buy new equipment or not?

[psdavidson]

Hey guys I have been out of listening for years now and I just fired up my old analog scanners.
In my county they are still using analog systems and my scanners do fine. State police is using digital.
I sit in between two towns that use digital trunked systems. They are 35 miles away north and south of me.
I was thinking on buying a bcd396xt and a outdoor antenna (under $200) and wondering if I can pick them up.
Would that be unreasonable distance? Should I just stick with what I have and just listen to local traffic?

Thanks
Patrick

 

[N8IAA]

Hey guys I have been out of listening for years now and I just fired up my old analog scanners.
In my county they are still using analog systems and my scanners do fine. State police is using digital.
I sit in between two towns that use digital trunked systems. They are 35 miles away north and south of me.
I was thinking on buying a bcd396xt and a outdoor antenna (under $200) and wondering if I can pick them up.
Would that be unreasonable distance? Should I just stick with what I have and just listen to local traffic?

Thanks
Patrick

Patrick, welcome It really depends on if you're down in a 'holler'.
It also depends on what system/systems you want to monitor, and if the police/fire you want to hear is affiliated on the tower in Ripley.
You may want to ask in the WV state forum for a more informed answer.
HTH,
Larry

 

[MarkWestin]

While the BCD396XT is a very good scanner, now might not be the best time to be buying one. I'm saying that because Uniden is about to release two new scanner models. One of them, the BCD436HP appears to be a replacement for the BCD396XT. If you buy the BCD396XT now, in the future you might wonder if it would have been better to buy the new model which will be released in about three or four weeks from now.

Mark

 

[psdavidson]

thanks guys for responding. there is a guy who lives with in a mile of me who posted in the WV section. I'm trying to see if he is still around. hes running the same setup as i want too. but not sure if he gets post notifications. plus he has only posted here 5 times.plus i contacted a mod over there on his personal page

 

[ab8sn]

Equipment Upgrade

Hey guys I have been out of listening for years now and I just fired up my old analog scanners.
In my county they are still using analog systems and my scanners do fine. State police is using digital.
I sit in between two towns that use digital trunked systems. They are 35 miles away north and south of me.
I was thinking on buying a bcd396xt and a outdoor antenna (under $200) and wondering if I can pick them up.
Would that be unreasonable distance? Should I just stick with what I have and just listen to local traffic?

Thanks
Patrick

Hey Patrick

Nice to meet you and welcome to RR. It all depends on what you are interested in monitoring. I see Jackson Co is still analog even though they have a few TGs on the SIRN digital trunk system. If you want to monitor the State Police they should be affiliating with the Ripley Site, however if you want to monitor Parkersburg or Charleston an outside antenna may be needed. I have heard some Kanawha Co traffic on the Kenna Site while out mobile. As previously mentioned it may be better to hold off on the purchase until the new Uniden models come out especially if they are the replacements of the 396 & 996 models.

73s hope this helps

Chad

 

[psdavidson]

thanks Ab8sn, i guess I just run my old units for now. I wasn't clear if I could pick up talk groups state wide. I seen on a SIRN map there is a tower near me in Jackson co. for some reason I thought all signals ran state wide but was separated by talk groups. I guess I'm still confused about all that

 

[psdavidson]

just pre ordered the BCD436HP.
just got to say screw it and try it out.