quality compare to my Pro-106? Compared to what I've heard on Youtube most scanners PII audio quality is not as good as my Pro-106 on Phase 1.

Phase II audio sounds much more compressed than Phase I. A better comparison would be if you're talking at normal voice, that would be Phase I; if you pinch your nose while talking, that's what Phase II sounds like. That's the best comparison I have observed without getting technical.

As far as the purchase of a Phase II scanner, that would be your choice based on what you like to monitor.

this is how i feel. i live within about 5 miles from a control site for monmouth county's 700 mhz. trunk.i can't even pickup the cc in my driveway, on a handheld with rubber antenna. i would only consider a handheld for phase 2. since there are no current uniden or whistler handheld scanner's for me at this time, i would say no. and i'll list my reason's.

bcd436hp, by most account's suck's.
bcd325p2, would be ok, except for the chintzy plastic case, and miserable battery life.

and, i do not want anything to do with a sd card/no front end programming scanner.

uniden really dropped the ball on the phase 2 capable scanner's.

with that being said. even if there was a p2 capable scanner that fit my need's, all the interesting stuff on phase 2 in my county is encrypted. and, who know's if and when njics will follow suit.

so ,if you ask me,it's not worth the buck's. my personal opinion. your mileage may vary.

I agree. The BCD436 receives Phase 2 terribly, and I only hear about 25% of those transmissions and the rest just cuts out completely. However, some on here have recommended that I get an upgraded antenna. So, I may give that a try. I can only pick up Phase 2 clearly on njics, if I'm in Elizabeth within eyesight of the repeater. I still like the scanner because it has do not disturb priority channel programming feature and I can temporarily avoid, lock out channels without actually deleting them.

My opinion is that since you already have a digital scanner it's really not worth spending the money on a phase 2 unit. I recently bought a Home Patrol 2 which is phase 2 capable. For me it was worthwhile since I was coming from an analog scanner. As everyone else has said, phase 2 reception is very tricky, but not impossible.

N2ZGE said:

I agree. The BCD436 receives Phase 2 terribly, and I only hear about 25% of those transmissions and the rest just cuts out completely.

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That kind of statement needs to be noted as being quantified on an individual user basis.

Up here in Warren County, there is no multi-path LSM issues. We have one massive tower site (Montana Mtn) less than 3 miles from where I & nosoup4u live. Phase-II on the 436 sounds phenomenal up here. Now that REMU fixed the issue up here on the one 700 repeater, MedCentral come in 100% of the time & makes a great test example (along with the Somerset County Road Dept. channels).

Ion,
Like most stated...it depends on YOU. If you feel your missing out on monitoring systems then I would say yes. You can probably still get a PSR-800 on fleabay or a new Uniden or Whistler. Then if you love the new one your can always sell your 106. When I bought my 800 years ago I sold my 197. Only reason was like in your situation,it didn't do phase 2.

I personally would opt to go with the Uniden BCD436HP. I have a phase 2 scanner. The RadioShack Pro 668 and I absolutely hate it. Only bought it cause I couldn't pass up the good deals RS was giving when the stores were going out of business. Any who as for the audio quality. Phase 2 does sound broken at times. Very digitalized. Even decoded through a Phase 2 radio. Sometimes transmissions are broken too if the user speaks too fast ( could be vocoder issue as well). Some systems in phase 2 sound great. Some don't. If your looking to monitor Somersets Phase 2 talkgroups. Theirs are broken transmissions sometimes. I find at least from my scanner. The BCD436HP in my opinion decodes the best for a handheld scanner. The 536HP for base model comparison. It's pricey but worth it. Does phase 1 even better!!

Also don't get rid of your Pro 106. That decodes phase 1 quite well for a handheld compared to other models in its class. Still a darn good scanner in my book for what it's worth.

John I would love to compare notes. My friend on here tweaked the P25 decode settings and volume control on my 536 and its sounds better. I think he also updated to the latest firmware. I'm curious as what you did to yours? lately I have been listening to my 800 so the cat doesn't chew through my 536's power cord. I went through a few of those.

AC2OY said:

John I would love to compare notes. My friend on here tweaked the P25 decode settings and volume control on my 536 and its sounds better. I think he also updated to the latest firmware. I'm curious as what you did to yours? lately I have been listening to my 800 so the cat doesn't chew through my 536's power cord. I went through a few of those.

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Friend of mine has both the 436/536 and we did do a comparison test. Hands down for the area I live in ( central/northern) NJ it decoded NJICS, Somerset, and Bergen County P25 talkgroups better then my Pro 668 did. I will invest in the 436 real soon. I know you can find them online in the 300 dollar range which is under MSRP for them. Anywho... Yeah... It's a good P2 scanner. I wouldn't knock it. I am interested in seeing what people think of the 325 p2 scanner. Never seen one in person on online and in YouTube videos. Looks cheap, but besides that is the performance there? If so, it might be worth the money cause it's priced at a point that doesn't break the bank for its class of decoding system voices.

The BCD436 HP worked excellent for me during my trip from NY- the Outer Banks, NC. I was able to monitor the NJICS system, Delaware P25, Maryland FIRST 700MHZ system, VA STARS system, NC VIPER system and the Dare Co. NC P25 system all while mobile with a rubber duck.
I would agree with W2SJW's statement that each user has a different experience based on their location. I highly recommend the Uniden, even with some of the negative feedback.

I agree with you guys my 536 does it for me and quite well actually. Only thing I'm sad about is the display screen is getting dimmer but other than that it's a fine unit.

For people in the NY&NJ metropolitan areas investing in a Phase 2 scanner to keep up with technological advances to radios and software seem like the best bet to go. Granted their not cheap investments by any means, but in the long run if it's a hobby of yours to monitor then it's well worth it. Most departments if they migrate to a P25 interface they will migrate to it in Phase 2. Ones that are in Phase 1 digital already will one day I'm sure migrate to Phase 2. Even EDACS/ProVoice systems if they haven't migrated to Opensky ( aka OpenScam) they most likely will migrate to Phase 2 as well. So it's better to make the investment then hold out. As for which scanner to buy.. Well... I made my opinion in remarks above so yeah.. It hasn't changed.