BC346XT -vs- BC396XT

[Tom_G]

Besides he obvious differences such as digital and mil-air capable, would you consider these two radios to be fairly comparable as far as sensitivity goes and audio quality.

Thanks, Tom/G

 

[Ed_Seedhouse]

Besides he obvious differences such as digital and mil-air capable, would you consider these two radios to be fairly comparable as far as sensitivity goes and audio quality.

I have the 346 and it is perfectly fine and suits my use. I guess now if I had five hundred extra bucks lying around I'd have to decide between the 396 and the Home Patrol unit.

As to sensitivity, with an outside vertical it picks up police in Forks in Washington from here in Victoria Canada, and ham repeaters on mountains near Vancouver Canada. With the built in antenna I hear repeaters in Port Angeles full quieting. Audio is rather narrow band but listenable except on the FM broadcast band. It's still narrow band even when the 1.5" internal speaker is bypassed via the headphone jack to my computer speakers. There is then an annoying bass thump whenever it breaks or enables squelch, which can be remedied by adjusting the scanner volume and the computer subwoofer.

Bar the digital, it seems to have the same feature set as the 396xt.