Need advice

[10toscan]

Hi y’all!!

I’m trying to find a handheld scanner for my dad’s birthday gift. He lives in Denton county in Texas. It looks like they are on phase 2 now. Don’t know much about how that all works or if a scanner needs to be programmed in order to work and if so how do I go about that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated I don’t know where to begin and it’s all so overwhelming.

Thanks

 

[chief21]

Upon checking the database, it appears that you will need a P25 phase 2 scanner to listen to most agencies in Denton County. Here is a list of phase 2 scanners from the RR Wiki...

Scanner Support for TDMA
The following scanners can decode P25 Phase I, Phase II, and Motorola X2-TDMA systems.

• GRE PSR-800 2
• Radio Shack Pro-18 3, Pro-668
• Uniden BCD325P2, BCD436HP, BCD536HP, BCD996P2, HomePatrol-2, SDS100, SDS200
• Whistler WS1080, WS1088, WS1095, WS1098, TRX-1, TRX-2

If I recall correctly, most of these models will require programming. However, the Uniden HomePatrol 2 and the *HP models can be auto-programmed by entering the local zip code. This usually brings in lots of signals and you will probably want to eventually eliminate many of them, depending on your monitoring preferences.

 

[doctordialtone]

Any help would be greatly appreciated I don’t know where to begin and it’s all so overwhelming.

In your case, I'd go with the Home Patrol series, due to ease of programming.

Review of Uniden Home Patrol 1 & 2 Police Scanners - Pros & Cons

 

[hiegtx]

Hi y’all!!

I’m trying to find a handheld scanner for my dad’s birthday gift. He lives in Denton county in Texas. It looks like they are on phase 2 now. Don’t know much about how that all works or if a scanner needs to be programmed in order to work and if so how do I go about that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated I don’t know where to begin and it’s all so overwhelming.

Thanks

Welcome to RadioReference.

Chief's given you a good list of P25 Phase II digital scanners. See this thread, concerning Denton County, down in the Texas regional forum.
https://forums.radioreference.com/threads/denton-county.390025/

The Denton County P25 system is Simulcast, and a number of people in the Denton County area have had issues with reception in locations where simulcast distortion if greater. Depending on your Dad's location, he might have anywhere from zero issues using any of the scanners above, to severe problems, and needing to use one of Uniden's SDS series scanners, or a Unication pager. Here's a map of the site locations for the Denton County simulcast:


I would suggest looking through the Denton thread I linked, and perhaps posting a question asking for comments on what works best in your father's location (Denton itself, one of the smaller cities, or a rural part of the county). If he is very near (like a quarter mile or so) of one of the site locations, than the close, strong, signal may mitigate issues from other sites. But if he is in the Corinth, the signams from the four sites, at various distances, would reach his scanner with just enough time differential to create a problem. All of the scanners listed in Chief's list, except the 325P2 & 996P2, are database scanners. The entire RadioReference database is on a memory card, and you can accomplish the programming using a location and range. For the 325P2 & 996P2, those would need to be prgrammed. Either can be programmed with FreeSCAN software, which is freeware, no fee to use. There are a number of members in Denton County, and elsewhwere in the DFW Metro area that could create or share a file for you to get the new scanner up and working quickly.

 

[hiegtx]

In your case, I'd go with the Home Patrol series, due to ease of programming.

Review of Uniden Home Patrol 1 & 2 Police Scanners - Pros & Cons

Unfortunately, the target system, Denton County, is P25 Phase II, so that rules out the HP-1.

The HP-2 is certainly easy to program and use, and has the easily viewable, large, touch screen display. However, it is not a good choice if Simulcast will be an issue. If simulcast is not an issue, then an HP-2 would be excellent choice. Easy to set up, and simple to use.

 

[wtp]

Portable Police Scanner Radios | ScannerMaster.com
handhelds, just make sure it gets phase 2.

 

[jaspence]

The Whistler radios can be programmed by county, city, zip, or preferred which requires the programmer to make the choices. If you do get one of the GRE or RS radios, the upgrade from Whistler is worth the cost. It has phase 2 and DMR in the upgrade. I have one of each, and they both work very well for my simulcast situation. The software that Whistler provides free handles all of the situations.

 

[iMONITOR]

Hi y’all!!

I’m trying to find a handheld scanner for my dad’s birthday gift. He lives in Denton county in Texas. It looks like they are on phase 2 now. Don’t know much about how that all works or if a scanner needs to be programmed in order to work and if so how do I go about that.

Any help would be greatly appreciated I don’t know where to begin and it’s all so overwhelming.

Thanks

Choosing the best scanner these days is overwhelming even for many those with experience in the hobby. They've advanced in leaps and bounds in the last then years of so. How you and your father with technical things and leading edge technology? If you don't live near him it will be more difficult for you to help him even if you figure it out. I certainly don't want to discourage you or your father but I'm being honest it will be a challenge. Many of the newest scanners can be programmed to some degree by entering your zip code, the radius in miles of the area from your zip code you wish to cover, then you check/un-check boxes for the services you wish to monitor. ie; PD, FD, EMS, HAM, GOV, etc. That will get you up and running but then you'll have to begin hitting the L/O (lock out) or AVOID key to remove the undesirable things you don't want to hear within your selection. Eventually you/he will want to do a customized profile/programing to get exactly what he wants.

I'd suggest prior to doing anything, ask you father if he knows anyone in his area that have experience with scanners or possible an amateur radio operator. Try to confirm the the public service bands, etc are not encrypted. If they are he won't be able to monitor them with any scanner radio available to the general public. Try posting the the Texas area of the forum here on RR to see if anyone can give you more targeted advice for your father. Some scanner dealers do offer programming at a price. Good luck!

 

[hiegtx]

Programming can be an issue, but there are any number of people in the DFW Metro area, including myself, that could provide a programming file as long as they also have the same scanner, or software that covers the model.

However, I still would recommend that the OP post in the Denton thread I linked earlier, to ask for actual user comments on whatever scanner you are considering, in or near his/her father's home. You don't need to supply a physical address, just be a little more specific about what area he is in. Such as "east of Prosper", "in Little Elm", "near NTSU in Denton", etc.