Dear South Carolina Radio Reference Community, I's still a bit new to the scanner world, I'm located in columbia and looking at purchasing this scanner "BC780XLT" will this radio work on most p800 channels? I understand that rcsd is encrypted.
BC780XLT On Palmetto 800 Mhz
- Thread starter drew7262
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No sir unfortunately it will not work. I have one and they are fantastic analog radios for listening to the railroad, aircraft, ham radio, a few local businesses etc... But for South Carolina it would no longer be a viable option for monitoring public safety agencies.
And to add some additional details, to monitor non-encrypted public safety agencies in the Columbia area, you need to look for a scanner that supports "APCO 25 Phase I Digital Trunked Radio Systems." APCO 25 is often abbreviated with "P25".
To make this more complicated, Palmetto 800 in the Columbia area uses "simulcast" sites tp provide coverage. Depending on your specific location, this can cause scanners that claim to support P25 Phase I systems to work quite poorly. Unfortunately, there are only 2 current consumer scanner models that specifically support Simulcast well, and that's the Uniden SDS100 and 200. There are other radio options that also support Simulcast, but they don't fall into the category of "traditional scanner" in the familiar sense.
Good luck with your search.
To make this more complicated, Palmetto 800 in the Columbia area uses "simulcast" sites tp provide coverage. Depending on your specific location, this can cause scanners that claim to support P25 Phase I systems to work quite poorly. Unfortunately, there are only 2 current consumer scanner models that specifically support Simulcast well, and that's the Uniden SDS100 and 200. There are other radio options that also support Simulcast, but they don't fall into the category of "traditional scanner" in the familiar sense.
Good luck with your search.
gosling1
Member
Sad but true...
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