mobile scanner recomendation

[wa1emt]

I am just requesting a few pieces of information.
First off, I would like a recomendation on a din size mobile scanner for listening to the harris county starnet system. Would also like to make sure that this scanner will work for the new system that is in the works.
Also, I have a bct396t handheld but I think i messed up the programming. Anyone have a file for this scanner they can email me. Im still learning to use it and how its set up and so on.
I do have a question on this new system. I dont care about law enforcement but I do listen to the houston city services stuff which has the hospital disaster stuff and cmoc. Will this be going to the new system as well as it is not p25 at this time.
I would also like to listen to eoc and emergency management. Thats pretty much it.
Anyone that can help clear up what I need and some help programming this 396t would be great.
Thanks so much.

[loumaag]

Well, often it is difficult to answer a question such as you have posed; however, in this instance it is fairly easy. If, by the "new system" you mean the Phase II P25 that has not yet happened, there aren't any mobile scanners that can monitor it. The only scanner on the market so far that is capable of handling the TDMA aspect of the Phase II is a hand held, the GRE PSR800.

If on the other hand, you mean the present TxWARN P25 system (which will change to Phase II in the future) then there are couple of solutions. The Uniden BCD996XT and the GRE PSR-600. Both are DIN-E and either come with the sleeve or a sleeve is available as an option. I am not going to recommend one over the other, and suggest you carefully view the capabilities of each. I did not include the RS Pro-197 in the list, although it is virtually the twin of the PSR-600 because RS is notorious for not keeping the firmware updated in a timely fashion and the firmware updates issued by GRE for the PSR-600 will not work on the Pro-197.